Wrath Close: Husband - Rogue

Husband raided more than I did. He not only did 25s but 10 mans.

To my shock he helped run a pretty successful raid 10 man group. They had fun and were much more relaxed then others. His biggest understanding was that raid leading has a lot to do with loot, not just the boss fights. If there is anything he is good with is following rules.

He worked on the Insane title. He is about half way there. I am sure he will continue that journey through this expansion. 

Husband enjoys Combat. REALLY likes killing spree. With all the rogues in guild it was great that he could really keep up with the other rogues AND be in a "lesser" raid spec. This always goes back to... you will do better in raid if you are playing a spec you ENJOY!!

When we started doing ICC Hardmodes he went Assassination because he picked up the Lungbreaker. With none of the normally Assassin rogues in group... he got it. He respeced and liked it.

Now there was hours and hours of conversation of Hunger for Blood. Initially it was why he was Combat. (I'm a good wife, but not that good to listen and REMEMBER every change. I had to call him to find out what it was.) It had to do with dots dropping off. ... and every-time he said that... I would roll my eyes.  *points to self, Affliction Warlock* But it is changed and much better now.

The one thing I am upset at is he is ONE achievement away for both the drakes from Ulduar and ICC. All that raiding and I feel that neither is finished. I cannot even bring it up in our house because I get all ranty. THIS topic makes me grumpy.

He is really happy with the raiding he has done.  We got to see every boss go down. Even got to do all on hardmode. No they didn't all die in hardmode ... but he got to try them all.

I know he is going to be raiding a bit less in Cataclysm because of the baby. We should get some raiding in together. I think our reputation in guild will help a lot with this plan. Officers know we can do it. Both of us we hardmode players and learn our class to help our raids. That groundwork laid in Wrath will pay off in Cataclysm.

Again I didn't get his hours /played at 80 but this is what it is at 81.

Total time played: 226 days, 14 hours, 20 minutes, 25 seconds
Time played this level: 0 days, 2 hours, 44 minutes, 47 seconds

Raiding Gear:
Geistlord's Punishment Sack
Precious' Putrid Collar
Sanctified Shadowblade Pauldrons
Shadowvault Slayer's Cloak
Ikfirus' Sack of Wonder
Toskk's Maximized Wristguards
ldriana's Gloves of Secrecy
Astrylian's Sutured Cinch
Sanctified Shadowblade Legplates
Frostbitten Fur Boots
Runed Band of the Kirin Tor
Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
Whispering Fanged Skull
Deathbringer's Will
Havoc's Call, Blade of Lordaeron Kings
Lungbreaker
Shrapnel Star

Wrath Close: Hydra - Warlock

I remembered I didn't do a Wrath close out post. I gathered a list of gear and hours. I want to reflect just a minute on what it was like.

Husband and I made a move to a new guild over a year ago. So far so good. Both of us are glad for the move. We miss our friends in old guild. We have made some great new friends. The raid times work better for us. It is much more relaxing.

We have had multiple real life meet-ups. We even have one planned when we go to Las Vegas for Christmas!! 

We raided through all the content. I was able to get the Rusted Proto Drake from Ulduar. It was the first specialty mount that I have from raid content. I am so glad it was this mount. Something about it seems very warlock.

I was, at points, one of the top three geared warlocks on the server... my server is so small. There were three guilds for 25 man raiding. Granted I think there were a few others trying to get 25s done. I single out the three because those were the ones doing hardmodes. This was the ONLY reason I was a geared warlock. I showed up, I did my job, and the raid planners tolerated my presence more than others.

I raided through my pregnancy. The Spawn arrived on a Tuesday just after raid time. It is months later and STILL her most active time up is during raid time.

I started podcasting with Fimlys over on Twisted Nether. I am still working on thinking of it as "our" podcast and not just Fimlys' podcast. It has been fantastic! I have enjoyed it. Only other problem is that I need to find blogging time. Podcast time happens because I have a partner.

Wrath of the Lich King was a great expansion and a great time.

I didn't do /played at the actual end. But here it is for me at level 82.
Total time played: 201 days, 19 hours, 39 minutes, 58 seconds
Time played this level: 0 days, 1 hour, 43 minutes, 1 secon
I'm a sad panda I don't know how long I stayed level 80.

Raiding Gear:
Sanctified Dark Coven Hood
Bone Sentinel's Amulet
Sanctified Dark Coven Shoulderpads
Volde's Cloak of the Night Sky
Meteor Chaser's Raiment
Ether-Soaked Bracers
Sanctified Dark Coven Gloves
Lingering Illness
Sanctified Dark Coven Leggings
Plague Scientist's Boots
Ashen Band of Endless Destruction
Valanar's Other Signet Ring
Dislodged Foreign Object
Charred Twilight Scale
Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony
Shadow Silk Spindle
Corpse-Impaling Spike

Now onto Cataclysm!

It is All Down

Today is the Peak. Cataclysm is LIVE!

We have been talking about the Cataclysm launch for over a year. Is it everything you were waiting for? Was it worth the over a year wait?

I don’t know yet. I still don’t have it. 

(She wore way more clothes then this. She didn't like it, but she wore it.)

Husband, the Spawn, and I stopped over to the Launch Party in Fountain Valley. There was a big stage up front and food trucks in back. Standing around were a lot of excited people wearing black. It looked really well organized.

I cannot tell you if there was more people there then at the Wrath launch. But it seemed very subdued.

After about an hour we decided it was too cold for the Spawn to hang out till midnight. Most of the hour we were there, we shopped around Fry’s Electronics, but they closed at 10 pm. We didn’t have heating any more.

(Kat Hunter looked great.)

If I go to something like this again I will have to have a plan a list of questions to ask people. Everyone was huddled up. But I am sure were really nice. I was torn between worrying about the cold for the Spawn and actually talking to people.

I talked to a woman who was there at 4 pm! She definitely stacked Stamina.

 The consensus seems on twitter was the digital download killed the Midnight Launch Parties. The only reason to go would be to get a Collector Edition. Husband and I have one on hold at Best Buy for him. Since I am at the store anyway, I am just getting the normal box.

It would have been cool to get a CE signed by the Blizzard people at the launch party … but really … it is cold. We decided the 2 hour plus wait in the cold was not in the signatures. Particularly with us having a two and a half month old with us.

I know it has been quiet here at Almost Evil. I talk to you all the time. Constantly saying “I should post that!” I have missed posting a lot of things. I miss you my readers. I don’t want you to think I have forgotten. There is hope I will get back writing soon.** You can always email me at HydRAWR at gmail dot com or on twitter at HydRAWR.

**soon as in Blizzard soon.

Rogue 19 Ranged Weapons Added

Throat Piercers were the best ranged weapon for 19 twinks for a long time. Then we were given the bind on account items, Charmed Ancient Bone Bow and Upgraded Dwarven Hand Cannon. With the release of 4.0.3a new low level quests and items were added.

