Refer A Friend: Meh

Well, so far, the most important thing I've learned with Refer a Friend is that warriors really aren't for me. We're level 17 and I'm just about ready to delete the character entirely. Questing sucks, instances are worse, and I'm just really not enjoying it.

/sigh

I'm thinking I'm going to leave the warrior at 30 and work on something else, but everyone keeps saying it gets better... eventually. Gimme a timeframe here people =P

I'm having more fun getting myself and the brother killed though... Lava, zeppelins, water, cute fuzzy monsters that rip you to shreds.

Also, do your class quests when they become available. Even if it looks stupid and like something you can do later on, you'll get experience for it on level and won't get to level 16 and realize that you don't even have a blasted taunt.

Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Where's Khi?

*waves*

I'm still alive, I promise.

Those of you that follow me on twitter might know that I've been playing very little lately. I actually let my account expire for about a month, which was a nice break, but I'm back now =) I have a new job, with random hours, which means money but pretty limited and sporadic playing hours. I'm hoping to have a new computer within the next few weeks or so (depending on some RL expenses coming up) but even then, I don't think I'll be able to get back to raiding due to work for now.

In the meantime, I'm going to spend the vast majority of my time working on alts. I have quite a few as of now, and since my brother just started up a new account today, going to be getting quite a few more through Refer a Friend. And the rocket. Who doesn't want a rocket?


Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've probably heard something about the Cataclysm class changes that were announced this past week. I'm pretty disappointed by what they've said about trees so far, but hoping it'll change. You probably won't see any blog posts from me about the changes until beta at the earliest, but check out some of the blogs over there on my feeder if you want some thoughts -->

I'm probably not going to be blogging much in the coming weeks, but I'll try to not have a long silence again like this was. No promises though, RL is kinda a mess right now.

All that said, got a few questions for ya =)

• Any tips on RaF? He has a level 80 paladin on the same server, so he's probably gonna dualbox and just run us through things, but I've been told that may slow us down significantly.
• Seen any good gaming computers lately? Hoping to find something on the cheaper side, but don't want to have to replace for a good while.
• If my posts for a while are nothing but rambling about whatever alt I'm working on at the time, what kind of information might you find useful or interesting?

A Small Introduction

Even more changes have been made to the blog in the past few days, and even though some minor color changes will probably happen, it's pretty set for the most part.

If you're reading at the site and not through a reader, you'll notice a shiny new header with 4 mysterious characters up there. Who are they? What are they wearing?

Listen well little grasshopper, and I will tell you.

 

Starting on the left, the female druid is Khilana.  She was my main from the time I started playing WoW till the end of BC, tree all the way. In the image, she's wearing the Tier 5 set (SSC/TK stuff), with a pretty staff out of Hyjal. She never had the entire T5 set, and would never have gotten the staff, but they're pretty. And purpley. <3

Beside her is Khite, my dps Death Knight. She's pictured in the Tier 10 tank set, just because I like the look of the red better than the blue dps set. She may never get the entire T10 set, but she'll end up with several pieces eventually. And yes, the weapon is Shadowmourne. No way in hell she'll ever get it, but it's nice and shiny, right?

Moving over to the other side of the tree, you'll see my main tree Khiow. He actually looks exactly like he does in that picture, with one exception. He's currently got the green version of that staff, but the red went better with the rest of the image ^.^

And last but not least, there's little Dex on the end. Even though she's no longer the cute little pink pigtailed gnome that she once was (see below), Dex still holds a special place in my heart and she has almost as many raiding stories from BC as Khilana. She's not 80 yet, but I sat down earlier this week and dug thorugh EJ, figured out how to spec as 3.3 frost, and her and Squirtle have been tearing it up. I mean, 14k crits are yum. In the header she's wearing the full Arcanist set, which she actually has a large chunk of. Our poor tank is never going to get Thunderfury =\

And now, I finish packing and run out the door for a fun little road trip. I'll be in touch on Twitter through my phone, but not likely to be able to get on a computer till we get back Sunday night. Keep shooting me links for the Elder event, I'll collect them when I get back Monday and add to my list =) You've still got over a week, so no rush.

That's not god, that's your tank. And he's angry.

That title has absolutely nothing to do with this post. But it's catchy. So it's staying.

If you've been following me on Twitter, or reading the blog, you might have noticed that the majority of my WoW time has been spent on alts lately, and not on raiding.

