Breakout from Un'Goro

Well the pvp-bowl that IS Un'Goro Crater is for the most part, finished. And not soon enough for this short, stout lager-laden-laddie. Up until Un'Goro, Oak had given as well as he'd taken, in regards to beatings in world pvp. But UC has been a lesson in humility from the first day I slipped my plate-covered tootsies into that hazy-green world of beasties and hordsies.

They all hated me everyday and I even took to playing at odd times just to get through quests unscathed. One-on-one, I do alright but I've yet to win a pvp battle when it's me against two (or more).

Oh well - enough ranting. Geez, I'm whining like a clothie! j/k :)

The good news is ... ding 54 and darn it ... almost ding 55! Whoo hoo! Couldn't help but have a little "pre-ding" celebration there. If I get on-game tonight I'll get to hit 55 and I'll also get to wear my Imperial Plate Chest Piece. Woot!

And that reminds me, I must hit up a new dungeon or two soon though and grind for a new weapon. There doesn't seem to be much on the AH lately for decent weapons at my level and I just don't think that the ol Lightforged Blade will last till 59.

The reason that I mention 59 is that from 59 to 68, I've amassed quite a collection of swords and axes in my bank; I've been building them up for some time. RW has given me a good weapon drop for 66, Bacon gave me a great drop for lvl 59 or 60 (can't remember which) and I've made some purchases too.

Maybe the best thing is to just keep polishing up the Lightforged Blade and swing it till 59.

Last thing to blab about in this post is mods. Yep I'm still using my lvling Mod and I still love it. They have even sent out invites to users of their mod to ask for help in developing it further and make it even better ... gasp! ... is this my road to fame, before me, in WoW? I'm thinking about taking them up on their offer and help them out with quest research and whatnot.

Time will tell.

But the latest thing for mods is that I dropped that old friend of mine ... Titan Panel. Queue the "sad goodbye" music. This was my VERY first mod I ever installed in WoW and I've used it ever since.

But much like an old stale relationship gone bad, I just needed more than what Titan had been offering; so it was time to move on. I mean I owe it to myself right? Why spend even more time with a mod that clearly has different interests than me? I need more. And so it was time for Titan to start seeing other players and for me to start seeing other mods.

That's when I met the Bartender.

She was version 3 which I assume means she's been around. But who am I to judge. All her buttons were in the right place and she didn't seem to mind my looking. Heck I was on the mod rebound. I have to admit I wasn't picky. Things looked good.

So I asked her over and before you know it, she was all into my interface folder and I can't say that I minded. Two crazy kids like us, needing something from each other. Bartender needing someone to pay her attention and me, to be honest, well I've always been a button man.

And although I'm loath to admit it, and I'm not usually into this kind of thing, Lou said Bartender had treated him right.

So there you have it. A man. A old mod and his new one. This game has it all.

P.S. - Get your own Bartender, btw, this one is mine.

ouch, ouch, OUCH! Unfriendly Un'Goro

What a pvp-bowl the crater was last night. Poor little Oak was cut down, split up, and stacked away for winter ... by a few different classes.

First up. 48 Shaman. He tried to gank me while I was fighting two Ravasaur-types but I bubble/healed and oddly enough, he RAN. I was blown away by that. He stuck around though .. and I don't know if this was part of his elaborate ganking plan ... but he just sorta watched me from a distance until it really got on my nerves ... so I ended up rushing the bum and embarrassingly enough - he totally owned me.

"Anger clouds the mind" - Yoda

As I came riding up, he threw down 3 totems of various types. I dismounted and entered the fray. I have to admit - my mind wasn't really into the fight as I began and it showed. He totally killed me. In retrospect, I wonder if I had ran right into the middle of his totems and threw down a consecrate .. would that have killed them while I hacked him up off to the side?

Wish I'd gotten his name though, I need to get in the habit of that so I can look people up on the armory later and check their spec/gear. I think it might help to start doing some research on how to fight various classes/specs. I need to get into this pvp stuff or switch to a pve server - lol

Anyway, not long after that, actually <5 mins or so, I was fighting more Ravasaurs (two actually) and a lvl 49 Rogue (BE - geez I hate Blood Elves), stuns me and then ... wait for it ... just backs off and watches the mobs kill me while I'm stunned. Classic. Had to hand that one to her. Very creative stuff.