For rogues at 19 we have a few added ranged slot choices. The Horde only quest Shore Leave in Azshara you can get the Bedlam Gun.

Bedlam Gun

Ranged Gun
29 - 56 Damage Speed 2.80
+2 Agility
+2 Stamina
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 2 (1.86% @ L12).

Don’t fret! Ashenvale received some new quests. Both factions can do the quest Dread Head Redemption. This gets you the Bow of Ire.

Bow of Ire
Ranged Bow
38 - 73 Damage Speed 2.80
+2 Agility
+3 Stamina
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 1 (0.34% @ L19).

For full twink rogue gearing a great resource is ShadowPanther.net.

Please… PLEASE… PLEASE remember that you MUST turn off your experience before doing these quests.

Patch 4.0.3a NERFED BY 12%

Last night I took all three of my 80s out of Dalaran. Moly is in Undercity. Inucusia is in Darnassus. After running Hydra from one city to another playing with elementals, I thought Ironforge was the best place for her to be during The Shattering.

To see what is going on you can check out the patch notes for 4.0.3a. Other then the complete change of the world around us… warlocks had a 12% nerf. It took 12% of my fun out of the game.

In my calculation the change of the world is a 10% fun increase. Doing the math this patch is 2% less fun then yesterday. /sign

BUT I can totally create a Gnome Priest. Which if you didn’t know is Hydra’s sister that I mentioned in a random RP post.

There are full notes elsewhere. But in-case you cannot see them here are the general and warlock changes.

The Shattering of Azeroth

In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth's defenders. Upon returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake of the Lich King's fall, Azeroth's native elemental spirits grew confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands, the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now, the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as they know it has changed... forever.

Azeroth Shattered
Deathwing's return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-55, and updated level ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.

New Race/Class Combinations
In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft: Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.

General
• The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen have been added to the game.
• Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by 20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.

Classes: General
• Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins, priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
• The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts at a lower percent.
• Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
• Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
• Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half as much damage taken as before.

Warlock
• Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
• Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
• Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Demonology
o Hand of Gul'dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Destruction
o Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
o Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
o Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Bug Fixes
o Drain Life: The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.

Achievements
• The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
• What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been now awards Master Riding.

Items
• Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green Proto-Drake.
• PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect, and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down from 300) at 4 pieces.

Professions
• Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).

Alchemy
o Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the others because he's mean (or because he didn't want alchemists to carry 5 different vials around with them).

Engineering
o The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In 4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.

Bug Fixes
• Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the area-of-effect damage cap.
• Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health during combat.
• Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a player's total healing done.

Known Issues
• Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
• Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.
• The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Raid Warning Podcast & Guests on TNB

The guys over on Raid Warning are visiting Fimlys and I on Twisted Nether Blogcast live tomorrow night. It should be a fun interview.

Also, they have asked me to be a part of their Lock and Awe: Warlock Roundtable. Go over there and ask a bunch of questions so we don't start killing every critter in reach. (bahaha *wipes tear* Not like we were not going to kill them anyway.)

Raiding Warlocks 4.0.1 Pre-Cataclysm

With Cataclysm out in less then two months. There is better things for the community at large to be doing...

Like figuring out a list of changes 4.0.1 does to our gear, mounts, gems, glyphs, Mastery, and any number of things. ...

And if I was a better blogger I would create that list for you...

That is not going to happen just now.

But I will pass on somethings Faidwen has been posting in my Guilds forums to "help" out the locks. (I think it is a devious plan to keep warlocks in raid so he doesn't have to summon raiders or make Soul Wells.)

• 4.0 Pre-Cataclysm Raiding LINK to Elitist Jerks
• Common 4.0.1 builds by popularity LINK
• Guardians ONLY attack a target with a BANE spell, so make certain they are active before summoning. A snapshot of your stats are taken and used when summoning, so act accordingly. They also are effected by ALL buffs etc... Heroism :)
• DoT clipping has been removed. You cannot clip a DoT any more!

Nerfs and Buffs will continue. So don't get to set on anything right now. Ride this out and focus your time on figuring out broader things then exact specs and gear, because you will have to re-figure it out in under two months.

Patch 4.0.1 Rock Our World

Cataclysm is starting. We were told last week that December 7th is the release date of the next expansion. Today was the release of the EXTREMELY large patch of 4.0.1.

What to expect to be broken:

• Your internet will lag because you are downloading MB after MB of data.
• Addons will not be recognizable.
• The UI will completely change.
• Guild UI has been updated.
• Professions have been tweaked.
• Your gear stats will look the same but be completely different.
• Change in Riad lockout.

There are a WHOLE bunch more things. This is the start of “World of Warcraft 2.0.”

Oh… and did I mention that your Lock will have completely different playability with the new shard mechanic. It is so simply stated in the notes. I see some time on a Training Dummy in the spare minutes I get to play WoW in my future.

Warlocks
• There is now a new spell fly-out UI feature for warlock pets. Clicking on this single button will open up the list of available pets to summon.
• Soul Shards have been removed from the game as items. Instead, they now exist as a resource system necessary for using, or altering the mechanics of certain spells.

Good luck to you. May the computer and internet gremlins /ignore you today.

We are all going to need it.

TNB Blizzcon Meetup Oct 22

I will be at the TNB Blizzcon Meetup on Friday, Oct 22, 2010. The party is at Bubba Gump Shrimp starting at 9 PM in Anaheim.

Get details on the TNB Blizzcon Meetup on the site.

We will be giving away lots of prizes. Though I would think meeting me in the flesh was a great enough incentive to show up. If you are attending Blizzcon or are in the area come by and say hello to all the bloggers that will be there.

I look forward to seeing you drunk and singing!

Spawn Arrived Early

You may have noticed that I have been /AFK for a few weeks now. If you listened to Twisted Nether Blogcast you would know why.

September 21, 2010 the Spawn decided to arrive. She is healthy and a really good baby.

Right now she likes to be up at raid times so we will see how much of that I will be able to do. Wednesday I was able to work on hardmode Putricide with her lying on my chest. But that only lasted for about an hour. It was one hour longer then I thought I would get in.

I am around. If you need to contact me leave a message here, by twitter @HydRAWR, or by email HydRAWR at gmail dot com.

ICC Bosses Rogue: Combat or Mutilate

Husband (The Rogue) and I were having lunch this weekend and we started chatting about his gear and specs.

He has enjoyed Combat for most of the Wrath expansion. Granted Mutilate was the highest DPS spec. Except Mutilate weapons were the weapons that were being drooled over by other rogues. He could pick up the best Combat weapons with less difficulty.

Design your rogue around the weapons you can get.

Then something happened… and the other three rogues vanished. SO … not only did he have some of the best Combat weapons in the game… but in two weeks he had a matched set of Lungbreaker (Heroic). (Since then I taunt the last occasionally raiding rogue with the fact that we have sharded the dagger 4 times.)

The Rogue now has two DPS sets of gear from ICC 25 for Combat and Mutilate. I thought it was interesting on how he uses them on each of the ICC Bosses.

