Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Busy Bee

Today is like Friday for me... I have a nice long 5 day weekend starting at COB (Close of Business), and it feels nice. I have some goals that I intend to meet and they are as follows:

1. Finish painting my remaining 16 dwarves
2. Paint my son's Chaos Lord on Juggernaught
3. Paint my son's 10 Chaos hounds
4. Create a "stonehenge" terrain piece
5. Clean up my "birdhouse" castle and paint it up

That does not seem like an insurmountable list. I think that I can accomplish this and still get in the appropriate amount of family time, eat, sleep, and still game. I also need to think about ways to "show off" what I paint and create. Not that what I do is anything great, but that was one of the goals for redesigning my blog. I wanted to be able to show people I know what I do and maybe inspire them to join in.

I live in a military town and we have a nice local gaming store called the Hobbit. Lots of room for gaming, and never any shortage of people to play with talk to, but not much in the way of painters / modelers. Any given saturday you can walk in and see games of 40K, Fantasy, Flames of War, D&D, Warmachine/Hordes, or various board games spread out on the tables. (As a side note the Hobbit bought/rented/leased out the bingo hall next door... so plenty of room.)The down side is that when it comes to 40K or Fantasy the bulk of the gamers do not mind rocking grey plastic, black/white primer or even unfinished/unassembled models.

I do not mean to sound like a gaming snob, but I put a lot of time/effort into my models. I am no pro. I am no Golden Demon winner. I can put out a product that looks decent on the table though, and that is all that matters. If you are just starting that is cool, bring what you have and lets play. However, I have seen a lot of these guys there a lot, they did not just start. They have had the time to at least start painting. I realize that there is a large portion of the gaming community that just wants to play, and that is fine, I just want more of them to pain too...

All of this to say... Here I want to be able to show case what I have, what I have done, and what I need to do in the hopes that perhaps one of my gaming peers will be inspired or motivated to pick up a brush. It does not take much talent to put out a decent product (just look at some of my models in the links for proof.) Which brings me back to the issue at hand... I need to find a better way to display my product. I used to own my own web site and I had my images displayed. Here I just have links to my .mac. Anybody have any thoughts? I guess I will keep looking...

Monday, December 29, 2008

Screen Monkey

Thanks go out to Sherpa for the cool link ==>Screen Monkey

My son and I ran a small 1000 point game last night. I played the Chaos Warriors he played my Dwarves. I wanted to show him some of the ways he could use a force like the Chaos Warriors. He is only 9 years old and does pretty well for himself when we play, but it never hurts to show him when faced with a new force. I destroyed my poor Dwarves and my son is really exited to play again, this time with his Chaos.

My son has the advantage when we switch sides I feel, and that is fine by me. My dwarves have their work cut out for them stopping the powerful horde. I still can not decide which army I really want to play for fantasy. I am only playing the dwarves because we have the Battle for Skull Pass set. I added a few more models and that is keeping me occupied for now. I am torn between the Lizardmen and the Skaven, both of which are getting updates sometime in 2009.

/sigh... We shall see.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Fine Day

Well Christmas has come and gone and it was a good family time. My son really enjoyed his Warriors of Chaos starter army, coming in at 1037 points is not bad for a good start. I have told him that I plan on getting him a sorcerer and a shaggoth and the rest is up to him.

I got a Dremel tool for Christmas. Well, actually I got a gift card, but it turned into a Dremel quickly. I have already put it to good use and started making some more terrain. I built two 4 x 4 "tables" that I have sitting on my pool table currently. It makes a nice gaming surface. I was going to go ahead and build terrain on it but my wife talked me out of it. She wants it to double as a ping pong table, so it shall.

I guess my next project shall be creating some modular 1x1 terrain sections to go on the table. That way I can do a city fight if I want or other specialized games. I will keep it nice and green for standard Warhammer Fantasy sessions, but I have always liked the modular look too. This will give me loads of options and will only require more shelving.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Warriors of Chaos



My son does not know it yet, but is getting the Warriors of Chaos box set from me for Christmas. I let him look at all the available models and armies and that is the one he wanted to play most for Warhammer Fantasy. Normally I would not want to play Chaos or allow him to play Chaos, but I do not mind as we can just more or less avoid any of the overly "evil" elements. We are going to tackle it like a Germanic tribe. These guys are just going to be our Vikings, Goths, or Barbarians. Just some "Conan" type people trying to get by in the nasty Chaos Wastes. I think that they will be fun to paint and we will have some good games with them versus my dwarves.

I am still undecided on army I really want to play / collect so will stick with the dwarves for now. We bought the Battle for Skull Pass set and I have painted up most of the models from there. I added another box of dwarf warriors with hand weapons and shields and we shall see how the Chaos Armor does against my Dwarven Mithril. I am thinking about jumping on the Lizardmen bandwagon come February as they were one of my first ever armies. I collected them when I bought my very first Games Workshop product the Fantasy box set with Brettonia versus Lizardmen many years ago.

Monday, December 22, 2008

D&D 4e

Last night I dusted off my copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook 4th edition. I have thumbed through it on several occasions but just started actually reading it. My son wants to play with his friends when they come over on the weekends sometimes so I figure I will accomodate him and be the DM. Our local game store has a game on saturday's but if we are playing with just his friends then we can use the Warhammer table and get double duty out of it.

A while back before travel really picked up I mentioned starting up a D&D game here on my blog. I do regret not following through with that as the response was pretty good. However, that evil little thing called time put an end to that. I do wish there was a was to get involved with a game though.

I used to play on a web forum play by post style on the CORE network, I could wonder back over there I suppose...

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Our Tyranid Army

My sons Tyranid Army.




Some Sample Terrain

I am trying to work the kinks out of this, but here is some samples of the terrain my son and I use.




Friday, December 19, 2008

I am still Alive

Wow. Not sure where to start. Been a while since an update.... a long while. No longer playing WoW, but I miss the people. I was kind of forced into quitting. I had some travels where reliable net was just not an option. Been out of the loop so long that I missed the Lich King release and now I really do not want to go back.

For those that worried about me... Sorry to keep you hanging. I had several trips back to back and things were a bit hectic. I just started a Face Book and will link that here when I get it all sorted out. Pressure from my wife and friends caused me to fold on my "No Facebook / MySpace" stance. I can see the logic and benefit in it, just was being one of those "I remember the old internet" stubborn geeks.

You may ask what I have been up to? Life. My son and I recently picked up a game I used to play before my Army days. Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k. I think it has been good for us to reconnect. Between the travel I was doing and my WoW addiction he kind of got left out a little. The miniatures take up a lot less of my time. I even have the Garage / Playroom tooled out for our game room. I turned our pool table into a 4 x 6 battlefield.

I will be converting this blog to my new "addiction". So if you like to still follow my ramblings feel free. If you choose to wander away for greener pastures, no harm. I apologize in advance, but I am going to clean out my blog feeder. I love you guys but would rather not be reminded of what I am missing if you follow me. I see it like a recovering alcoholic. He would be a fool to spend time in a bar... I do not want to pick up the WoW "drink" either :)

Friday, September 12, 2008

Back on the Road

Just a quick note so that if any of you reading this wonder...

I have two back to back trips I am heading out on so will be away from the blogging world for a while.

On another note... if you are a guildie and I missed you online, I will also more than likely not be there for a while either. I should be back in about a month or so.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I am Dumb

Last night I think I had a sign on my back that said “Please ask me for things.” I spent my entire WoW time last night hanging out in Org working on my enchanting. I burned through a lot of stored cloth last night to generate enchanting mats. After tons of linen, wool, silk, and mageweave cloth I had to create items to destroy.

Tonight I will hopefully move on to Runecloth and then onto Netherweave. I was able to go from 45 enchanting to around 260 enchanting last night, and spent roughly 300 gold in addition to the mats I had on hand and in my alt bank.

I had many interesting conversations as I sat in org crafting. I really should take screenshots so I can always remember my outstanding conversations.

Conversation 1 (Conversation all in /s)
Dude : rough stone
Me : ...
Dude : rough stone?
Me : Are you talking to me?
Dude : i need some rough stone
Me : I don’t have any

Dude drops a totem

Dude : i am a shaman see
Dude : i need rough stone
Me : I still don’t have any, sorry

Dude just hangs out for a bit as I turn cloth into bolts. He drops totems every now and then and dances some.

Dude : i need copper bars too
Dude : plz

At this point I don’t even respond… He says a few more things lingers in the area and asks others that stop for mail. I was sitting by the mailbox in the Drag by the way. Good times…

Conversation 2 (this one is at least in /t)
I am still by the mailbox… I should learn…

Smartguy : I need 2g
Me : Sorry
Smartguy : Sorry for what, just give me 2g?
Me : I am sorry, but no
Smartguy : What? You are 70 and it is only 2g
Me : You are correct on both points, it is only 2g, go get it
Smartguy : I only need it for new goggles
Smartguy : I am only level 22, you are 70, 2g is like one kill for you
Me : I said no, I am sorry, not going to happen
Smartguy : You are dumb

Ah yes. I am dumb… so sorry, Smartguy.

Now don’t get me wrong, these conversations did not ruin my evening, nor were they all the conversations I enjoyed. They made the tedious job of tailoring / enchanting that much more enjoyable. Not a lot you can do when working on that much cloth, so it helps to pass the time.