So I go on, mowing through quests, undaunted ... well that's not true. In reality I was about to eat my keyboard as a snack in a fit of rage, just to make this game go away. But I pressed on instead.

So I was turning in a quest up near the entrance to UC, standing there with that big Tauren quest-giver. From out of the mist, and down the hill, I see a lvl ?? Tauren Shaman riding along. Starts to pass me ... then turns up the hill ... crap ... he 3 hits me, remounts and then goes calmly over to get his Power Crystal for which he'd apparently been after all along. So he had been nice enough to cruise up to me, use me for speed bump, and then get his quest/rep item.

Glad I could help Mr. Shama Lama. Hope I chipped your axes with my handsome dwarven chin.

Well after all this my dander was definitely up. So, it was Talon-time. I logged with Oak and although I knew better, went and got Talon.

I say that I knew better because why? ... say it with me boys and girls ... "after the horde gank you, they disappear while you get your main". I don't know how they do that. Are there night courses somewhere that they take in order to learn how to be such pains in the posterior?

Talon slides into UC and there are no horde to be found. Poof! It's like they never even were. Agggggghhhh!

But, eventually, Talon did make life rough for one lvl 55 warrior. Poor guy. Hated to take it out on him but not really. Started killing him at Marshal's Refuge and followed him clear back to Gadgetzan, harrassing/sapping him. I'm sure he hates alliance.

And I'm pretty sure I hate the horde :)

What the Flux? An evening in Searing Gorge

Well I pretty much finished up my quests last night in Searing Gorge. A lvl 49 rogue practiced his sapping abilities on me and I practiced hunting him down. :D

Other than that it was a fairly easy evening. Here is a little rundown of what I did though.

My biggest mission, having previously chosen to accept it, was to travel waaaaaay down deep in the bowels of the Cauldron in the Searing Gorge. In there, is a lvl 50 leet Dwarf that one needs to get past in order to obtain an item for the quest "What the Flux?". (Love that quest name Blizz!)

Anyhow, behind said nasty is a scroll on a table, which is your quest item. He is flanked by a lvl 50 non-elite dwarf. These guys are both something like "Sith-Pallies". They can bubble, they can sheep, they can use Shadow magic. Its quite the experience. So my plan was to go in and die once (killing the non-elite in the process) and then run back and take on the elite ... just me and him ... in a dark cave ... where no one could hear his cries for help as the blackness of cold death clutches at his soul. Ahem. Sorry, the rogue in me came out there for a minute.

So I set my plan in motion. Killed the normal guy, ran back and healed up for the elite. I run in, swinging and judging aaaaaand ... dead! But it was ME that was dead, not him.

New strategy. I run back, heal up, put him to sleep with Repentance, pick up the freakin quest item and bubble/jump from the big tall dropoff behind him, falling down several levels to the cave floor below but thanks to my bubble-chute, I was healthy as a horse.

Very rogue-like of me :) Well I figured he'd bring the whole dang place to bear down on me but instead, I was almost immediately out of combat. I was little bummed because I needed that elites head for a quest but I figured I could wait for another day.

As luck would have it, on my way out of the Cauldron I run into two hunters that needed help with that very quest. So I group up with them and head right back in there.

I do my pally thing and give them and their big cats Greater Blessing of Might (the hunters were using mainly melee attacks for some resason). They didn't seem to have been there before or it had been awhile, so I even got to help find the place and recommend a turn here or a tunnel-twist there. The dwarves in the Slag Pit also net people while they are fighting so I got to provide a few BoFs and then reapply GBoM. So that was good practice.

In the end, We kill our elite with no problem at all - both hunters were lvl 51 and one was beast-mastery specc'd. So I end up getting my quest item from the big mean nasty dwarf anyway, netting me some more experience.

Feeling rather satisified with all that and being halfway to 53 now, I think tonight I'll visit the Crater and hit 53, maybe 54. I have some Imperial Plate items that I'm just dying to put on :)

Ding 52 and a short story

Well this weekend I mustered my defenses against the The Pillow (actually just played in the afternoons) and grabbed the brass ring that has 52 stamped on it.

