Day 5: Favorite Title

This is ~Day 5: Favorite Title~ for Saz' ongoing challenge, "Through Your Interface." More participants can be found here.


Khrox only has one title thus far, he clearly skipped all the titles via the argent tourney period. In as much as he prefers PvP, he does occasionally get the bug to go solo some older dungeon content. He is quite content with his one and only title, so far. After all, it does have quite a history to it. :)



"Khrox Jenkins"
A fitting title

 ~Note: I have been quite remiss in keeping up with Saz's challenge, rather shameful of me, I should say. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it completed now.

Pot Luck

Golly Gee, it's Saturday morning, again. It's the one morning each week I actually think about making a post...and sometimes actually do it! :)


Really though, I generally manage to go through my reader most nights of the week. Then I wander through some news sites, like MMO Champion for example. And, if I'm not too awful tired by then, I'm off to various other WoW sites to see what's going on. I most always come up with some subject thoughts for posts which stir around this fragmented mind for a bit but then seem to get lost. /Blame those "Doorways to Lost Memories."

Today, a little different approach. I'm going to lightly touch upon some of those random thoughts. Perhaps some will get expanded into full posts at a later time, (or perhaps not), we shall see.

Transmo-whatever-it-is stuff: This is perhaps the most currently written about change coming to the game that the majority of players and bloggers seem excited about. That in itself, is a FoS on blizzards' part. In a nutshell, you can have your current gear transformed to look like some much older gear set you like the looks of. The only minor drawback for some would be the requirement that you have in your possession the desired gear set. At least on my 'home' server though, this has caused a sudden rush of many pug groups to start farming an array of old world instances. I even see guilds setting aside special nights for nothing but old world content. Along with this little gem that's likely to produce some interesting eye-candy in game, another well accepted addition with 4.3 will be Void Storage. Long awaited extra storage for all those soul-bound-just-gotta-keep items everyone tends to collect along their travels through Azeroth.

Deathwing: hmmm, split decision here. Some say "finally!", the rest are like "already?" This is going to bring with it a couple of new instances which lead to the actual encounter with Deathwing himself. No real hints as to the identity of the bosses as yet. But the real news here is a smaller blue post which states that there will follow, a world event which has to do with the next expansion. And since the subject of blue posts popped up:

Some interesting tidbits here, as close as I can remember them. Things I've come across at the Battle.net community site. One blue poster commented about the way Cataclysm channeled all the players into either Stormwind or Org...and that this turned out to be one of those ~not such a good thing~ in retrospec. I wholly agree with this, and I gather that Blizz is looking into ways to change this for the next expansion. So much of Azeroth seems deserted and void of players now, even many major capitol cities. It would be good to see everything all active again.

Darkmoon Faire: Excitement ++ in my book! Reading through all the blue info about the changes coming to the DF has got me really looking forward to the opening of the new Darkmoon Island. I think Khrox is the only one who actually tried to do some things here, at least a little bit, but the fortune teller in me foresees many new adventures ahead.

These are just a few of the things which have wandered through the fragments lately. How about you? What has stirred up your interests recently?

Zen'Kiki

Of the many things I love about World of Warcraft, there is that underlying current of seemingly endless possibilities for gameplay. If you tire or stall out in one area, there always seems to be something else to do or give a go at. Wheather it be a new race/class combo, a different road to travel for some personal challenges or somewhere inbetween.


Khrox has seen a ton of playtime over the last several months, almost ten of them I think. He raced from level 30 to 80, to be ready for the big Cataclysm release. His PvE dreams got altered somewhere between 80-85, he now concentrates solely upon the PvP world. Kaimara, the gutsy mage, has been hanging out in Dalaran during all this, doing nothing more than supplying occasional tailoring needs. She seems to be stuck at lvl 78. Sol, although he completed the Argent Tourney grind, grew to hate it. Khrox skipped it all together, and Kai will probably follow suit. Sol eventually decided to retire and concentrate on his Alchemy skills.

