Arms Race

The Munquis ran their 2nd night of official Naxx raiding last night.
It didn't go well. Hours were spent wiping and rezzing took forever, because some of the players had mis-spent their youth, and not played computer games. (You know who you are).

My DPS was top of the charts... Great. It just concerns me a little that I was waaaaaaay out in front last night.
By the end of the run I'd dealt around 1,200,000 damage more than the next nearest person to me (Grenthal - DPS Warrior). And half a million more to the next person below that.
Yes, some of the other DPS'ers were busy with other tactics, but that's just not right. And we only killed 3 bosses.

I'd bought a new scope for my bow before going. Changing +15 Dmg to +40 Crit, I like that change, and I'll stick with it. And I had an Endless Rage potion, which brought me up to 5102 AP (Buffed).

Alot of the bosses in Naxx seem to be more suited to ranged DPS than Melee. That's a bit unbalanaced too.

In case Blizz asks though. I never said that.

*Ducks the Nerf-Bat*

Definitely Maybe

My hunter managed to pick up his new staff from VH the other day. It was incidental, not planned.
I was just grinding emblems for my Pallies XP boosting shoulders. Got them now.

However, there was an ulterior motive. I actually arranged the group to do a CoT: Stratholme run, for another chance to roll on the drake.
Unfortunately, we were nowhere near quick enough. We actually wiped a couple of times. I'd never done that before in Strat.

So the emblems were helpful but no Drake-roll.
However, for the last few weeks, I've been wearing my Wyrmrest tabard. And didn't realise how close I was to Exalted. I dinged during the VH run.

But now I'm in a quandry. Do I just keep running CoT: Strat for the timed Drake. Which depends heavily on the team I'm with, and how many are rolling on it. Or do I spend 1.6k Gold on the Wyrmrest drake. (I'm about 500g short, so will need to save up anyway).????

Decisions, Decisions. Not sure what to do about this one.

Prot-Power

I made my mind up over the weekend. My Pally will be my next lvl 80.
My Hunter is in lockdown now until Naxx. His only job may be to collect another 14 emblems for some heirloom shoulders for my Pally.

Re-Specced my Healadin to a Tankadin. Did some research, figured out the mechanics. I've been a pally tank plenty of times before, but it seems to have changed quite alot since I last did it.

Spent about 30g on the AH, to replace my Kara epic healing gear with stuff that gives Stam & Strength, and I was off into Northrend.

The result? Suprise.

Yeah, I'm not a noob at the game, and I'm no stranger to Pally mechanics, and my Macro skills help alot. But you can't tell me that I'm supposed to be able to ride into the middle of Skorm with mainly healing gear equipped (even if it was epic). Aggro 12 or more mobs and finish the fight with full mana and almost full health?!?!

I'm not complaining, much. It's going to mean my Pally is much quicker to level than even my Hunter was. And when he gets his heirloom shoulders the +10% xp will boost it even further.

Rested xp meant about 2k per kill. Even keeping to 10 mobs at a time, they'll all die easily within about 30 seconds... that's 20k per group, and 40k per minute.
And those mobs respawn fast.
Even allowing time for repairs (because it's a lot of wear and tear on my armor) that means I could do nothing but grind those mobs for just over an hour, collecting loads of trash, cash and loot, and have gained a level by the end of it.

Did someone say "Nerf"?

House Call

I've been reading Tobolds Blog, as I always do.
And one of the comments on "How to spend Gold in Warcraft" has intrigued me.

It suggests a new profession, linked directly to Player Housing.

I think we would all love Player (or at least Guild) Housing to become a reality, and if it ever does, what will you do with that nice new hovel you probably just paid 100,000 Gold for?

Furnish it, of course.

So what about a new LumberJack / Carpentry profession combo? I think that is a great idea (Credit to the original poster).

And to ensure that the profession doesn't dry-up as soon as everyone has already bought their furniture (like Inscription sort of has). How about a durability rating for the furniture?

Over time / use the furniture degrades and needs to be repaired otherwise it will be un-useable.
So the furniture requires maintenance, and materials, which obviously have to be paid for.
This keeps the Carpenters in business, and provides another gold-sink for Blizz.

And what about the combo of StoneMason / Builder, to build the housing in the first place, with a durability rating on the houses themselves?

Or Mortgage Lender / LoanShark to get you the sort of money you're going to need to pay for all this stuff.
I suppose Blizz could do this via an NPC though, and if you don't make your payments on time, they'll make you Bankrupt and re-possess everything you own. Or maybe that's just too much like real life these days.