(Yes. I pulled out a notepad and scratched down notes during lunch with Husband. That is normal right?)

Things my Rogue wanted me to point out:
• Heroic vs. Regular doesn’t make a real difference. It is the boss fight mechanics that determine the decision.
• Learn to Strafe.
• Control your debuffs.
• Utilize your random buffs.
• Tricks, Cloak of Shadow, and Feint:
o Should be understood.
o If not, you are not using your rogue to the fullest.
o If not using them you should not be playing a rogue.


Icecrown Citadel
Lower Spire

Lord Marrowgar – Either spec – We make all but hunters stand in melee. Someone calls out “On HUNTER” and range is responsible for the Bone Spike. For Mutilate the spikes go down so fast the debuffs on the boss should not drop off.

Lady Deathwhisper – Combat – Add swapping.

Gunship Battle – Combat – Add swapping.

Deathbringer Saurfang – Mutilate – Kick butt. Sometimes (rarely) on one add on Heroic to assist but back on boss before debuff drops.

The Plagueworks

Festergut – Mutilate

Rotface – Mutilate

Professor Putricide – Combat
 
The Crimson Hall

Blood Prince Council (Valanar, Keleseth and Taldaram) – Combat

Blood-Queen Lana'thel – Mutilate

Frostwing Halls

Valithria Dreamwalker – Combat – Save Blade Flury and Killing Spree for Suppressors. On second Blazing Skeleton use Adrenallen Rush, because others typically use their cooldowns on the first one. Always kick Risen Archmage (Mages). (BTW. Warlocks should be using Curse of Tongue on Mages.)

Sindragosa – Depends on where you or the raid is having trouble. – It is harder on Mutilate. The Air Phase and Ice Blocks makes you have to restart your DPS build up. Use Combat if the trouble is in the last phase. Use the Combat ability Adrenalin Rush when Heroism/Bloodlust is up and on Ice Blocks, particularly if raid team is getting behind on Ice Blocks.

The Frozen Throne

The Lich King – Combat – Primarily for the burst DPS for the Val'kyrs in phase 2.

Zul’Gurub Vanishes in Cataclysm. Farm it!

This will take the mounts and pet with it.

Zul'Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm. ~Valnoth

It was confirmed this week. Over 18 months ago I wrote a post on farming ZG for the mounts and mage book. The only change I would make is add a fourth goal...the pet

4. Razzashi Hatchling

Razzashi Hatchling

This pet sells for a lot of gold. But beyond that with the removal of the raid the mobs that drop this pet will vanish.

In the area of Bloodlord Mandokir are 3 packs of 6 Razzashi Raptors . Then just outside his area is a smattering of the raptors with trolls.

If you are there for the mounts I would highly recommend killing the raptors too. If you want to farm the pet *shiver* go to the raptors and kill them and reset the instance as many times as you want. 

Me? I might just pay a fortune on the Auction House to pick myself up one. Or at least keep my eye out for one to resell after Cataclysm.

Your Healers Know

They make decisions constantly on who lives and who dies. This is their role in a raid. And when tanks go down or when key utility players need to stay up, you maybe on your own.

• Can you use your Healthstone when needed?
• Can you reduce your overall damage intake?
• Can you avoid unnecessary damage?
• Can you pot if you need to?
• Can you be self sufficient until the raid healers get stabilized?

As DPS you will quickly learn where you are on that list.

We all have bad nights. I am prone to bad moments. I die. But before I ever blame a healer I evaluate the last moments before my death.

• Was a tank dead?
• Was my designated raid healer dead?
• Was the capability of that raid healer high enough to keep me up when the raid goes wrong?
• Was I standing where I was not too?
• Was I having a brain fart?

After EVERY death I recommend reading your combat log. And if necessary get an addon that records for you the last few actions before your death. (I have not used an addon in a while so I don’t have one to recommend.)

If you are a caster and see you got cleaved for 76K… yea… no healer could prevent that. It was a completely a YOU problem. What? Oh? You say the tank died? Was your Shatter on cooldown? I recommend sending it back to the Rogue who might be able to Evasion tank for 15 seconds. A quick moving Druid might Rebirth a tank in that time. Just because it didn’t work eight times you tried Shattering it doesn’t mean that ninth time it will. But how do you know until you try?

The encounter AOE killed you with a 9K tick and 2K overkill? Was your Healthstone used? Did you use a Health Pot? Did your designated raid healer die? Was your raid healer helping a priority target because their healer went down, like a tank healer? Were you out of range of your designated healer?

etc….

There are a lot of questions after each death. “I didn’t get a heal.” is not a reason to die if there were options and you didn’t use them.

“Can I survive.” is the ultimate game.

For me, this is my game. If we down a new boss and I am not alive at the end it is extremely bitter sweet for me. To take the bitterness out, I make sure I used all my resources so at least I tried to stay alive as long as possible. If that didn’t occur, I research the ability used to kill me. Making sure the likelihood of that same mistake is lowered.

Your healers KNOW if you are prone to death. When things are going wrong they also KNOW if they “waste” a heal on DPS they quickly mentally prioritize to those who will use the time to extra advantage.

Matticus had a post documenting the mentality of a healer when things start going wrong. There are a lot of things you can do to help your healers. Knowing this is what is going on in your healer's head, I ask how can I help.

I am not one of the last DPS standing because I am known for standing in fire, get hit by goo, am out of range, or DPSing random targets.

I KNOW my healers heal me. I also KNOW that if I am having a horrible night, dieing every fight, I get healer whispers “Is everything all right?” That is not normal for me and they are reevaluating my heal priority. They KNOW. They Know. They know.

I’m Female Hear HydRAWR

I was listening to Kat and Esh’s interview on Episode 97 of Twisted Nether Blogcast. (Yea you can hear Hydra crash and burn on Episode 98. I am told it will get better. Im a warlock I can take the pain.) The two of them noted that they were going to have an episode on their podcast Gaming Worlds Collide about gender issues in gaming.

While trying to catch up with my current blogroll I noticed Larisa of The Pink Pigtail Inn wrote about this topic. She links to some other blogger and their view.

Some of the posts I see on this topic get all deep and “I can change the world” preachy. I couldn’t link you examples because those would be posts I would pass up.

I confess…

I, Hydra, use being female in Warcraft.

Shocking I know. But I see it this way, only the person themselves can effect how they feel. If a male player has an emotional response to something I say… that is their problem, not mine. I do make a point to tell the truth.

Some examples that I have used in raid…

“I am a girl and I can keep my skirts out of the goo, why are you face planted into it?”

“I am 8 months pregnant and I can dance the beams, why are the warriors eating dirt?”

“I am a pregnant female and I can move for Necrotic Plague, why are you sniffing ghoul feet?”

… I think you get the point.

I don’t think I am a better player then anyone because I am female. I do on occasion believe I am a better player then some because I have the results to show for the work. Nothing pisses me off more then dieing from something I could have prevented.

