Merry Christmas from the Horde

LFG Decline & Stupidity in LFG

There is allot of stupidity I'm starting to see in LFG. And I'm going to go as far as to say while using the new LFG system is all fun right now and it is. The good times now won't last for long. That is just my gut feeling. Is LFG on the decline? Maybe.

The entire game of WoW is a funny community to me with players of so many different attitudes. They like stuff one day, then they hate it not too long after. They like you today and they hate you tomorrow. People beg and for new tools from Blizzard over and over and when Blizz deliver its great for a short period of time till the newness wears off and its back to the stupid reasons and playing stupid antics why a good majority of players that have skills don't enjoy and choose not to group with some more casual players and many random players that have hard time find groups themselves.

I've spend the better part of the weekend running my ass off in LFG randoms and the last few days. I ran enough Heroics that I got my Shadow Priest up to gear where I'm fairly satisfied to leave him there for now and just do one heroics if be on him daily maybe for now just to get the extra frost and if I feel like doing another maybe I may or wont. But he is decently geared from the LFG heroic randoms and often he is topping out on the damage meters if not at least second one or the other for dps. But now he wont be running as many randoms for gear and no need to unless I feel like it.

So then I decided to go down to the garage and dust off my Paladin. Felt like last time I really played him WoW was in a different era because its really been a long break from playing him to dpsing for some time. His gear just seem so outdated and at least 2 major patches have come and gone and haven't played him or tried out any the new changes. I'm just rusty playing him and even thinking to use a spell here and there is not as quick on the reflexes since haven't played for a while. But I've managed to rack up enough Emblems of Triumpt for a new Libram. T9 Chest, Helm, Shoulders and Gloves to update my gear and even picked up some nice heroic ICC heroics tanking boots for upgrade just from running allot of LFG. Sometime ran as Tank yet more often as Ret so he easily upgrade his gear as well on rolls as well. Even got the achievement for looking for multitudes for grouping with over 100 players in LFG and my new Puggie Pug pet.

One my realm LFG queues for dps are like 15-20mins long due to all the people in queues for dps and waiting on tanks and healers. But queue up as a tank and you in the queue faster than you can finish hitting that damn button. Its damn near instant. So I went to tank a few runs on my Paladin.

One thing for sure is I'm rusty like I never imagined but still tanked decently as if I did most the time. But in my mind I'm well aware of the things I'm rusty even if no one else really notices. But it was all ok and got a few runs in to remove some the rust of just not tanking in over 7 months. Most the queues I got were for the normal heroics so made it easier getting back into a bit of a tanking mode.

I switched to playing Ret for a quite a bit to get used to playing my Paladin off spec and to remember how to dps as a Paladin. OMG faceroll as dps and more than 95% the time #1 on the dps meter and my Ret gear is over 8 months old and many gear piece is just ilvl 200 gear and even got a blue piece in there somewhere. I was easily doing 3300k-3800k in LFG randoms depending on buff. A bit of the time had some decent dps groups. Then had a few groups with the occasional dpser in group around 1000 dps and even seen some lower. It was so easy to faceroll dpsing as Ret it wasn't even all that fun usually.

I remember in one H VH with a 31K HP DK dpser with average 226 ilvl gear on that could barely do 1100 dps. At first I was thinking he was the tank, then I realize he was dps and I was like wow. So had to inspect his gear and yeah full epic gear he had on and even some pvp gear. But I'm seeing a bit mix and match for dps and I'm topping the damn dps meters almost every run in my Ret off spec to get a few Ret gear from the new heroics.

But I've been in quite a few heroics where stuff just start getting stupid. I remember one run I was in as dps in H.UP I was in that in the middle of a trash pull the healer just quickly said "hey gtg guild need me for raid bye" poof and was gone. No one barely saw it and we only knew the healer was gone when the entire group wiped. Everyone was like wtf! Just like that healer bailed and didn't even wait till after trash was done so can get a replacement. Less than 10 secs later that LFG group was done for. I remember yesterday on another run in H.HoS a dps and a healer dropped out for reasons I have no idea and no warning in middle of a pull and wipe the group that was in pull I remember. That group was over before you could wonder what happened.

Been in a few the new ICC heroic where on a wipe the healer and another player couldn't find how to get back to the Instance or even the entrance and this one was just too funny because of the time it took. But it wasn't long that party fell apart as the healer just couldn't figure out how to get back to instance. I'm starting to see allot of LFG runs like that especially in the new ICC heroics.

