Warlords

I've been playing Warlords and playing super casual. There I said it. And you know what? I'm having a lot of fun with it.

...my thoughts on Cataclysm

I've been trying to organize my thoughts on the Cataclysm beta and the constant stream of data and information that is showing up on the blogs and websites that I follow. It all changes so quickly, that I guess I'll just put out what I am feeling right now.

My overall feeling is one of trying to avoid as much of the game play footage, new leveling experience and anything regarding the Goblin and Worgen starting areas. I am allowing myself to follow the class changes for the Shaman and have played with the talent calculator a little bit. The talent trees are changing so much, I'm not making any judgment yet, just watching.

I have also decided that I don't want to be in the beta and will donate my key if I get one. I was in the beta for Wrath and played around with the Death Knights, I have not played one since that time for more than a few levels to use as bank alts or to chat with a friend on another realm. I actually suck as a beta-tester, I'm not really good at filling out the bug reports or trying all the different combinations of things to thoroughly test the game and help make it better.

So, basically, I don't wanna be part of the beta and I don't wanna see too much of the new experience that Deathwing has brought about. I am working on putting a set of heirlooms together for a Tauren Paladin and I plan to level that through the new/modified zones.

...is this the new build?

I played around with the latest Cataclysm beta talent calculator at MMO-Champion and this is what I've come up with a 31/8/2 Elemental build. . A lot of the crap is gone and I've hoping a lot of the goodness is in the passive bonuses.

I was a little disappointed with how easy it was to put together and how little customization could actually be done. Maybe the revamped glyphs will give us some of that, I hope so. Otherwise, most Elemental Shaman will still be running around with a cookie cutter spec of every other lightning slinger out there.

...the state of Warcraft and me

...as I had mentioned before, I joined Bound and have been having a bunch of fun in game again. I am not part of the hardcore raiding team, The Ruthless, or the primary raiders, The Ascendants. Nope, I'm just a lowly Voyeur. But it's cool, I'm not sure I could keep up with those crews anyway - they are dedicated and very good players. I've just been running Heroics and filling in on occasion on non-progression nights in ICC. I have laid eyes on the Lich King and participated in the fight, although I have not been present for a kill - no title for me...yet.

I've been doing all of this on Okole, my Elemental Shaman. I've tried to play the Druid and even started a Warrior, but I just can't stay with either of them. Bumwaller is a maxed out Elixir specced Alchemist though, so I do some crafting with him.

I'm also doing a few more a-cheese-ments before they disappear in Cataclysm. Picked up The Keymaster and the Coin Master over the past week and got Exalted with a few more factions. I've been collecting Emblems of Triumph and Frost and building up my Tier10 Elemental and Tier9 Resto sets. Also nabbing Champion Seals to get a mount for my squire and get some heirlooms together for a possible new toon in Cataclysm. More on Cataclysm later, I've got a bunch of thoughts that I need to organize for that.

...Bound

My application was approved and I'm now a member of the Bound guild on the Staghelm server. I have joined as voyeur rank, basically just a casual player, for now. I've been running random Heroics and getting my gear back up to speed and then maybe I'll try to jump into the 10-man raids. So far, I'm having a blast playing again and getting to know the new guild mates.

...I missed it

I've been goofing off with a little warrior for a week or two now, trying to gauge my interest in playing WoW again. It's been fun and I've been chatting with an old friend on his new server. He's been after me to transfer my main over and apply to the guild he has been playing with.


Well, a few days ago I logged on to the old server, cleaned out the guild bank, disbanded the guild and started the transfer process. No, I didn't ninja quit or anything like that. There were actually no active players in the guild and most had been inactive for at least 3 months. It was a little difficult to do, and I felt a little pang of nostalgia when I typed the /gdisband and confirmed it.


So, now I'm over on Staghelm and have put in my application for the new guild as a support player, not as a full time raider.


I got on tonight and logged in to their guild vent channel and listened while they did some VoA and then they decided to do Ulduar 10 hard modes. Greatjohn didn't go with them to Ulduar and asked if I wanted to do some random heroics. I felt a little apprehensive, as I've not played for quite a while, but I took the chance. I went as elemental, and ran Utgarde Pinnacle and Old Kingdom. Really good groups and I held my own I think.


I missed that - it was so much fun, no stress about healing and Greatjohn tanked with his paladin and we got some achievements to boot.


I think I'll stay around for a while and hopefully I get picked up by Bound and can do some runs with them.

I'm back...sort of

I got this email from Blizzard offering me a week of free playtime, and at first I thought it was just a scam. I did a little bit of research and it turns out it is a real offer.

I had to go look for where I had put my authenticator and go through a password reset process, because I couldn't remember what my Battle.net password was. Amazing that I had forgotten a password I typed in almost every day for a couple of years. Copied the client of the external drive to the primary drive and downloaded the patches to get me up to date.

