Been raiding a LOT lately, and I am quite happy about that!
Our guild [Adaptation] has made an alliance with another guild called The Commonwealth. We've been doing Naxx-25 pretty successfully with them last week. I say 'pretty' as it was filled with many wipes, but that was to be expected. =)
We almost had a full clear but some PUG ninja'd our raid ID and killed Kel'thuzad. We will have to be more selective about who we group with in the future, unfortunately.
In the meantime, we hit up 25-man Flame Leviathan in Ulduar and downed him. Got some people loot.
I've gotten a break from tanking, and have been playing my shaman, which was very nice. I missed DPSing - it is so mindless. Just keybind + faceroll and you're good to go!
Tonight our guild is heading back into Ulduar-10 for the first time in weeks [hopefully!], so I will be back to tanking again. Hope I'm not too rusty.
In other news, I got Manatee her Crusader title - FINALLY - so I am all set for patch 3.2. Bring on the new looooots! She's also got 3/5 of the tourney pets. Just need to save marks for an Elwynn Lamb and an Ammen Vale Lashling now. I guess I should get my Horde priest levelled up some so I can start working on grabbing the Horde pets, too. In due time!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
This and that
-I have gotten my warrior, Clive, to level 70. This means I've now officially levelled each class in the game to at least level 70. /asspats for me! Next stop: 80!
-In spite of my last post QQing about PUGs, my guild has made a successful incursion into Naxx-25 with a mostly-PUG. Lieke lead the raid and though she said she doesn't want to do it again, I think she should keep at it because she's pretty good at it.
-We may have a guild alliance in the works based on said PUG. Our guild's officers will be meeting with their guild's officers tomorrow to chat. If all goes well, it will make gearing up members for both guilds involved a hell of a lot easier, so cross your fingers! DO IT.
-My shaman, Rasputina, cleaned house in Naxx-25. Seriously. She outgears my warlock, now, and is catching up to Snooky... Geeze! I really need to work on her hit rating, though. Her DPS is depressing. I'm trying, where I can.
-Based on that, next step is to farm up some honor for a PVP caster cloak to tide her over 'til she gets a proper PvE replacement. Tomorrow is another day.
Happy WoWing!
-In spite of my last post QQing about PUGs, my guild has made a successful incursion into Naxx-25 with a mostly-PUG. Lieke lead the raid and though she said she doesn't want to do it again, I think she should keep at it because she's pretty good at it.
-We may have a guild alliance in the works based on said PUG. Our guild's officers will be meeting with their guild's officers tomorrow to chat. If all goes well, it will make gearing up members for both guilds involved a hell of a lot easier, so cross your fingers! DO IT.
-My shaman, Rasputina, cleaned house in Naxx-25. Seriously. She outgears my warlock, now, and is catching up to Snooky... Geeze! I really need to work on her hit rating, though. Her DPS is depressing. I'm trying, where I can.
-Based on that, next step is to farm up some honor for a PVP caster cloak to tide her over 'til she gets a proper PvE replacement. Tomorrow is another day.
Happy WoWing!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The ups and downs of PUGs
Pick-up groups, or PUGs as they are more commonly referred to as, seem to have more downsides than upsides.
Fortunately, being in a great guild like my own, my PUG experiences are usually minimal. But therein lies the problem! My guild's faction is the Alliance, and the most recent toon I've been investing time into is my little Forsaken warrior - Horde side, obviously.
So, I've been in a whole lot of pick-up groups lately, from Hellfire Ramparts to Mana Tombs. And, honestly, up until today, they've been awesome!
Sure there were wipes and the usual "whos tank lol," but we actually completed the instances, and I added some people I'd definitely group with again in the future to my friends list.
Today was the opposite. We were three pulls into Mana Tombs, and our group apparently could not decide who the tank was. We didn't even make it to the first boss, and tempers flared. I was fine up until the warlock said something about people with DK mains being "failures" and how they were "lazy." Of course it would get to me, being that my main is my Death Knight! And I invested a lot of time into her! Argh!! And -- hey wait, hold on a second. When exactly did I stop having fun here?