I see some groups like to hurry or dps hurrying the tank for whatever and instead of waiting on the tank either pulling or running ahead and accidentally pulling trash which wipe a group. Immediately someone just quit group then or two people do and group falls apart. I've been in now a few groups like that. I remember in one run in heroic Pit of Saron we had a fairly new DK tanking. She was doing ok learning the pulls and doing her best in my opinion. After the first boss died at the forge. A few other people wanted the run to go faster so they decided to quickly mount up and run off to go to the next boss area. They immediately pulled a few trash and before you knew it the entire group wiped and barely anyone even knew what happened. Wasn't long group fell apart.

I was in another heroic run, one the new ICC heroics and the grouped wiped on trash for some reason. The healer immediately quit just like that. The funny thing was the healer never recovered their body which was still there later when the group wiped again on last boss. I thought that was funny seeing the players body still there face down. I mean all kind of stupid stuff I'm starting to see that ruin groups. As well I'm noticing players in LFG random have a low tolerance ratio for wiping, stupidity. I call it low resilience.

Then there was the totally classic heroic Nexus run with the 2 tanks a Warrior and a Paladin bot extremely well geared who couldn't decide between themselves which one of them was the real tank to tank the run. This one was just too funny. But apparently they seem somehow to know each other been from the same realm. Since they couldn't decide who was going to be tank the entire run one of them switched spec and started the run when backwards starting from the 3 boss at the rift then to the stone boss. Then the other tank decided he wants to tank while we then loop back around to the first boss in the ice and then to the mage boss then loop back to the last boss. Took forever it seemed. The entire time both tanks argued as well as kept vote spamming to vote each other out the run. No one did, everyone else just wanted to finish the run and get their emblems. I mean it was a comic show the entire run. As much as it was plain stupid it was just too funny.

The newness of the LFG system will be over eventually, when that is I can't say. People will get tired of random group stupidity, antics or people that act stupid in LFG or cant pull their weight and may be less likely to queue and rather run chain heroics with guildies or friends from their realm. The dps wait for LFG queues are much longer than queues for Tank/Healers by a long shot for people waiting to go as dps. Before in the old LFG it was the thing that many good tanks and raid tanks didn't run LFG all that much on their own realm where they knew the players from their own realm.

However for the moment many tanks will run LFG for now. But eventually I just don't see many good tanks putting up with random group stupidity in LFG for too long after they gotten all their emblems for their gear they need or the extra frost emblems once they get all their gear and the rest of ICC raids are open. Probably aren't really going to see many high hp tanks and the ones that do will likely be newer tanks. And I can only imagine how things will get in heroics with newer tanks with the random LFG cross realm system.

Its can be funny to think how players in WoW cause themselves undo problems in the long term with new unique group functions to make it much easier with allot of stupidity and stupid antics in LFG which causes good players to eventually at some point not want to use it eventually unless they really really have to. While LFG is still hot I'm using it to gear up as fast as possible while I can when I can. But LFG to me already seem to be on the decline and when tanks and healers are not in queue it will just take longer for dps to get into LFG and people will start complaining all over again how the LFG system don't work.

Edit: 12/25/09 - Corrected some grammar errors.

Quel'Delar's Epic Quest in ScreenShots

Quel'Delar's reward for a dps Priest since well you cant wield the actual blade and Priests don't use Swords.

Its a very long Epic Quests that once started takes you through all 3 of the new IceCrown Citadel 5 man Instances to either gather some items or reforge some part of the Quel'Delar's blade. As well fight the blade in Halls of Reflection. Lots of lore all around. Even get to meet quite a few heroes and villains of lore all well known as well. Its a really awesome and time consuming quest but really fun that takes you to lots of places to complete.

I took over two dozen screenshots on the quest just for fun of lots of cool moments. I'm not going to put them all up. I'm also too lazy to detail the quest as well so i'm just going to do it in screenshots and all are in order to the next. Few shots are missing in between and those are all that takes you to the new heroics to complete some aspect of it. But just a few screenies of the Epic quest.

If and when you run any the new three IceCrown Citadel heroics this Battered Hilt can drop from any thing in the dungeon and even from the boss also if your so lucky to see it drop. This Hilt dropped for me of the last boss or 2nd boss in heroic Forge of Souls. This quest can be done by any class and rewards any class at the end with a weapon. So if the Hilt ever drops for you everyone roll need on it and that includes you. Don't let some smart ass try to talk you out of not rolling on it. Yeah some smart ass tried to as well in my random heroic Pug, but i won the roll and all was well fair and square.

