More From Northrend

Continuing on what seems to be a never ending odyssey of mining ore, I was once again flying around Northrend yesterday. This time, I was in Sholozar Basin enjoying the sites and mining the hell out of some saronite.

The Sundered Shard

Hardknuckle Clearing

River's Heart

Seabreach Flow

As Seen in Remote Parts of Northrend

Ok. I'm not really sure how remote these places are, but they are pretty awesome-looking nonetheless.

I took some screenshots yesterday while I was trying to mine some ore around Northrend. My goal was 120 but I ended up with 64 because I got distracted with flying around and clearing the map. I got two exploration cheeves yesterday. I might get some more today seeing as how I still need more ore. ::sigh::  Anyway...

The Horror Gate

Cathedral of Darkness

Narvir's Cradle

Terrace of the Makers

A Quiet Day of Reflection

A Calm Day of Fishing in the Jade Forest

Not really. That's just what a lot of people say when they've spent the day fishing. I, however, dwell on how boring it is...In real life and within a game.

Have you ever fished on the game Animal Crossing? If you run past the shadow of a fish in the water, you scare it away, lol. It's kind of tedious. Animal Crossing is a favorite game in our house. Both of my kids like to play it and I've been known to play from time to time. My kids like for me to do the fishing in the game so that we can put the fish in the museum. They say that I'm the best at it but in reality, I just have more patience than they do.

Today, I spent the day with Maruka fishing in Pandaria. I leveled her from 380-something to 425. I'm just trying to level her cooking up without spending a ton of gold in the auction house on mats. I'm trying to be smart about it. ;) I really hate fishing though. The one thing that has made it more bearable is that Maruka has a water strider with the Surface Trot buff and I LOVE it. I mount up (I'm still an 88 and can't fly yet) and ride up and down the rivers looking for pools of fish. Being able to walk on water makes the process go by much faster.

FYI, if you're looking for Jade Lungfish, you should start out at the top of the river at Grookin Hill and then ride the river all the way down to Pearlfin Village. Just be aware that Grookin Hill is a Horde town and Pearlfin Village is an Alliance town. I got tagged by an Alliance guard at Pearlfin Village and had to run for my life, lol. Anyway, this route netted (har har) me quite a bit of fish in a short amount of time.

Mists of Pandaria: Hunter Pets

**I apologize for the darkness of my screenshots. I took them at night and it was raining. Also, for pete's sake, don't look at my armor. It's hideous. I'm not to the point where I want to transmog it yet so I'm doing my best to ignore it.**

As a hunter (Hunters RULE!!), one of the things I look forward to most about a new expansion is taming new pets. Finding and taming a new pet is always fun, finding new pet families is fantabulous fun. MoP has six new pet families including the two that came out with the pre-release patch.

• Basilisks
• Water Striders
• Cranes
• Goats
• Porcupines
• Quilen

So far, I've tamed a water strider, crane, and porcupine. I think, at this point, my blue porcupine, named Petunia, is my favorite. I really like the skins on the porcupine family. I actually traveled to Zangarmarsh when the patch came out to tame a blue Fen Strider because I'm the impatient sort and had to have a new pet right away. I have to say, I really love the Surface Trot ability, which gives the hunter the ability to walk/ride on water. That can be such a convenience. I also like the Still Water buff which increases spell power by 10% and critical strike by 5%. 

Lots of new pet looks were also released with MoP. Unfortunately, I am pretty disappointed with all but one of the new cat looks. I really don't like how the cats are so lumpy. It's like they're the Hunchback of Notre Dame of WoW. The one cat that I like, and have tamed, is the Hunched Jade Cat (See??? Hunched is even in the name.). I'm also unimpressed with the look of Pandaren turtles. I tamed one (a brown dragon turtle if I remember correctly) just so that I could have one, but I stabled it and doubt very seriously if it'll see the light of day. Frankly, they're just dull-looking in my opinion.

One of my favorite new looks, however, is the water strider. I had to have one of those as soon as I saw one and they also belong to the Water Strider family (obviously). Very nice-looking water bug. I also like the silkworms. I would kind of like to have one of each, blue, green, red, and yellow. I think they're all pretty cute.

As for the pet families I have yet to tame, goats, basilisks, and quilen, I'm excited to add them to my stable, more so for the goats and quilen. The quilen have a very handy skill, Eternal Guardian, which will allow for the resurrection of a party member. I think this will be extremely welcome in an instance or raid, to have an extra party member with this ability. It's just too bad that it can't resurrect the hunter. ;) I just think the goats are cute.

If you'd like more specific and detailed information on the newest pets, check out Petopia. The new pet families are just one more thing about the expansion that I am vastly enjoying. Any other hunters out there with MoP pet likes or dislikes??

A Reason to Rejoice

You already know about my altoholic-ism, right? I think that also extends to the want I have to play many games. I have to stop right here and wonder if I'll ever truly grow up, lmao!!