Last Thursday, Khrox was enjoying some new battleground experience with his gm and other guild mates. He saw Isle of Conquest for the first time, got several achievements and overall had his fun killing or maiming Horde. Thunderstorms set into the area though. A couple of dc's and afternoon power outage put an end to the fun though.

All these events though, and the weekend coming into being, led to the totally unexpected meeting between Cle and Zen'Kiki. Who the heck is Cle you ask? Well, he's a baby gnome shadow priest at the moment. Kinda sitting on the bench at level 29, just waiting for an opportune moment to shine.


Cle-lvl 41

After the delay of thunderstorms and power outages, his moment arrived. At lvl 30, he completely redid his spec just so he could grab his shadow form. He also snatched up his duel spec specialization, adding Disc to his arsenal. Slightly long story shortened, he is now level 41. Wheather he knows it or not, Cle has three main goals kinda-sorta-pre-determined for him. Of coarse, he's going to become THAT shadow priest. You know, the one that those horde will eventually both fear and respect. Second goal: to also become an accomplished bg healer. The one spec I've never really tried, or even had any desire to try. The third goal, Loremaster. And this one is where Zen'Kiki entered Cle's world.

With the exception of Loch Modan, where Cle somehow missed a few quests, he has been making sure to milk each zone for it's achievement towards Loremaster. The Wetlands, Arathi, Hinterlands and Western Plaguelands have all fallen prey to this little spriest. And ravaged as well, since no skinnable beast or node of ore has been left untouched. Or so it seems anyway.

Western Plaguelands: enter Zen'Kiki. Somehow with all the many alts who have passed through this zone, Zen'Kiki the Druid was an unknown quest, until Cle swept though the zone. Zen'Kiki is a 'troll-wannabe-druid' in training with the Cenarion Circle, and Cle got tasked to assist with his training. I really don't wish to spoil this quest and it's follow up for anyone who hasn't done it, yet. And if you haven't done it, go back and do it! This has got to be the all-time, drag the npc along, most halarious-fun quest I've ever come across. And this comes from one who generally dislikes dragging npc's around. You will come to love Zen'Kiki, and all his misfortunate ways and comments. You will probably even wish to keep him around while you finish out the zone, which is possible from what I've later read about him. Zen'Kiki, is THAT MUCH FUN! In all my years of playing this game, I cannot recall a time when I've actually spent that much quest time ROFLMAO. Maybe because of my experiences with Sol, idk. Anyway, this is a really fun quest to do. So if you're into doing Loremaster, just plain missed this one along your way or would just like to do something fun for a change....the quest can be picked up here. Go talk to Adrine Towhide at the Mender's Stead in Western Plaguelands. ( 48.8, 54.8 )

I've read that there is at least one more such fun quest around. When Cle finally leaves the EK and heads over to Kalimdor, he'll have to make sure to find it.

Saturday update:

Saturday update: guilds--Khrox had been guildless for several days, 4 or 5 I guess. During that time the usual, expected surge of guild invites materialized.


Now, over time I've developed something of a standard practice with guild invites. Those that pop up in my face out of nowhere, with not so much as even a hello attached: DECLINED! Not even a second wasted to think about it. Then there's those kind of invites with some courtesy of an attached whisper. Usually along the lines of, "Join us if you like bacon", "Join us, don't be a jerk" (questionable as to meaning), and so on. Anyway they range from kinda dumb to smartass lines. Result: DECLINED.

Out of the dozen or so invites that came by, only one held any sort of decency/respect in the approach. This guy whispers me and politely asks if I'm looking for a guild. No pop up invite, just a respective whisper. Now, this surely deserved a respectful answer in return. So I kindly informed him that I was waiting for a response from another guild atm, but would certainly keep him in mind. He seemed agreeable to that answer, and did not try to push for anything more. I actually wrote down the guild name for memory sake.

I spent the next 10 minutes watching trade chat. Although a dispicable channel, one can really learn a lot about people who do use it. Low and behold! That same nice person who showed respect in their invite approach, was rageing through the channel in all his true glory. No respect, no honor, demeaning folks left and right, language from the bottom of the gutter, the whole shot. For the two possible good points he gained during his invite whisper, he lost a hundred points in chat. Scratch that guild.