Anyway Enjoy. I need to get back to playing the game.

You take it here the Battered Hilt if it ever drops for you and you know where that is by now.

Lots of interesting lore and lore i never knew about. Cool stuff.

That queen is a hottie!

You get to meet a few Heroes. As as a Blood Elf its great to actually get to meet some and not some the crazy ones we know of. You even get to give then a helping hand and get their blessing.

A trip to now well guarded the Sunwell.

Present and dip Quel'Delar's blade into the Sunwell.

All the Elfs seem to be happy I returned Quel'Delar and mumbled all kind of stuff in awe of Quel'Delar's return.

The Sunreavers are quite happy I completed all that task to complete and reforge Quel'Delar on its Epic quest.

Bummer Priests can't use swords so I can't actually wield Quel'Delar. So the Argent Crusade decide to reward me in fair trade with one their great great Epic Weapons and take Quel'Delar into their protection.

Epic Quest! You even get a Achievement for it too. How nice. Well can only hope a Battered Hilt drops for you too and maybe you get to do the quest and all. Don't let some jerk try to talk you out of rolling Need if you haven't gotten it yet. Some guy in my Pug wanted to bribe me for the Hilt when it dropped.

In Case You Missed This: Seals & Shield Cleaving

If your a Paladin in the Maintankadin community or one that frequently reads the forum over there and keep up to speed on the very latest things then your already most likely well aware of some recent change affecting Protection Paladins having to do with our Seals and Shields use. I'm just going to point you with a little bit of redirect link love to a few of our fellow Tankadins in the community that has already covered some aspect of these latest findings already and this is really worth reading.

Honorscode now moonlights a little bit from his well written Paladin blog and has a really good article piece over at Paladin Schmaladin: I'm No Expert, But This Is Important. Its really worth reading if you haven't been keeping up on latest in Tankadin news and on the tip changes affecting Tanking.

And then I turn you to Rhidach who also has two added piece over at his blog Righteous Defense with: Shoring up Expertise. This effect leads into his other piece Second Look at Seal of Command. All of those blog article pieces which have been well analyzed by Theck over at Maintankadin the math genius who's numbers always make my head ache in searing pain is so well tied together by Wrathy who writes a really awesome blog over at Avenging Wrathy with this piece: SoComm versus Vengeance/Corruption.

This is really good reading and worth reading if your a Tankadin or moonlight as one and not always keeping up like some of us that do on the latest news from the tip of the blade which often changes suddenly and very fast. All those blogs are really worth reading if you haven't been there before but follow the links and get the low down on the changes to Shield of Righteousness, Expertise and Seal of Command as well Shield of Seal of Righteous Cleaving. Its fun finding out just what that is and all about.

Follow the links and be informed. Enjoy!

Why Do You Pull So Fast?

A nice and simple question and a fairly lengthy new thread I saw and read on my Blue Tracker asked by Skeletorrior on the WoW Forums: Why do Tanks Pull So Fast? The reason It caught my attention again was more so because just a few days ago I had a chat discussion with a few guildies that brought up the question in guild chat. More so especially since Patch 3.3 with the new LFG system and with many of them now running allot of random heroics.

So quite a few guildies chatted about it and their experience with the cross realms LFG system and their grouping with random players often many high HP tanks and super fast runs. I'm still a Tank at heart and though I've been on break from it for quite a few months I still know how I like to tanks and think I can understand the reasoning why many tanks like to pull so fast. So I tried to chat with my guildies to help them understand some perspective of from a Tanks view.

Since Patch 3.3 in the random LFG System I've been in groups as dps where Tanks pull at amazing speed from start to finish. Some have been crazy pulls the entire instance. Often many those runs were with Tanks around 38K+ HP and more but all fun to me.

Some my answer to that is just based on my own personal experience and just how I like to do things from my experience over time as a Tank. But as a Tank I hate standing around twiddling my thumb in a Instance! Its also one the things I really hate at times about raiding, all the waiting around as well also and dead time. When I get to the instance and we ready, its time to get going, keep moving and get it over with. And the faster its over with the quicker I can get that done and move on to the next thing to do whatever that may be I need to do.

I also like the momentum and keeping the momentum of things moving fast if possible or at a steady pace. As well the better I now a instance the faster its going to go and as long as the healer has mana or fairly enough I'm going to keep moving. Plus with Divine Plea as a Paladin it favors being in constant melee combat to keep Divine Plea up for mana regeneration.