I have a PC that's about five years old and a MacBook Pro that's about 2 1/2 years old. Hardly any of the guts of my PC are the original parts. I've replaced things like memory and video cards as they've become outdated. Even so, or maybe because of this, it sucks. I can't do ANYthing on it anymore. When I play games, any game at all, I get about 10-20 minutes of play time before I get the blue screen of death. The other day, after letting it sit dormant for a couple months, I decided to give it another try. While wandering about Pandaria, my cat escaped out the window and onto the roof. During the ten minutes it took me to get him off the roof and back into the house, my computer crashed. I sit back down, winded, irritated, and dirty only to see a blue screen. Talk about frustration. I've tried troubleshooting the issue and can't find anything useful on the net. I bought a new vid card, upgraded Windows, blah blah. I'm thinking it's a motherboard issue.

During all the PC downtime, I've been playing WoW on my Mac. It's an ok solution if you don't have an alternative. But the sound sucks (my PC has speakers that'll knock your socks off), the screen is small, the mouse is inadequate, and I have to turn the graphics almost all the way down just so my frame rate will go about 10 fps. Plus, playing on a Mac means absolutely no GW2 since they don't have a Mac client and the frame rate on D3 is so bad I can't function.

Yesterday, I finally broke down and bought a new computer. I put it off for a good two years. Going back to the growing up thing, I feel pretty silly buying a new computer just so that I can play games on it. When it comes to school and business, I do everything on my Mac. So seriously, a new PC's use will be about 99% game play. I rationalized finally making this purchase because my kids like to play the Sims and we don't have a computer capable of handling that game anymore.

I would put my new build on here but I'd probably get made fun of, lol. Despite the fact that I bought a gaming PC, I still went mid-range on components because I can't justify spending much over $1000 on it. It meets and exceeds the minimum requirements for both WoW and The Sims 3 and that was my bottom line. All in all, I can't wait for next week to get here when it gets delivered.

Mists of Pandaria: First Impressions

I have very few negative things to say about the latest WoW expansion. I'm not one of those "race to 90" type of player, but I have been playing since the day of the release and I've been having a fantastic time.

I know that I'm in the minority when I say that questing is my favorite part of the game. I enjoy exploring the world, picking up quests, getting new gear, and just generally immersing myself in the game's world. I seriously cannot relate to the player who complains that it's taking too long to get to 90. I was, however, immensely pleased when I dinged 86 just last night. ;) That should give you some idea where I'm at in Pandaria. Okay, okay. I will admit that I'm chomping at the bit to get the new cloud serpent mount. All good things...

Pet Battles

Prior to the release, I was really looking forward to this new aspect of the game. It gives the player an alternate course of action instead of the constant raiding, PuGs, and leveling. The reality of this feature totally lived up to my expectations. The cheesy Final Fantasy-esque music. The silly turn-based attacks. The cutesy pets whose sole purpose in life is to kick ass. I love it. It's fun. It's distracting. It's addicting. I feel bad choosing to level certain companions over others. This has led to me trying to level several at one time which means that my highest level pet is only 11, lol. Questing in Pandaria and seeing the potential, capture-able pets makes me drool. I can't wait until I get a pet high enough so that I can start acquiring the new pets.

The Scenery

Come on. How can you not appreciate this??

If you don't like the scenery in Pandaria, I can only assume that you're color blind. It's visually striking and totally pleasing to the eye. If I hear one more person gripe about the graphics in WoW, I may have to turn stalker and pound on that person a bit. Maybe the graphics are not top shelf, but I still don't see what the complaining is all about.

Pandas. Squishy, Loveable, Ninja, Pandas!

This is another popular topic about which people like to complain. Do people know much about real, in the wild, pandas? Sure, they look cute, but I would like to see you come between a cub and it's mother. Polar bears, black bears, and grizzlies are cute too. Did you hear about that hiker that was taking video of a grizzly? All they found of him was the video. Anyway, my panda monk is only a level 14 so I can't speak on an "expert" level, but I'm having great fun playing her. She's pretty and she's pretty vicious.

My One Complaint

I think having cross-realm areas is a fantastic idea. I really like seeing other players when I'm out and about questing. However...It would have been nice if that had been turned off for the first few weeks after the expansion release. Over population is now the issue instead of dead areas. I was questing with my lowbie panda in the Northern Barrens and there weren't enough quilboars and sacks of rice to be found for all the dozens of pandas trying to do the same quests. It was just a bit frustrating. After a while, I gave up and went for some pet battles instead.

To Conclude

I've run into a few glitches here and there. I've run across totally asshole-y players stealing all the quest kills and gathers. What's new? After playing beta, I can see a big difference in the number of things that needed to be fixed versus the more polished final release. I am a realist. I expected hangups. So what? I think MoP is a complete breath of fresh air when compared to the somewhat more intense expansions of WotLK and Cataclysm. I still have no regrets signing up for the annual pass. I'll more than likely renew or, at the very least, keep my subscription current. I'm still having fun with the game, reading other's blog posts and tweets, and being part of the community that is WoW. I'm definitely not ready to throw in the towel.