I was also able to help a guildie in finding Nat Pagle so he can learn to be a better fisherman. He had no cords so I had to guide him in using the map. It was quite an adventure, as WoW usually is.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Clone Me!

I have decided that I do not have enough time to get anywhere near all the stuff that I want to accomplish done. I need a small clone army to help me complete my tasks.

Alts:
I want to get my Blood Elf Paladin, Orc Hunter, Blood Elf Mage, and Undead Rogue all to level 70. Will this happen? Maybe one day it will, no time soon though.

Enchanting:
I picked up enchanting again last night on my Warlock. Yea... Not even going to tell you how many times I have had this prof and dropped it. Not even going to tell you why I keep switching profs over and over... I don't know. I need to get to 375 and start collecting some of the other recipes.

Gold:
I still have 2 tabs in my alt bank that I need to purchase. I would also like to outfit my warlock at the very least with full 20 slot bags, so I am going to have to buy some more Primal Mooncloth as that cooldown just takes to long.

I want to have 5k gold minimum on my warlock and druid. I would also like to have a couple of thousand hanging out in my alt bank for emergencies.

Herbs:
I need to make time to start collecting more flowers before the pre-lk patch comes out and releases inscription. I would like to have Inscription up to level 375 by the time LK comes out.

Rep:
My druid needs to finish up the SSO dailies. This is probably the easiest of my tasks that need to be completed. It also helps to facilite the gold "farming" I mentioned above.

Alliance:
I think as of now I have all but abandoned my poor alliance toons... Maybe one day.

Monday, September 8, 2008

New Blogger Alert

Totem Twist is a new blog out there. Stop by... say what's up... and give some WoW Blog encouragement.

A Productive Weekend

Blood Elf Paladin News...

I managed to finish up the Ghostlands this weekend. Not anywhere close to my favorite zone, but not a bad experience. I enjoyed the Tranquillien rep, even though with my AH visits I got nothing but the Tranquillien Champion's Cloak out of it. A nice little cloak for the level, I really enjoy the stamina.

I moved into the Barrens and began that experience. I decided to go ahead and do all the Barrens quests then move on to Stonetalon, so I am taking a bit of an xp hit catching up to my level.

Druid First Raid...

I took the Druid into Kara this weekend. I only tanked two or three mobs, but did not mind doing kitty dps. I picked up two epics out of the deal and managed to replace three total items from my several gear sets. We called it early as several people had to log. The early night, in combination with two relatively new tanks meant that we did not make it far. We only managed to get past Curator, while skipping Maiden. Attuneman, Moroes, Opera (R&J), and Curator all went down with ease. The only problems we had were many wipes on trash. Numerous wipes on trash. It was very comical, but I do not fault anyone, not even the new tanks.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Instanceaphobia

I believe that I have Instanceaphobia. This my friends, is the irrational fear of that little glowing instance portal and what lies beyond. Merely joining in a group often times causing me to break out in hives.

I am not sure what it is. I have been in some good groups. When I am in those groups I have a blast. I have some good friends and we have some good times... when they are able to convice me to come.

I am not sure what it is.

I do not mind dying.

I do not mind spending time with friends.

I do not mind helping people out.

I do not mind getting badges or new gear.

I do not mind crushing the minions of the evil overlords of WoW.

What is it then, that makes my skin crawl? I am not sure exactly. Perhaps it is time wasted. I have a fear of wasting what little time I have in WoW waiting on others. I have a fear of not being able to complete the mission because of someone else.

What do I do to get around this? I partake of the ALT. Each night when I log for bed or to spend time with my wife before bed, with an alt I know that I have made progress.

If I have time, there are a handful of people that I would drop everthing to assist. These are the people that I have mutliple 70s for. I enjoy filling multiple rolls not for better instances, but so that I have more opportunities to help my friends, virtual or not. I shall not name those people here as I have many ingame friends that read my blog. I do not want to put someone out because they do not make my list :P

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Hard Core Mode

Some of you may remember a little game called Diablo II. I remember it fondly. After beating the game you were able to play it again and again on various difficulty modes. One of these modes that always sparked my interest was Hard Core mode.

Each time I start a new toon I always envision myself to be in Hard Core mode and try to see how long I can make it before I die. My record thus far is level 16. Last night my new Blood Elf Paladin Konstahn died for the very first time.

So there I was, questing, killing, skinning, mining…

Levels 1 – 16 had no problems. I may have had one or two close calls but nothing to worry about. I moved on into Ghostlands and was killing Night Elf invaders. I cleansed the area of murlocs, spiders. I was an unstoppable machine.

Next on the chopping block… Gnolls.

I move into their area, they have recently invaded a mine. The Underlight Mine to be exact. I begin to pick and choose my targets as they have shamans with them. Casters are not a paladin’s best friend.

As I already have a 70 paladin I knew full well that I would prefer to pick my fights with casters.

If you have never been into the Underlight Mine area it is annoying at its level. There are lots of pats. The area is littered with little camps of Gnolls, usually 2 to 3 each. One of these is normally a Shaman.

My tactics for taking these guys on was simple.

Step 1 : Target non-caster mob
Step 2 : Hammer of Justice him and charge
Step 3 : Target the shaman on the way in and begin to destroy
Step 4 : Finish off the other 2 mobs

As I mentioned, my tactics were simple.

Did I mention that these mobs run too? They do.

So there I was, doing my thing…

I move into a normal camp, 2 melee mobs and the one shaman. I drop the shaman quick and pick up one of the other two. Then I get a shaman pat respawn, which is a bit of a challenge. Mana is half, health is down to half. Bubble is still good, LoH is still good.

I leave the two mobs alive and charge the fresh shaman. I trust my armor to hold off the melee mobs while I finish off the caster. Caster goes down. Health is down to 90ish now. A moment of indecision occurs. At this point… Do I pot? Do I bubble? Do I run? Do I heal? I decide to try and get the heal off so I can save the cooldowns for a more desperate situation. I figure I can take the small beating and my 90ish health will hold long enough for the heal. I get down to 40ish and the heal is close….

Another Shaman had respawned behind me and I get hit with that lightning bolt dropping me… I had no idea… /sigh

Hard Core mode FAILED!

Maybe next time.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Thoughts...

Some Random thoughts…

Druid Wereform… where is it? I want to turn into the Panther boss from ZG.

Paladin Squires… You know you want one.

When someone in Mail or Plate is in Water… Where is the “Rust” Debuff?

When someone in Leather is in Water… Where is the “Loss of Criculation” Debuff?

If my toon has to learn how to cook eggs… Has to learn how to ride a horse twice… At what point did he “learn” to swim?

My level 15 Paladin got some Loincloth of the Eagle last night… Is it normal to feel creepy with him wearing it?

Humor is not something you can teach or learn… You either get it or you do not. I meet lots of people that just do not.

I want to proximity tag nodes. If I run up on a node and get attacked by a mob, the node should be tagged grey until I move away or some amount of time has passed. People are going to be dregs of society and will steal it otherwise.

Is it Grey or Gray… I always like grey.

Seeing other people’s screenshots reminds me I need a new computer.

I want a spider mount.

I want a solo mode for all instances.

I want a daily quest hub to grind rep for any faction.

Engineers can make repair bots and that is cool. I want a Carrier Pigeon now… allows me to access my mailbox on the go.

I want to have my toon join the Cenarion. Why do I have to be ally or horde?

If I come across a “Locked” Chest when I am out and about, are you really telling me I can’t find a way to get into it?

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Taking out ZG for fun



My new guild "Run to the Door" ventured into ZG last night for some Old School Night love. It was the first time for many of our guildies and much fun was had. No tiger mount or raptor mount dropped, but we each went out with lots of bijous.

This was the first time I had ever downed Hakkar. Pre-BC, my guild could clear BWL, MC, Ony, and ZG, but I never made it to all the raids. I made it to the first night of most raids, but rarely the second or extended sessions. As a result I have seen a lot of old school instances, but completed not much.

My toon has been completely restored and so has the gbank. Blizzard rocks.

Thanks again for all the encouraging words.

A couple more pics

A found several of these little caves that I ventured into.

One of the many iguana I ran across.

Selected Pics from Cuba

A pic of me with Guy from the Food Network.




Sunday, August 31, 2008

Paladin Squire "Pet" in LK

No. This is no rumor. I did not hear it on another site. It is official... from my head.

I want paladins to get a pet like Mages and Shamans. Give them a squire. Let him be this lad or lass 15 - 20 levels lower than the paladin that just follows him around. Give them a two hand sword and let them lay in with their crappy dps. Let them have minimal bag space to hold stuff like a squire should. When the paladin mounts up... so does the squire, on a bland looking horse.

If I need, let it be some epic long quest line. Make me ear exalted rep with all main cities of my faction. Shoot... I would even be willing to take a debuff if I allowed my squire to fall in battle. Like a 10 min -15 to all stats or something.

The squire would not be a game breaker. It would be more comic relief. I would love it. I would even be willing to share my squire idea with other classes... Attendees or something for any class willing to do the long quest line. That would be an achievement... You have your own entourage.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Restoration

Hermit was rebuilt. He is now a level 70 again and has the majority of his stuff back. My ally are the same way, stuff has been restored. Blizzard is still investigating the gbank issue, but even some of that was restored to me so that I can put it back in the bank.

I guess I need to make my lazy butt get one of those authenticator things from Blizzard so this never happens again.