So, I came to the conclusion it was time to let my little warrior build up some rested experience again, so I can stop taking everything so seriously! Phew!
And my advice to you reading this is, if you find yourself getting too wound up with WoW, take a deep breath, take a step back, and take a break if you need to. It's a hobby. Those are meant to be fun, right?
[Oh, and, yes - ranting always helps me feel better too. Just an idea!!]
Fortunately, being in a great guild like my own, my PUG experiences are usually minimal. But therein lies the problem! My guild's faction is the Alliance, and the most recent toon I've been investing time into is my little Forsaken warrior - Horde side, obviously.
So, I've been in a whole lot of pick-up groups lately, from Hellfire Ramparts to Mana Tombs. And, honestly, up until today, they've been awesome!
Sure there were wipes and the usual "whos tank lol," but we actually completed the instances, and I added some people I'd definitely group with again in the future to my friends list.
Today was the opposite. We were three pulls into Mana Tombs, and our group apparently could not decide who the tank was. We didn't even make it to the first boss, and tempers flared. I was fine up until the warlock said something about people with DK mains being "failures" and how they were "lazy." Of course it would get to me, being that my main is my Death Knight! And I invested a lot of time into her! Argh!! And -- hey wait, hold on a second. When exactly did I stop having fun here?
So, I came to the conclusion it was time to let my little warrior build up some rested experience again, so I can stop taking everything so seriously! Phew!
And my advice to you reading this is, if you find yourself getting too wound up with WoW, take a deep breath, take a step back, and take a break if you need to. It's a hobby. Those are meant to be fun, right?
[Oh, and, yes - ranting always helps me feel better too. Just an idea!!]
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Midsummer Pet Collector's Dream
Happy Canada Day, fellow Canuckistanian WoW nerds!
I told you I've been busy!
Well, the Midsummer festival is winding down on Azeroth, and that's okay with me. I have, in the past week-ish, gotten:
-A Scorchling pet for my warlock
-A Captured Flame for ALL my toons
-The "Flame Warden" title on my warlock and mage [the warlock being the toon I am working on the "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been" meta-achievement with]
But wait, there's more!
I also:
-Fished up Mr. Pinchy, FINALLY! On my hunter. Got the Magical Crawdad on my second wish! =)
-Completed the "Lil' Game Hunter" achievement [75 mini-pets on one toon] and earned myself a fawn pet
-FINALLY got the Green Proto-Drake Mount!!! After getting the mount, I promptly switched Snooky from Oracles to Frenzyheart. I love those Wolvar. I really do.
While that doesn't sound like so much in text, it's a lot of work running 10 toons around honoring/extinguishing fires all over Azeroth and Outland! But it was well worth it. The quest experience leveled a whole bunch of my toons, and I had a great Indiana Jones-esque escape from Orgimmar on my mage that I will remember for a long time. haha.
My guild has started alt-night Naxx runs for the time being [til 3.2, I'd surmise] and I opted out this week so my husband could join in. We haven't had the healers for Ulduar lately, but we'll get back in there soon. My friend Lieke - the girl I mentioned in a previous entry, recruit from wow_ladies - has been working very hard to gear her paladin for healing, and she cleaned house for upgrades on the last Naxx run I was in with her, so she'll be Ulduar-ready in no time.
Also, the pally Lieke was supposed to "replace" so-to-speak recently returned to the game, so that's great too. It gives a couple of people who rolled healers for the sake of the guild when they had other "mains" initially a chance to return to a class they actually enjoy playing. =)
I told you I've been busy!
Well, the Midsummer festival is winding down on Azeroth, and that's okay with me. I have, in the past week-ish, gotten:
-A Scorchling pet for my warlock
-A Captured Flame for ALL my toons
-The "Flame Warden" title on my warlock and mage [the warlock being the toon I am working on the "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been" meta-achievement with]
But wait, there's more!