And So There Was Diablo 3

 I wanted to write this post three days ago. Unfortunately, my PC wasn't cooperating with me. After trying to troubleshoot it (I can't even get it to restart at this point, lmao) I decided to download the D3 client on my Macbook. And it works!!

I played nonstop yesterday. Well, mostly nonstop. I had to eat and pick the kids up from school. That sort of nonessential nonsense that interrupts game play during the day. Ya know.

I have no complaints about D3. Getting back into the Diablo world was like...putting on a comfortable pair of shoes that had been lost at the back of the closet for years, but only a thousand times better.

I noticed a few differences from the beta but overall, I can't think of anything worth mentioning.

So far I've rolled a wizard, monk, and witch doctor. Fun times all around. I'm playing the monk solo, but the wizard and witch doctor I'm playing with Zorish, the husband. I don't have a favorite as yet. I do like the look of the witch doctor's gear the best though. So far.

What I like about Diablo III:

• Point and click walking. After getting my fingers off of the A, S, & D keys, I have found that I prefer this method of moving. Why? When I try to play WoW on my MacBook, my biggest frustration is moving my toon through the world. I have a magic mouse and it can make flying and swimming and being able to see where I'm going hard at times. I love being able to point and click and hold down the mouse button to walk. So much simpler.
• Interacting with the world. I love being able to search for barrels, buckets of decapitated heads, dead bodies, and loose stones to find gold. I also really like being able to release chandeliers on mobs and watching bodies fly through the air. Holy cow is that fun. It's also fun releasing braziers of fire and walls of stone on unsuspecting demons. Eat that!!
• I like that when you die, you don't lose all your gear where your body bought it. That was such a pain in the old Diablo. You used to have to keep an extra set of stuff in your chest back in town for those occasions when you rezzed mostly nekkid and had to make your way back to your body to get your crap. 
• I totally enjoy the simplified fighting mechanics. You actually have to think and decide what skills you want to have in your action bar. It's simplified in that you just have a few skills in your action bar at your disposal which makes the mechanics of a fight simpler. The thinking and strategy comes in when you're deciding which skills you want to pick out. 
• Not needing scrolls. You used to need scrolls to teleport to town and to identify gear. It wasn't that big a deal except for having to buy them and then having to keep them in your pack. They took up room.
• Diablo III still creeps me out. I wish I could remember her name, but in the old Diablo, there used to be this witch or demon or something. She used to give me chills every time I had to fight her. D3 still has that effect but a bit different. I play waiting for that surprise demon to pop out or an evil voice to give me shivers. It keeps me tense all the time, lol, and then I scare myself. I still have a bit of a hard time with the magic mouse and sometimes I right click when I'm trying to talk to a merchant in town or whatever. This drops whatever skill is bound to the right click. For instance, on my monk, it's the bell thing. I scare the living daylights out of myself when I drop that when all I'm trying to do is sell some trash to a merchant, hehehehe.
• The Diablo III world itself. It's a nice change of pace from the fantasy land of the MMOs that I play. 

I should probably pick out something I don't like about the game, right? Alright. One thing: I don't like that you have to have an Internet connection to play no matter what. If you don't want to play cooperative, you shouldn't have to be online to launch the game. It's essentially a single player game. Blizzard should make it optional.

I've been lucky so far. I haven't had any problems running the game (aside from my PC issues which have nothing to do with D3 specifically), no error messages, no random disconnects. ::knock on wood:: I've seen lots of Twitterings about technical problems with the game. So sorry for you. ;)

I'm off to play (Shhhh! I'll clean the house in a minute.). This took way too long to type up.

Screenshot Wednesday

Even the skeptics have to admit that the scenery in MoP is fabulous.

Speculations with Mists of Pandaria

I'm assuming the achievements highlighted in blue are the account wide ones?

There has been a freakton of talk about the account wide mounts and achievements. I'm a bit behind the others, but I do have some thoughts on the subject that I thought I'd share. As a confessed altoholic, there are definitely aspects of this that are intriguing to me.

Note:  All text in italics are from the official World of Warcraft blog article.

Most achievements are account-wide
This means you only earn the points once. If you have earned an achievement on one character, you can see it on all your characters. However, and this is important, you will still see the achievement toast (the pop-up notification) if a second or subsequent character completes the achievement. We think it’s still important to recognize milestones like reaching level 80, maxing out a profession, or killing a raid boss for the first time. It's fun to have everyone congratulate you when you get the toast. Nonetheless, this will just be a new character of yours completing the achievement that you’ve already earned on your account. You won’t double up on points.