Nothing grand to report at 52, just new ranks of existing stuff. Guess there was one new thing though, come to think of it. I did also get Improved Blessing of Might, which is nice, and also requires reagents (of that I was not aware). Moving on.

Before I dinged though I did run into a short pvp encounter which I though was worth mentioning. It was however with a rogue so apologies to rogues in our guild as I tell this ... you guys will always be able to kick my short dwarven rear I'm sure.

So there I was minding my own business, trying to get a quest done in the Searing Gorge by rounding up 8 Thorium Daggers, and those drop from Dark Iron Dwarves. Having engaged said Dark Iron Nasty to obtain aforementioned quest item, in order to complete the previously indicated quest ... I was otherwise unaware of a lvl 53 UD Rogue sneaking up behind me.

He shortly made his presence known though however by cracking me, quite soundly I might add, in the head causing me to sag in embarrassing fashion directly in front of my dance partner who just kept right on dancing and helping my new head-cracking friend out.

Well with daggers-a-flyin' and undead noises echoing across the Cauldron, the rogue stabbed and stabbed ... until his stun faded and I bubbled. Then I healed to full health and the grin slid off his little malformed head.

He continued to fight so kudos to him for that. He got in some good licks but mine, although they were not nearly as often, were much much bigger hits and crits. You could say, I gave him a sudden case of the crits. Lol!

However his last mistake was that, he decided to try and stand toe-to-toe with a plate wearer/healer; he never moved from in front of me. Maybe it was because my mob wasn't dead ... maybe he was a terrible rogue ... or maybe he was combat specc'd; removing the need to move around a lot ... maybe he thought "heck the guy is two levels below me and he's only a pally".

Whatever his reasoning he was very wrong. He should have tried to stunlock me some more.

So after I bubbled/healed I proceeded to politely reach out and rearrange his face. It didn't last long. And he tried to run, but Judgement found him ... wanting.

Then after I had sufficiently introduced my rogue-friend to the graveyard, I turned my back on his dead and foresaken (pun-intended) corpse and killed my mob, who in all this time, had not yet found better things to do.

For whatever reason, in very un-horde-like fashion, my rogue friend didn't come back to try and dance again :)

The Pillow (background)

C'mon I HAD to write something down :) I haven't logged onto the game in so long, I just decided to basically write about the epic struggle between the The Game and The Pillow. Here lately, my pillow has been pwn'ing the game :)

But for any of you thinking that I'm leaving WoW ... no such luck for you :) The poem below was just fun blog-filler :)

The Pillow

The Pillow

(with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary, logging on to WoW, so weary,
Whence upon mine eyes so bleary, fell an image I now am fearing,
And in my mind there came a rapping - rapping as at my chamber door.
"Tis the drink," I muttered, "sounding at my mind's door,
Only this and nothing more.

My bed so soft and calling, in my mind I felt myself falling,
To a safe and restful state, of which I'd never felt before,
But then a voice I heard repeating, twas a voice filled with pleading,
"When did we last in Azeroth explore?"
Crossing the room, I opened, my chamber door;
Darkness there and nothing more.

Again a sound came and this time longer, with a desire even stronger,
Crowing for my attention, insistent promises of something more;
So that to still my heart's beating, then to myself I stood repeating,
"Nothing to fear this evening, only someone at my door"
"Some late visitor asking entrance at my door"
"This is it and nothing more"

But panic took me and I crossed the room anxious to escape the gloom,
Into my bedchamber I tread, fearing the things of which my heart dreads,
And then again I repeated, the same just as before,
It twas nothing, just faint whispers outside my home's front door.
Night sounds and jitters, nothing more.

I approached the pc my nerves disheveled, anxious now to quest and level,
The logon screen it opened shining and then came a new insistent whining,
A familiar yet elusive sound, in my head it bounced around,
Twas the noise that I abhor, called to me just as before.
"Questing can wait longer. Come to me and rest some more"

I turned and saw my pillow laying there, calling to me as I stared,
It crooned to me a pleasant bleat, promising peace and a dreamless sleep,
The pillow; and I yearned to heed it as I stared, abhorred,
But it called to me again saying more,
Questing you need do; nevermore.