Seriously though, there's also a few other profession combos that I could see working within the game:

Inker / Tattooist - Collect Inks, maybe from Herbs, or dust looted from mobs. And then Use them to create Tattoos, which augment the body. Stats boosts etc...

Inker / Dyer - As above, but creates Dyes that allow you to re-color your gear, or even Paint your house with them. I'm guessing that a bottle of Black dye would be very expensive.

PackHorse / Mercenarys - If this gets introduced, I think it should be a profession. The crafter uses weapons and armour to kit out a 'New Recruit' NPC. The better the gear, the better the NPC's stats. This could find a use for all those trash blues and greens that drop from heroics / raids. The Mercenaries can then be 'hired' on the AH. As the crafter, you get the bonus of being able to equip your own Mercs with more gear once they are complete, and they don't have a time limit. (Similar to the Diablo II system).
The NPC's obviously couldn't have too much HP / DPS or it would over-balance things. And, for the non-crafters, a time limit of a week. Then you'd have to 'Hire' another one.

Bear with It

I recently decided to roll a new toon. A Druid.
I've always fancied the class, but never gotten round to actually making one.
The theory of being all the classes rolled into one seems appealing, mainly because it gives flexibility to the guild.
Spec'ing Feral would allow me to focus on DPS, but also provide Tanking for guild runs if needed, by using the same talents, but maybe a change of gear.
And when Dual-Spec finally arrives, I'd be a potential DPS / TANK with the bonus Healer option thrown in.

Druids are the only class that can do this. Pallies are excellent. And I still love them, although I resent the fact that I rolled a dwarf. I don't know why, but that seriously irritates me, and puts me off playing it.
But even With Dual-Spec a Pally can only do 2/3 things, because the talent trees are totally seperate. Ret = DPS, Prot = TANK, Holy = Healer.

Only problem is, it means levelling an entirely new toon from 1-80 and I don't know if I have the patience for it.
My Hunter can't really get any more upgrades from the Emblems of Heroism, but has quite a few spare, and will be getting plenty more from Naxx soon.
With just another 19 of them, I can buy a set of the Heirloom shoulders to give +10% XP, then maybe I'll send them to my Pally, and try and power level him to 80.
Only problem there is, If I buy the Plate ones, they'll only be useable by Pallies and Warriors.
I suppose 40 emblems isn't really too hard to get though, if I wanted another set.

Concerning my Druid... I love the theory, but will it pan-out in practice. I don't know.

Knowing me, I'll proabably get the shoulders, and maybe a weapon, and send them down to my Pally to boost him through to 80.
I can live with ONLY being a Tank and a Healer. If DPS is required, that's what my Hunter is the expert at.

Raidical

We did a guild run of Sartharion last night. All went well, I was 2nd in the DPS meter, but it was a very close thing between Grenthal and Myself, with the number one spot changing places a few times.

We did great, took Sartharion with no drakes up, and only 1 death from a semi-squishy melee. Pretty good for a first attempt... a little too good in fact.

My main concern is how easy it all was. It felt no more difficult than a standard heroic. And out chances of failure were very slim.
Having now run the Arachnid Quarter of Naxx, and the Obsidian Sanctum on 10 men, I can safely say that 10-man raiding isn't what it used to be.

These days it seems to be more of a case of a standard heroic, but with 10 men, instead of 5.

Kara used to be a challenge, with a steep learning curve, whether you knew the boss tactics or not, you had to stay on your toes.
With the raids I've done so far, that's not the case.
Sure, there's a bit of positional tactics going on, and a few techniques. But I haven't seen a wipe yet. Only the occasional squishy going down to a random hit.

The Munquis are investing alot of time into preparing for raiding, and to be honest, I'm not so sure if it's going to be needed. The same team that made the run last night would appear to be able to clear Naxx quite easily, or at least with very minimal wipes.
I think we may be over-thinking the whole Naxx thing.

Should it really be this easy? Or maybe we're all just better than we think?

PUG'ing Hell

The other guildies were all busy yesterday, when I logged on.
So I played with my spec for a bit. And re-tuned my glyphs and macros to match.

Looks like I'm on to a winner with my new build design. (See previosu post).
But any nerfs or changes to the global cooldowns could throw the whole thing out of whack.