Before all this, I had been casually chatting with a prospective guild. First, the co-gm's. Then over a few days time I chatted with various members I came across. This guild seemed to fit what I was looking for in a guild. Friendly, pvp orientated, and plenty of active members on anytime I logged in. The gm's had taken a couple of days off for real life work, so I was waiting for their return to ask about joining. Wasn't a long wait really. When the main gm did come on, I sent a /wave to her. A few seconds later, she had obviously noticed I had left my guild and there was an immediate invite up for me, which I gladly accepted. I've been spending my time since just kind of getting to know people. Things are going well so far, and I think Khrox has found a new home.

Upon the gm's suggestion, I did end up installing an add-on mod, called preformav. I guess this allows for the group leaders to do a one button mass invite for raid groups. This guild does a lot of arena and rbg's. That went easily enough. Later though, I did have some difficulty with the vent set up, and ended up missing my first opportunity for an arena match. I did get to listen in on a couple of matches though. LOL, they sounded like some vicious battles. I'm looking forward to attempting some of these even more now.

I did discover something about myself today though. Another guild member asked me along on some dungeon runs. Over like what seemed two hours worth, ending up in the Black Temple. My discovery during this? I don't think I'll be persueing much pve. In fact, imho, I did not do well at all. Died like four times. Almost 30g in repairs afterward. Yes, that bad. :( Heck, my bg repairs are seldom higher than 2g.

All in all, it's been an interesting week in Azeroth. This ol' dog is learning some new tricks to play with, and life in WoW is once again enjoyable.

"Go with honor, friends."

Hindsight is 20/20 ?

Every so often I try to evaluate my percieved progress in this game. It's not the easiest thing to do, especially for one who has many "doorways of lost memories." The odd part of doing this is knowing I'm at the best I've ever been in this game, though I perhaps still fall quite short of being good. /heavy sigh   It's just a game. Right?


With that said and done, there is still so much more of the game I hope to experience. Sol never made it into any PvE raid content, maybe one of the kids will, sometime in the future. It's one of those little goals I'd like to see happen someday. Khrox is probably the best one going at the moment, but his abilities (my capabilities) are firmly set in PvP game content. Kaimara, the mage, is perhaps the best suited for PvE but has been sitting dormant at level 78 for the past month. Then there's that odd little gnome priest steadily coming up the family ranks. Odd, in the respect that he's thinking of healing battlegrounds. Lol, until now, I've easily avoided all healing specs. Anyway, there are a lot of options and opportunities available.

Khrox really wants to progress in his PvP area though, and has been rampaging through a few battlegrounds daily. His former guild, (yes, he did /gquit yesterday) did not offer any opportunities for PvP progression (or any progression for that matter), so he is currently guildless. A long procrastnated decision, but finally made. The past two weeks have found him chatting with various members of a prospective guild, which is quite PvP focused. The move seems like it would be good for him, or maybe not. We can only try it out and hope for the best.

There's this old saying about not putting all your eggs into one basket. Well, I pretty much did that when Sol broke away from his solo game style. He and two other main alts were put into the same guild. Now, all three are guildless. Having broken out of that long standing solo play style, I find this guildless situation not setting very well with me. I've heard and read that many players will spread their alts about in different guilds, and I can see some logical wisdom in doing so. With the changes that Cata has brung about, there are so many new guilds on this particular server, with more coming into life each week. At this point, with all that's transpired lately, I probably would be well advised to seperate some of the kids.

That about covers the past week for Sol's family. Overall, things are generally good and what's past is now done. Now, I'm off to find me a battleground healer's blog, to see if I can learn something new. If you have any suggestions, don't be bashful. :)

PvP progression

First, this isn't any sort of a guide, nor informative post. If that's what you thought or seek, there's plenty of other bloggers more capable than myself with PvP playstyle. Such as: Cynwise's Battlefield Manual and Arena Junkies.


This post is more about that little dwarven bm hunter, Khrox, and his current state of affairs learning to be fairly good in bg's while trying to progress into some arena and rbg action.

