Random-ness

Sometimes, it's the smallest things in-game that can kinda sorta make your day, or not.




Sol's new Panther Cub--sooooo cute!

 Sol hadn't been around Azeroth for something like 10 days or so, he was trying to figure out what he was going to do after his failures in Lost City and Grim Batol. The end result of that little break found Sol pretty much set on just being a behind the scenes support player. You know, farming and dailys, providing things like buff foods and flasks and potions for others. Perhaps helping younger guildies with quests and the such. After all, these are the sort of things he's really good at doing.


So, logged the ol' boy back in and give it a go again. We found the bulletin board lit up with a quest mark, funny, it's been empty for ages now. Grab it and run, hope for the best. Turns out to be one of those 'report to' thingies, go see someone in N. Stranglethorn. What a quest line this turned out to be! Filled with story/lore background, fighting unrulely monsters, and finishing off with a quest to go into the new Zul'Grub. Now obviously, Sol is neither geared or ready for this in any way. Simular to many other dungeon quests, it will sit in his quest log and gather dust for some time. One of those, 'maybe someday to do things.' BUT, the little panther cub at the end of that line was really the best 'made my day' surprise. He is just sooooo cute!

In other randomness, Sol did visit his trainer at the start of his journey back into Azeroth, and promptly re-specced. His main spec is still balance, there was just a shifting of talent points to hopefully build up his dps and spell powers a bit. (BTW, if you've got any better suggestions on talents and/or glyphs choices, feel free to drop them in a comment.) I think he's pretty well set up for now and just needs to aquire some better gear. The first day under this new spec arrangement did show some improvement. But what really 'made the day' in this area was the guild news he happened across.

Sol has always been supportive of the guild, and found new friendships with everyone there. Even after (imho) he was a real embarassment to the guild leader and mates over his pitiful dungeon preformance and ready to /gquit, he logged in to find that everyone was still supportive towards him. And to top it off, was the shocker that he had been promoted during his absense, from initiant to member. Heck, any other GL on this server most likely would have /gkicked him. But so not true with DUT. Sol was provided with info about training and learning things, and found himself just as welcome in the ranks as ever. Sol loves helping others when and where he can, and he is certainly blessed by Elune to have come into a guild where many of it's members are of the same mind. Friendly and helpful people all around. DUT isn't one of the top progression guilds on this server, but it certainly is THE BEST GUILD, imho. Maybe, just maybe, Sol's dream of getting into a raid group still has some hope. Time will tell, of coarse. And if it's going to happen anywhere, it will surely be with DUT.

So anyway, Sol is back to grinding out TB commendations for a new staff, running about 15 different dailys for rep points here and there, and still digging his way across those archaeology sites. Heck, got himself 13 rare artifacts now and still looking for more! Ehhh, maybe that sands vial will show up, eventually. And then there's always the pet collection to work on, or the mount collection (going for 100), and that "I don't know what I'm going to do" Loremaster.

Out to pasture?

Please Note! This is not a QQ post, just a hard look at the reality side of game preformance.


After Sol's rock-bottom, and I'm sure quite embarassing preformance the other night, I'm taking another long hard look at putting him out to pasture. Just let him concentrate on farming and supplying the kids with all their needs.

Things have changed over the past three months. Sol used to be a viable force to be reckoned with. Not ubers or even great, but viable. The last couple of months of Wrath found him to be at the top of the damage meters in Wintergrasp, while holding down the second, sometimes third dps positions. When ganked by a horde, he had a fair chance of walking away, or at least giving them a run for their money. And, he could nuke down the monsters and beasts long before they even had a chance to touch him. His preformance in the few random dungeons he ran in was fair, usually near the top side numbers wise.

Cataclysm changed many things. Although he finished solo leveling to 85 with ease, learned his eclipse and spell abilities fairly well, and actually geared himself properly with the availability of loot-quest-faction rep pve stuff, things are just different now. Taking TBP for example here; Sol can't even get through a few dailys without getting ganked a dozen times. And those lurker spiders he used to nuke in a few seconds? Well, even with the same rotation, they now reach him with 80% health and he has to push them back just to start the rotation over again. They get to him a second time; he casts barkskin and hopefully finishes them off at his own loss of 30% health and mana. So much for nuking beasts anymore :(

Last month at the target dummies in IF, Sol was averaging 6.5k, single target dps. Here's what Grim Batol looked like for him the other night: (Yeah I know, *Fail Druid is Fail*. I can hear it resounding in my head) *Edit* ok, I forgot to upload the screen shot--trust me though-dps barely broke 4k.

I spent yesterday quietly thinking of all this while leveling up Kaimara's enchanting. And will continue comptemplating the situation over the weekend. If I play at all, it will be on one of the several alt servers I keep hidden away for such times. In fact, there happens to be a very young dwarf hunter and gnome mage tucked away that could use some love. I know many people considered or even went ahead and switched their mains with Cataclysm. I think Sol's preformance the other night just really hit home and opened my eyes. I think I need to stop procrastinateing over this, and bring the hunter and mage to the fore-front. If you want to toss your thoughts into all this, by all means feel welcome to.