I also:
-Fished up Mr. Pinchy, FINALLY! On my hunter. Got the Magical Crawdad on my second wish! =)
-Completed the "Lil' Game Hunter" achievement [75 mini-pets on one toon] and earned myself a fawn pet
-FINALLY got the Green Proto-Drake Mount!!! After getting the mount, I promptly switched Snooky from Oracles to Frenzyheart. I love those Wolvar. I really do.
While that doesn't sound like so much in text, it's a lot of work running 10 toons around honoring/extinguishing fires all over Azeroth and Outland! But it was well worth it. The quest experience leveled a whole bunch of my toons, and I had a great Indiana Jones-esque escape from Orgimmar on my mage that I will remember for a long time. haha.
My guild has started alt-night Naxx runs for the time being [til 3.2, I'd surmise] and I opted out this week so my husband could join in. We haven't had the healers for Ulduar lately, but we'll get back in there soon. My friend Lieke - the girl I mentioned in a previous entry, recruit from wow_ladies - has been working very hard to gear her paladin for healing, and she cleaned house for upgrades on the last Naxx run I was in with her, so she'll be Ulduar-ready in no time.
Also, the pally Lieke was supposed to "replace" so-to-speak recently returned to the game, so that's great too. It gives a couple of people who rolled healers for the sake of the guild when they had other "mains" initially a chance to return to a class they actually enjoy playing. =)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Patch 3.2, OMG
So, after reading WoW.com's post about the 3.2 Patch Notes, I think I am even more excited for this patch than I was for the last one. I'll highlight some things that made me squee.
Isle of Conquest - New battleground omg! It looks like it's going to be a mix of Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley kind of? Grabbing nodes and storming the Keep to kill the General. Sounds pretty cool. I do like to take a break from alt-grinding to PVP so I am excited to try this out.
While on the subject of PVP: They are adding experience gains into battlegrounds. Awesome. And to keep twinks from QQing, they are allowing them to opt out of exp gains - but they will only be able to fight against other twinks if they do. HA. Being that my lowest toon is 50 now it's kind of too late for me to really, really enjoy this, but all the same - it's about time.
Better accessability - As a player of both factions [though I do spend more time Alliance side], I was pleased to see the Horde were getting a long-needed zeppelin to Thunder Bluff. Alliance have their Deeprun Tram to tie things together, but Horde still had to run across Mulgore and through the Barrens if they wanted to get from TB to Orgrimmar/vice-versa. Also, they're adding portals to the Dark Portal in SW/Org, I think it was, so that's awesome too. And mailboxes galore! No more having to deal with idiots parking their mammoths/elekks/kodos on the mailboxes outside the bank. =P I used to envy the amount of mailboxes smattered around Silvermoon City while I was playing the auction house.
Emblem changes - They are adding yet another tier of Emblems for the "hardcore" raiders, and my first thought before reading on was that it was getting a bit out of hand. Then I read that Emblems of Conquest would be rewarded through instances like 10-man Naxxramas and even... HEROICS? What! That's awesome! I forsee an instance zerg in the future for my guild. Gearing people up even moreso will really help us push forward in Ulduar. I just want to *see* Yogg-Saron - I don't want it to be like in Burning Crusade where Wrath was being launched and I hadn't even seen the Illidan encounter, QQ. I am very happy with how Blizzard is doing things this time around. Yes, hardcores will QQ, but the game was meant to be played by everyone, not just them. Whose needs are more important and why? The answer is no one's. Everyone pays the same $15 / month. And Blizzard wants to keep the huge player base rolling in the dough. Sorry, dudes.
VANITY ITEMS - OK, so, I am a complete pet collector. [Mounts to a lesser extent. Much lesser. But I digress.] There are SO MANY new vanity items coming in the next patch! 8 new non-combat pets, NOT INCLUDING Argent Tournament pets, zomg! Children's Week will also be coming to Northrend - at least I hope it makes it to live realms, past the PTR - I REALLY want a baby wolvar pet, and a baby gorloc too.