Now then, Khrox has not yet experienced many of the regular battlegrounds. He's still stretching his wings so to say, or flexing his muscles perhaps. lol. So, a little recap here to bring everybody up to the same page.

Khrox's first attempt at bg's was WSG. Not the best choice judgeing from that experience. He was horribus bad, spent the whole battle unable to leave the graveyard, and was the reciepiant of such chat box abuse it was weeks before a second attempt appeared. The second attempt was AB. At the very least, he managed to do some fighting. Enough so to gain some of the groups' praise for being a "huntard." Heck, any improvement was acceptable at this point. It was like, okay, at least people know I'm there...rofl!

With no pvp gear, no real experience and little more than a simple desire to learn, those random gods finally smiled upon Khrox. Along came a guild mate experienced in pvp. He took Khrox on an "in-battle tour" of Tol Barad. He advised doing all the battles and all the dailys for gearing up fairly quickly. Now, this, was his real beginning.

To start with, Khrox was pointed in the direction of his own profession, leather working. Whoa there! He actually had two beginning pvp mail pieces of gear there he was unaware of. (it's okay, you can yell "noob" if you feel the urge) I never really thought about the time span of all this, Khrox just jumped into the advice whole-heartedly. Before too awful long, he became completely geared in the Bloodthirsty stuff. Less than a month I'm sure. He still died often enough, but was finally killing a fair amount as well and dealing a lot of enemy damage in the meantime. New gear at least every other day, where comes the current point of being about fully outfitted in Vicious gear along with some stuff from the Molten Front-Firelands zone. And if the bg chat box is any measure of success, then Khrox must have some sort of reputation amidst the enemy ranks. The constant flow of /spit, /makes rude gestures, and un-translatable orcish langage being tossed his way would be clues. Then there's that fact that healers run like all get out when he comes into a node, and groups of horde suddenly find him a very interesting target.


Khrox decked out in Vicious pvp gear

Back to the bg's list though. Tol Barad has been about milked for all it's worth for some time. Khrox's gear is capped out with honor point stuff, he can't get any better there. He has his pvp Drake, and is a short time away from the spectral steed mount for his collection. AB is one of his favorites at the moment, though it began as a filler inbetween TB battles. He has been in SotA one time, and really needs to become more familar with that bg and it's objectives. This weekend though has found him trying out the Call to Arms: Twin Peaks. This is a faily simple zone in so far as layout, but simplicity stops there. The battles are fierce. Never having done this bg before, it's been interesting to find his place in being useful to the group. So far, it would seem he works best at being a peeler for his teams flag carrier, although several other options have shown promise. As usual, targeting horde healers always produces some gruesome yet fun situations. Especially if they're trailing behind a small group trying to protect someone who has grabbed our flag. LOL! Talk about an instant group peel!

Enough rambling on now. Khrox is at that point where he needs to progress into arenas and rbg's. This means better gear is needed, the kind that comes from conquest points. This also means Khrox needs to team up with some people. Now we have a small problem. The "guild."

Some may remember me generally speaking about some problems the guild has been in. Well, things haven't become any better over the past three weeks. Many key, active players have left the guild. The guild leader? As much as I have taken a likeing to her over the time of my membership, has never been a really strong leader in so far as focusing on some sort of guild direction, and currently fails at "leading" anything. (my personal opinion) In my fragmented mind, a guild leader is suppossed to actually "lead." At least, in some way, shape or form. The officer core? Well, pretty much gone or non-existant from what I can see. I actually got started on forming a 2v2 team with one of the guild mates. We got as far as deciding to use skype, and I haven't seen him in-game since. A week now.

As much as I dislike some of the options and regret the whole situation, if Khrox is going to progress in his pvp play, he will have to change guilds. The ship is sinking. I can either sink with it or swim over to the next boat and survive. At this point, drowning, is not how I wish to see Khrox go down. The time has come. *ties lifeline to all pets* /cast DoggyPaddle

"Go with honor, friends"

BTW: that is the infamous Lava Bolt Crossbow Khrox is armed with, the one that does sound like a gun!!!