Anyway, for a bit of field testing I decided to try a PUG.
Yes, you read that right, a Pick Up Group. Anyone who knows me, has a fair idea that I have a very low opinion of PUG's.
Generally I consider it a better idea to do guild runs, and PUG empty spaces if needed. That way, there's usually only 1 slacker to deal with, and sometimes you can be pleasantly suprised with how good they are. A few of the Munquis themselves were picked up in that way.

So Violet Hold is the daily... great... nice and quick, and a possible chance for my staff too.

Luckily enough, I tend to get picked up quite quickly in the PUGs if I post my Attack Power in the Comments... Funny that.

A Pally, a Warrior, a DK, and a Mage. Excellent, no Druid competition for my staff either.
But that's where the good news ended. The Tank was slow in picking up adds, so they were running around all over the place. Meaning I had to use my pet to off-tank when they charged the healer / mage.
And the Mage had a tendancy to let loose before the tank had even started to tickle them, which made the bad tanking even worse.
The DK was also quite low on the DPS meter, so although he/she wasn't doing anything wrong, we were struggling to clear the mobs before the next portal appeared.

Somehow, we managed to reach the final boss but only with 4 men. The DK had died almost 4 portals ago, but there had been no time to rez him, and he obviously felt it was too much like hard work to just run back in.
So the healer got ALOT of greif and was ordered to rez him when Cyagnosia had already spawned. Dumb Shits.

The healer did as ordered, and the group wiped within about 10 seconds. Amazing!

That not being bad enough, the other 3 imediately started to flame the healer as a "Nuub", and not politely.
I gave them some stick back, and told them to STFU, if they thought they would have got as far without him they were wrong. His healing was more than good enough, considering the lack of control on the adds.

Unsuprisingly, the healer quit the group. At which point, I quit too... Badges or no badges, Staff or No Staff, I'd rather live without them, than spend any more time with dicks like that.

I whispered the Healer to try and re-assure him that his healing had been fine, but got no response.
In fact, the healer hadn't said a single word throughout the entire run, other than a "rdy" at the very start.

It's for all the reasons above that I seriously despise PUG's. That healer was a Pally, and good at his job. But with dick-heads like that greifing healers everytime things go wrong it's no suprise that most people don't like to play healers. And the next time I see that Pally, he'll probably be waving a shield and spamming consecration.

PUG-Off

Spec Spending

After the improvement I've seen in my DPS since my little re-spec the other day, I thought I'd do a bit of research on my chosen talent points.

It turns out that many of the tooltips are either a little misleading, or when you do the maths don't really add up to much.

So at some point this weekend, I'm going to try out a new build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cEb0zxxRVu0esuce0bZx00b

(Note: It requires an addon to use this build effectively, such as Track-O-Matique)

Rotation Rotation Rotation

That's the mantra for Hunters.

Mark -> Sting -> Shoot -> Lather -> Rinse -> Repeat

I've been wondering lately why my DPS seems to be dropping, when my gear is getting so much better.
Obviously, the Hunter Nerf had some effect, but I should still be seeing an improvement.
So, having a bit of spare time last night, I thought I'd do a bit of testing on the heroic target dummies. And, suprise suprise, I figured out the problem.
My all-purpose macro's were mis-firing 1/3 of the time. They worked fine pre-patch and blizz didn't mention anything about changing them, but hey... since when do they tell us everything?

So with a bit of tweaking I got things back to normal, and then realised that my Talents were a little mis-placed after the nerf, so also did a small respec.

........35g Later.

I now find myself with 4k Attack Power, and have a spare 103 Hit Rating. So I can re-gem a few things, and increase my Attack Power or Crit even further... Result!

4k AP (with Hawk Aspect), 100% Hit, 25-27% Crit, and 17kHP all Unbuffed... Sounds good to me.
Now I just need to pick up some shoulder and helm enchants (but nothing too fancy - not epic yet) and change a couple of gems to re-use some of that wasted Hit Rating. Arthas here I come.
And still not one item from raids. All this is from Heroics only.

EDIT: Decided to try an pick myself up a Staff of Trickery - Looks like I'm not going to find anything better pre-25 Mans.
It actually already dropped for me once, but I passed for a druid (Tins I think) who needed it more at the time.