Thanks for all the encouraging words from those who stopped by are hit me up ingame. I appreciate it. You know, the funny thing is I have been robbed 3 times in my 13 years of marriage. It has never really bothered me. I don't think this would have bothered me either if it were not for the gbank issue.

I am sitting home today. I guess the hack was not the only going away present from Cuba. I feel like crap right now. Sore throat, ache all over, headache... I feel like a bunch of Locks rode by my house and lit me up.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Hackers are the devil

My account got hacked.

If it was just my toons that were affected then I would be cool with it. However, others were affected. All 5 tabs of the Guild Vault were looted. All because some stupid guy wanted to have some fun. My lock was deleted and rebuilt as a level 1. Why would they do this? Why rebuild him? Just to rub salt in the wound?

I have two accounts, so I can still play. However, now I just feel dirty. I really don't want to face my guildmates. I know it was not my fault, but that does not alleviate the fact that it was my toon that did the damage. A lot of damage.

Blizzard has sent me emails already saying that they were investigating and I feel confident that the toon will be restored, but all my gold.. gone. Will they be able to restore all that got looted? I can not see how. That was a lot of stuff. My alt bank was cleaned out. The guild vault was cleaned out. They even hit my ally. They did not delete my paladin for some reason, but they did take his stuff.

I have not loaned out my info. I have not downloaded anything? How? The only thing I can think of is maybe I get hit in the net cafe I was using in Cuba. I am home now. Maybe it was a Cuban going away party.

This is the kind of crap that just makes me want to stop playing. Even if my toon is restored, I just feel dirty.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hurricane / Tropical Storm Whatever

So I am minding my own business here in Cuba. I am doing my job... All of a sudden it starts getting real cloudy. Then the rain comes. Then things start closing. I am thinking to myself at this time...

"Self, what gives? A little rain and these guys close up shop?"

The phone lines go dead. The internet goes dead. For a time the cable dies... I am sitting in my room, bored to death. It is raining hard so I can not go anywhere... guess I watch some movies.

Sunday comes... still raining. The phone lines come back up, still no net. I call home to check in with my wife and kids and find out a hurricane/tropical storm just hit Cuba. Woot! I had no idea. It was windy. It was rainy. It was dark. You think I could have seen a funnel or something. Maybe some huge waves. I am this close, stuck on an island, nowhere to go and I miss it all. Crap!

Oh well.

So you may have noticed no update yesterday. Yea... Thing is the net just came back up. Woot! Go Cuba!

I did some exploring yesterday and got some great shots. Found some little caves and stuff. I will see what I can do when I get back and post some pics. This is truly a beautiful place.

Friday, August 15, 2008

My Guild Split

Ok, so this close to WotLK coming out it is really no surprise. I had no real problems with my old Guild, KMM. I still have no problem with them. There are maybe 2 - 3 people I can not stand, the rest are cool. The guild split this time over the expansion really and what we each expect in a guild at that time. So all the "casual raiders" broke off from KMM last night and founded "Run for the Door." We have no intentions of becoming hardcore, and by that I mean 5 - 6 raids a night... So sorry for you if you can't make it... /gkick. By my casual label I am saying this... We raid maybe 3-4 times a week and you don't have to be there. We would like you to attend 1 - 2 if you can, why else are you here? If you can make all 4 that is cool too, but you may need to stay back some to help others progress. It may sound complicated, but this is what works for us.

There was some minor tension over the split, and I am sad to see this. However, I have been through quite a few guild splits and mergers and this has been one of the better ones.

Hope your LK plans go well for you.

Side note for the previous post. I in no way meant to sound like an ungrateful prick. I realize that there are a lot of people without the luxury of the internet. I realize I am blessed to both own a laptop and have access to the internet where ever I may go. I have just become used to (read spoiled) to having the internet right there. That is all.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Lazy Traveler

I am a lazy traveler. It is just that simple. I neglect my blogroll, I never make it to any blogs when I travel... even my favorites. I usually neglect my guild forum, where normally I am the most active. I get in a routine and just do not want to deviate. I am in a word... Boring. I am in Cuba. This is a very cool island country even with just the small base I am able to see. What have I done? Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

Each day after work I rent a movie from the local NEX (Navy Exchange - Read Walmart). I then walk to the MWR (Read Soldier Net Center / Library). I check my mail. I update my blog. I check my mail again in case my wife wrote. I log in and grind some gold on my Lock. I check my mail. I log my Druid and grind some gold. I check my mail. I leave the MWR. I go back to the room do some PT (Read exercise so I do not become a fat slob... If you are fat slob this is not a jab... I would like my wife to enjoy looking at me... That is all). I watch my rented movie. Somewhere in there I eat really fast, because dinner is important.

Yea.

What does this post have to do with WoW? Not much really... although I did bring it up somewhere in there. Tomorrow maybe... Short time in game leaves me not much gibberish to provide you with. Meh :P

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Dailies x 2

I am sure I am not the first person to ever notice this. I am sure I will not be the last. Doing dailies on two different toons at the same time is painful. I do not mind doing them daily, but back to back is horrible. The gold is nice, but not sure how many more days I can do this. I may have to have daily rotation or something. Do the dailies on one toon, while doing something else, then switch the next week... perhaps.

I have most of my starting "Kara" tank gear for my druid now. I have most of my sockets still empty, went broke... hence the hard dailies grind. Even with that oversight/issue I am still uncrittable. I am sitting at 18.5k armor and 13.5k hp. I know that I am not uber, but not bad for someone who just dinged 70. I would be raiding tonight too if I were only back in the states.

I have a question.... Maybe a demand. Where are the +ARMOR gems. I want a gem that gives me like 50 armor & + 4 Stam as a green, +100 armor + 6 stam as a blue. You see. Something like that. So I can shoot my armor right to 35k and collect my $200 for passing go at the same time.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Iguanas....

I am in CUBA right now and it is kind of a neat place. Not as cool as I thought it would be, but then again I can only see the US held side, GITMO. There are lots of igaunas here. I see them everywhere. The problem is I usually see them in an area where I am not allowed my camera... BAH!

I will keep trying... those buggers will not escape me for long.

Now for some WoW info...

My goal was to take my Druid into Kara this week and tank lower Kara. My dreams were crushed as I have no internet in my room and have to use the MWR cafe. MWR is a military term for keeping the soldiers busy :) I am pretty sure it stands for Morale Welfare Readiness... but it has been a long time since I saw it spelled out. The MWR facility is nice, but the hours kind of stink. I do not have the time to raid here. The latency is pretty bad too, but not so much that I could not still raid something easy like lower Kara.

My Coworker and I are trying to get an upgrade to our rooms but so far not looking good.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Another one bites the dust

I finally hit 70 with the Druid last night. It feels good. Now I can begin the lengthy gold farm to get him his epic flyer then I can go for the epic bird form. Looking forward to that greatly.

Minor note today... busy busy...

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Further thoughts on Bird Form

I realized several things last night about bird form.

1. I currently have 3 70s with epic flyers. It has been a while since I had a non-epic flyer. I like the bird form, I really do... but flying around I get the feeling I am doing more soaring than actually point A - B flying.

2. Part of my current xp rush has come from random slaughter. By this I mean I usually travel in cat form as I go from quest to quest killing whatever gets in my way. I use Titan as my guideline and try to keep my xp per hour at over 10k. I will gather up as many quests as I can and drop them all at once before I log. With Bird Form I find myself gracefully soaring to and fro and denying myself all that delicious xp.

3. Gathering. I am an herb / skinner. I had no idea that you could skin and pick flowers as a bird. The time saving is great. Just swoop down, pick your flower, and flutter away.

4. Kind of a throw back to point 1. I think level 68 should be a giant butterfly. I feel more like I am fluttering...

5. I am a Tauren. I am brown. While this is not terrible... I do not want to be a brown bird. Please oh please give us Druids a Pet Salon...

6. Where is the poop button? I mean come on... I want to strafe someone!

7. Was there a 7? I have no idea...

8. Go level a Druid and become a bird.

9. My guild is only 2 Druids away from a Kara attempt...

10. I think I lost track of where this was going.....

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Sportmanship

Something has been bugging me for a while now. Little comments here and there that just build up. You see it in the BGs. You see it in PUGs. You see it in General and other chat. Last night I saw it in Guild chat.

/sigh

"We are already losing, lets just quit."

"I will play again after the expansion."

"I am not wasting my time with this content anymore."

"At this point if you have not made progress, why bother?"

There are many other ways it has been said. We all know the sentiment behind it. Spoiled individuals that do not get what they want so they infect others with their negative ideas.

In the middle of guild chat last night, right before our OSN raid took over, a guildie that I do not know well spouted off some of this garbage. Rubbish. Nonsense. If that is how you truly feel then just do not participate. Do not play until the expansion. Find a guild that meets your needs. By all means, do what you have to do.

Why do these people become social parasites and try to bring others down? Why do they have to sulk because others have found joy where they have not? When we have 4 or 5 70s smashing through UBRS just for the fun of it, getting others ready to raid BWL / MC / Ony... and you do not want to, why does that bother you? Let us have our fun. Let us enjoy the game any way that we can. If we find value in old "stale" content, then so be it.