I get that they don't want you to earn the points twice and I like that you'll still get the acknowledgement for completing achievements on all characters. However, it seems redundant to be earning the same achievements on all characters when they've already been done on your account. Personally for me, I'll feel a lot less inclined to try and earn achievements on more than one toon when I know that it really doesn't count. And I mean the achievements like "To All the Squirrels I've Loved" and "Pest Control" (two of my favorites). Meh.


Most criteria are not account-wide
If you start an achievement on one character, you can't then finish the achievement on another (there are exceptions, so please keep reading). We didn't think it made sense for one character to get level 60 and another to get level 20 and then see the "level 80" achievement toast. If you start to explore Thousand Needles on one character, you’ll probably want to finish that achievement on the same character.

This actually makes total sense.

Some achievements are "meta achievements."
These are achievements that require you to get other specific achievements. An infamous example is "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been." These achievements generally ARE account-wide. If one character earned Noble Gardener and another character earned The Flame Warden, then your account would get Long Strange Trip. (Otherwise it would be weird: it would look as if you had the sub-achievements, but you wouldn't have the meta-achievement). Even though you need Explore Thousand Needles on one character, all of your characters can contribute to Explore Kalimdor.

Ok. This one is logical too. It would make getting the exploring achievements, for one, way easier.

A few achievements are account-only.
There are two categories of account-only achievements. One is achievements that are not possible to earn on one character. If we made an achievement to level every class to level 90, it would be account-only. (I'm not sure we will, but it's a good example.) The other category are achievements that are just brutal to complete on one character (and you’d never want to do for multiples), such as 2500 daily quests or 250K honorable kills. In these cases, the cumulative work of all your characters on those criteria will count.

It took me a second to get this one. I like the idea of account-only achievements, especially the one they give as an example. It's nice incentive. "Cumulative" work is also nice but it makes getting those types of achievements easy.

We hope that rewards granted from achievements (pets, mounts, titles, and tabards) will be shared at the account level.
 I'm not going to promise this yet, because a lot of magic has to happen for that to work, but it's our intent. We have discussed having a character level requirement for some rewards, so that your level-2 gnome couldn’t walk around with the “Defender of a Shattered World” title just because your level-90 shaman earned it. If the gnome made it to level 80, though, you could proudly show off your title. You also won’t be able to use a faction-specific pet, mount, or title on the wrong faction. The achievement wouldn’t go away -- you just wouldn’t be able to show it off on that character. There are probably additional exceptions and details we’ll find as we dig deeper into the system.

This is where they start to lose me. Earning these types of rewards should be earning these types of rewards. Making certain achievements have level requirements would be an absolute must in order for me to not completely hate this idea.

What gets me about account wide achievements and mounts is that this is just yet another way that Blizzard is "dumbing down" WoW. They make everything so easy to get nowadays, that the feeling of having worked at something and completing it isn't there so much for me anymore. I also think that players should have to "pay their dues" for certain things. If they keep lowering the level for when we can get our flying training, they may as well just increase walk speed. You know what I'm saying?

Making achievements, training, leveling, dungeons, and raids too easy takes away that sense of accomplishment. I don't want to play a game that a two year old or someone's pet monkey could master.

Survey Time!

I found this blog surfing the other day. I wasn't tagged to do it, but I don't let that stop me. Props go to Zanbon.

1. If you could be any height, what would it be?

I'm 5'4 1/2" so I would go another 1 1/2 inches. I've always thought that 5'6" is the ideal female height.

2. Would you rather be able to talk to all birds, or all fish?

I've never seen this question before. Probably birds so that I could ask them what it's like to be able to fly. And to be able to tell them to stfu when they squawk too much. Cuz dang, birds are loud.

3. What historical figure would you most want to visit?

There are absolutely TONS but if I could pick just one I'd say Marie Antoinette. I'd like to tell her to take her family and freaking leave France while they still had the chance.

4. What is something you’ve always wanted to do with your hair but never have? (and if you have done it, post pictures)

You know the show Amsale Girls? First of all, I don't admit to watching this show. It's on the WE channel following Frasier some days which I do watch and maybe sometimes I just don't change the channel. Anyway, I LOVE Emily's hair. I wish I had the guts to try cutting my hair like that.

5. Favorite book you ever read?

I couldn't possibly answer this question. I've read and loved so many books over the years. I will just say that every book I have on my shelves and on my Nook are my favorites.

6. What was the last movie you cried during and why?

I don't remember. The last movie I watched was Friends with Benefits and that movie was just freaking hilarious. I don't watch movies too often.

7. Cake or pie?

Pie. Apple if you have it.

8. If you were a starter pokemon, would you be grass, water, or fire type and why?

I've never played Pokemon for the first time in my life. Have no idea how to answer this one. Fire? Because Fire! Fire!

9. Do you believe in alien life?

I believe in the definite possibility of alien life. The universe is too vast of a place to assume life only exists on Earth. It's really a naive and presumptuous assumption.

