Maintenance1206

It's Tuesday-full maintenance day! Fully expected this to be after all the rolling restarts and hotfixes this past week.


Let's do a little round-up this morning.

I recently read an informative and entertaining post about pocket lint over at Tomb of the Ancient. Go have a read if you already haven't, good stuff.

More about IntPiPoMo: A little earlier this week I was treated to a final installment of this challenge over at Bag Overflow. A totally awesome video was offered up to assist in completing the challenge, which imho, is well deserving and a must see! Grats to Bag Overflow for such a fantastic and unique ending to their IntPiPoMo participation.

Okay, a small personal thought here. Today, as I was going through my reader, I came across another long time blogger I've been reading for I can't remember how long. The post was about stepping back now to favor and give more attention to real life. This is a good thing for this blogger, or any blogger who makes this choice. I'm sure everyone commends and supports, "family/real life, comes first."

I now return you to killing those internet dragons, and other such stuff. :)

Ending this morning's round-up on another happy note, let me ask you, "Who else can talk about having so much !#%& fun in game with such a unique and straight-forward style, as Big Bear Butt delivers? Maybe a few, idk. But I always enjoy reading BBB.

That's it for this mornings little round-up. Time for me to go work through some thoughts over Aygaren, that wanna-be-a-tank Tauren pally. Enjoy your game! ~Sol

*yes, I posted a little early as well, lol

The Night Before

'Twas the night before the patch. The day's game play is over, the nightly reading done. Soooo,


all things look like a go for Tuesday maintenance to be the long awaited 4.3 patch. It's been coming for some time now, and players everywhere have had opportunities to prepare for it in each of their ways. There's even been a number of blog posts around the community with very sound advice as to how to prepare for this patch release. It's all good, dear reader.

I, like many others, sorted through all this advice gleeming what I thought useful for my several level capped characters (and those close to cap). This time around though, I've taken a somewhat different approach. Such as: Khrox (the BM hunter/pvp'er) really should have spent some time capping out his honor/conquest points in preperation. Smart thing to do, which he didn't do. Instead, he just lazed around the past several weeks doing nothing more than /gquit the pvp guild he was in. Oh, he has a chunk of hp's, and a handful of conquest (which will end up converted) stored up. Any extra effort though seemed worthless for him. We'll get to why in a minute or so.

Cle was also in that same guild, key word, was. He's not quite level capped yet though so he's not really at any loss. Kaimara is in a different guild, though hasn't been active enough with them, or even with them that long. Her stance is one of those, "let's wait and see how it goes." The core of this matter with the three of them is this: the server they call home.

I've been on that server since about the beginning of time (my time). I've seen it's up's and down's. You can actually feel the differences each time the population rises and falls. The server is in a down-trend at this time. IMO, a very deep down-trend, and it's been going on for some time. I won't bore you with all my personal thoughts on this. Suffice it to say, that for me, the server just hasn't been a fun place to play for months. Character transfer is not an option, so everyone justs sits and waits it out.

No problem really. I do have characters spread across enough servers to stay active and enjoy the game. None of them though, are any where near end-game content, and that's okay as well. Plenty to do, lots of options. Enter from stage left, the Great Horde Project!

Being an Alliance player for so long prompted me to spread wings and see things from the opposite factions' eyes. Yep, more story and lore time, YAY! After several server hit and runs, I finally settled on one which seems to viable enough for this project. Started out with a Troll hunter, since I've already got a good dose of Undead somewhere else. Troll hunter didn't really like being all alone though, so after a bit of leveling, he aquired a Tauren pally companion (I also wanted to try tanking). Things are going good so far, I can now see through Tauren eyes. Then, along came this stray Goblin hunter. While not too far behind, there followed an Orc mage. Strange though, the Orc is the only one who don't seem to have some form of dislike/distrust for Garrosh.

So that's where I'm at in game. I would really like to raise several of these Horde characters to cap and experience their full story. I'm sure that after the patch has been out for a few days and the initial dust settles, Khrox and company will jump into their battlegrounds for a bit. In the meantime, the young Horde's are at the beginning of their journey.

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. :)

Off Day Post?

The Blizzard loading screen tooltip says something like, "Take everything in moderation, including World of Warcraft!" Hence, the creation of Tuesday maintenance days. Also known as: "You WILL give our servers a much needed break!!" I hear that even Ragnaros is complaining about the constant flow of raiders maiming, beating and killing their way towards his sanctum already.


In other news today. Sol has officially announced his retirement to his guild leader, and passed the family reins on to that fiesty dwarf hunter, Khrox. This didn't come as a surpirse to the guild, whom long expected the transition. There were a few laughs to go around, but overall there was a strong sense of understanding and support. Just some of the many things which make DUT such a great guild.