Hey! Maybe I work smarter and not harder because I am female. *grin*

Realm 24 hour Maintenance

All realms have maintenance today. But a select special slice of them are down for 24 hours or more.

Since our raid team runs 11 PM to 2 AM central time. Our Ruby Sanctum 25 man run was on the server shut down timer. We were doing our second pull at 15 minutes to realm shut down. It was quite fun to see who could perform under pressure and those who… well took it in the face with a beam.

If you do not have anything to fill your WoW time tonight check out Twisted Nether Blogcast. Fimlys, Nibbles, and I will have an announcement.

Here are the realms listed by Blizzard for 24 hour down time.

Antonidas
Anub'arak
Blackwater Raiders
Bladefist
Borean Tundra
Cairne
Cenarion Circle
Cenarius
Darrowmere
Drak'Tharon
Drenden
Echo Isles
Farstriders
Fenris
Garrosh
Hydraxis
Hyjal
Korialstrasz
Lightbringer
Maiev
Misha
Mok'Nathal
Moon Guard
Nazgrel
Nordrassil
Quel'dorei
Ravenholdt
Rivendare
Shandris
Shu'halo
Sisters of Elune
The Forgotten Coast
Tortheldrin
Uther
Vashj
Winterhoof
Wyrmrest Accord

Bronze Door Bell

This is another San Diego Comic Con post. I will get to WoW as soon as I can think of something funny or productive to tell you.

This year I sent Husband back to the convention without me. My sisters fiancée/boyfriend/significant other (he told her to go pick a ring and she has yet to do it *eyeroll*) went with him. Long time readers would know him and his brothers as NPCs in Valiance Keep. (You maybe curious to know that most of the brothers play Horde and have killed themselves in game.)

Being the wonderful husband that he is, Husband asked if I wanted anything. Well… to go!... but less that I wanted a …

Bronze door bell.

For over a decade I have been staring at the bronze door bells at Honeck Sculpture. They are handcrafted by an artisan. I have hovered over his stand for hours looking at everything. I highly recommend you check out his wears on his online site.

I have this idea in my head that I want gargoyles to protect my house. I grew up with Chinese guardian dogs. My strange fantasy and science fiction mind translated that tradition to gargoyles!

But being that I live in a typical suburban area and in a condo at that… I don’t foresee actually gargoyles happening anytime soon. Thou I am still holding out to making a pair of gargoyles to spray water out at trick-or-treaters for Halloween.

I figured that I could get away with a door bell plate.

Here is a picture of a few. Husband sent me the picture to make sure he was getting the correct one.

The cats have green yellow glass eyes. From the bottom to the top of the wings is almost 5 inches. They are not small by any means. They replace any standard door bell plate.

I had Husband buy the center one, the bat winged cat. I figured it was a good balance of everything that I enjoy without scaring my mother and small children on a daily basis.

I would also recommend his cloak clasps. They have real weight to them. If I was not using my cloak to hide in the shadows to jump out and scare children on Halloween I would spend the money on one. Someday I might, or make a different cloak to use one.

In this age of the internet there are so many great artisans out there to find. Find them and use them for great gifts. If you know any I should check out let me know, don’t be all greedy and keep them to yourself.

San Diego Guild Meet Up

Before Preview Night for the Comic Con, Husband and I met up with a pair of raiders that live in the San Diego area. It is still EXTREMELY odd to meet people you have raided with for two to three years in person.

We first had to get over calling each other by our online names. You hear the voice and it is automatic. I AM HYDRA. Even in real life I don’t seem to have a problem answering to it.

We ate at Phil’s BBQ. Husband and I were watching Man vs. Food when it was spotlighted. We are always on the look out for excellent BBQ. Plus the prices looked reasonable. Which is always a big plus.

Shammie said they have the coldest beer in town. The three guys split a pitcher. … sadly I couldn’t partake.

We talked about guild personalities. How things were going for them in-game. Game mechanics. Helpful addons. Even how thing were going for them in RL. *gasp*

Husband and the Shammie (who should be a rogue) talked about rogue like stuffs. Shammie is only not a rogue because when he applied to the guild was when we had a party full of them in our 25. Mage and I basically tuned them out and when we couldn’t made fun of melee.

I would post a picture. But then that would mean I would have had to remember a camera AND remember to take a picture… neither happened.

Funny story about raiding with these guys…

Since April of this year we have been having a string of earthquakes throughout Mexico and Southern California. This is normal. Only the current string of events has actually been felt further away and consistently.

A few weeks later Husband’s raid team was running ICC.

While running through Plague Wing suddenly the two guys in San Diego announce in vent “Hold up there is an Earthquake.” (incase it got bigger.)

A few moments pass, Husband in Orange County feels the same shaking going on “Yep, I am feeling it now.”

A little more time goes by and the boomkin and bear in the LA area both let vent know “Ground is shaking.’

It was a very odd thing to have a natural pre-Cataclysmic earthquake be felt in real life. I wonder if Blizzard planned it that way. *grin*

Green Hornet's Car

Showing off The Green Hornet car at Comic Con 2010.
The picture I took...

The picture Husband took...

Two different views of the same car because I cut off the back bumper...*cough*

San Diego Comic Con Recap

We geeks of heart and soul have debating in our blood. We argue about everything from Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Red vs. Blue, game console vs. computer, etc. And most of the time we argue with people we like.

I saw this article about what happens when someone outside geek culture tries to … protest.

I had delusions of grandeur this Comic Con. I was planning to go around getting sound clips for podcast bumpers… yea that didn’t happen. Actually after preview night I didn’t spend any time on the floor. Being seven months pregnant made it impossible for me to spend a lot of time standing and walking around all day. I will say that ladies that can work on their feet till the baby pops out are goddesses.

Wednesday was fun. A friend of mine was working the Con. I realized he has a Press pass. I knew … but didn’t look into the personal use of his pass. I informed him I shall be stealing his pass in the future. At least to get into a panel or two. So let’s hope next year if The Guild has a panel and it is not when my friend works.

I finally found a good use for Twitter… to complain about the lines. It entertained me.

I tried to get into Hall 20 on Friday. I was there just after 10 am and still didn’t get into the hall at 12:30 pm. After all that I abandoned the line when Husband messaged me. He said he had a seat at the Batman panel for me. I abandoned my space with no regret.

I was talking to a pair of sisters in line and a mom and daughter about why the line was going so slow. Apparently there was a True Blood panel in the afternoon so no one was leaving. This is why the big halls fail.

Note to self: the big rooms are a waste of time.

For the last 20 years of Comic Con, Husband and I would make a plan for the day and then split up. We would occasionally meet up for a panel or two so I could hand him snacks… or more money.

But this year I was regulated to one of THOSE wives. The ones that sit at the end of a row at a food court table waiting and reading. It was a very odd experience for me. The one big benefit of sitting there for a while was all the people watching I was able to do.