Aside from pets, they are making the Silver Covenant and Sunreaver flying mounts purchaseable with Champion Seals, AND a new paladin-only Argent Crusade Charger. More incentive to level my Paladin, basically. ;)
Horde will also be getting the long-anticipated Ravasaur mount, which is their version of the Wintersaber from Winterspring.
Along with that, new tabard and banners, and an upgraded Argent Squire who can actually run errands for you... System overload here srsly.
I need a break! Phew! More later!
Isle of Conquest - New battleground omg! It looks like it's going to be a mix of Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley kind of? Grabbing nodes and storming the Keep to kill the General. Sounds pretty cool. I do like to take a break from alt-grinding to PVP so I am excited to try this out.
While on the subject of PVP: They are adding experience gains into battlegrounds. Awesome. And to keep twinks from QQing, they are allowing them to opt out of exp gains - but they will only be able to fight against other twinks if they do. HA. Being that my lowest toon is 50 now it's kind of too late for me to really, really enjoy this, but all the same - it's about time.
Better accessability - As a player of both factions [though I do spend more time Alliance side], I was pleased to see the Horde were getting a long-needed zeppelin to Thunder Bluff. Alliance have their Deeprun Tram to tie things together, but Horde still had to run across Mulgore and through the Barrens if they wanted to get from TB to Orgrimmar/vice-versa. Also, they're adding portals to the Dark Portal in SW/Org, I think it was, so that's awesome too. And mailboxes galore! No more having to deal with idiots parking their mammoths/elekks/kodos on the mailboxes outside the bank. =P I used to envy the amount of mailboxes smattered around Silvermoon City while I was playing the auction house.
Emblem changes - They are adding yet another tier of Emblems for the "hardcore" raiders, and my first thought before reading on was that it was getting a bit out of hand. Then I read that Emblems of Conquest would be rewarded through instances like 10-man Naxxramas and even... HEROICS? What! That's awesome! I forsee an instance zerg in the future for my guild. Gearing people up even moreso will really help us push forward in Ulduar. I just want to *see* Yogg-Saron - I don't want it to be like in Burning Crusade where Wrath was being launched and I hadn't even seen the Illidan encounter, QQ. I am very happy with how Blizzard is doing things this time around. Yes, hardcores will QQ, but the game was meant to be played by everyone, not just them. Whose needs are more important and why? The answer is no one's. Everyone pays the same $15 / month. And Blizzard wants to keep the huge player base rolling in the dough. Sorry, dudes.
VANITY ITEMS - OK, so, I am a complete pet collector. [Mounts to a lesser extent. Much lesser. But I digress.] There are SO MANY new vanity items coming in the next patch! 8 new non-combat pets, NOT INCLUDING Argent Tournament pets, zomg! Children's Week will also be coming to Northrend - at least I hope it makes it to live realms, past the PTR - I REALLY want a baby wolvar pet, and a baby gorloc too.
Aside from pets, they are making the Silver Covenant and Sunreaver flying mounts purchaseable with Champion Seals, AND a new paladin-only Argent Crusade Charger. More incentive to level my Paladin, basically. ;)
Horde will also be getting the long-anticipated Ravasaur mount, which is their version of the Wintersaber from Winterspring.
Along with that, new tabard and banners, and an upgraded Argent Squire who can actually run errands for you... System overload here srsly.
I need a break! Phew! More later!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
As I was saying...
PROGRESSION!
I am so proud of my guild, once again! We downed TWO new bosses in Ulduar last night.
The first was XT-002 Deconstructor, finally. We really pulled it together, and killed him in one shot, after being stuck on him for the past couple of weeks. We even managed to snag the Nerf Gravity Bombs achievement.
The second boss we encountered was Kologarn.