Faster runs to me are much more fun and well as chain pulling and keeping a fight going. That's just more fun than constant and stop and go and waiting around. Kinda remind me of highway traffic and stop and go traffic. I hate stop and go traffic as well. I like to drive fast and move fast. Quite a few times I've been in group where the healer and dps was asking to go faster or someone wanted the run to go faster because they had other things to go do and wanted the run to be over as fast as possible. I'm going to pull as fast as I think the healer can keep up and keep people alive without wiping. I don't like unnecessary repairs either from dying if i can help it from a stupid wipe if I can avoid it.

From beginning of Instance run to the end I'm constantly paying attention or evaluating how well the healer is keeping things going on heals. More so at the beginning of the run. And as long as they doing a good job of it on heals and keeping up it sets the pace for me the rest of the instance I'll keep pulling moving things along rapidly. The more Pro to me the healer seems or the more trust I have in the healer to be on the ball the faster I'm going to go and the more fun I'll try to make the pulls and run for everyone. At times I've tried to pull fast or make things interesting to give the healer a healing workout and so they don't get bored healing either. But for me it all depends more on the healer than the dps. And as long as the healer can keep up on healing I'm going to keep pulling and moving fast as long as I'm comfortable as well with the group performance and nothing tricky about any pull I'm doing like in learning a new Instance and getting a feel for things.

The faster the better, the more fun it is. Sometimes your just in the zone pulling and keep going unless the healer signal for a break or something to slow down a bit. But the quicker the instance is over with the quicker that I as a Tank can get back to doing whatever it is I was doing. I don't like to waste time twiddling my thumb! The last few months I been enjoying playing dps for a change of pace and I enjoy it and the relaxation of it all. And even dpsing I enjoy things when the Tank as well picks up the pace and keep things moving at a good steady pace and the faster the more fun to me it is or challenging it can be.

It might be the same for you or it may be different reasons. But why do you pull so fast?

Peaking Into IceCrown Citadel

I did on my Shadow Priest. Damn then Giants hit hard as hell and can rip a group to shreds triggering them silent alarms. Almost friendly with the Ashen Verdict. Well I know I can do at least 3k+ dps easily at least depending on available buffs so far in my fully Epic geared one week old new 80.

Limited WoW this week till the weekend, busy working at nights all week.

A Week In Screenshots Pugging LFG

Just a week in review on the Pug beat running random heroics on my Shadow Priest and so far my experience with it is overall Fun! Whats not fun is the Dalaran Lag! And all the people sitting around Dalaran twiddling their thumb while waiting for a group to pop and causing all that lag too and whatever else is causing it. Otherwise most the instance groups has been really fun and overall jerk free......... so far. That was one the fastest H HoL I can remember so far though it didn't beat that 4 man one I was in one time but that's another Pug tale.

Most of my addons have been updated, yet some of the ones I would like thats apart of my UI are not updated as yet but thats less annoying than Dalaran lag waiting for them to get updated.

Heroics since Patch 3.3 is All Business! Really? Yeap! No small talk, no one wants to chat. No one wants to hear you chat. Sometime people barely say Hello. And if they ever say Hello, that's as much as you'll ever hear the rest of the run. Get in, get it going, get on with it and get out as fast as you got in. All Business I guess.

I was in a heroic OK group. It was going fine. The Tank went afk before the second boss. Ok. He was afk at least 5 mins. One dps dropped out, then the other dps dropped out. Not long after I told the healer we should call it wth afk Tank, she agreed. Was about 9 mins by then and tank was still afk. I'm not bothered by having a degree of patience, It has served me well in other areas like tanking when I do. But many players don't and in this case the afk tank as way long on afking. If your prone to going afk, you probably wont have a group left or be in one the time you get back afking in the new grouping.

Most people I observe have been real courteous on entering groups and in groups. In my 100+ players I've pugged with no one has ever been kicked from a group. Most people have some decent form on dps.......so far. In ever group I've dropped a Gigantic Feast or one in one form or the other. Most people appreciate it for the buff even if it matters less if you over gear the instance. Some people do drop them or ask, but few people do. All good.

When the last boss dies and the last loot is rolled and resolved. People rarely say good by or appreciate the group, but some do. Many just drop the group as fast as they got in it and off to the nether. But some do say "hey good group", "fun run" or something. But for the vast majority I've seen its poof gone to the nether or back to their server. All Business and no small talk.