10. What sport/activity did you enjoy as a child?

I didn't play sports in school. As a kid, I enjoyed swimming, playing tag and hide and go seek, make believe, riding my bike, and reading. I grew up in the days where we played outside until the street lights came on and we used this thing called an imagination to entertain ourselves.

11. What is your perfect date?
June 20th or whatever day the summer solstice is on.

If you read this, consider yourself tagged. ;) Hey. It's easy content for us NBIers.

Winding Up the Week

I have compiled a summary of blog articles, tweets, and other random stuff I found interesting this week. I have high hopes to make this a weekly feature on my blog. Don't be too harsh if this is the only post of its kind that you see here. ;)

Newbie Blogger Initiative

This first section is featuring blogs from the NBI. Please check them out and give them some comment love.

Susi from Gaming Abroad. She wrote about TERA this week which helped to whittle away at my reserve. She also wrote about the WoW Iron Man Challenge. Lots of variety.

Diane at tl-dr ruminated about ERP and bad groups. Wowsa. 

Nomieke at /con mmob is blogging from Tumblr. One of the few NBIers I've seen on Tumblr.

Ravious at Kill Ten Rats wrote a fantastic article about the evolution of bloggers. Ravious isn't a newbie blogger but this article was written for the NBI.

Jacob talks about protecting your blog at tl-dr. It's an excellent post for both newbies and veteran bloggers.

I LOVE the title of this blog:  My Staff is Bigger than Yours. 

Twitter

As Seen On Twitter (these were all copied and pasted directly from Twitter. I didn't change a thing.

@WTSHeals said, "BARES IS CAN DUNCE! DUN DUN DUN! LOL! DUNCING BARES IS CAN MAKE HAPPY TIMES FOR UDDER FRENDS!"

@druidheals said, "Why would Blizzard delete a thread entitled, "Nozdormu's Nipples"?? This is serious stuff, man!"

@Vixsin_LiGS said, "I love how my mind works. Endless raid farming for useless upgrades? YES PLS! Endless transmog runs for useless aesthetics? OH F- THAT."

Other Blog News 

Rashtag gave a touching tribute to Maurice Sendak at Need More Rage.

Brunpal ruminates about the state of the Diablo 3 auction house at Jaded Alt.

Lonomonkey posted about Grammar Nazis at Screaming Monkeys. I'm all for figuring out when to use you, your, you're, its, it's, their, there, and they're, but I certainly don't go around criticizing people when they make mistakes. Cripes people. Boundaries!! 

FYI

For those of you with the MoP Beta, the newest update crashes when trying to load the 64-bit launcher. To solve this problem, use the regular .exe launcher. Looks just like the 64-bit one, but doesn't say "World of Warcraft-64".

World of Warcraft - Ironman Challenge

Through the NBI, I've seen quite a few blogs and posts on blogs about the Ironman Challenge. Monday night, as a way to shake things up a bit, I decided to give it a go. My husband, by the way, thinks it's ultimate nerdom and that I was dumb for trying it. Harumph at him!

I rolled a dwarf paladin named Ridie. I actually felt like I was cheating a bit by rolling this toon because they come with the stoneform racial buff and they start out wearing mail. Turns out I was dumb about that assumption.

Things started off well enough. She got through the first five levels with barely a scratch. Strolling through Coldridge Valley like she owned the place. Then it was time to move on to Kharanos which seemed easy enough too. I think she got four or five quests done before she met her doom.

Her doom dealers were the Frostmane Trolls up on Shimmer Ridge. She was going along fine, sniping trolls, collecting shimmer weed when she noticed a group of trolls standing around a fire. She thought, "Hey. These guys will be easy pickins and I can finish up this quest really fast." Wrong. She aggro'd two caster trolls at one time, took down one, and was killed by the other. So sad. And a little pathetic. As you can see in the screenshot, she was only a level six.


Next, I rolled a gnome rogue. I'll save the long, drawn out saga and just say she bit it at level four. I will say that I was beginning to get embarrassed at this point. I'm really a much better player than this but it seemed like the sheer idea of having to keep my characters alive no matter what was messing with my mind or something.

So anyway, I rolled a human rogue for my next attempt. I got her all the way to level six. I was inside someone's house turning in a quest out in the middle of the forest. I alt tabbed for reasons that I don't remember now. I thought that I would be reasonably safe inside the house. Ummm. Nope. I bring the game back up and I'm lying on the floor dead as a doornail. W....T....F?!?! Screw embarrassed, I'm just pissed at this point and have to call it a night.

I'm not giving up by any means. This is my Everest. I will make it past level 6 without dying. I've done it many times before for pete's sake.

It's Been One of Those Days

Today was supposed to be screenshot Wednesday, but I can't find a decent one and I'm having such an off day, there hasn't been an opportunity to take one either.

Have you ever had one of those days? I've been running HoTs all day...okay. Not all day. I've also been working on my final presentation for one of my classes. S'ok, in my off time, I've been queue'ing for random HoTs. I've gotten through three.