Sitting there I was able to listen to a gal chat about her WoW guild drama. Apparently they made their first Shadowmourne and then that guildie transferred server the next week. I think they are justifiably pissed.

Husband and I picked up Droid phones a few months back. They worked great. We have done everything in the past like meeting times, meeting areas, walkie-talkies, and cell phones to keep in touch while separated. He was able to update me which isle he was in so I could join him if I was interested with a simple IM.

One of the last things we did before leaving was register for next year. We always do this, since it is the cheapest way to get tickets. Comic Con 2011 tickets at the 2010 convention were $105 each. *sigh* (mumbles about the old days when the convention was smaller and was even at the same time as a quilting convention.)

Chat Borked

When you get your setup all comfortable things the interrupt it can completely mess you up. It has taken me countless years and raids to tweek my UI to how I like it. But then something goes wrong... and it throws everything for a loop.

First thing to happen is ourAV receiver died. The receiver (RIP) had my surround sound connected to my computer to the TV monitor. I played with games sounds and music going though it and only have vent in my headphones. If it didn’t happen at raid time … I think I would have cried.

It was a good piece of equipment, lasted us around 18 years. I don’t know where to start to even buy a new one. It took me six months to pick out my last digital camera.

The weekend after Husband connected direct sound into the TV. I want my surround sound back TYVM.

I have only been online on raid nights…

We were noticing that the raid composition from when we started ICC in December is completely different then it is now. We use to have a full party of hunters, a full party of Rogues, enough druids to make up a party of their own, and then the others.

Now we have a shammie for every group and sometimes extras, all the rogues but two have vanished, there is finally warriors in our raids, and we actually had four Mages in raid *shocked* the other week.

… we still cannot find a regular healy pally that doesn’t lag or disappear.

I am also having a lot of trouble with my chat window. Hydra’s chat was borked. Any link showing up (loot, quest, etc.) in any chant was not clickable. This made me manually have to click on boss loot to see what dropped. I also had to manually right click on people to whisper them.

Things I tried
1. Checked other character other then Hydra. They work.
2. Checking other characters off server. They work.
3. Clearing out my chat WTF. Nope.
4. Turning off my chat addon. Nope.
5. Turning off all my addons. Nope.
6. Clearing out my entire WTF. Nope.
7. Turning off all my addons and have empty WTF. Nope.

Still got nothing.

Husband then logged into Hydrargyrum from his system and it STILL didn’t work. Something was set up directly with Blizzard that made this not work.

After diligently sifting through the Blizzard Customer Service Forums I had hope that this fix would work.

So yea... aparently with RaidID when I was messing with chat window updates and updating my Chatter addon... I clicked on some useless menu item. Who would ever need to turn a window noninteractive. Sillyness. 

San Diego Comic Con Bound

Last week I have been distracted by family and friends in town. We have also started a bunch of baby classes. I get a whole slew of free classes and Husband and I are taking advantage of all we can get.

Husband has been going through his comics these last few months. They are right now all behind our tiny couch. They will be moved to where some bookcases are in our living room. Next step is to clear out the bookcases so they can be moved to where the comic boxes use to be. It is musical books in our house right now.

[Husband] Guess how many boxes I have?

[Me] *thinks without looking* 110?

[Husband] You counted!!

[Me] Do not underestimate the power of STARING at them for over 20 years.

While integrating three years of comics with his main collection he did cull out 20 short boxes to sell off. Most of which are things he has duplicates in a trade paper back or hardcover. It is a start and I am actually really happy with all he has done.

I did get on him for having three copies of random issues of the Marvel Star Wars. He has his original torn up kid read copies which he is not allowed to get rid of. But then there would be two or three other copies. *eye roll*

With all the issues we have I am amazed he only found three TPBs that seemed to have gone missing. I think they somehow got misplaced in one of our 14 bookcases… but with Comic Con this week … he is replacing them. Something random to look for which should be fun.

Our attendance has really changed.

We use to go all four days. Renting a room and attending late night events. Now? Not so much since they started preview night. Additionally, we are just a few Amtrak stops away from Downtown San Diego.

This year being in my seventh month of pregnancy there is no way I will be attending all days of the Comic Con this year. It is not much of a loss since we avoid Saturday like the plague. There is no way to get anything productive done on Saturday. So we have been skipping it for the last decade.

Sundays have been hit or miss for us since a lot of the distributors have not been putting there book at deep discount to clear them out before leaving. A decade ago we would be able to go around and pick up books for 50-90% off because they didn’t want to return home with them. Husband may still go with my someday (maybe) brother-in-law.

Wednesday we are picking up our tickets. Before we do that we are meeting up with a couple of guildies for lunch! I am excited. They are guys that raided with us prior to our current guild and then followed us. We are meeting up at Phil’s BBQ.

The Guild panel is on Saturday so I am going to completely miss it. But it looks like they will have the Season 3 DVD with them so I am sure I will get that signed.

My goal this year is to enjoy not having to push a stroller around yet. I will also have to keep Husband calm. He seems to keep mumbling about “This is a COMIC convention, not a MOVIE convention.” This is why I will not let him go on Saturdays. When we found out that Angelina Jolie was going to be there for the new Salt movie. All I can hope is that it will be on Saturday.

I am hoping that Fimlys will give me a list of people to get bumpers for Twisted Nether Blogcast. That will keep me entertained. There is nothing I love more then talking hired security guys in circles to get what I want. I am waiting for a chance to use being pregnant as leverage.

Don't Ask Next Time

*Husband opens Hydra’s car trunk to put bags in.”
[Husband] Why are there surgical gloves in your trunk?
[Me] In case I decide to kill someone, I have them.
[Husband] They look used.
[Me] *wicked grin*
[Husband] …
[Husband] You know that is not really funny.
[Me] It is hysterical. ‘Cause you had to actually think if I was serious or not.

Another Blizzard RealID Post

I have not commented about RealID here on my blog. I was of the opinion if you are worried about it… don’t use it. Someone who doesn’t know your real name and/or you have issues giving your email account to them should not be a RealID friend.

The only people who have my RealID are family and an EXTREMELY short list of friends off realm. The friends were only added because they were off realm. I hope this will make it easier for me to go off leveling on other realms.

If I knew this was coming down the line when I joined battle.net I would have made an email account only for Blizzards use. Oh well… not that big of deal.

While testing the system with Husband I was surprised at how much information RealID gives out. Not only that he was online but it provided full first name, full last name, realm logged into, character Logged into, character level, and zone. I know I like to disappear onto other realms or characters to not be bothered so this was a huge red flag. It confirmed my decision to limit the number of people who I made RealID.

As a blogger other peoples real names displayed is a concern. When I take screenshots for posts now … I have to watch for ACTUAL NAMES. These are not just any names but the people I love and adore in my real life. “Sister-in-law has gone offline” Annoying… but something I can live with because I love them enough to protect their real names and keep them out of my silly WoW blog.

This was my opinion as RealID implemented in-game... I would have liked to have more flexibility (like Nickname, friend access levels, hide characters from friend levels, etc) so it would actually be more useful. But nothing I couldn’t ignore if I wanted too.