Where to go - What to Do?

Ahhhh! Another Saturday morning. The usual thoughts are swirling around those floating fragments of my mind, much like those floating rocks in Netherstorm Khrox keeps reminding me of. He has a couple of dailys in his list that keep him visiting the nether reaches, plus his on-going hunt for some rare chimera. Sol just leans back in his comfy chair and shrugs off the innocent travels of his kids. At times, it certainly seems like they have no concerns over the conditions of Azeroth these days.


As he sips his morning coffee and settles a bit deeper into his chair, a knowing "hrummpph" becomes audible. Those kids are in for a rude awakening when the full force of the Cataclysm rears it's life-altering head. Regaining his original thoughts, he wonders about where to go and what to do in Azeroth today.

The world has been buzzing for a few days now over the dungeon finder changes the game gods have tossed out recently. Sol's second spec happens to be centered around tanking bear, although he hasn't really developed that side of himself to any extent. Is it really worth all the efforts and work to do so? Is the dungeon group finder really any better than the times of Wrath? And as the Azeroth community at large goes, well, according to BBB, the offerings (bribes) of the game gods just don't cut it. And then there's Lodur over at World of Matticus speculating about this Call to Arms: Dungeon Finder.

Such is life these days in Azeroth. Sol has been comtemplating his standing in Azeroth of late. Well, actually a couple of months now. Just can't make up his mind what to do. Vidyala, (Manalicious), has tossed another log into the fire of his thoughts though with this interesting and colorful post: "Who's the Boss?" *colorful*, as in Screenies! Rounding out this morning's wake-up coffee, someone new in Sol's magical travels of mind reminds him that there seems to be a bit of RP'er in everyone. Admitted or not. Akabeko, over at Red Cow Rise shares thoughts about his alts knowing each other.

Well, the coffee mug is empty and Sol thinks it's about time for a refill as he works his way towards the Azeroth portal.

Enjoy your journeys today!

First Impressions: Cataclysm

It was two days after release when Sol began his new journeys into the new old world. All the usual preperations took place. Visits to his class trainer; various trade skill trainers and the addition of archeology. Packed his bags with food and drink, a quick stop by the flight trainer, then off to Mt. Hyjal. (it's a druid thing).


His original plan to just fill up the quest log and perhaps gather a few new herbs kinda got tossed out of balance a bit. Seeing that he did have a small amount of rested xp, he started the first of the breadcrumb quests. Those initial kill the attackers and gathering things. Sol chalked up a third of his level to 81 before he realized he had long passed his rested zone. It was time to rest and reflect.

There is something about being at the base of Nordrasill, communing with dragons, crushing those who wish to corrupt our world and maintaining the balance of nature...that affects the heart and mind of a druid. Our beliefs and ways of doing things are often questioned, and mis-understood. Of coarse, our share of corrupted and tainted arch-druids along the way certainly were not of any help either. None-the-less, we strive to exist as a race and culture no less than any other.

Having gained enough rest to continue his journeys through Mt. Hyjal, Sol found a fair bit of lore intertwined with his quests, very much to his pleasure. Successfully completing a chain, seeing an area phase into a more friendly zone is gold to the druids spirit. Although, not all is as simple as it seems at first glance. Several quests did involve making choices according to your nature and beliefs as a druid. Remembering two in particular; in the first, his choice not to kill a pawn during a fact-finding quest chain led to praise and several more quests. In another, despite being warned in the opening quest about not releasing the demon you were supposed to seek help from, several quests later, Sol did in fact complete one which released the demon. Big mistake, not good. One very un-happy Druid was wandering about, unsure of where to go next or what to do. Time to retreat and regroup, commonly called "Hearth."

Day three. The cooking and fishing dailies seemed to be bugged. 15 minutes in the water and not a lobster trap to be found. Another 10 in the canals, and only 1 crab. Time to abandon and move on. This meant Hero's call, second choice. a mercenary boat ride to Vashj'ir. When Sol had hearthed the previous day, he was slightly over 81. Seemed like a good time to explore and experience another, very different world.

So how did your first few days go? Questing and soaking up the lore? Or did you jump into the opening instances? Did you rush to level cap or are you taking your time? Oh, and how did it feel giving up those hard-earned epic purps for the new improved Cata greens?!?

OMG! - 17 hours of patch!!!

The wait wasn't all that bad until Blizz added that last 2 hr. extension, making it 8pm my local time. *grrrrr


Just like a gazillion other players I logged in the moment servers started to come up, anixous to see how much havoc was dumped on my main. Some of the usual sort of thing for this kind of patch, talents wiped out, another trip to the trainer for new and revised spells. Although, this time I had to spend some gold. Not all that much extra, but noticeable. Then there was the glyph issues and placements. *makes note to self to purchase more glyphs tomorrow* I breezed through the balance tree though. Being no stranger to re-speccing, I had earlier gone through my list of preferred theory-crafters to see who had the most recent and viable spec posted up. Yeah, sort of cookie cutter mode, but they have been great points to start out with when in doubt.