If I choose to hang out in Ghostlands at level 70 leveling unarmed and getting exalted with Tranquilen, it does not mean I have too much time on my hands. It just means that my allotted time to play the game for that evening will be put forward to that goal. If I have fun doing it then fine. I help lots of lowbies out while I am there with the two main elite quests and have a laugh or two.

Just a small rant. Perhaps you too have "enjoyed" these people. We will continue to enjoy these people, sadly, as sometimes they act normal and lure you into a whiner ambush....

OSN AUG 8th

Last night was Tuesday. In my guild that means OSN. What is OSN? Bah... Old School Night of Course! We had our best turn out yet with a full raid of 10 people at one point. We crushed UBRS and had several near wipes and one real wipe on the Tier 1.5 summoned boss. He still hits hard... It was loads of fun. At one point someone asked who was on heals... Heals... just kill things... we will deal with that later :P







Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Can I Has an Update Plz.....

I have made some changes. I changed the template as I wanted all the "stuff" to be on the right. I can not find the perfect template so expect this to change too. I have added a sitemeter count and a feedburner thing as it seems to be the current trend...

Do you like? Any suggestions on what can make it better? Feel free to comment, negative or positive of send me an e-mail.

D&D

I have not forgotten the D&D that I mentioned. I will be out of town until the end of August first of September and do not want to take the books with me. Upon my return I will check to make sure there is still interest and we shall proceed from there.

Pondering the Pox

I have been debating this idea for a while now. Not sure how to go about starting or even if it would really work out, but it seems like an awesome idea. When I first made Tsar, he was made in a group with this idea in mind. The group fell apart and most of our druids were abandoned.

I will give it some more thought. Have to find others in need of me, or willing to do it with me. I am thinking either a BE Paladin, Orc Hunter, or Undead Priest for tank, dps, or heals.

/sigh

Too many cool ideas out there.

I'm a Little Birdy too....

After 50 long years of waiting I finally got bird form on Tsar last night. What? I know that game has not been out that long. I know I am no where near 50. It just feels like it has been that long...

What did I do upon hitting 68...

I Clicked on Teleport : Moonglade.

Trained in my 4 new skills.

I then hopped on a bird to Thunder Bluff.

I checked the AH for the Badge of Tenacity... still no luck

I picked up a few things on the AH.

I flew to Shatt, turned to a bird and wasted the next 45 minutes....

Priceless

Monday, August 4, 2008

Time to Kill...

Recently my good man... err... Orc Ratters mentioned how he was bored one day and leveled his unarmed skill. Well... I have needed to do this for a while now. I finally broke down and did it last night while doing all the quests in the Ghostlands.



As soon as I pick another old zone to do quests in I will finish up Unarmed and work on my swords. Woot!

My Starting Feral Tanking List

This is by no means original. I have looked at many many sites and feel this is the quickest easiest way for me to semi-gear my druid. This posting, I guess, is more for me than for anyone else. This way I can come back to it at my leisure.

Braxxis Staff of Slumber (AH @64)

Belt of Natural Power (70)
2 Nether Vortex
10 Primal Air
10 Primal Life
2 Heavy Knothide Leather


Badge of Tenacity (70)

Stylin’ Purple Hat (69)
6 heavy Knothide Leather
2 Cobra Scales
8 Primal Shadow
4 Purple Dye

Necklace of the Deep (65)
3 Mote of Water
10 Jaggal Pearl
1 Shadow Pearl

Resolute Cape (70)
10 Primal Mooncloth
12 Primal Earth
1 Primal Nether

Heavy Clefthoof Vest / Leggings / Boots (70 / 70 / 69)
6 / 6 / 4 Heavy Knothide Leather
40 / 34 / 20 Clefthoof Leather
4 / 4 / 4 Primal Earth

Delicate Eternium Ring (70)
1 Eternium Bar
5 Mercurial Adamantite


As of right now I have the Braxxis Staff of Slumber, Necklace of the Deep, Resolute Cape, and Heavy Clefthoof Boots. I am getting there.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Realizations

I have been deluding myself. I have been one of those locks that have thought… “Most of my dps is from dots… therefore spell hit is a lesser stat.” Yes sir… That was me. I had lots of crit. I had lots of spl dmg. I had lots of mana regen, over 200 to be exact. Where was my spell hit? 89.

I have been reading around lately and had some spare gold so I started working on that issue. Most of my gear is geared towards damage so I am going with spell hit gems. I got some new enchants for my gear… and I am slowly working back towards that magic number of 220.

I realize this comes a little late in the game, with WotLK right around the corner and all… However, there are still plenty more Kara clears in store for me. There are lots more ZA runs. There are lots more runs where we as a guild try new content before it becomes “stale.”

My goal with the Druid is really just to get him to 70, and get him in Kara. I am not after gear… I just want to know that my Druid did Kara too. I have myself an “easy” to acquire gear list to get in the door. I want to tank with him, but would be fine as dps or even as a tree. I will see what the guild would prefer, although we have plenty.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

So Cute...

DC Figures

They release all the Warcraft toys.


Achievements..... Again

WoWWikki has a lot of achievements up. I mean a lot. Yea... A lot.

I think I remember somewhere that these things are going to be retro-active and that if you have done something in the past then it will carry over to the present. I hope so. I have done a lot of that stuff. I have come close to a lot of that stuff. I have a lot more stuff to do.

I would love for Blizzard to surprise us and say something like these things will carry over to your other toons. That these achievements become server wide things. I currently have 3 70s and real close to number 4. Although I will not be heart broken by skipping this on most, it would be nice to do it once and be done.

I see that they mention something called Achievement Points. I would love to know what this is going to be for. Vanity Items? Cool new gear that no real value to the game than just to show off? I would be content with that.

Lich King

First up... It seems to be the current trend to warn when revealing LK spoilers... I really can't see how this is an issue. I really do not need to be surprised... I just want the cool stuff now. However, I am not thick-headed to the point where I can not see your point. I look at it like this though... I have had 3 kids... Each one, my wife and I have found out. I like to plan. I like to know what is coming. I like to be prepared. I am not saying that LK is like a new child for me... that would be far too messy, what with the diapers and all. I am just saying that I like to know.

Having said that... SPOILER ALERT!

There... I did it.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8557246019&sid=2000&pageNo=2

Hunters just got much love.

"There are 2 additional slots in the stable.

Integrating hunter / warlock pet management into the new mount and companion UI has certainly come up already. Let's give the new UI a whirl and see if it works and then we can consider if it makes sense to integrate the stable or anything else into it. "

Ghostcrawler

That is pretty cool.

A Screen shot that I borrowed from Mania's Arcania

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Harry Dresden

This post has nothing really to do with WoW. However, I do not think that matters to the type of people that come to my blog... Most of my posts are gibberish anyway :) The only WoW related thing that I will throw in here is that I am still making slow and steady progress on the Druid. I got him to 325 skinning last night.

Hairy Dresden

You may have heard of the character or the series before, but until the Sci-Fi channel show I was clueless. I just finished up the final book on Saturday and now I am stuck. I want more Dresden. There is a Graphic Novel series being release that I will have to pick up and a RPG in the works that may be worth checking out.

A brief Synopsis or you could just check the Wikki is this... The time is now, the place is usually Chicago. Magic is real, fairies are real, Vampires, Werewolves... all real. There is a Council to control magic and to keep the "world" safe. People generally do not know about any of this. Not because it is kept out of sight all the time, but because people don't want to know. If something is seen they explain it away... even to themselves.

Hairy is a practicing Wizard. He is in the phonebook under Wizard. Most people think he is a crazy or fake. That does not bother him, he likes to help people and keep the "nasties" from getting out of hand.

Go check it out, great stuff. If you know of any series I should look into, please... post it for me... I am running out of books to read. I hate looking for new stuff... Lazy... help me...

Currently I am reading another Dune book. This one is about the Butlerian Jihad... Meh... I will finish it, and the others... but need something else... help me...

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Skinning & Gathering

On Saturday I decided to start getting ready for the gold making extravaganza that will be Gathering in WotLK. Horde side I have two useful toons to work with and that is where I currently enjoy playing. I kept tailoring for the lock and picked up mining. My druid kept herbalism and picked up skinning. My Lock is just over 200 mining now and my druid hit 303 skinning last night before I logged for bed.

I love skinning. It is so easy. You do not have to go on "wild goose" chases for ore or herbs. You just take a few extra seconds to loot a litle bit deeper. I have had many many toons over the course of my WoW gaming. Every single one of them at some time in there leveling has had skinning. It may not be a huge money maker, but it is easy.

I started off Sunday evening around 8 pm at 0 skinning. By 10 pm "ish" when I logged for the night I was at 225 skinning and ready for more. Last night I took a couple more hours and made it to 303. Skinning just goes so fast and it is nice and relaxing. I just start grinding mobs and the time flies by. For me skinning is the perfect profession, I like to grind... and skinning is made to grind.

Tonight, if we do not make it to Old School Night, I will finish up skinning to 375 and begin to collect mats for all the gear I will need when I hit 70. My druid is going to need 3 sets... Bear, cat, and resto. I plan on getting as much as possible at 70 crafted to help out.