Now to the Forum RealID issue…

MMO-Champion.com has link to the blue post and restates it. You can read what Blizzard is doing with the upcoming forums.

Here are my immediate concerns:

1. Minors

I think back to when there was hard core twinking in my battlegroup. Because we use vent I knew that some of the guys we ran with were 13-15 year old boys. The only place for them to rant or rave about a great game was on the Battlegroup forum.

Yes, some got out of hand. I will tell you that there is not one person I talk to today that doesn’t look back at those times and not remember how much fun posting on the forums and arguing with each other. … Ok… that maybe an exaggeration, but the times were still good.

Kids are mean. There have been lawsuits about High School students stalking, bullying, and just being nasty to each other on phones and on the internet. It happens. It is here. It is reality.

As officers we encouraged people to NOT post on the Battlegroup forum because we knew you cannot win with trolls. But they were teenage boys and had to learn for themselves.

The idea that those same minors would have their full first and last names out there are criminal.

These same boys are now applying to colleges and out there getting jobs. If they had a juvenile record it would be sealed and would start off fresh as an adult… like all aspects of the internet … forum post would be out there to stay.

Any comments about Blizzard not retroactively posting names are irrelevant. The point is minors will post under the proposed system because they did post.

As for turning forum post off for minors, what about the customer service? It is just not as easy a solution as switching off. 

2. My Real Name

I am Hydra of Almost Evil. That is the alias I go by. Some people know my real name around the blogisphere. If there is a legitimate reason for someone to know my real name, it is not an issue. I just don’t post under it.

As everyone should once in a while, when I google my real name it get another woman in the LPGA, a few of my professional engineering projects, my qualifications when I was a state regulator, some marketing projects I was associated with, and a few organizational memberships.

No where in there would it tell you that I have a blog that has been running about an MMO for over three years.

Anyone with any intuition at all will connect seeing a name posted even on the Blizzard customer service forum to someone that plays Warcraft. As a professional, someone in their mid thirties and looking for regular work and projects I am not happy with my name available in that capacity.

I don’t want a potential employer to see I am having trouble downloading the latest patch, logging in, or having a graphical issue. And as the primary place that Blizzard wants us to communicate issues with them… I don’t see how displaying our real names will encourage that in the future.

3. Other Professionals

In this game over the years I have met professional engineers, teachers, military personnel, doctors, pharmacists, county prosecutors, defense attorneys, fire fighters, chefs, building managers, bank personnel, and so many more. In my guild alone I know more then half have advanced degrees. They are professionals in real life, people like Gnomeaggedon (I will miss you!)

Relevance to RealID on forum? Just don’t post?

The idea that only those who are trolls and flame other people post on the forums are narrow minded.

Well that is nice and all… but what about guild recruitment. Your guild leader will have to post to keep you raiding, bring in new blood, and filling those slots.

I think of my own guild and … it would be unfair for anyone to ask any of the officers to put themselves out there. This is a game and you never know how “playing a game” will affect your career.

We live in a world where we use labels to define those around us. Good or bad that is how it is.

For internal Blizzard use and even in-game use I can work with or without RealID. But to make it so minors and professionals names are readily associated with a game and have no choice in the matter is not a good choice by Blizzard.

Loremaster AKA Hydra is not doing it but happy to push others into it

I know people in this time of pre-expansion summer are doing Loremaster. For this expansion we know that the world is changing and many want to experience to the fullest.

My friend Ratters has been running around questing and killing. He is completing Loremaster prior to Cataclysm using wowhead.com.

We were talking about how he was doing it. He is using wowhead.com to keep track of your progress. I really liked the idea of being able to access what quests you have left outside of the game. If you have a 15 min break at work, waiting for something or you are not at your wow computer it lets you plan ahead for the 45 minutes you may get to run tonight.

I also really liked the idea of being able to click though on wowhead.com site for the quest mobs to kill, availability of quest comments, and ease of sorting and searching quests using a browser.

If I actually was inclined to quest … I am sure I could flush out my thoughts on the use of wowhead.com for Loremaster.

Yes, I bugged Ratters for weeks to post something so I could link it to you. Hope it helps and maybe gives you an additional option.

Sluggles Epic Adventure

Gnomes rule ... the rest of you look and smell funny.

I have a half a dozen warlock alts on different servers. This almost makes me what to go level one.

Lock Raid Utility in ICC

I think they can go suck on … a Ring Pop.

I don’t want to hear it.

Nope.

Demonology … raid buffage… blah blah blah


…WHATever.

I am happy for you if you disagree with me… but I don’t care.

WE NOW HAVE A 25% RAID BUFF IN ICC. In a few weeks it will be 30% and finally 35%!!!

Any … I mean ANY… raid that says a lock MUST be a spec to benefit an ICC raid is just stupid. (You can tell them I said so too.) There is no way that the change to Demonology would be the only thing between the raid winning or not.

Personally I have spent years learning Destruction and Affliction specs. I have not only PvE in both specs, I know them as PvP specs too.

… but Demonology. Nope. I have never even learned the top tier abilities.

Hydra has NEVER learned the change to ugly Illidan purple shadow form. I have never even been tempted. Personally I think it is horrible looking and never have I been enticed to the talent tree for any reason.

I am not saying if you run as Demonology you are stupid. So quit your whining. That is a mental… personal issue. I am only talking about a “spec this way cause some nub that doesn’t know locks and is better off sitting on their thumb and bouncing” issue.

And… No… my raid leads would not be silly enough to demand I provided the Demo buffage. Mostly because I think they are smart enough to avoid the resulting verbal tirade. But I would not put it past them to poke fun of me now that I put this statement out there.

Lock utility is bringing the dps and surviving.

Don’t be Scared of Eclipse

Being that it is quiet on the WoW news front I have been thinking about talking about the books and comics I occasionally read. Husband has a great collection that I pilfer for something to read. I have my own short box of comics to read from them.

Currently I am in the middle of reading Planetary. I am reading the three hardcovers. I LOVED the first volume. The stories were inclusive and you follow the main character from adventure to adventure. Then I started reading the second volume… and stopped. I got twitchy when it revealed who the mysterious Fourth Man was and … well I had a moment of “Ugg. This is so contrived.”

Husband rolled his eyes at me. He made me promise to finish reading it... in a shorter time it took them to finish the series. The set of hardcovers are sitting on my night stand to be finished. The writer, Warren Ellis, did not fail in telling this story, but I need to get into the right mindset to reread parts and finish off the story. John Cassaday does these beautiful covers to each issue of the comic. Each of them is a study in a different style and a thrill to discover.

I will come back to this series when I finish it…

I, Hydra, admit to reading the first three books of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. BUT … okay… I have no excuse.

My sister-in-law had the first two books and let me borrow them to read. That was over a year ago.