#1 - Good, solid run. Nothing to note. Everyone did their job, nobody died.

#2 - Ditto.

#3 - Baaaad tank. He was just bad. One of our DPS died and wouldn't rez. Rather than vote kick him and re-queue, the tank just kept going. Not so bad on trash, but...it was. Got to one point where the only people still alive was me and the other DPS. That's when the healer gave up and left. We're still down a DPS. I initiate the vote kick and we re-queue. Enter new healer and 3rd DPS. The tank and the new DPS proceeded to stand in fel fire and die. That's when I've decided I've had enough. My repair bill was 73 gold TYVM!

#4 - My computer crashes. ::sigh:: I restart, login and LO AND BEHOLD!! I was still in the group. I was shocked. My computer takes forEVER to restart. They could very justifiably vote kicked me. We're in End Time at the last boss. But nobody is there. I ask, "Where is everyone?" They lol at me and tell me that they're at the last boss. Umm. No they're not. I'm there and nobody else is there. Wtf? I didn't know how to solve the problem so I apologized and left the group so they could re-queue. Honestly, as a DPS, as long as we're not in the middle of a fight, I don't feel bad leaving the group. DPS are a dime a dozen.

Then I had regular mom-type stuff to do the rest of the afternoon. After dinner, I decide to try again.

#5 - I login and one of my guildies asks if I want to run HoTs. Sure. Sounds good to me. We queue as two DPSs and wait and wait. We finally get into End Time. Folks, I'm having some computer issues. I don't know what nor do I have the money right now to find out, but something is going on. My load screen into the instance takes forever and then my load screen once I click on the portal to go to the first area takes forever. By the time I get there, the Obsidian Dragonshire, everyone is already at the bottom of the hill, waiting for me on the islands. There's dragonkin everywhere and they seem to just be sitting there. Hello!! Move it already!! I wait for a window, it looks good, and I go. Run! Run!! And I'm runnin'. Not bothering to look around me but keeping my eye on the goal. I don't realize I've picked up a mob until I get to the island...with everyone else, and freaking wipe our group. I've never felt so dumb. This is the first time I've been the cause of a wipe. I guess, considering how long I've been playing, that's not so bad, but still. I wanted to crawl into a hole. I don't screw up that badly. But, this has been my day. Again, I apologize, fully expecting to get kicked at the first opportunity, and let the tank call me bad names. My response in PuGs is no response. I'm not going to argue and I'm not going to try and say that it wasn't my fault when it was and I admit that. I apologized in party chat. That's all you're getting from me on the subject.

So, we proceed through onto the Azure Dragonshire next. I think this boss is one of the easiest of all. I stand back, let the tank aggro, and let loose my arrows. Then she does her blink right on top of me. I can't see the freaking frozen blade things and hit one. Cripes!! And damn! And sheesh!! You know??? I've fought this boss several times and have never once come close to hitting a blade. I can't seem to do anything right.

Thankfully, we make it through the final boss without me doing anything overtly stupid. It was so bad though that my guildie told me, "You didn't do such a bad job", and then gave me a couple pointers which made it clear that he thought that was my first time in there. I was all kinds of SUCK! Seriously, my hands were shaking by the time we were done. I'm trying to shake it off but will probably stick with my lower level alts for tonight. Much less pressure.

Hunter Variety

When I first rolled Maruka, I went MM with her and this was before the days of dual talents. When dual talents came out, I resisted for quite some time paying for her to dual spec. I felt very loyal to MM. I eventually decided to give it a go and went for BM so that I could tame the cool pets. Turns out, I don't have the patience to camp out for the rare pets, lol. Nope. I flew around ONE time looking for some rares. I found the rhino, I can't remember it's name right now, and tamed that but I really wanted a spirit beast. Again, no patience and I wasn't really all that upset about it.

I concentrated on learning the rotation for a BM hunter then deciding which I liked best. Honestly, I don't think I have a real preference between the two after being all dramatic about it and swearing that I didn't need to dual spec. Grr! That totally turned me off to even giving survival a try at all. Until this past Saturday night.

I did a Google search and found a couple different blog articles comparing the dps output for all three hunter specs. Survival came out on top by quite a significant percentage. (And no. I don't have links to the articles cuz I'm dumb and didn't save them. Perhaps I'll search through my history (which happens to be on my other computer) and update this post at some future time. My apologies.) I caved to the pressure and swapped out BM for SV. Or maybe it was MM for SV. Christ on a crutch. I don't remember. After figuring out my shot rotation and practicing on some dummies, I headed into one of the HoTs and gave it a go. I beat the other hunter in there with me by very, very significant numbers but the tank and the other DPS kicked my butt. Granted, their ilvl was about ten points higher than mine (as was the other hunter, hmm) and it was only my second time in that instance, but I was a bit disappointed with my showing.