STV

STV is like skinning Nirvana. You can skin there as low as 150, maybe lower... but I only show up at 150. You can slowly move south and make it all the way to 300. No traveling needed. No wondering where to go next... just start at the top and make your way to BB.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Achievements

Blizzard has sparked the inner demon in me with this new Achievements nonsense. My mind is tossing around all kinds of things that may come out of this. I know that readers of this blog have seen my ever so fickle nature time and time again. Alliance... Horde... Paladin... Lock... Hunter... Druid... I am all over the place. I have had all the professions but JC maxed now... and dropped them. I just dropped enchanting again last night as it is just easier to buy the mats.

I noticed last night that the toon I love the most, my Warlock, has the least amount of rep. I need to fix this. I think I have time. I am almost done with fishing too. I will need to work on swords and unarmed... then all my skills will be maxed. I should take my lock on a tour of the world to make sure I have it all explored. There are a few more tailor patterns I want to pick up.

With my other toons I can settle for just having them at 70. With the lock... I need him to be complete. Well.... at least until I change my mind again....

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Panzerkin

By request here is my good friend Llanion's Panzerkin build...

Enter at Own Risk

I can tell you from experience that although it seems crazy, it works. I have seen him tank, heal, and dps all with the same build. Not just so so.... I mean my prot paladin can throw out a couple heals.... I mean he does it well. Looking at his build I could never have come up with it. I have been Moonkin for a bit, I have been resto for a bit, I am now and have been feral several times. He passes up things I would say to myself I must have.... and still it works. It works very well.

/bow

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Random Ramblings

I managed to get the Druid to 66, then what do I see.... the end of my rested xp... NO! It can not be. You see I have this whole policy about leveling an alt with no rest. It seems that I now have to take a few days off and let rest extend....

/sigh

The bright side is that I am way ahead of schedule.

I went in Kara for the first time in a long time. Got both my tier 4 tokens for my lock and had loads of fun. We had 2 druid healers, a paladin tank, a Panzerkin tank, 2 fury warrios, a mage, a rogue, and 2 locks. We tore the place down. It was a blast. Most if not all were "overgeared" for Kara, but still... and odd mix there.

I am sure by now you have seen info on the new "rumored" WotLK talents. I like a lot of what I see, but what interests me most, as always, is the information on locks. I will never leave Master Demo.... There I said it. I would not leave my felguard.... He will not let me leave... Simple.

Now that the situation is stated allow me to express my thoughts on the new stuff...

Affliction (21 points)
Improved Curse of Agony - Rank 2/2
Increases the damage done by your Curse of Agony by 10%.

Suppression - Rank 3/3
Increases your chance to hit with Affliction spells by 3%, and reduces the mana cost of your Affliction spells by 6%.

Improved Corruption - Rank 5/5
Reduces the casting time of your Corruption spell by 2 sec.

Improved Drain Soul - Rank 2/2
Returns 15% of your maximum mana if the target is killed by you while you drain its soul. In addition, your Affliction spells generate 10% less threat.

Improved Life Tap - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Mana awarded by your Life Tap spell by 20%.

Soul Siphon - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount drained by your Drain Life and Drain Soul spells by an additional 4% for each Affliction effect on the target, up to a maximum of 60% additional effect.

Grim Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Affliction spells by 20%.

Nightfall - Rank 2/2
Gives your Corruption and Drain Life spells a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.

Siphon Life - Rank 1/1
Transfers 15 health from the target to the caster every 3 sec sec. Lasts 30 sec.


Demonology (50 points)
Improved Healthstone - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health restored by your Healthstone by 20%.

Improved Imp - Rank 1/3
Increases the effect of your Imp's Firebolt, Fire Shield, and Blood Pact spells by 10%.

Demonic Embrace - Rank 5/5
Increases your total Stamina by 15% of your Spirit.

Improved Health Funnel - Rank 2/2
Increases the amount of Health transferred by your Health Funnel spell by 20% and reduces the initial health cost by 20%.

Fel Vitality - Rank 3/3
Increases the Stamina and Intellect of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard by 15% and increases your maximum health and mana by 3%.

Soul Link - Rank 1/1
When active, 15% of all damage taken by the caster is taken by your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter, Felguard, or enslaved demon instead. That damage cannot be prevented. Lasts as long as the demon is active and controlled.

Fel Domination - Rank 1/1
Your next Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter or Felguard Summon spell has its casting time reduced by 5.5 sec and its Mana cost reduced by 50%.

Demonic Aegis - Rank 3/3
Increases the effectiveness of your Demon Armor and Fel Armor spells by 30%.

Unholy Power - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage done by your Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Felguard's melee attacks and your Imp's Firebolt by 20%.

Master Summoner - Rank 2/2
Reduces the casting time of your Imp, Voidwalker, Succubus, Felhunter and Fel Guard Summoning spells by 4 sec and the Mana cost by 40%.

Master Demonologist - Rank 5/5
Grants both the Warlock and the summoned demon an effect as long as that demon is active. Imp - Increases your fire damage by 5%, and increases the critical effect chance of your fire spells by 5%. Voidwalker - Reduces physical damage taken by 10%.
Succubus - Increases your shadow damage by 5%, and increases the critical effect chance of your shadow spells by 5%. Felhunter - Increases all resistances by 1 per level. Felguard - Increases all damage done by 5%, and reduces all damage taken by 5%.

Demonic Resilience - Rank 3/3
Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee and spells by 3% and reduces all damage your summoned demon takes by 15%.

Demonic Empowerment [NYI] - Rank 1/1
Grants the Warlock's summoned demon Empowerment.
Succubus - Instantly vanishes, turning the Succubus invisible and restoring it's health to 100%. The vanish effect removes all stuns, snares and movement impairing effects from the Succubus. Voidwalker - Increases the Voidwalker's health by 20%, and it's threat generated from spells and attacks by 20%. Imp - Increases the Imp's damage by 20% and chance to critically hit with spells by 20%. Fel Guard - Increases the Fel Guard's attack speed by 20% and breaks all stun, snare and movement impairing effects and makes your Fel Guard immune to them. Felhunter - Resets all the Felhunter's cooldowns.

Demonic Knowledge - Rank 3/3
Increases your spell damage by an amount equal to 12% of the total of your active demon's Stamina plus Intellect.

Demonic Tactics - Rank 5/5
Increases melee and spell critical strike chance for you and your summoned demon by 5%.

Fel Synergy - Rank 2/2
Your Summoned Demons share an additional 10% of your Armor, Intellect and Stamina, and you have a 100% chance to heal your pet for 15% of the amount of damage done by you.

Summon Felguard - Rank 1/1
Summons a Felguard under the command of the Warlock.

Demonic Pact - Rank 5/5
Your pet's criticals apply the Demonic Pact effect to the target. Demonic Pact increases the spell power of all attackers against that target by 10% of your Spell Damage for 12 sec.

There is my build at the moment. It may not suit you. It may not suit me... but right now it gets me all I want out of Master Demo and lets me put out the dots. I do not like the Demon Form. It may rock. I am sure it will.... I just do not like it. I play Master Demo for my felguard. It is how I want to play. It is how I envision my toon. By taking Demon Form, that kind of takes away why I like the class. My personal choice.

Enough for one post....

Hermit out

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Old School Night

My guild has an Old School night. I have talked about this concept with many many people but it never got of the ground. I am not motivated. This is a really cool concept though, and I wish I had been motivated. All of that is meaningless though as my good friend Llanion is very motivated. He only has one real toon and only wants one. The up side to this he does lots of ingame stuff that the rest of us skip.

What is OSN? Simple. It is a night where we as a group, not the whole guild, go about doing old raids, instances, key quests.... That kind of thing. Last night we went into LBRS to start working on our ONXYIA quest line so that we as a guild can go take her down when we feel.

We were doing great. Killing with reckless abandon... Too easy for 3 70s and my 64 Druid. Then the unthinkable happened..... The servers crashed... :)

We go again next week... come on server....

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Much Druid Progress

I am way ahead of schedule on the Druid Countdown. I have been motivated and I am rapidly moving through some quests. It feels like old school leveling. I travel everywhere in bear or cat form and just kill anything that moves until I get to my quest area. I am having loads of fun with this toon and that it all that matters.

I did some research on BBB's Blog and found a small gear list to work towards as I level.

Braxxis Staff of Slumber (AH @64)

Belt of Natural Power (70)
2 Nether Vortex
10 Primal Air
10 Primal Life
2 Heavy Knothide Leather


Badge of Tenacity (70)

Stylin’ Purple Hat (69)
6 heavy Knothide Leather
2 Cobra Scales
8 Primal Shadow
4 Purple Dye

Necklace of the Deep (65)
3 Mote of Water
10 Jaggal Pearl
1 Shadow Pearl

Resolute Cape (70)
10 Primal Mooncloth
12 Primal Earth
1 Primal Nether

Heavy Clefthoof Vest / Leggings / Boots (70 / 70 / 69)
6 / 6 / 4 Heavy Knothide Leather
40 / 34 / 20 Clefthoof Leather
4 / 4 / 4 Primal Earth

Delicate Eternium Ring (70)
1 Eternium Bar
5 Mercurial Adamantite


I already have the Necklace of the deep, and the staff. My lock is currently saving Mooncloth for the cloak... things are looking good. Now I need to start thinking about cat dps clothes too though.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Traveling Mat

Recently I have been traveling around saying hey to various bloggers. I find more people that know of me than I had realized. Not saying I am a blogging star... no no no... just shocking to find more people than I went looking for. Last night I visited BBB and his guild. I found one of my own guildies there. Small world.