The new interfaces for character, spell book, professions and talents look really good. I like the way my alchemy can now be sorted to get through all the possibilities, going straight to the section I want to work with. I tried one of my gem transmutes just to see if the cd was gone yet. It wasn't, but only showed a little over 5 hours of cd instead of the 19hr+ norm. Maybe just because of patch day, but I hope it stays this short. I did return to default all my keybinds since I planned to refine them anyway. Ughhhh! Master Flight Training--5k gold!!! Oh well, back to gold grinding tomorrow. Maybe by weekend I'll be able to get it. I also tried out Reforgeing on one piece of gear since I found my new self comfortably over hit and haste cap. It works out pretty good I think, but it will cost you gold also. I paid 11.5g for the one I tried, exchanging out some massive crit stat for some mastery.

It was really funny though, to see the amount of alliance players on-line tonight. Very unusual. Someone in trade labeled this as 'The Day the Alliance returned to Spinebreaker.' I did notice some minor glitches so far, like not being able to de-select a NPC once you were done with them. I had to leave the area until distance finally de-selected by default. This did cause one unsuspecting NPC to gain a MotW he really didn't need.

All in all, it was an interesting and exciting 90 minutes for my main. Latency and fps were off, but workable. All my add-ons were listed as out of date, a simple check to load anyway fixed that for now. And enough done for tonight. Tomorrow will be the real test working with the new rotations and going through all my daily routines which I suspect will not be so routine.

How about you? What are your plans now that the patch is live? Did you notice the occassional shaking and rumbleing going on? I did, while I was in Ironforge. Hmmmmm?

Death to the Moonkin

Everyone enjoys relating their adventures and accomplishments in World of Warcraft, including Sol. At times, these high points consumed either a great amount of play time and/or expertise in playstyle. Whatever the accomplishment, it should be proudly announced and even talked about from the successors perspective. After all, it's YOUR accomplishment, YOUR success. It don't matter if amidst the 11 million or so other characters perhaps 30 or 40% of them also succeeded in doing whatever. The fact remains that YOU succeeded. The glory now belongs to YOU! And if you happen to be within Sols' world at the time, even if he don't know you, (which he probably don't), you've recieved his whisper of "Gratz!" as well.


Today though, Sol desires to talk about another little discussed statistic amidst his achievements, the one called Deaths. Not the funny ones like falling off the ledge, inadvertantly running into mobs hiding around a corner, or that sneaky dragon-??-elite that suddenly appears and proceeds to chew you up for an appitizer. Nope, today belongs to those more common everyday type world deaths from the opposite faction.

From Sol's current stat listings we have the following: 1,138 total deaths. Let's see, subtract the BG's, dungeons, falling-drowning-fire-lava deaths-duels, that leaves 1,026 deaths. Now here is where the math gets a bit confusing. "Deaths from other players"--826. Hmmmm? 200 unaccounted for deaths? /shrugs

Sol does get killed a lot, a whole bunch of times actually, from the Horde. He recalls being consistantly ganked throughout his leveling to 80. And so, the 1,026 figure seems about right to him.

So, what is it about these particular deaths that is worth talking about? I mean, so what? Everybody goes through spells where the opposite faction is out for your blood. Right? Sol is no different I guess, he dies just the same and rezs just the same. Maybe a little more or less than others, who knows. At this point though, Sol is going to toss the preverbial monkey wrench into this mess, and the name of that monkey wrench is "Honor". We can now subtract another 1,024 deaths from the list of ganker joys. That leaves a mere two (2) honorable deaths. These deaths are noteable to Sol, he remembers them well, although sometimes the why escapes him.

We must make note here that the 1,024 deaths came from 30 or so yards behind Sol, unexpected, and generally multiple times by the same enemy. (Guess once just wasn't enough for them) Sol don't see any real Honor in those. If you wish to be honorable in your killing, you go against your enemy head on. That is the difference in Sol's two memorable deaths.

The first came from the familure ?? level player who dropped down in front of me, bowed graciously, then one-shot killed me. Patted me on the back and sobbed before I could release, then went about his/her business. My attacker probably did'nt get any official honor points, but gained my respect for at least coming at me from the front offering a slight chance for honorable battle.

Number two was a bit more ingenious. I was fishing (farming) a small creek in the Basin and this guy on his drake dropped down and hovered in front of me. No signs of aggression, so I gave him a wave, he waves back, and continues to just hover there and watch me. Then I notice some little orange text come up in the chat pane. *insert player name- "comptemplates your early demise". I no sooner got this read and boom! Sudden death. One-shot, quick and painless. Still a bit sneaky in his tacticsl, but I gave him a point for coming from the front side.

For whatever reasons may be, these two deaths stand out in my considerably less than normal memory banks. What odd deaths to you recall? What stands out in your memory of general world pvp deaths?