Naxxed Out

Its taken me the whole of... well... just a couple of weeks really, and I'm now maxed out in pre-Naxx gear:

Head: Plunderer's Helmet (Heroic Drop)
Neck: Pendant of the Outcast Hero (Emblem Reward)
Shoulders: Spaulders of the Abomination (Heroic Drop)
Chest: Polished Regimental Hauberk (Rep Reward)
Waist: BatRider's Cord (See below)
Legs: Giantmaim Leggaurds (AH 300g)
Feet: Boots of the Neverending Path (Rep Reward)
Wrists: Giantmaim Bracers (AH 300g)
Hands: Handgrips of the Savage Emissary (Heroic Drop)
Ring 1: Dream Signet of the Bandit (AH 50g)
Ring 2: Stained-Glass Shard Ring (AH 50g)
Trinket 1: Mirror of Truth (Emblem Reward - Ignore the tooltip, it procs in ranged too)
Trinket 2: Crusader's Locket (Quest Reward - Green, but no better AP trinkets till Naxx)
Back: Ice Strikers Cloak (Leatherworking BoE - 300g Mats)
Melee: 2x Fang of Truth (Rep Rewards 62g Each)
Ranged: Drake Mounted CrossBow (Heroic Drop)

The only thing I still have to buy is Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt. And a couple of better enchants / gems. But I'm almost out of cash, and epic enough for now.

Be.Imba actually rates me as capable of handling even the hardest 25-man raids.
And all within just a few weeks of starting heroic runs, a bit of research, and very little gold spent on the AH. That sounds like a bargain to me!

So to all you out there who think raiding is only for the 1337 people... I say:
"Bullshit. Pull your thumb out of your arse, make a bit of effort, and suprise yourself."

With the Munquis now making plans to start raiding Naxx, and a few test-runs already big successes, things are looking promising.
Watch the forums for Munqui Raiding info, coming soon.

Naxx the way (a-ha a-ha) I like it

Actually, I didn't, really. I wasn't that impressed by Naxx.

The Munquis made their second venture into Naxxramas last night (Arachnid Quarter).

It was a last-minute raid, we were all planning on doing Heroics when Shirt suggested that given we had about 18 level 80's on, we look at Naxx instead.
Apologies to anyone who felt left out that they couldn't come, but space was limited, and specs were the priority, followed by those who asked first.
Official Munqui-Raids will be much more organised.

Result:

2 Wipes, which were both entirely just the learning curves, and 3 Bosses down.
The run took a couple of hours, but to be honest, we wasted alot of time waiting for people who were afk, and without the wipes, which I doubt would happen next time it would be much quicker. Probably about an hour, or less, to kill the 3 bosses.

The Group:

Tanks:
Vind (Karudan)
Bronze

Healers:
Raq (Diliana)
Amandala
Rolfi (Pinarello)

DPS:
Vedd
Knicks
Babe (Hetebliksem)
Shirt (Shirtimus)
Me (Hunter)

Summary:

I'll try not to name and shame here, but we probably could have 9 (or even 8) manned it. The Tanks both did fine, with the Healers 2/3 were great, 1 did well enough, but not excellent (although he was also leading the group, so we'll let him off).
With the DPS, we had 3/5 that did similar amounts of damage, at the top of the meter (Yes, I was at the very top, but I won't mention that).
the Other 2 DPS'ers were lacking a little, no offence to them. I know that neither of them have been 80's for very long, so maybe they're still a little undergeared. One DPS'er at the top of the table almost counted for both of the bottom 2. But that's not the point.

My Opinion(s):

The point is..... Naxx IS very easy. A little bit too easy in my opinion. It didn't feel like as much of a challenge as I expected, in fact it was as easy, if not easier, than many heroics.
Also, I wasn't keen on the style of the place. It just didn't have the same atmosphere as somewhere like Karazhan, one of the best designed dungeons in the game IMHO. And the boss design in Kara is awesome, lots of tactics to learn, and all different.
I know it's supposed to be the way it is, but it just didn't feel very 'Epic' in there.

I'm not dissapointed... yet. There's still lots more of Naxx to go, and it may improve. But I didn't expect a disorganised group of udergeared first-timers to be able to make any progress. Fingers-Crossed.

Hero-Class Heroics (Part 2)

After teaming with Vind last night I'd like to retract 'most' of what I said about DK's.

It appears that I was just unfortunate enough to be teamed with 3 almost identical UnHoly specced players. UnHoly does nothing for me. Although it does add a % dmg increase to spell casters.

However, Blood spec was a nice addition to the overall party, and I can see the potential benfits from having at least one of them with you.