I am not done with my travels yet as I still have some more bloggers to visit. If you are sitting there minding your own business and some little hermit pops up to say hi, give him a warm welcome for me. :)

If you get bored, then tighten up your laces and do a little traveling of your own. You may be suprised at the reception. The way I see it the blogging community is like a bigger version of a guild... I "virtually" know a lot of you...

As you can see by the sidebar over there, I managed 4 bubs last night. You might say that I am slow. I would agree with you, but I have no desire to rush. I do not really plan on raiding with him. I do not plan on instancing with him. I just want a 70 Druid. Yep. That is it.

I have some business travel coming up, and will be out of town the majority of August. I will still be WoWing it up from hotel rooms, and blogging, but D&D is going to have to hold off. As of right now the genral consensus I have seen from those that are interested have said more or less the same... People are busy. This will give us more time to read the rules, and digest the material. If this comes a diappointment to you then I am sorry. Rest assured that I have not abandoned the project, just need to extend.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Final Countdown

There is a new item over there.... Look... Over there... No... the other side...

I added the Druid Countdown. That way you the readers will get to keep track of the exciting last few levels of my Druid. YAAAAAAAAY.... Sure... as if leveling your own toons was not enough now you to watch the painful way I level a toon that I have really become bored playing. Last night... I gained 3 whole bubs. Who knows.. Maybe I will take a betting poll for the actual ding date of the Druid and give out a prize to the victor.

I have been sitting alliance for a long time now. Alliance side all my toons are in my alt guild. So the only people there are me... myself... and sometimes I. Coming back to horde it is both odd and refreshing to see any comments in guild chat. I am enjoying the commentary. I am still a slacker though. I have yet to do an instance. I do not know why... that just not do it for me. I am not above helping out a friend and tagging along... but the thought of putting together a run... even with friends... just causes me to cower.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Math is Fun

I decided that I can no longer sit by and let my Druid "rot" at level 62. He must get to 70. Why? For not other reason than he is so close. Here is how it is going to go. I currently have 4 bubs in, which leaves 16 to go. I will then have 20 bubs for levels 63 - 70, which comes up to 140 bubs. Add all that together and I have 156 bubs until my Druid is level 70 and can rest before WotLK.

I thought to myself last night... "Self.... If you do a minimum of 2 bubs a night it will take you 78 nights to finish..." Ouch. That is painful. A little over two months.

The good side to this strategy is this... 2 bubs takes like maybe an hour. Waaaaay less than that if you turn in any quests. So I can still do all the other things that occupy my time and still devote minimal time to the Druid for leveling.

I am an odd one. I will admit. I now have 3 70s. The only zones that any of them have done... Hell Pen, Zang, Nagrand, and Terrokar. I did maybe one or two in BEM.. maybe one or two in SMV... Maybe one or two in Netherstorm. I just do not like those zones. Meh.

As of right now my Druid has gone from 58 - 62 and has yet to leave Hell Pen. I have been to other zones, but no quests yet. I still have a few quests to go as well so by the time I hit Zang I should be 63. Last night I got 3 bubs just running around killing boars and demons getting used to my Druid again. There was this big lumbering Bear just running around mauling things.

Fun!

On another note... If you visit here and have a blog and would like to be added to my list just let me know. I try to get everyone and spread the wealth... but I am sure I miss some of you.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Ode to the Gulch

A second post today devoted to the often hated, by me at least, WSG. Why do I hate it? No timer. No assurance that you will ever escape. You are trapped there looking for a flag.

You might say “But Hermit, after so much time the flag carriers are visible.” You of course would be correct. That however does not imply that your group will behave in a respectable manner. You may go after the flag one at a time. Why don’t we just group up? Good question. I can’t make them group. Well just wait on them… I do.. I wait on them… then I am called an afker… or while I wait they still don’t group. So what do I do… join up with one and run… hope for the best.

You might say “But Hermit, after so much time the flag carriers become weak.” Again… you would be correct. However…. See above.

Some games go well. We win quick… We lose quick. Or it goes back and forth and ends in a challenge. All good. Then comes the turtle, or even worse the complete selfish pug. Nobody in the entire group is in sight of another. You see people over way on the side. You see people on the roof all alone. You see people spaced out in the middle. They are in the tunnel… Everywhere.

I could try to get a group and join as 10… Then that defeats the purpose of me in the BGs… I am allergic to pugs. I break out in wasted time every time. I am just lucky like that.

My question to you is this, if you care to respond. Maybe offer advice? Point out what the heck I could do to make matters better, if anything… Or just join with me in the suffering that is WSG.

Where do you enjoy WSG?

Defense
Do you linger in the Flag room? Do you hang out at the base of your tunnel? Do you hang out in the middle? Do you hang out near their tunnel and play “safety”? Do you do everything possible to stop the enemy from taking your flag and escaping?

Offense
Do you rush like a crazy madman to the enemy flag room? Do you pick up the flag or support the runner?

Middle
Do you linger in the middle? Do you honor farm here? Do you just do your own thing regardless of what is going on around you? Does the flag drop in front of you and you ignore it due to the bloodlust of one more kill? Does the flag runner sprint by you and you not even take notice, as your dps is focused on another just for fun?

Me? I like Defense with my hunter. I hang out between dead middle and move from tunnel to tunnel accordingly. I love hunting the flag runner. Sometimes I make it and return the flag, sometimes I am too slow, but this is what I enjoy about WSG…. When it works… I would say a third of my games in WSG are fun. I win, lose... no matter… they are fun. I hate the turtle with a passion.

D&D Update

I am still waiting for my copies of the D&D set to arrive. I ordered the collector's set and still... am waiting. If I do not have it by Friday I will break down and just go pick up another set. I have read through the PHB and most of the DMG though, so I have seen at least some of the changes. For character creation I think the best method for us will be the point buy system. You start off with an 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 and then get a pool of I think 22 points to distribute. There is a chart in the PHB and I believe this is method 2 for determining your stats. No evil toons. I have run games where I allowed them... and they just did not make sense to me. Just easier on everyone else, including me. :)

For those of you that are truly new to the concept of D&D it is a fantasy world. It is an RPG. Normally you would play this game with people around a table. One person is the Game Master and controls all the Monsters and NPCs. The others, you, are the players. You have stats such as strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity. You have hit points. For the most part you "assist" me in telling a story. When combat occurs, dice are rolled comparing your stats vs the enemies stats. In a normal game you control your dice, I control mine. In this version I do all the rolling... you merely inform me what you will attempt to do. As the story progresses you level up... gain more skills... and just enjoy the ride.

Now for some WoW.....

PVP.

I have to pace myself. I allowed myself to get into a slump with the hunter in the BGs... I didn't make it long. I did maybe two weeks solid BGs. I realize I need to break that up. I enjoy the BGs... well all but WSG... I enjoy winning... I enjoy losing... it is a token and it can still be fun. I just can't stand the conversation. I have been in BGs where it went smooth.. we either lost with style or won, but nobody made it uncomfortable with the whining... BAH. I need a way to turn off chat. Just turn it off..

Thursday, July 3, 2008

AFK!!

I am heading out of town for the 4th of July weekend.

As of right now I have several that have expressed an interest in the D&D game that I will be starting. We will be going with 4th Edition Level 1 characters. Start getting those thoughts and ideas ready. A couple of you have expressed character ideas already but are willing to help out the group and fill in where needed. This is fine. If you already know what you want to be race/class then respond to this e-mail and we can start filling out the party.

Like I said, it will be slow going at first but once a week is not so bad. Maybe I will step up to the plate and do a little more... who knows.

If you have any questions post here or drop me an email wildhermit at gmail.

Later and enjoy the 4th!!!!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

58 Minutes!!

Ok... first let me get some D&D info out of the way.... Hulan sent me this link for a 4e D&D character sheet. I thought it looked kind of neat and makes things a lot easier. Also... I agree with Sonvar. After much thought on the topic I think level 1 is going to be the starting point. I activated my .mac account tonight and will use that to host images and stuff like character sheets, loot info... etc.

Now to the WoW...

I have been BGing it up with Drakhan my hunter lately. It is loads of fun actually having some dps alliance side. I have abismal dps right now as far as hunters go... I am rocking my boar for the charge ability which I love and just because he is my boar... Mine.... I am also only using Hemet's Elekk Gun. I think if BRK were to see me running around he would slap me with my lousy gear.

I am enjoying it though. I think I would disappoint Megan with some of the gear that I wear in the BGs but with no arena team and new to the whole thing... A 70 hunter does what a 70 hunter can.

Now... you may ask... 58 Minutes???? What does that mean?

I was in an Alterac Valley match last night that lasted 58 minutes. It was wonderful. I loved it. It was fairly obvious real quick that the horde did not want to win. They were just there to honor farm us and enjoy the ride. So... for the first time ever almost all the alliance joined up and aided the horde in this task. We just hung out and killed each other. Galv never dropped... We got pushed back to our cave and fought there and on the slopes. I racked up 189 kills in that one game. We lost... but we loved every minute of it... Nobody complained... Nobody whined about losers or n00bs... just good clean killing :)

Monday, June 30, 2008

More D&D Info

Sorry about the delay but the beach was calling me name.

I have had a few of you respond with interest. I have been asked to provide more info on how this would work. So here my readers, is how it will work.