When I broke from my casual reading of Planetary I picked up Eclipse from the library. Without all the advertising for the movie I would never have given this series another thought. I have never seen the movies. I also have no plans to see it in theater.

Admittedly the books are an easy read. If you read passed all the emo high school high jinks and get to the world the writer crates, it kept my interest. I would describe it as romance novel with vampires. Easy read for entertainment purposes for moments you don’t want in-depth thinking. This is exactly what you want in a decent romance novel.

None of the books went into my collection. Plus, not one cent went to supporting Vampires that sparkle. *cheer* For libraries.

Maybe I will go back and reread Pride and Prejudice. I also should finish reading the technical book on computer networking I am part way through. There is a fourth Twilight book right?

Video: WarLock [Tik Tok Machinima Parody]

Patch 3.3.5 - With More Purr

No change for classes. There is now a new dragon to kill. Also, included is an improved way to chat with those you want to chat with. (Chat = cat in french... the title was clever then I typed it, I'm not changing it now.)

Don't freak out that there was no 3.3.4. I am sure it was a place holder if anything horrid happened to fix prior patches.

Below is the full patch notes since it is small.

Assault on the Ruby Sanctum

For ages the red dragonflight and its noble matriarch, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, have dedicated themselves to preserving all life on Azeroth. Recently, the very heart of this virtuous dragonflight has come under threat.

An eerie silence has settled over the Ruby Sanctum, the red dragonflight's sacred lair within the Chamber of the Aspects. This troubling development has led to fears that the sanctum, home to Azeroth's largest clutch of red dragon eggs, has been breached by an unknown, sinister force. If these claims are true and immediate action is not taken, the benevolent red dragonflight might be crippled forever.

Real ID: A New Way to Connect With Your Friends on Battle.net

One of our goals for the new Battle.net is to create the framework for an online gaming experience that is even more accessible, more engaging, and more entertaining than the previous Battle.net. The newly released Real ID feature, available to World of Warcraft players as part of patch 3.3.5, is an integral part of this effort, providing you with advanced ways for forming and maintaining meaningful relationships with your friends on the service.

Real ID is a completely voluntary and optional level of identity that keeps players connected across all of Battle.net. When you and a friend mutually agree to become Real ID friends, you'll have access to a number of additional features that will enrich your social gaming experience in new and exciting ways. Go here for more details.

General

The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid dungeon featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, has been added! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight. Please note due to the way this patch is being applied in all regions, this dungeon will not immediately be available in North America. Stay tuned to our General Discussion forum for an official announcement on the opening of the Ruby Sanctum.
The functionality of the Vote Kick feature in the Dungeon Finder will now behave differently according to a player's history with the system. Players using the Dungeon Finder who rarely vote to kick players from a group, or rarely abandon groups before a dungeon is complete, will find that the Vote Kick option will have no cooldown. For players who frequently abandon groups or vote to kick other players, the Vote Kick option will be kept on a cooldown. This functionality will adjust itself as a player's behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes.

User Interface

Chat Frame
Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose to move conversation types into separate windows. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
Using the Move to Whisper Window option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
Friends List
A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster's Real ID information in each friend's list.
For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Has the Ice Stone Melted?

Answer Link.

Night Shift of Farstriders Lich King Video

Faidwen does a great job with videos. His music timing makes me laugh (like using Back to Life when we are mass resed at the end.)

I think that dancing gnome right after the title is me. (Thanks Faid!) I deduce this because I am
1) one of only 2 raiding gnomes,
2) the only female gnome, and
3) the only lock gnome.

If you take the time to watch, I am the gnome running around. I tend to drop a lot of green portals during the Lich King fight. During transition phases I am on the opposite side of the mob then Faid is filming. (He stands by the hunters and they tend to muck out the stables before raid.)

I am a little sad. I was hoping since this was a lock view of the fight he would get picked up by the Val’kyr in phase 2. This would have let me point out the lock portal in action. I think on this run I was the lock that got picked up.

You will notice him placing his portal down each time he changes position on the platform. This is a key element to not getting out of range. You will see me doing it too.

In the last phase there is a great shot of the two of us running to dps. You can clearly see after Faid got Defile the two of us running and casting. I think that was a great lock moment.

When we all yell at the kill you can just hear me say “Congrats everybody” and no I am not the only girl in raid.

I will not make comments on how he is an add-on whore and a clicker… which makes him a keyboard turner probably. But this does make me jealous that he can have that many add-ons running and record video without lagging.

For prosperity I will state that I was third highest dps on the kill. Yes, the 34-year-old six(6) month pregnant woman rocked the house.

... I just noticed in a second viewing to make sure I didn't miss anything I wanted to point out for you...our raid leader yelling at pull
/Y FOR THE GLORY OF THE HOLE.

Yeppers, we are a classy raid.

Check Out Flinthammer Hall

Flinthammer Hall is an RP blog I enjoy immensely. Ringo has been telling us about his exploits on Azeroth for years. He is joined by his wife Beli and lots of other family and friends.

You can start their tale back before Ahn’Qiraj. Follow them through fighting the Burning Legion. Watch as they step onto Northrend soil and then take down the Lich King. Today, they can currently be found in Khaz Modan.

Reading their stories through the years is an adventure in itself. There has been poignant glimpse into the feelings of a father off to war. (I admit I cried while reading the letter and then reflecting back.) There are funny ones about one of his friends having a sex change and then back again. There are gorgeous images done by Beli like the one she did for the Holidays.

I would highly recommend listening to Ringo and Beli interviewed on Twisted Nether. For no other reason then hearing how they put together all those beautiful images on their site.

Beyond any of that ... Dwarf chicks are hot.

Hydra the Kingslayer

Would it surprise anyone if when I was in Fourth grade I was in a group called “The Ball Busters”? When I was finally caught beating the snot out of guys by the playground adults was made to write “I will not beat up on boys.” or some such nonsense 100 times. It is still one of my parents’ favorite stories about my childhood.

Apparently, it did not stick!
Night Shift killed 25-man Lich King!! (I think we were third on server.) We extended the Raid ID so we could start fresh Tuesday on The Lich King. The first pull we got to the last phase. It looked soooOOOooo very promising.

After that we had a few oopsie mistakes…
like a tank dropping off the edge in transition,
defile being dropped in melee,
healers not know what to do in the last phase, and
IDK, 'cause when I was picked up by a Val’kyr I fumbled my keybinding and hit Shadow Ward instead of my Demonic Circle key and fell to my untimely death.I don’t know how many people died by the end but we got to the last phase with only one down. Last phase we did the run away from the thingies that explode. Some didn’t like it. But for us it worked because it made everyone stay moving with the defile not being laid down on melee.

I stopped and watch the cut scene that I EARNED for the first time. It didn't make it any less awesome. Now I just want to know when do I get to go save Gnomeregan.

Queue Buster: Haiku Contest

Head over to Twisted Nether Blogcast site for the details.

Yes, the Haiku was my idea.
Yes, the topic of Twisted Nether was my idea.
No, Fimlys named the contest.