Khrox has boldly stepped up to the tasks at hand. He's proven to be a work-horse. A strong supporter of and leading contributor to the guild. He makes his rounds with a form of calculated precision and swiftness, while still hungering for more. Hmmm, 25 dailys? Is that all? He could easily double that without even breaking a sweat. Soloing and farming dungeons, hrumphhh. A walk in the park. Why just yesterday, a rather typical day for this BM hunter, 25/25 dailys, 90 achievement points, 30 honorable kills, 7 soloed dungeons, several hundred thousand points contributed towards guild level advancement, a good sized batch of DE fodder gathered for one guild mate and plans to assist another with some dungeon runs to gear and help level him. And this somewhat crazy dwarf was still looking for more to do?

A good part of this has to do with the class and spec, or so I think. BM dwarf hunters are just awesome, and only get better the more you learn how to play them. True though, any class/spec you play well seems and is awesome. It's finding that class/spec that "clicks" for you which can be a long journey constantly in progess.

When Khrox first came into the family, his intended roles were simply to provide some additional bank space, and dabble in the collection of rare pets. Those roles were his mainstay untill level 60, when he suddenly burst into maturity and started to really show his strengths. Before lvl 60, it was all fun and games. Outland and Northrend though were viewed as horrible grinds to run out of necessity. The straw that broke the camel's back though. Khrox hit up only those zones which were above level for him and stormed his way through them to reach 80. He left many things behind in his wake, undone. 80-85 was fun and challenging again. Four of the five zones were completed to achievement level, two of them were completely drained of quests. Along the way, mastering the class/spec was priority bound.

Well, I should think that I've babbled on enough for now. There is no real point to this post, nor is there any earth-shattering useful information to be had. If anything could possibly be considered useful here, it's that underlying thought about finding a class/spec that fits YOU, then don't forget to have fun mastering said class/spec. There are soooo many possibilities. And, don't be afraid of "Change." It is a constant entity, always around you.

Now get out there and reek havoc throughout Azeroth.......and beyond!

Regulary Schedueled Maintenance, errr, Post

Game day maintenance. Servers down most all day = usually means blog post day. Read: "maybe means a regular real post day."


I have been a bit of a slacker here lately, what with Firelands calling/demanding so much of my attention. Khrox has been going places and doing things which Sol has only dreamed of. The new Hyjal Firelands dailys taking the forefront. He has pretty much mastered the art of survival and faction war in Tol Barad, gained all the gear and such he set goals for, and now only farms commendations there for the drake mount.

Khrox has also been running some random dungeon norms, testing the waters with his refined beast master powers. Some pretty dumb mistakes were made, like jumping off a platform in Vortex Pinnacle......without clicking on the whirlwind thingy. But overall, he ruled the damage done charts and delivered some pretty good dps. With confidence levels on a high, heroic modes are the next targets. Hopefully, a good long look inside Zul Gurub. Today's story isn't about Khrox though. He's merely the force behind the lacks of posts here. Today, the focus falls on Sol.

Be warned: Personal thoughts ahead, lightly seasoned with game, and simmered.



Solitudeone

 As many regular readers will know, Sol was my first level capped character and main for the majority of my WoW lifetime. As a balanced spec'd Nelf Druid, he totally rocked solo play with only questing and moderate end of Wrath Wintergrasp appearances.



Where to go next?

 The worlds of Azeroth and beyond were good. Sol's 'playground' was expansive. Then, the Shattering and the age of 'guilds', decided to rock Sol's world. Sol did join a guild, but the realities of a new game in Azeroth set in rather hard for him. Class balanceing, buff this, nerf that, eclipse, new class mechanics, (the list goes on), all played a part in Sol's fall from grace. He no longer 'rocked Azeroth.'



One of the many scenic views Sol enjoys!



Always traveling........somewhere

 In all honesty though, it really wasn't the game changes that took this once great Druid down. After all, there are plenty of great players in Azeroth which prove daily, that boomkins still rock. Nope, not the game. The real shortcomings with Sol came from the faceless one punching the keyboard behind the scenes. This was devastating, to say the least. "I", was no longer good enough!

In times past here, I've taken a few light-hearted pokes at my "fragmented mind," and, shall we just say, "issues." (for lack of a possibly more appropriate term atm) Bottom line: I could no longer play Sol with any sense of efficientcy/compententcy. Sol's toolbox is a loaded bomb, and I could'nt find the fuse. /frustrated facepalm. With honor, Sol has quietly stepped aside, slipping into a state of semi-retirement within the Emerald Dream, providing what support he can for family and guild. Of the many adopted kids over his lifetime, two have aged well and strong. Of those two, Khrox now handles the familys' leadership role. Surely, he will have many stories to share with us along his journeys. In the meantime, Sol is taking a well deserved rest.


Solitude....as Solitude is

"Go with honor, friend."

It's Tuesday...

It's Tuesday...'nuff said. Time for random thoughts.


I spent the early part of this maintenance day researching some stuff I needed to know. Not the raid stuff sorts of things, (Sol still isn't there yet), but the sort of things I needed to know for the profession leveling Khrox and Kaimara are pushing. Prime example; Infinite Dust. Kai needs like 600 of these, where do they all come from? With Khroxs' leatherworking/skinning skills and Kai's enchanting/tailoring, the two can work together, at least to some extent, providing each other with mats, enchants or whatever. And we won't even get into the vast amounts of Borean Leather Khrox needs atm.