There's a reason for that unfortunately.

My computer is, and always has been, a complete and total pile of crap. Ever want to see what 25 man raids look like on 2 fps? Yeah, didn't think so.

Since the launch of Wrath, I've been able to overcompensate for my computer being so terrible by knowing my class and role backwards and forwards, spending hours reading and watching vids about the encounter, and doing what I can to overgear the fights.

As Resurgence treks further and further into 25 Icecrown however, it's been getting more and more apparent that my plan is no longer working. I remember looking at the healing reports from a Blood Queen attempt and being so disgusted and angry that I just had to walk away from my computer.

Ya know the times where you're just so freaking tired of something that you want to cry? Yeah, that's been these past several weeks. Tuesday I logged on before the raid and I thought 'I hope I end up waitlisted tonight'. When you're beginning to dread raiding, something's wrong.

I'm a good raider, and I personally think I'm a pretty damn good healer. But sometimes there's things that you just can't control.

So until I'm able to afford an upgraded computer, I've decided to step back from progression 25 man raiding. Unfortunately, with how our 10s are currently set up, that means I'm likely to not be included in the progression 10 raids as well. It sucks, I'm not happy, and I've tried everything else I can think of, but that's the way it is.

To clarify, I'm not leaving the game. I'm not going to quit blogging. I'm not stopping raiding. Things will just be different.

So, without raiding, it looks like I'm going to be spending a good bit of time on my alts, both on Stonemaul and the dabbling I've done on Feathermoon. I've also got a few achievements I'd like to finish up on Khiow, and hoping to finally get the Guardian of Cenarius on Khilana. I'm still going to kill Arthas before Cata, it'll just be a bit further down the road than I'd like. But yeah, this will be a few months of leveling.

=(

*kicks computer*

Low Level LFD

It sometimes rocks. It's a different way to level. At times, it's almost instant queues, no matter what role.

But let's face it. People are still learning their classes for the most part, and it sucks.

You've all seen the melee hunter.

You may have heard of the warrior that rolls on +int gear.

But I have found something so special, so unique, I'd bet my hat it's something you've not come across before.

Yes, yes I am indeed speaking of the ranged rogue.

Daggers and swords are too lowly for this fine fellow. Instead, he turns to his weapons of choice: the white vendor throwing knives!

With these trusty blades in hand, he can relax back by the (non-melee thank you very much) hunter and the healer, and casually toss the (slighly less dangerous than baby rabbits) razors of death.

From this positioning, he's just in the right place to be out of immediate danger, has a lovely view of the fight, and can be just lazy enough to enjoy a beer, a cig, or other less mentionable out of game leisure activities.

Boss fight after boss fight, this creative dwarf looks combat in the eye and knows no fear. (He'll also never know the joy of being above the healer on the dps meters, but meh, what's that worth?)

A word of caution though... If you are indeed planning to go out and employ this clever instancing strategy, beware: for some reason, the other people in your party often become increasingly hostile, and often resort to drastic measures to prevent you from showing off your epic throwing skills. I heard a rumor that once such a rogue even got kicked from the group =(

*toddles off to queue again*

Don't let the sarcasm bite you on the way out!

Smallish Update

Due to epic failure on the part of ATT, after getting back from the holidays, I had one day of fun before the internet died for 2.5 weeks. I'll skip the rage here, but maaaan that sucked >.< Sadly, that, combined with sporadic raid attendance during the hols means that I've been bumped from raider to waitlist-er. So, with ICC being conquered by other adventurers, had a bit of time on my hands =\ The good news is I've gotten quite a bit done since getting back online Tuesday.

With Khiow, other than Emblems of Frost, there's not a whole lot of progress I can do without a raid. I'll be crafting him the ICC boots early next week, and I think I'll have enough badges for the T10 helm on Tuesday. Other than one random heroic a day though, he's not seeing much action. *sadface*

Khite still had a bit of gear to get from Triumph badges, but looks like I'm done with that now. There are still 2 pieces outa Halls of Reflection she could use, but other than that, she's in the same situation as Khiow. Need more raids =\

And that brings us to the main reason for this post... Little druid Khilana *grin* And yes, she is my second 80 druid. On the same server. And yup, she's a tree too. Her offspec is kitty while Khiow's is boomkin, so a little different. I got her from 77 to 80 this week, and I've been getting her gear and sneaking into raids since then. She killed the Twins, and almost Anub (fucking 3% wipe with a pug) in ToC 25, and has been very very rapidly getting gear. I think I'll have my 4 piece T9 later today.