So my new theory is:
DK's don't suck... but treat with caution.
(Which I suppose is no different than any other class)

Ready2Raid?

Here's the big questions:

Do you think that the Munquis could start raiding Naxx?
My Opinion: Yes

Should they?
My Opinion: No

I'm pretty sure that the Munquis could start doing the 10 mans at this point, but I think it would be a bad idea.
Given the simpler learning curves for the heroic -> raid progression, I think the Munquis should sit back and enjoy the heroic fun.
Epics are available from the emblem vendors, and heroic bosses, and I've already seen that quite a few of us are beggining to build up a nice collection.

Also, quite a few of the usual suspects, for raid teams, have only recently hit level 80, and although they're not slackers (even though I might have teased them about it sometimes) they need to gear up more by spending more time in heroics.

They're not that hard to do, and the progression is pretty fast.

As an example:

In total I've done 10 or 11 Heroics, which isn't many in my opinion. I certainly don't feel like I've been grinding them, as they've all been alot of fun (except for Occulus.. never... ever.. go there)
And in my travels I've collected my 50th Emblem of Heroism, and I've also got a nice stash of Stone Keeper Shards, as well as a few epics Drake-Mounted Crossbow, Pendant of the Outcast Hero.
And the championing means I'm now 'Honored' with Wyrmrest Accord and 'Revered' (and 50% of the way to 'Exalted') with the Argent Crusade.
Giving me 2x Fang of Truth and meaning I'm almost ready to buy 2 more epics for around only 100g Polished Rehimental Hauberk and Boots of the Neverending Path (Leather but excellent for Hunters)

With all these rewards, and fun to be had, why would I want to rush into Naxx?

The Growl and the PussyCat

I've had some stick in the past for leaving my pets 'Growl' turned on when in a party.

Let's get something straight. I cause more aggro than my DPS pet. Much More.
My pets growl is fine, for me, while I'm solo'ing. Because anything I'm trying to kill is usually dead by the time I over-aggro it.
But if I solo an elite, it usually comes running after me just before it dies.

When I'm in a group, the tanks these days generate much much much more aggro than me. So why shouldn't I leave growl turned on.

The chances of the mob focusing on my pet are minimal as long as the tank is up and running.
The chance of my pet over-aggroing are almost Sweet-FA, and I can always use 'Cower' if I notice it getting too high.
But let's say the tank misses a mob, or is stunned, the next one in the threat list is gonna get a fistful of DMG shoved down their throat pretty quickly.
Who would you rather got that DMG?

There's 4 options:

1 - Me - Who's probably 2nd on the Threat Meter, but I have 10k Armour, upto 20kHP can feign, shadowmeld, misdirect, trap etc etc.
2 - Others - Who may / may not survive.
3 - My Pet - Who has upto 20k HP, 12k Armour, an instant rez button, and who isn't usually too far down the threat list, but hopefully higher up than...
4 - The Healer(s) - Alot of them wear paper armour, and most have the survival chances of a chocolate tea-pot in a microwave. They might last a few seconds, but then they're just a stain.

I don't send my pet in to attack until I start attacking, and I always allow a few seconds for tanks to build aggro, as it's pretty easy for me to overaggro at the beginning of fights. Just good practice, and well worth the cost of a few seconds of DPS.

Pet always attacks in 'Defence' mode, but if it goes off the rails it can be switched to 'Passive' and recalled with one click of button 5 on the mouse.

Edit: There are always exceptions to the rule, for example, I switch the pet to agressive when fighting Jodega Shadowweaver in Old Kingdom, simply because my pet starts attacking whichever mob she sacrifices as soon as it's released. And identifies it to the group.

So can anyone give me a good reason not to leave "Growl" on?

Hero-Class Heroics

Last night I did a heroic. "So What?" you're about to say, but unusually the team was made up of 3 Death Knights (Raq, Lurni & Stealths) My Hunter and Rolfi's Priest.

Now, don't get me wrong, we absolutely owned the 2 heroics we did (Utgarde Keep and Old Kingdom) and we should have done. The 3 DK's were wearing quite a few epics each, and had lots of other nice gear.
Rolfi and I have run quite a few heroics together now, and we're both more than capable. He's a great healer.

Note: Ignore all the facts and figures below if you're not into that sort of thing, but I'll try and keep it short.