I will be the Dungeon Master, you will be the Players. I have not fully worked out what I want to do adventure wise yet, but I am working on it. As such... I am not sure if we will start at level one or maybe mid level like 5 or 6. Any thoughts?

I will post the story here no less than once a week, pending work travel of course. It will work just like we were around a table top together, but slower. I will post the combat in story mode, encounters in story mode and plot as a story. I am no writer, do not look for BBB quality, but I have done my fare share.

I will assist you if needed with character creation, or you can submit them to me via e-mail once we start. My e-mail is wildhermit at gmail. I like to use a pool of points for stats and will explain later once I have decided on levels.

I would like basic character traits submitted too. That way if you take off I can kind of let your pc go on cruise control and not skip a beat. Combat will be take care of by me and when combat, encounters start I would like you all to post not only this rounds actions but a general course of action... Otherwise combat would take forever....

Anything further post here or send me an e-mail. More to follow.

Friday, June 20, 2008

BBB Gets the Credit

BBB yesterday posted a preview, if you will, of an upcoming RPG game he will be running/hosting on his site. This got me thinking to the days when I used to do this. I am debating recreating my gaming site, not this one, but the one I used to have and running a similar game. I loved it when I did it. It is so much more relaxed than the typical face to face rpg and can even cover down for anyone on a vacation or whatever.

I realize my blog is not read. I realize that the majority of the folks that stop by are just here because someone cool linked me. I also realize that the people that come here can not possibly be coming here for my words of wisdom. I do not discuss anyway to really improve you game. I really do not have cool guides to help you out. I just share my experiences in the World of Warcraft. As such it would not be a far cry for me to advertise D&D or some other RPG.

My question is thus... My readers.. yes both of you... Is there any interest in joining/trying a D&D or Star Wars campaign? What this would mean for you is this... I already own the books. I usually build or adapt a story. All you have to do is pretty much post and join in the story. All the die rolls would be made by me. If you choose not to buy the books I could even work with you to create a pc for you. My prefered game worlds would be D&D 4e or Star Wars Saga ed.

If you care to join please respond here or send me an email. I would love to get this going and will try to drum up interest with my guild... the bunch of slackers that they are.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Getting closer

Drakhan hit level 68 last night and he is finally doing the Terrokar quests. I spent a lot of time in Nagrand doing the quests and just grinding away. I figured I would grind there anyway so might as well get some xp for it while I was at it. I am really in no hurry to hit 70 with the hunter, but it will be nice to have him “ready” for WotLK. On the bringht side he finally has LW up to 375 and he has Ebon Netherscale Breastplate, Ebon Netherscale Bracers, and Ebon Netherscale Belt sitting in the bank. I had to buy some of the mats off the AH, but when you spend 4 levels grinding in Nagrand all that Thick Clefthoof Leather makes some nice gold.

I now have a conundrum... My recent shift of pve towards pvp has got me wondering. Should I even wear the cool Ebon Netherscale set in the BGs? Should I just pick up the PVP blue set and just work from there? I guess I really do not understand how important of a stat resilience really is? Maybe I should just write Megan a long e-mail begging for advice lol.

On a different note I am enjoying the BGs with my Paladin. I like the hybrid role. I have several stuns for WSG, I have heals, and aoe. I have been debating making up a huge batch of eng bombs just for fun too. I am not sure I like my spec for BGs. My heals do not land for as high as I like for a healing role. On the flip side I still goof off with friends in the pve realm and really enjoy my spec for that. What I need is like an "Outfitter" addon that lets me have two specs at the same time. Hit my addon button and change gear and specs.... Yea... that would be nice.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Token Grind

I have been in the BGs this week. Lots of WSG gulch, a sprinkling of the others. I am gaining pretty good honor, but sheesh... this token grind is going to kill me. I do not mind the AV grind, it is the others.

I think that there should be a token exchange program or something. Turn in 10 tokens of your choosing for any 1 of another type. While I am on the exchange program nonsense... how about 100 honor for 1 arena point too :)

Monday, June 16, 2008

PVP Grind

I realized last night that the pvp grind is a looooong ardous journey. This is WSG weekend and I won one match. I played like maybe 9 games total last night, and only the one. I did manage to capture the flag a total of 4 times, twice in the winning game, but still. I have never played much WSG. I always found it to be my least favorite of the BGs. I have never really paid much attention to how much rep I had with the Silverwing. Well.... I am still neutral. This is going to be painful if I want that title. I do not need the cool pvp title, just a spur of the moment decision.

Every so often I look at my WoW experience and try to decide...
What about the game I still find exciting?
What parts of the game give me the most stress?
What parts of the game do I find tedius?
What parts do I find relaxing?
What parts of the game do I find rewarding?
What gives me the most "bang" for my "time" buck?

I turned my eyes back towards pvp this weekend. Not hardcore pvp mind you. I will probably not be shooting for a cool arena team. Just casual go into the BGs and try to enjoy the ride. As I did this I looked into my bags.... I looked at the healdin gear, grind gear, tank gear... So much wasted space on the off chance I tank, or heal a 5 man. I never do. I can not tell you the last time I did anything other than help a friend out in Ramps or SP, or UB... At level 70 I really do not need my tankadin gear.. my grind gear with spell dmg does just fine.

I think I am going to try for some gladiator and see where that takes me.


Gladiator's Aegis
Gladiator's Lamellar Chestpiece 14,500 Honor 30 AB
Gladiator's Lamellar Gauntlets 10,500 Honor 30 AV
Gladiator's Lamellar Helm 14,500 Honor 30 AV
Gladiator's Lamellar Legguards 14,500 Honor 30 WSG
Gladiator's Lamellar Shoulders 11,250 Honor 20 AB

Monday, June 9, 2008

Minor Update

I talked a friend into dual boxing with me. He is rolling with 2 shamans, currently level 17 I think. He is trying to catch up to me so that we can destroy contenty together. I have recently changed the way I am operating. I now have two WoWs going on my system and do not see much of a performance hit. I play on a laptop and therein lies the problem.... Two windows on my little laptop screen.... Hurts. Otherwise it is nice to hit one button and have both of my toons do their thing.

I can see the appeal of 5 boxing but could not justify the expense. I rationalize my current two accounts as one is used by my son. As a matter of fact his account was bought just for him... I just ninja it after he goes to bed.

On a side note, this may be a light week for me. I have VBS this week at church and will not have much time to play or blog... but we shall see.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

So much to do

I am effectively leveling 3 low toons at more or less the same time. I am unable to decide between my shaman, priest, and mage. All three have merit, all three are fun, but doing all three are making it go slow. As of last night, all three have completed all the SW quests up to Westfall and have run Deadmines repeatedly getting all drops that they could use. The shaman and priest have also ran SFK. The priest still needs the Robe of Arugal and the Odo's Ley Staff, the shaman is done. The mage will get his turn tonight. The shaman has completed all the Exodar quests as well.

Shaman
Run IF quests
Run Darn quests (Aberdeen area)
Run Barrens quests
Run Stockades
Run Wailing Caverns

Priest
Run IF quests
Run Darn quests (Aberdeen area)
Run Exodar quests
Run Barrens quests
Run Stockades
Run Wailing Caverns

Mage
Run IF quests
Run Darn quests
Run Exodar quests
Run Barrens quests
Run Stockades
Run SFK
Run Wailing Caverns

Why do I run all the low zones you may ask? I really don’t know. I can not help myself. I like the free rep. I feel like I have to. It is some sick compulsion, but all my toons do it. I hit all the low zones. I do not mind skipping other zones, just not this one.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Crazy People

So…. I am running various alts through various low level zones. I do not know why… relaxing. I have done Dead Mines, Stockades, and Shadowfang Keep, all just because I can. I recently gave my son my Druid and my Hunter so that he can have a high level toon and so that I can use them to run my low level toons on his account. I have to say… for low level runs… the paladin is a thing of pure beauty. I mean all the yellow reflective damage numbers all over my screen… Wow.

I am not sure if you have done this or not, but I run lots of Azeroth instances for friends. I run them solo just to do it sometimes to see if I can. I tried Dire Maul solo… I tried Strat solo… I tried Scholo solo. Just for the fun of it. With that being said, I recently ran a friend through Scarlet Monastery. We did a full clear and it was a blast. In the cathedral I pulled the whole entire courtyard…. Both levels… all at the same time. I would have to say that 90% of the mobs died in a nice semi circle around my paladin. Retribution, Shield Spike, Blessing of Sanctuary, and of course Consecration makes a wonderful display of reflective damage.

My hope as of right now… of all the things that WotLK will provide… Please let there be a “thorns” for inscribing…

Back on track...

So... I am running myself through an instance in Shadowfang Keep and I get this /t.
x : "Hey, how are you in there at level 21?"
Me : "I think you can enter at 16."
x : "Is that hunter running you."
Me : "Yes.... I am running myself, it is my other account."
x : "If you summon me can I join?"
Me : "Sorry, as I said... I am running myself. How did you know?"
x : "I did a /who and you are the only two in there..."

Break in story... See I am relying on myself here... I am not harassing strangers. I am not interrupting their run. I am not mooching off of their hospitality. I am actually in the instance right now. Is this guy just being rude, or am I rude?

x : "Ok. You sure"
Me : "Yes."
x : "Could you summon me and another guy out there then?"
Me : "You are not joining the group, you just want a stone summon out here?"
x : "Yes."
Me : "Sure, one sec."