I know Blizzard wanted to make it easier for us to gear up new players or alts, but I think they made it a bit too easy. Khilana's been 80 for 2 days, and she's almost ready for ToC10/Uld25. And that's with only 1 crafted/BoE item. Don't misunderstand me... For me right now, this is fun. It rocks. I've got epics coming out my ass. But it's not really a challenge. When I hit 70 back in BC, it was weeks later that I got my first epic. And I had to work for that. But now? It's like they're candy.

I dunno. I like many of the changes that Blizz has made over the years, but I'm getting to the point where I want more of a challenge with some things. The hardest thing about most raids is fighting my computer =\ When they first made the changes with Emblems of Conquest dropping everywhere, I liked the idea in general, but thought they should have only bumped it one rank. IE, Valors drop everywhere, but EoC were still restricted to Uld 25, and EoT only coming from ToC. And now, with Triumphs everywhere, I'm going back to that idea. Conquest badges now would be a good stepping stone, but require people to still spend some time, effort, and blood to get ready for progression raiding.

*shrug* Just my opinions. What do ya'll think? If you've hit 80 since 3.3, how have you liked the gearing process? If you've had new players join your raiding team, do you think the lack of difficulty has been a good thing or a bad thing? Cake or pie?

...
Dammit.
Now I want cake.

Update and teh Alcohol

Biggest news is I finally left my guild... I really like many of the people in , and that's one of the reasons I left quite a few alts including my 80 DK in guild. I spent about a week really researching other raiding guilds on our server, and several caught my eye. 

Last Sunday a friend in   asked me to come heal their 10m Ulduar alt run. Apparently they've been low on trees, and I made a pretty good impression, as the GM contacted my friend a few days later and asked him to convince me to apply. Made me a very very happy tree, especially as that was my first choice guild. Of course, the pressure's really on now, especially as I don't have a single piece of gear above Ulduar 10, and they're working on Uld 25 HM and ToGC 25. 


In other news...

Disrespectfully, Krappy

Not my standard thing, but I'd set a goal of getting a post out tonight, and writing just wasn't happening... Let me know what you think please, as I haven't done anything like this since high school ^.~

The sizing on here just wouldn't work like I wanted it to, but you can click on the pic and see it massive size. *shrug* I'll spend more time on the next if I decide to do another like this.

Alt-itis

I have a confession... I'm a bit of an alt-oholic. I like filling up my character lists with random classes and then abandoning them about 20. However, I've been pretty good lately about keeping them active (BoA gear helps a lot!) These are all my little Stonemaul pretties...

• Sparkhi - Level 10 Mage. She was my first alt after swapping servers, but has become a auction toon. Last glance, I believe she had 13k in sold auctions in her stats. Not bad for a BE...
• Khisha - Level 41 Lock. Her favorite pet is the VW Krappy. His name is actually Kragphog, but run with him for a while, and you'll see why he earned the name. I got bored with her about 35ish, but got into a bit of PvP (read:ganking) and started having fun again. She'll likely make it to Outlands pretty shortly after 3.2
• Khite - Level 71 DK. Fun character that I'm enjoying tanking with, and the 450 JC doesn't hurt. Got a bit tired of her as I leveled her and the proff in about a week, so she's been gathering dust at the JC daily in Dalaran. With Cold Weather heirloom, she'll get back in action soon though.
• Khios - Level 26 Priest. Started on her when we were having issues completing 25 Naxx because of a lack of priests, but just can't really get into the class at this level. She may be one that gets abandoned, but we'll see.
• Sneakhi - Level 20 Rogue. Yet another that may not see the level cap... I find it strange that I love playing as a cat, but rogue just doesn't catch my fancy. Dunno what it is. However, as she does have her very own title, she may yet make it a ways.
• Khibel - Level 14 Shaman. This one will slowly make her way to 80. I've had several shaman in the past that I've leveled to 40-50ish, so not too interesting or new at this point, but a class I enjoy all the same.
• Khitteh - Level 20 Druid. Yep, that's right, another. She'll be dualspecced ferals as soon as she hits 40, and as much fun as I'm having right now, she may get leveled very quickly. The engineering goggles are just a plus. We'll see =)