I finally got in and it was all very familiar, but at the same time it felt a little odd. I wandered around a little bit and logged in to the different characters to pick up the pets that were sitting in my mailboxes - a Corehound pup and a little penguin. Not exactly sure why I got them, but they were in every mailbox. I wasn't sure what to do next, a I realized why it had felt odd. None of my friends were there, I pulled up my friends list and there was no one online.

I realized I don't miss playing the game, I miss playing the game with my friends.

and that's that

My paid playtime has expired, the time has come.

It's been fun, and it may be fun again at some time but, for now I am done playing World of Warcraft.

I don't really have anything else to say about it at this time, I'm not sad, not glad, just kinda apathetic about it.

New Druid legendary shirt

So, today Jinx released the Druid Legendary T-Shirt. It looks pretty sweet and I may buy one, even though I have pretty much given up on the game for a bit.

They also releases a pair of 'six slot wallets', one fr the Horde and one for...that other faction. I don't think I would go so far as to have a WoW themed wallet, but I'm sure somebody would.

Brewfest!

Jinx has a Brewfest T-Shirt on their site! Pretty nice logo and good idea behind it. Go pick one up if you are so inclined, their stuff is good quality.

You can use my referral too, if you want. It gets me some extra Jinx Gold. Hey, I'm not above a little self promotion.

break time

I got the achievement What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been and got my Barney colored 310% flyer...and haven't logged in to thte game since.

So, maybe this is the way it will be. I went ahead and canceled the auto-billing feature on my account and it will expire on the 6th of October. Unless I really start to miss it, which hasn't happened yet, I will be taking a break. I may come back to play Cataclysm or if the Winter boredom sets in.

It's time for a break. That's really all I have to post.

at the crossroads

...not the one in the Barrens.

I'm at a crossroads in the game. I just don't know what I want to do with my playtime. I have been playing a little undead priest to see what it's like to a) not be a Tauren b) play a clothie. I have not been playing on Vashj. I'm back in school and working 40+ hours a week at my real job, raising a family and trying to spend time with family and friends.

So, what that really means is I cannot dedicate myself to progression raiding or anything more than casual raiding really. I do enjoy running dungeons and heroic dungeons as well. The problem is Limited Warranty rarely has enough people on to do them without PUGging them and I really dislike PUGging unless I am really desperate. So, most days I just do a few dailies and run a few BGs or log on to the baby priest to have a little fun.

I have been talking with Greatjohn after he transferred to Bound on Staghelm and have explored the possibility of transferring over there to help be a support player for their progression raiding guild. Things like farming mats, running alts through dungeons and filling on raids that they are no longer doing on progression nights. I'm not sur ethis is what I want to do yet, but I have made some inquiries.

The other option is just quitting for a while and see if my interest gets renewed when Cataclysm comes around. I know I probably sound like a broken record and I have said much of this in the past, but it hasn't really gotten any better. Who the hell knows what I will do, I'm actually kinda confused and frustrated by my current play time.

thought on RP...

I don't think I could actually get into full RP play - or be on an RP realm that enforced any of the 'rules', but I guess I do RP in my own way. What I mean by that is this, each of my toons has a little bit of backstory that I keep in my head. I know that it causes them to behave in certain ways, that are different based on which one I am playing.

I have not gone into the deep details of each one, just a basic idea of there individual personalities. I have no real idea who they are descended from, of whether they have brothers or sisters, none of that type of thing. I mostly play Taurens and I kinda view them as more identifying with the tribe than with a specific mother/father unit. I usually associate them with the Stonehoof tribe, mostly just because not a lot is written about them and there is nothing terribly special about my toons backgrounds.

Okole - a Shaman, is very much like the weather. He is specced for Resto and Elemental. As Resto he is a healing presence, but it doesn't come naturally. I feel kinda chaotic when I'm healing with him. As Elemental, he tends to attack anything that is necessary to accomplish the goals that are put before him and sometimes that extends to the surronding mobs as well. He loves achievement and titles.

Bumwaller - a Druid, is aware of the nature around him. Currently specced for Feral tanking, previously has been Resto and Balance both. He tends to only kill what is necessary, nothing else. Swoops in with flight form does what needs to be done and get back out. Doesn't look for a fight, but doens't back down if one comes along. Only has one title - Guardian of Cenarius, and that pretty much sums it up.

Gugalana - a Death Knight, is my newest toon and still kinda bitter about his position in life. He knows he is not really in alignment with nature and has done some horrible things, which he now regrets. However, he is still pretty angry and takes it out on pretty much everything he sees. NPCs, mobs, snakes, squirrels, you name it. He had lots of animosity to deal with and is not doing a great job of it.

That's the basics - not super fleshed out, but the attitudes I take when I play those toons. How about the rest of you?

More Blizzcon stuff

By now I'm sure anyone who is reading this little blog has already seen all the major blog coverage of the new features and changes for World of Warcraft. I'm not going to even attempt to recap all of that, head to wow.com or mmo-champion to get all the juicy details.