My idea was "Buy your name on a Blizzcon ticket that someone LUCKIER and AWESOMER then you got." but apparently that was not ketchy enough.

Realm 24 Hour Downtime

Tuesday activities will be disrupted for a swath of realms today. Here is the link to the blue post.

For those that maybe getting this post in their feedreaders and are not be able to see the official WoW forums I listed the realms here. This is one list you may not want to be on today.

Aegwynn
Akama
Aman'Thul
Arathor
Azjol-Nerub
Barthilas
Blackrock
Bloodscalp
Bonechewer
Boulderfist
Bronzebeard
Caelestrasz
Chromaggus
Crushridge
Daggerspine
Darkspear
Dath'Remar
Draenor
Dragonblight
Dragonmaw
Draka
Drak'thul
Dreadmaul
Dunemaul
Eitrigg
Eldre'Thalas
Feathermoon
Firetree
Frostmane
Frostmourne
Frostwolf
Garithos
Gundrak
Gurubashi
Hakkar
Jubei'Thos
Khaz Modan
Khaz'goroth
Kil'jaeden
Kilrogg
Korgath
Kul Tiras
Malorne
Mug'thol
Muradin
Nagrand
Nathrezim
Ner'zhul
Perenolde
Proudmoore
Rexxar
Runetotem
Saurfang
Scarlet Crusade
Sen'jin
Shadow Council
Shadowsong
Silver Hand
Silvermoon
Skywall
Smolderthorn
Spirestone
Stonemaul
Stormscale
Suramar
Terenas
Thaurissan
Thorium Brotherhood
Tichondrius
Uldum
Vek'nilash
Windrunner

Stalk TNB

You still have no ticket to Blizzcon?

Interested? I highly suggest you become a stalker over on Twisted Nether Blogcast this week.

TNB’s live recording is currently done on Tuesdays (tomorrow, if you have lost track). If you are there it will give you the most amount of time. You will also find out more details on their site after.

As my readers I am giving you this heads up.

Isn’t Blizzcon in October?

If you scan the WoW blogs out there you would think it was now. There is enough mention of Blizzcon 2010 out there to make you think it was RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Let us recap. Blizzcon is on October 22-23. Tickets went on sale yesterday. There is another batch of tickets on Saturday.

Husband and I actually booked a room for the weekend. The thought was to be prepared. If we didn’t go we could always cancel. *sigh*

Reality check…

As of October 22 if all things go well we will have a three week old new born.

Yea… I will not be one of those peoples… Dragging their kids to COMPLETELY inappropriate places.

I will never forget when I saw a parent bring what looked like a 7 year old to see Lethal Weapon 4 which is rated R. Listening to that child scream in absolute terror as a character gets rebar pushed through their gut. Said rebar was then used to swing around person on a pole. THIS is where psychiatric couch time comes from peoples!!!!

I went to Blizzcon last year. Loved meeting up with all the people, playing the games the vendors set up, watching the presentations. It pains me to miss it. BUT I would have to get a ticket first….

I got tickets.

Not only did I get tickets … I didn’t even have a queue. Checked out of the site like I was there to buy a sparkling pony. (I don’t have a pony but Husband bought one for himself. Granted he asked if I wanted one… All I could think was “Hydra would KILL ME and take pleasure in it.”)

…But realistically we cannot go.

You can scream at me all you want.

Right after we got the tickets, Husband and I sat down to talk about that to do with them. Looked at what we found fun. I decided if we still just went to the after Blizzcon meet-ups I would be happy.

I checked twitter to see what was up and noticed a woeful twitter from @Fimlys that he didn’t succeed at getting one.

That did it.

Husband and I agreed that our tickets would go to getting Twisted Nether Blogcast to Blizzcon 2010.

Fimlys of @Fimlys of Asleep at the WoW of Twisted Nether Blogcast and of most recently Polygamerous.

Saresa of @Saresa of the warlock blog Destructive Reach. Mostly because I have a vivid recollection of her Aussie accent all slurry and giggly from the last Blizzcon. Maybe I can get her to bring me a little jar of Vegemite to try out.

TNB at Blizzcon 2010 made possible by Hydra of Almost Evils clicking finger.

This Day

We think about those that have fought and are still fighting so that we can continue to think.

Comic: Daily Quest

Daily Quest has been one of my favorite web comics for a while. Fyreuni posts a new comic on Fridays (most of the time). I love when she features her Grumpy Tree.

This last weeks comic “No Fear” made me laugh so much I HAD to share it with all of you. It boggles me at how talented she is. Look at the subtle change in facial features of her characters. This striped exemplifies what she seems to continue to perfect strip after strip.

She comments on her strips giving insight and further depth into what she was thinking while drawing the strip. After reading it I always find myself rereading the comic to observe if what she was trying to portray was what I got from it too. It gives the strip deeper meaning and is even more enjoyable in a second read.

Lich King’s Val’kyr

Learning the Lich King fight is some serious … well either you know what I mean or you will eventually find out.

Lich King is a place that having a few locks in raid is an asset. I have heard that Hunters can Disengage back onto the cliff and Mages can possibly Blink. Neither of those things are a guarantee like a lock portal.

In the second phase, Lich King summons Val’kyr to pick up random raid members and DUMP them off the side of the platform. Three Val’kyr are summoned in 25 man and one in 10 man. They can be stunned but become immune quickly and can only be slowed, not permanently stopped.

A Demonology warlock has Intercept with their minion. A Destruction warlock has Shadowfury and Conflagrate to stun targets. An Affliction warlock has none. BUT remember the Val’kyr become immune quickly to types of stuns (a mechanic like tank taunts), our stuns could be a hindrance.

Personally I feel we are better suited to killing them ASAP then to play games with stuns and slows that other classes can succeed better in. Remember one person does not make a raid.

YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE.

Before you start the Lich King fight get an idea how far you can be in this room from your portal to use it. This will help you in your confidence of using your portal in phase two. What does the 40 yards look like?

As soon as the second phase starts I lay my Demonic Portal near the edge of the inner platform. I want it to be a close to the edge as possible.

There should always be a line between Lich King, yourself (at ranged as you can be), and the portal. You don’t want to run off because of Defile and leave your DP on the other side of the platform. Readjust portal placement as needed.

When you are picked up, NO ONE SHOULD BE DPSING your Val’kyr.While learning this phase the RL may want you to call out if a lock is picked up. The raid should know that people standing out on the edge are out of luck. The only ones who should be out there are the locks.

Less distance the Val’kyr has to go to drop you off the edge the better.We want the Val’kyr to drop us ASAP.We will be able to return and help DPS the other Val’kyrs down.Key things to remember:
1) Place Demonic Portal at the start of Phase 2
2) DP should be near the edge
3) Keep DP in line with LK.
4) Don’t use your DP to get out of Defile since you need it for Val’kyr.
5) Move your portal if you have to change positions.

Anything else to remember for this phase of the Lich King fight?