But I noticed something that concerned me a little. I know my own DPS capabilities quite well. I can easily do 1500 DPS while solo'ing, and much more when I pop my CoolDowns / Trinkets etc..
Usually, when in a party, that increases massively, particularly when there's a Pally tank like Bolle and I don't have to watch my Aggro, I've reached upto 2.8k+ at some points, but often average around 2k - 2.2k across a full run. Last night I managed 1600.

I can imagine some people thinking "WTF is he complaining about... ONLY 1600!" but the fact is, with a different group, I could have pulled off much much more. The +100 DPS is probably mostly down to the buffs from Rolfi.

My pet buffs the whole party for +% DMG when it crits (which it does alot) but even so, I realise the only bonuses I bring to a party are that buff (one part of which is being nerfed in the next patch!) and my CC'ing.
The DK's were all UnHoly specced, and all brought exactly the same buff to the party a +15% Movement speed increase. WOW!

Raq tanked the runs, and the other two DPS'd. Yet every oen of their, and my overall DMG at the end of the runs, was within about 10-20k of each other, and everyones average DPS was around 1600. Why?

Note: You can start reading again at this point if you skipped it.

My theory is this:

Well played DK's are great at doing exactly what they're supposed to do, and very little else. Yes, They're sort of a 'jack-of-all-trades', but a they're 'Master' of none.
Their talents and abilities suit them, and them alone, and they bring very little else to a party. I could have been replaced by a 4th DK or a Rogue, or an Arms Warrior and it would have made no difference.
And I bet the average solo DPS for those guys is around 1500 too. They didn't seem to be sharing anything between themselves that even buffed other DK's.

Imagine that same party, but with one of the DK's replaced with something like a Shaman, or even better a Pally. Their buffs would increase the stats of the entire party, and the average DPS would have shot up dramatically.

I'm pretty sure that a team of 4 DK's + Healer could easily handle any of the heroics I've so far seen. And I wouldn't hold back from teaming with them again, they were more than capable players, there's just something about it that I don't like.

I once ran some level 70 heroics with a full team of Pallies, and it was an awesome scene. But even then, buffs were shared, blessings passed around, and team-work was promoted, as it could make a big difference to the entire team.
With DK's it doesn't seem to matter. Once those guys are fully epic'd I'm sure their DPS will go up a bit more, but then what?

If you were a raid leader who had the choice between bringing a fully epic DK, or a mostly Epic Pally who would you pick?

I'd choose the Pally every time, 1x Blessing of Kings on an entire 10-man raid raid and you get a huge DPS buff.
Or a Shammy using totems which he can change at will depending on the situation.

All the other DPS focused classes have a reliable form of CC / Aggro Dropping / Party Buffs too.
Hunters - Traps, Stings, Kiting, Pet Tanking, Feign, Misdirect, TrueShot Aura
Rogues - Sap, Stealth, Vanish
Mages - Polymorph, IceBlock, Buffs
Warlocks - SoulStones, Summons, Buffs
(Note: The hunter list is probably only longer, because I know more about them)

Raq assures me that +15% movement speed also = more DPS but I just don't see it myself. I can see some situations where it would come in handy, but they're few and far between.
If the DK's had all been different specs, it would have helped with the different auras, but still not as much as other classes would have.

So would you really take a straight DPS'ing DK instead of one of them?
I'm sure the Munquis won't discriminate against the DK's when it comes to raids, but overall I feel that they just lack that special something that makes them a welcome addition to any team.

So, go on, tell me I'm wrong.

Mixing Purple and Blue makes Blurple?

I've been spending alot of time recently fine tuning my build and grinding heroics, for no better reason than... why not.

It's Bolle and Vind's fault. They asked me to come and run Heroic: Culling of Stratholme with them, for the Drake you get to roll on if you finish it within 25 minutes.

Well, we wiped the floor with the place, our final time was something like 19 minutes, we rolled on the drake. And Vind won. I became addicted after that.

Since then, I've run Culling of Stratholme twice more, beaten the timer twice more, and still not managed to get my drake. :(
I've also done Old Kingdom, Nexus a couple of times, and god knows what else.

Resulting in me owning my first level 80 epic, and using the free Stone Keepers Shards to buy a nice shoulder enchant for the shoulders that dropped while doing my heroics.

I'm also well on the way to my Argent Crusade rep, which will open up an epic mail chest, and epic leather boots which are both excellent for me. YAY.

Thanks guys. I'm now Blurple Geared.