Both have recently started some dungeons with the encouragement of the guild leader. Sol had joined DUT a few months back, now both Khrox and Kai have become members. This is a good thing. Even though they are now 75 and 70 respectively, this is still a much earlier start than Sol had. Guild membership has been great for all three, and being able to experience this part of the game now is exciting. It's great being in a guild that is friendly and helpful to it's members. Without this atmosphere, I doubt if I would even have a chance at raiding. I have to admit though, both hunter and mage seem to be doing better than Sol.

UI- last I spoke of my UI, I had just installed Grid. This did not go well for me. Just couldn't get to show what I wanted to show and configuring it just didn't click as well. Gave up on it and installed Pitbull4 instead. "Happy Camper" time! Out of the box, I only needed a few placement changes to be up and running. Configuration is much easier for me, and I like the looks of everything soooo much more than Grid. Now, I'm not really putting Grid down. It's a great add-on which I know a lot of tanks and healers use. For me and all my dps alts though, Pitbull4 just turned out to work better.

And about that "raid" thing? Well, I guess we all have some sort of dream for this or that. With Sol, the dream recently grew to this: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest-Legendary Staff. LOL, it's okay to dream. Right?

Daxxarri-blue poster-"It's actually easier to get started on the path to acquire this legendary; the journey itself is more difficult though. Regardless, players who have cleared the prior tier of raid content are the only ones eligible to begin the quest line -- any player who's part of a group which is capable of accomplishing that probably has a good shot at getting a staff for themselves."  (Source, post# 191)

Okay, so maybe there's limits to such lofty dreams.

In the meantime, Khrox has a little play time while waiting for a rare spawn. What better to do than help run up the feast count for a guild achievement?


Dinner Time!

Have fun everyone! ~Sol



Maintenance + Professions = Break Time!

Sooooooo...it's once again coming up on that Tuesday maintenance day, and I'll say this, I REALLY need the break this time! I've been totally obsessed and tunnel-visioned with Kaimara and Khrox's professions beyond control. To such an extent, Kai has forgotton how to quest in her fire spec, and Khrox spends all his time with just some dailys and farming. Not a pretty sight for either of them.


It's hard to say which has been more obsessed than the other. Khrox with his leatherworking, or Kaimara with her enchanting. Both have been going through their respective problem areas, although I think Khrox has faired better so far. Although he's had skinning since like day one and stuffed his bank to over-flowing with various leathers along the way, he didn't enter the leatherworking profession until he dinged 65 (might have been a little later than that). Easy-peasy, he thought. Bank full of leather, back-up supplies with one of the bank alt brothers. No prob. Khrox didn't read any of the profession guides, he just jumped right in the thick of it, and thick leather became the first casuality where he had to go back and farm, farm and farm some more. In spite of his stock piles, each progression of leather meant even more farming. Yesterday, he was 3 skill pts. short of 350, and spent most of today farming mats and checking the AH for other supplies needed to make those stinking 3 points. Now, the concentration and focus is on Northrend. /shudder! He's 74 now. Has been skill capped for some time in skinning, but has to wait for that magical level of 75 to start skilling that up again. And yes, Arctic Fur is high on his list. (not to mention the rare/exotic pets he's still camping)

Kaimara's enchanting. It was so bad for such a long time that she was on the edge of abandoning this profession. This sorry state of affairs came to an end fairly recently though, since daddy Sol had joined a guild. He enjoys his membership there so much, and the Moral Officer is such a great person, that both Khrox and Kaimara have been invited to join as well. Our Moral Officer took it upon herself to send along bunches of cloth and DE fodder for Kaimara to work with. This has proven to be the medicine Kai needed, and she is now well into bringing her enchanting skills up to level. Her other profession is tailoring, and she has always excelled there. Able to craft many speciality bags that are seldom seen in the AH, and keeping everyone else supplied with the stock Netherweave Bag. Tailoring is great. It provides her with a modest and steady income from the AH.

So, what is daddy Sol up to lately? Pretty much nothing. He's farming herbs for flasks, fishing and cooking to help the guild out with several achievements. Still comptemplating his caster abilities and strongly considering switching over to his feral bear side. It has nothing to do with the recent "Call to Arms" dungeon thingy and all the hull-a-balou going on about it. Sol is just of age now and is looking for that special spark to set him on fire again. Joining the guild is perhaps the best thing to happen to him since Cata became live. He really enjoys helping people out, and there are lots of other friendly and helpful members.

Well, this little misfit family batch certainly hopes your own maintenance day break is a good one. Have fun everyone!

Don't forget to check out this weeks' Shared Topic at Blog Azeroth! "Weird gaming habits?" Suggested by Akabeko, you can find his post over at Red Cow Rise.