That being said, I grudgingly admit that SV is a fun spec. I like the shot rotation better than the other two. It just feels like explosive shot and black arrow add some much needed variety in the hunter rotation. At least those two shots have a cooldown that provides some challenge when it comes to focus regen whereas BM and MM only have one significant attack with a cooldown. At least in my rotation. I also seem to be doing about 2k more dps but it's too soon to say.

P.S.

I tamed the purple spider in the Firelands, I forget its name, this past weekend which makes #2 in the rare pet tames. Go me!

P.P.S.

This post has made me realize that I need to WoW blog from the same computer on which I play WoW. I have no screenshots, browser history, and few bookmarks on my laptop. It makes for bland, unreferenced posts, lmao.

Guild Woes

Maruka has been in the same guild since...well, it's been years. Almost since the inception of the guild. The hubs and I were one of the first members if I remember correctly. At the beginning, this guild served our purposes. It's a social guild and since we weren't interested in raiding, it was great. The GM is really nice. Extremely nice. The other people are nice as well. We chit chat and whatever. I like almost all the core members of the guild. You know there's always at least one person in a group that you find annoying. Overall, based on social aspects alone, I would give this guild a 9 out of 10 rating. We get the occasional whiner/beggar/person who takes advantage of the guild bank/nasty mouth guildie that I usually suspect is actually ten years old, but drama is at a minimum.

Saturday night, we actually had nine people on at the same time. Lately, the average has been about two, lol. One guildie kept asking us to get a group of 85s together to run Naxx. I'm at the point with Maruka that I am totally uninterested in running old instances purely for achievements. And as an 85, what else is there? I certainly can't use the gear. Plus, when I see the gear drops that I missed out on, it puts my panties in a twist. So I said that in the most gentle way that I could and this started a conversation about wanting to start running Hour of Twilights together as a guild so that eventually, maybe, possibly, we could actually start running level appropriate raids. Sounds like a positive move forward except for the fact that I brought this up about a year ago and nothing ever came of it.

I'm trying to figure out what the problem is here and I really think it's me. I'm trying to mold this long established guild into something that I want which isn't right. It's not my guild. Yeah, I'm an officer but that's mostly just a courtesy title more than anything. I've thought about shopping for a new guild, but I'm reluctant to leave the familiar behind. I also don't want to offend the GM and I'd really miss quite a few of my guild mates. It's a conundrum and I have no idea what to do about it at this point. 

My Ideal Guild

• Family oriented = 99% adults, not using foul language simply because it's funny, not condescending, superior assholes.
• Inactive members (people who haven't signed on for months leaving no word as to when or if they'll be back) get booted. 
• Guild repairs have a daily cap. 
• Guild bank withdraws are allowed on tabs with every day stuff with a daily stack cap. Personally, I don't like making deposits in a GB if I have to ask to withdraw a stack of wool cloth for tailoring. At the same time, I think it's shady when a guildie withdraws stacks of cloth, leather, ore, and herbs, all in one day.
• Groups are organized for running regular randoms, heroic randoms, AND raids. At several level intervals. Not everyone is a level 85 for cripes sake.
• There's a guild website and/or forums that is actually useful and it's utilized by members.
• Guild activity perks such as helping out with riding training costs. 
• Ranks that actually make sense or no ranks at all.
• And for my sanity, I need a guild to be low pressure. Organized with some expectations, but low pressure. 

Until I figure out what to do, I'll probably just leave well enough alone. When I really start to get frustrated, I'll just stop playing Maruka for a year or so and use her as a bank toon again, lmao. Oh wells.

Personas: Real vs Gaming

 I figured it's best to start precedences as early as possible and thought I'd end my first week with a somewhat off topic post. Do you keep separate accounts for your "real" self and your gaming self? I'll admit right here, right now that I do. I would hope nobody's mother would name them Maruka, heheh. But why? I do so for several reasons. Allow me to explain.

For one reason, I do my very best to keep my kids' online identities private. I'm careful about where I post their pictures and mention their names. I don't like it when other people post their pictures or mention their names online. There are too many predators out there. I want to make connections with other gamers and bloggers, but if I've never met you in person and in real life, then you don't get to know who my kids are.

Secondly, professionally, it's best to keep those two parts of my life separate because so many people are judgmental about gamers. Do they have the right to be? No. But that's the case and there isn't much I can do to change it. I don't want to lose potential income because of a leisurely pastime.

Thirdly, and this goes with secondly, I don't like dealing with the stigma that comes with being a gamer. My husband and I don't tell too many people that we play WoW. It's really nobody's business what we do with our free time as long as it's legal and we aren't neglecting our kids. But still. There it is.

This has resulted in my having multiple Twitter accounts, e-mail accounts, and G+ accounts. I've debated setting up a Facebook for Maruka but have yet to do so. I don't know if I can manage all that and actually make use of it. Does it bug me? Not all that much. It's kinda nice keeping things organized in that way. It really irritates me when I accidentally tweet something to the wrong account though.