At this point I am sighing and kicking myself for giving in....

Me : "Sorry man too high to use the stone."
x : "No, you have to use your low toon..."
Me : "Ok, tried again... sorry, he is too low."
x : "Did you even try?"
Me : "Yes, I am sorry for you trouble but I would like to get back to playing now."
x : "Thanks anyway."

Several minutes go by....

x : "Where is SFK."
Me : "In Silverpine forest..."
x : "Could you give me directions from Storm Wind."
Me : "No I am sorry, I am trying to play here... Wowwiki it."

Monday, June 2, 2008

The Right of Passage

The right of passage… Becoming a “Man”… It has changed. Early in my WoW days there were certain events that you just knew were make it or break it. Those elites, those quests… They existed in all the zones. They were all throughout the levels. They have changed. Now you are not a “Man” until you step through that portal and get stepped on by the Fel Reaver. He is the new Un’Gorro Devilsaur. He is the massively huge abomination that gets even the best of us.

Days have come and gone… Patches have come and gone. Are we better? Is the World better? A matter of perspective I guess. I can see both sides and yet really can not decide myself. There are things I like about it… there I things I miss about the old ways… and there are even more changes I would love to see made.

World Elites
For the most part these guys are now gone in Azeroth. There were some quests in the “old” days that you either skipped or had to group up for. Or you could be one of the select few that “manned” up and took the challenge. There were the creative locks, hunters, mages… that kited. There were the paladins going toe to toe with the non-casters. It was fun and exciting. Personally when leveling my paladin (My first ever toon), the elite challenge was really what kept me going. I loved being able to say I took on that group alone.

Azeroth Instances
These have been improved. The loot is now nicer. Much more blues for your looting pleasure. But still…. Is it enough? How many people these days run DM, Strat, Scholo, BRD ??? Who runs ZG, Naxx, Ony, AQ ??? How about old world rep? There are still cool recipes out there that I just don’t have the time to farm for. There are still cool recipes out there that I just can not solo farm. I want a way to rep grind the old stuff without being waaaaaay too tedious. Perhaps a way to “tone down the old stuff”? A solo button kind of like the heroic button? I really have no idea how that would work, but still.. that is why I am no game designer. Maybe just dailies to grind for them? How about some new AD dailies where you have to bring them more crap and this time you get Naxx rep? Something in Silth where you grind AQ rep? This rep could then be redeemed for the recipe drops from those zones?

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Friend List

I want a friend list that can be configured. I am not sure if I am "alone" in my behavior but I have slowly but surely pulled all my toons out of guilds. My Undead Lock is the only toon that I have that is still a part of a guild but I rarely do anything with the guild. The guild does heroics and raids. I really do not care to do heroics, I feel as though I can invest my time more wisely. My guild has scheduled raids on the nights when I really can not make it. Wed, Fri, and Sun. I have church on Wed, I chose Fri as "Date Night" for my wife, and Sunday is "family time" (no games.) My guild is going to start raiding on Sat but nothing has been set in stone as of yet. It is probably just me but I will more than likely weasel out of that too.

I like my guild, I really do. The people are cool. They are level-headed. They are tolerant. Most importantly, the "bad eggs" have all been weeded out. I do not mind raiding. I do not mind wiping. I do not mind progress. I love to see the content. I just really do not want to invest 2-4 hours of my precious time to one thing. I generally only play about 2 hours a night. I like to do other things as WoW is my daily unwind from the stress of work. It would defeat that purpose if I was to add to it the stress of farming for consumables, and make the promise to devote time to progress in a raid.

Now... the point...

I want to be able to manage my friend list. When I play all my toons I have friends that I /p with to talk. I enjoy this aspect of the game as it takes away from the tedious aspects of the game without being an undue burden. I have some friends that I just use. I do not chat with them... they are just reliable, trustworthy "crafters." I have made a semi-bond with them and know what to expect for the services I require. If I am going to tip, I like to know how my money is being invested...

I want to be able to sort my friend list by what kind of "friend" they really are. For the most part I know who they are... but what if that blacksmith that I love goes unused for quite a while... and I forget what he is there for. I want a label system sort of like a guild structure. Let me give them "tags". I think this would go a long way to increase the economy of WoW if you were able to track and maybe advertise who and what you are. No more tedious /s in General, or Trade. Just a simple tracking system on your friend list.

Better yet, how about a title. You could have an uber-cool quest when you hit 300, 375, or beyond to let others know... Hey... I am the crafter you are looking for.... Not only did I grind out the skill, I also have most recipes and the title.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

NAWAP

As some of you may know, I have a very fond affection for the alt. I have many many alts on many different servers. I have alliance alts, horde alts, pve alts, pvp alts. I even have name reservation alts in case I ever want to play that particular class / race combo. Recently out of “boredom” on my last TDY trip I returned to my Draeni Shaman that has been gathering dust for quite some time. He is the only shaman I have ever got to level 20, and that was my real challenge… just to get there.

I thoroughly enjoyed this past week with him. I did not devote the whole week to him. There were a few nights on crappy hotel wi-fi that I did not even get to log in. The nights that I did make it and was able to pull myself away from leveling blacksmithing on my paladin… belonged to my shaman. It was like a breathe of fresh air. I loved it. I have an enhancement spec and was just mowing through things. I have no twink gear mind you just ah greens here and there and quest items.

Every now and then I come across a gem of an alt that I have been “saving.” They truly are GEMS.

This post has been brought to you and paid for by NAWAP. The National Association of Warcraft Alternate Proliferation.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The pains and joys or the respec

I am currently working on a new spec for my paladin. I need one that meets all a tank needs but is still fun for me to play. I do not really care for the "Cpt America" Shield but know that it is a good thing to have.

Now to the point...

I am so glad that we are not stuck with the choices that we make when it comes to talents. I always wanted to dump my build in Diablo but did not have that option. Now, the ability is relatively painless... providing you have the gold. I have changed my spec a lot. The only toon where I have not changed much is my Warlock. I have been demo since the BC talents were released. Prior to that I had the classic level 60 raid build of shadow/ruin. All my other toons... been changed a lot.

Now if only Blizzard can do something about that 2 profession limit.....

Monday, May 19, 2008

On the road...

Posting may be light this week or crappy. I am on the road and not as much time as usual. No witty anecdotes for today... .... .... No really.... Ok ok... check back tomorrow I promise to find something to blog about, as for now... long day... another tomorrow /breathe

Friday, May 16, 2008

Linkage test...

Ok... I have done some searching... I will now attempt to do the text link and be cool.... Netherwhelp Collar.

Ok so here is what you do...

You add this code ( script src="http://www.wowhead.com/widgets/power.js" ) ( /script )somewhere in your site. You will, of course need to replace the ( ) with proper tags like < and >. If you use a template for your blogging like I do then add it to your template. I put it just near the top, but you can put it anywhere.

This is the official wowhead info on the linkage...

Renovations and Conudrums

Ok. I have made a lot of changes to your right... over there... no... look. There? Do you see?

I have a question that needs to be answered... How do you do those "popup" link things? I know html... but do not know of any tag that will allow me to do this. What I mean is, when say BRK links a new toy, if you hover over it pops up with the item. I want to do this. I am envious.... I implore you... Short of harassing Mr. BRK for his knowledge, anyone having any thoughts?

So much to do so little time....

The more I do in WoW, the more it seems I have left to do. I need to rep farm with my paladin and my lock. I need to level my 60s hunter and druid. I need to work out some more bugs on my Dual Box project. I need to level both sets of dual box toons. I need to farm gold so that my Paladin can finally get his epic mount and ride the uber copter. Bah!

I can't wait to get the hunter and druid to 70 so I can arena point farm. I do not plan on winning much going in dual box style but I will have some fun and net 200 or so points a week. I will have the worst rating EVER, but it will be fun.

A lot to be done before WotLK gets here. When that happens, I have two - four dark knights to play with. My son will want one just because he thinks it is cool, and I have to try it. What I read now, I am pretty sure it is going to fit my playstyle. To me it feels like a paladin with more dps :)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Dark Side...

I do not mind mixing geek “metaphors.” I often get the feeling when I am playing WoW that the Alliance is the light side and the Horde is the dark side of the force. My toons further complicate this matter in both their play style and their appeal to me. I am not sure if others feel this way or not, but it is, in fact, how I feel. Allow me to explain…

Alliance Main:
Human
Paladin
No-Epic Flyer
Purple Healer Set
Blue Tanking Set (A little Purple)
Blue Grinding Set (A little Purple)
Great Heals
Horrible Farming

Horde Main:
Undead
Warlock
Epic Flyer
Purple DPS Set
Great Damage
Farming is relaxing

By those comparisons the Horde is the easier, “Darker” path. The paladin goes around healing things and protecting his peers. He can res, he can bless, has a passive buff, all around good guy. The lock… just dot dot dot, then felguard attack. Sure I can give you a res…. After I take this guys soul. For me the lock is just so much more fun.

This may come as a shock given my name… but I like to play alone. Yea….. I will let the one soak in… The paladin can handle himself just fine by himself, but he needs peers to really shine. I love leveling him as I can take on almost any non-spellcaster mob. I love trying to tackle elites by myself. The lock can also handle himself just fine, but in a different way. He really needs no others by his side to shine. I can do the same thing in a group or by myself. I can not take on the same type of elites, but I sure try.