What I have seen that I like:
- Shakeup in the 'old world' makes leveling interesting again
- Heroic Shadowfang Keep sounds like a blast
- Worgen as playable class, they have an interesting backstory and can be Druids
- Guild leveling sounds interesting
- Path of the Titans/Archeology sounds like an interesting mini-quest game
- Flying mounts in the 'old world'

Things I'm not so jazzed about:
- Goblins

Things I am still not sure about:
- Removing Attack Power, Spellpower, etc from gear and using 'base' stats
- Troll Druids
- Worgen and Goblin Death Knights

EDIT - Just heard that Troll and Worgen Druids get there own unique feral forms! I like that.

Lots of changes

Reposting this from WoWHead -

• MP5 = GONE! Replaced with spirit, which will now be mana regen only—and non healers will have ZERO need for it.
• Spell Power = GONE! Replaced with Intellect, which now grants mana AND spell power.
• Attack Power = GONE! Agility now gives 2 ap for rogues, hunters, shamans, and druids!
• Defense = GONE! Tanks now receive ALL their anti-crit from talents!
• Armor Penetration = GONE! Replaced with "Masteries" through the talent trees!
• Block Value = GONE! Blocks will now be a REAL mitigation stat, preventing a % of incoming damage!
• Soul Shards = GONE! Will be replaced with a functionality more like DK runes, where you can use a "Soul Burn" spell once per shard per battle—and Soul Burn will increase the effectiveness of your NEXT spell a la Amplify Curse. Fears might become Instant, Searing Pains might have free crits, Death Coils might have increased Horrify duration, etc.
• Hunter Mana = GONE! Will be replaced with "Focus", which is similar to rogue energy, but regens faster when you use Steady Shot.
• Hunter Ammo = GONE! Replaced with an item, not a consumable!

WOW!

I mean, damn, I like it being simplified - but good golly. That is a lot of changes.

Blizzcon Time

It's that time of year again - BLIZZCON! I am not going and I am not buying the live stream, I'm just going to be watching the popular websites and checking the tweets from various people I know who are there.

Will we get confirmation of all the Cataclysm rumors? Will we get an announcement of the new MMO they are working on? Playable versions of SC2 and Diablo3?

Soon we will know the answers to all these questions and more...stay tuned.

W T F ?

So - I just say this post...http://www.wow.com/2009/08/14/new-race-class-combinations-datamined/

uhhh - new race/class combinations are speculated

• Human Hunter
• Orc Mage
• Night Elf Mage
• Blood Elf Warrior
• Dwarf Shaman
• Undead Hunter
• Tauren Paladin
• Tauren Priest
• Gnome Priest
• Troll Druid

I'm not yet sure if I like the idea, but my first inclination is that I do. I have never been a huge lore junkie, and this represents the evolving World of Warcraft. Why wouldn't some of those races learn to be new classes? Maybe we have learned from each other in the Horde and Alliance. Maybe we shared techniques and skills with the other classes and learned to adapt our race to thsoe new skills.

Most of what is listed - if true - actually can kinda make sense, except maybe the Tauren Paladin. I just don't see the Tauren buying into the power of The Light.

Now, I tend to play the Tauren and it is the inspiration for the name of the blog, and I am intrigued by the idea of a Tauren Shadowpriest as an option. I have never played a 'clothie' and maybe that could be an excuse to do it. The idea of leveling another toon does not inspire me, however.

Blizzcon is coming next week and I expect we will see this either confirmed or denied at that time. Hmmm.

this is kinda fun

I'm really kind of enjoying this bear tanking phase I have been in. Tonight I was able to tank Heroic Violet Hold and Heroic Nexus. Not the most challenging of the heroic dungeons, I know. But they were my first two heroic tanking opportunities and I took them.

I really had a lot of fun, I avoided playing feral at all for a long time, but I'm having a blast with it right now. It is just the change of pace I needed to keep me interested in WoW right now.

First up, Violet Hold with 3 guildies. We never did get a 5th to run with us, so we just did it with 4. Pretty smooth run, we got the water boss and the the big eye of the beholder. Handled both with ease and moved on to Cyanigosa, everything was going great until...somehow I shifted out of bear form and couldn't seem to get back in. We wiped on the big dragon. So we regrouped and went again, I hate doing VH the second time. All the same effort and no reward for doing it. We took down Cyanigosa on the second try and I got Staff of Trickery.

So we were willing to keep going and we picked up a DK from another guild and ran through Heroic Nexus. We had a little problem with a fear wipe on the extra boss and wiped twice trying to do Chaos Theory. No loot for me, but it was the daily so I got a couple Emblems.

I had a blast - I'm liking tanking with my face.

Second Skin - MMO Documentary

cool things in patch 3.2

just some observations that I have of patch 3.2 in the limited time I have had to play

- Mongoose effect now shows up on Staff of Feral Furies, very cool combination
- I like being a gray bear/white cat, the new forms are great
- some of the gear in the new 5 man looks great, unfortunately I haven't been able to run it yet
- decreased mount time is very nice

That's it so far, hoping to get some play time in soon and check out the new instance and try my luck with the new gear.