Craft of WAR: Blind

I've just seen this video posted on Grimtooths Troops. (Another blog I read quite regularly).
And it's very impressive, defintely worth the few minutes to watch, and the author is obviously very good at what he does.


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Edit: Just to add, that whoever Percula is, he / she is bloody good. Just watched it for the second time, and the Blizz personnel department should be on the phone right now.

Wnt2 Me Tup? 1'm n0t @ PsYcHo... H0n3st!!!

As happens from time to time, the BBC here in the UK come up with a completely off the wall story, and start quoting facts and figures that just don't seem to match up with my idea of reality.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7789494.stm

According to them, 40% of UK internet users have met up in real life with someone they've only met via the internet / online.

Now call me a sceptic, but "Who the hell are they?!?"

As most of the Munquis will know, some of us have met up in real life. And some of us more than once.
But the general reaction from every single person I know, or who even heard about my plans to meet some strange people from foreign lands was total disbelief, or even horror. I'm talking about 100 people who knew that I was doing it. And not one would have done it themselves, and almost all are regular internet users.

I consider the people I met up with, and some that couldn't make it 'Freinds'... that's 'Freinds' with a capital 'F'. Because I don't see any reason to treat them as anything but true freinds.
On average, I spend more time with them than I do with the majority of my real life ones. They help me out, I help them out, we share social occasions, and obviously have similar interests. So why shouldn't I.

I'd love to agree with the BBC on this one, and if it was true that 40% of the UK's online people were meeting up in real life, it would be a great thing. But I can't help getting the impression that the surveying company only took a small sample and it's made those stats appear to be abnormally high.

On the flip side, I can understand the UK's general disbelief of what's printed in the papers. I think that's quite an old-fashioned view now. Those in the older generations, whom I know, tend to believe every word thats written in the paper, or broadcast on the news, no matter how over the top or sensationalist.

I think Terry Pratchett summed it up nicely in "The Truth";

'It says here fifty-six people were hurt in a brawl,' said Mr Mackleduff, who by dint of being the longest-surviving lodger acted as a kind of president at mealtimes. He had bought a copy of the Times on his way home from the bakery, where he was night-shift foreman.
'Fancy,' said Mrs Arcanum.
'I think it must have been five or six,' said William.
'Says fifty-six here,' said Mr Mackleduff sternly. 'In black and white.'
'It must be right,' said Mrs Arcanum, to general agreement, 'otherwise they wouldn't let them put it in.'
'I wonder who's doing it?' said Mr Prone, who travelled in wholesale boots and shoes.
'Oh, they'd be special people for doing this,' said Mr Mackleduff.
'Really?' said William.
'Oh, yes,' said Mr Mackleduff, who was one of those large men who were instantly expert on anything. 'They wouldn't allow just anyone to write what they like. That stands to reason.'

Mistletoe and Whine

Well, Christmas is almost over. (Merry Christmas to anyone that I haven't already said that to).

I've been off on a family holiday for the festive season, and, as usual at this time of year, I won't have much free time until after the new year. I'm missing the Munquis but just don't really have the definite time to invest in playing a MMORPG for the next week or so.
Instead I'm killing my time playing Fable II (much better than I expected it to be), which I can pick up and put down in short stints. But I should be back to WoW as normal either this weekend or by early next week.

Before the Christmas period I managed to pick up my worg pet (and the spider one as a bonus), Vind also tagged along with his DK and picked them up too.
For info, LBRS is quite easily soloable with a level 80 Hunter. I brought my Cat with me, when really I should have used my Gorilla, but still didn't really have any problems. And the run for the worg pups only took 10-15 minutes. I had to clear a little more trash than was really neccesary due to Vinds lower level toon still having a little aggro, but I could almost walk past the majority of the mobs unless they were standing right in my way.

P.S. I'm assuming Brast already knows about it, but the tribe forums seem to be down. Maybe his subscription has just expired again, and there's much more important thigns to pay for at this time of year. (We really should all contribute to that cost).

New Years Resolution: Buy a MunquiWear item, or send Brast a donation to help with the costs?

The Wolfman of Azeroth

I've decided that one of the first things i'm going to do as a proud, and bewildered, level 80. Is get myself a worg-pup pet. I've always meant to get one, but never gotten round to it.

This quest provides one: http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4729

...and comes with a bonus Spider pet: http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4862

I'm pretty sure I could easily solo LBRS, but if anyone wants to join in the fun, they're welcome to tag along. Just give me a whisper in-game.