I have to say, it was an absolutely awesome feeling stepping up onto that walkway where he pops up. The sheer size of him - especially to me, a gnome! - was genuinely awe-inspiring. I really felt like an "important" part of the game at that point, lame as it might sound! I really missed gigantic raid bosses.
As you can see, my guildies kind of shared the feeling. ...Kind of.
Our first attempt went, uhh... Not so good. But it was a learning experience! Also, the fact that he yells "YOU FAIL!" when someone dies made me laugh a lot.
Our second attempt went a lot better, once we figured out that we needed to have the raid DPS his right arm to death [sidenote: he yells "Just a flesh wound!" when you kill it, also hilarious], and the subsequent earth elemental adds it spawns when it crumbles [after I pick them up!], before moving on to DPS him. We ignored his left arm completely; healers just healed through the raid damage while everyone dodge pew-pew eye laz0rz.
Our MT Wakizashi stayed on Kologarn; if you do not have someone on him at all times, he casts Petrifying Breath and wipes the raid. There is a stacking armor sundering debuff he does to your tank, and you are supposed to have two tanks taunt between stacks [ala Gluth], but he never had a problem with it, and our healers did not complain about having trouble keeping him up - so I just focused on picking up adds. I stayed in tank gear just in case, as I usually do, but coupled with my Unholy DPS spec to help with the arm a bit instead. Rinse and repeat, because the arm respawns every 60 seconds. It seemed to work pretty well for us.
[Some pictures I took as I was grabbed, just as our DPS finished off the arm]:
So I suppose we'll be sticking to that strategy, because we killed him!
I am going to speak with the other officers and see about returning to Ulduar on Friday, so we can maybe have a go at Auriaya and/or Iron Council.
OH OH! I also picked up Ironsoul from Flame Leviathan. How could I forget to mention?! OMG so sexy!
I am so proud of my guild, once again! We downed TWO new bosses in Ulduar last night.
The first was XT-002 Deconstructor, finally. We really pulled it together, and killed him in one shot, after being stuck on him for the past couple of weeks. We even managed to snag the Nerf Gravity Bombs achievement.
The second boss we encountered was Kologarn.
I have to say, it was an absolutely awesome feeling stepping up onto that walkway where he pops up. The sheer size of him - especially to me, a gnome! - was genuinely awe-inspiring. I really felt like an "important" part of the game at that point, lame as it might sound! I really missed gigantic raid bosses.
As you can see, my guildies kind of shared the feeling. ...Kind of.
Our first attempt went, uhh... Not so good. But it was a learning experience! Also, the fact that he yells "YOU FAIL!" when someone dies made me laugh a lot.
Our second attempt went a lot better, once we figured out that we needed to have the raid DPS his right arm to death [sidenote: he yells "Just a flesh wound!" when you kill it, also hilarious], and the subsequent earth elemental adds it spawns when it crumbles [after I pick them up!], before moving on to DPS him. We ignored his left arm completely; healers just healed through the raid damage while everyone dodge pew-pew eye laz0rz.
Our MT Wakizashi stayed on Kologarn; if you do not have someone on him at all times, he casts Petrifying Breath and wipes the raid. There is a stacking armor sundering debuff he does to your tank, and you are supposed to have two tanks taunt between stacks [ala Gluth], but he never had a problem with it, and our healers did not complain about having trouble keeping him up - so I just focused on picking up adds. I stayed in tank gear just in case, as I usually do, but coupled with my Unholy DPS spec to help with the arm a bit instead. Rinse and repeat, because the arm respawns every 60 seconds. It seemed to work pretty well for us.
[Some pictures I took as I was grabbed, just as our DPS finished off the arm]:
So I suppose we'll be sticking to that strategy, because we killed him!
I am going to speak with the other officers and see about returning to Ulduar on Friday, so we can maybe have a go at Auriaya and/or Iron Council.
OH OH! I also picked up Ironsoul from Flame Leviathan. How could I forget to mention?! OMG so sexy!
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