My login screen waited at attention, I heard Oak's cries for intervention,
Calling to me from that virtual scene, pleading to quest, to say hi to my team,
But the pillow again called, weaving its seduction and drawing me o'er,
At last the screen forgotten, I was captured, as by the Sirens of lore,
The Pillow called me to rest. And quest?
Quote the Pillow, "Nevermore."

Leverage says you ....

I think I feel a change in the winds says I.

Everybody else has blogged about it. Everybody has forumed about it. Everybody who's played past the noob area knows there be a big patch-a-comin and it could mean good and yummy things for those of us crazy enough to climb the limbs of the Retribution Tree.

Let's break these babies down and start the arguing early, shall we? :)

• Vindication (Retribution) frequency and duration increased and now reduces all attributes by 5/10/15%, not just Strength and Agility.

This is the one I've been waiting for. I've kept points in Vindication since I've heard about the possibility of this happening. Having this lower ALL stats on your target - well I give it a 5 outta 5 on the Critometer of Happiness.

• Pursuit of Justice (Retribution) is now 3 ranks and increases movement speed by 5/10/15% and also reduces the chance you'll be hit by spells by 1/2/3%.

I know people will disagree on this. But I hate this talent. It seems as this is a Blizz Bone that they threw at us pallies to try and get us to spend points here. I don't see the benefit though. Seems like the smarter Ret points can be spent elsewhere. The Critometer of Happiness rates this a 1 out of 5. Prove me wrong. (If you do though, most likely I won't approve your comment, lol)

Let's take the next ones as a group.

• Exorcism's mana cost has been lowered (Source)
• Holy Wrath's mana cost has been lowered (Source)
• Hammer of Wrath's mana cost has been lowered (Source)

Slap me silly and call me sally. This is awesome! Lowering mana cost always makes the Critometer rocket to new heights but it has to stop at 5 out of 5.

• Vengeance has been increased to 30 seconds (Source).

Longer lasting, more filling. The stacks get longer to build and this will only help with stabilizing the damage output for Rets. Plus I love having glowy hands :) Critometer of Happiness rating? 3 out of 5 - because they didn't mention making Vengeance proc "more" :)

• New Talent - Sanctified Seals (replacing Sanctified Crusader): Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee by 1/2/3%, and reduces the chance your Seals can be dispelled by 33/66/100% (Source)

Nothing to hate here at all. Combined with other stuff later in this post, this is a very nice addition and a new place to spend some points that are freeing up from other things. Critometer of Happiness rating: 4 out of 5.

• Crusader Strike cooldown is being lowered to 6 seconds. (Source)

Aw couldn't we get the mana lowered too? lol Love the fact that we get a shorter cooldown time though. Critometer of Happiness likes it too. 4 out of 5.

• Improved Seal of the Crusader effect added to base abilitiy (Source)
• Improved Seal of the Crusader now gives the effects of Sanctified Crusader (Source)

These should probably be rated as a 6 out of 5 on the Critometer of Happiness! How awesome is this? Pallies will get 3 talent points back (that were spent on Sanct Crusader) which we can now spend someplace else, like deeper in the Holy or Prot trees. Suh-weet!

All in all I think this will be a good-news day for Rets and pallies in general. Bring on the patch! I can't wait to get this stuff! :)

Still lurking about ...

Yes it's been awhile since I've logged on ... been some time since I've posted too. Sorry about that. I know that many of you come here to get your daily dose of my ramblings (lol, right!).

But I thought I'd let everybody know that I'm alive and kicking.

Personal injury report incoming ... badly sprained my ankle recently and that hurt something wonderful (getting up there in years now, lol). The stink of it is that the doc tells me I should stay off of it as much as possible which would exclude me from family vacation this coming weekend (we have a trip planned to head back to Monterey Bay, CA).

So that's a bummer if I don't get to go out there. However, I suppose I'd get to log some serious leveling time with Oak, who is long overdue for some questing attention.

Anyhow that's all from me. If I'm at the house this weekend, which it appears that I will be, I should be able to come up with some adventurous yarns for ya'll from our Wonderful World of Warcraft :)