What's your take? Am I too obsessive about this or am I not alone with juggling multiple personalities??

Confessions of an Altoholic

Maaluna, my ally main. She's a rockin' shaman.

My main is an 85 BM/MM hunter. I've been playing Maruka for a looong time. I can't even remember how long. I'm a good hunter. I make mistakes from time to time, but overall, I know what I'm doing and I'm comfortable playing Maruka. HUNTERS RULE! Not all of us are huntards, just so ya know. When Cataclysm came out, Zorish and I, Zorish is the husband, went from 80-85 in no time at all. We maxed out all of our Cata reps, ran the dungeons and then the dailies so much that everything was becoming really repetitive. I've never been into PvP so what's left? BIG burnout. We took a break from our mains for about, well, I would say it's been about a year when it comes right down to it. We both made some alts and have been playing those.

I had this idea that I would make a bunch of characters all with different professions and level them up together, keeping them all within five levels of each other. Then I made one bank toon to keep all their stuff. This made leveling professions waaaaaaaay easy and fast because my toons could all rely on each other and instead of selling extra mats on the AH or vendoring everything, they send all their extras to the bank toon and the bank toon then distributes things as needed. She also manages all their auctions and extra gold. It's been real effective and a successful experiment. 

I have six ally toons that I play on another server and they're all level 73's with one 72. I have a couple more ally alts on that server as well, but I don't play them regularly. All my ally toons are in level 25 guilds which has made leveling go along fast. Just recently, I decided to make a horde gang on my original QD server.

For this group of toons, I've kept all of them out of guilds with the exception of one because I got an invite that I couldn't refuse. I did this because I wanted the experience of leveling everyone up without any exp boosts. I have found very few people that understand the fact that my favorite part of the game is questing. I have a touch of OCD and it REALLY annoys me when I level out of an area before completing all the quests. This group has had the advantage of having Maruka on the same server. She has considerably more gold than a toon just starting out so it's been easy to keep their professions leveled and all have enough bags, lol. Basically, my level 85 main became a bank toon for the last year. :(  I also have my very first warrior which is so fun to play and I have a rogue that I actually like to play. I usually hate rogues.

Keeping up with this many alts can be a bit much at times, especially the ones that are in guilds and will get kicked out for inactivity. But it has been so much fun and keeps me in the game. I'm in it for a year no matter what so I may as well get my money's worth, right?

Do you have an alt obsession? What do you do to keep game boredom at bay?

Screenshot Wednesday: Duly Impressed

As seen on the Quel'dorei server about two months ago. First and only time I've ever seen it.

Alpha Neurotic

Hi and welcome to my introductory post. This blog is about four or five years in the making. I've considered starting a gaming blog for years but wasn't sure if I'd have the time (I'm a wife (the hubs and I game together) and mom, part time undergrad, sometimes employed, and I write on another blog) or if I'd have enough ideas to write on a regular basis. But, I've been reading WoW and SWTOR related blogs for about a year now and I've been seeing posts about the Newbie Blogger Initiative and thought, "HEY! Maybe they're talking to me and it's time to give this a try."

I intend to write mainly about World of Warcraft from the perspective of a socially anxious, neurotic GIRL, who knows little but wants to impart what wisdom I have to other like minded individuals. I'll also attempt to blend in stuff about other games (most likely The Sims and Diablo III) as well as off topic bull that you'll just have to put up with on occasion. My goal is to post at least twice a week, no less than once a week, but no promises. I also will try to keep the language on a PG level, but I'm married to a Marine and foul language is a way of life. So again, I make no promises. ;)

My pet peeves:

• The word, "noob" when used derogatorily. We were all new to the game, every game, at one point. To imply that you're superior because you know more than someone who is just starting out is ignorant. I don't like ignorance. How about either keeping your mouth shut or trying to help that newbie out a little, huh??
• When tanks say, "You pull, you deal with it." Get over yourself. Shit happens and sometimes it's an accident and the person didn't mean to do it. On the other side...
• Not taking responsibility for your actions. Yeah. We all saw you, hunter, shoot that dragonkin before the tank was even close to the next mob. Just apologize and allow us all to move on. 
• People who think that girls can't play video games just as well, if not better, than guys. 
• Vote kicking someone from a group because of one mistake. I think everyone deserves at least a second chance, even if it was a "dumb" mistake. How is anyone supposed to learn if they aren't allowed to learn from their mistakes???
• Getting kicked from a group because my ilvl is too low. HELLO!!! Why do you think I'm in this dungeon in the first place?!!? I'm freaking trying to get better freaking gear. How the eff am I supposed to do that if I can't get through a dungeon and roll for new crap?!?!?

The above list doesn't even scratch the surface but it gives you an idea of what I'm all about:  fairness, giving a person a chance, and playing the game to the best of my ability. And please see my About Me page for more...you know...about me.