I did notice this when we ran a few heroics as our guild that with the group as it is when the lass boss was dead the leader can put the group back in the LFG que and instantly with a full ready group immediately was in another heroic. That worked for quite a few runs we did. So I can only presume if your in a good group and at the end people can elect to stay in group if they like or choose to and be quickly more ready to do a next random heroic. Could be much faster than dropping a group, leaving instance, porting and then re-entering the LFG que if you already have a good group for more heroic random runs. Worth trying if your there.

I have not had the chance to do the new heroic for ICC on regular since well, I've been to busy running random heroic in the new LFG system. But doing the random heroics with the guild we got heroic Forge of Souls. I got goose bumps because i had not seen any of the new 3 heroic yet on regular mode. Later on had really good group in random LFG since i ended up seeing heroic Forge of Souls like 3 times at least later. The new Instance just felt really Epic and was just too much fun. Even the trash felt Epic and fun. We wiped once on each boss but we got it down the second time. Those bosses are just fun and awesome fun it was!

Later on as I was rolling along in random Heroics I got heroic Pit of Saron. Oh no! I haven't seen this place on regular mode either. I had no idea what to expect or what to do. Well dps. Oh yeah. I just dpsed and try to stay out of anything below me. No one explained anything and I didn't really ask either to be that noob dps guy that don't already know the new Instance back to front and know everything already about every boss and boss ability like some people want to expect you to already know when you barely have had the chance to do it yet. No hadn't a clue what to expect. Seems like the ultimate fun in well not knowing what to expect.

We didn't wipe on any boss! And that was a bit of the highlight for me. And I really didn't understand the boss tactics or mechanics either. Even after the fight I kept wondering exactly what they did. I just ran out of stuff and away from stuff and tried to stay alive and keep dpsing. We did wipe on trash the only wipe in the instance Pit of Saron. We wiped once on the waves of trash right before the ice cave tunnel. Sound advice is kill the casters first. What really helps is the the mobs being marked as well to people know which ones to kill. But some the best instance I've ever seen in 5 man heroics period.

I have to say some the best groups Instance wise I've been in. And for doing 2 the new dungeon on heroics and never seen them on regular mode or know what to expect it was all a rush and awesome fun not knowing what to expect. As well the healer was damn impressive as we didn't wipe on any boss in Pit of Saron. Was so much fun.

DPSing as Shadow Priest

I'm still really refining dpsing as Shadow Priest but I guess more so in a party setting/instance/raid. DPSing as a Shadow Priest is really fun aside from any other class issue most people have of the class. Its kinda reminds me of a bullet train. I once lived in Japan for a few years when back in the military and got to rode a bullet train a few times very expensive ride but damn fast. The trains take a little while going along to ramp up to full speed, but once they do they moving ultra fast. So far been able to gear him up quite a bit, he even got 2 pieces of Teir 8.

To me comparing dps as Shadow to most other dps that start at full speed on hits it seems out the door it takes a little while to catch up dpsing moving along with other class. Shadow Priests don't have much burst with a bang like mages or any the fast burst high dps classes, they just have a bit of ramp up time to doing fairly good dps rolling with allot of dots and more dots on duration fights. And its the ramp up time that takes allot of the work to drop all them dots and the one you need up. And I guess that's how dps to me is as a Shadow Priest if I ever had to somewhat explain.

That ramp up time can seem to frustrate many with a spec with so little real burst, just lots of dots. Instancing on trash, burst classes can dish out the burst so fast that as Shadow stuff dies before you can really even drop any good meaningful dots and without much tick duration since well trash dies fast before dots have time to really tick. I guess with Patch 3.3 the haste change will help allot here but still the dpsing part of the class that can frustrate some where stuff dies so fast your dots have not much tick time and your dps output can loot low on trash and especially if there is allot of it. But overall I love the class spec as Shadow for what it is and the playstyle it is despite the short comings the class spec may have.

With that its the thing I been working at hard the most in any party setting. It takes allot of good effort to do really good dps as Shadow while having fun. I enjoy the spec and its very fun to me and its what i somehow wanted in something very different. I find it takes a bit of though to decide what you want to cast at times vs some class just hit button X and Y over and over. So its something different I enjoy and how the class plays which is much different to allot of the other classes or caster classes.

But trying to do good solid dps as Shadow takes work for a person that's dpsing as one as well. And to me if they are even close to topping the dps meter they are working their ass off to do it with allot of effort. And so far I been working my ass off to come close to topping them meters while keeping myself alive. And I guess thats some the fun I enjoy in Shadowing. Not just to play a class and dps, but learning to play a class well. And if i'm not topping the meter, im fine with that as i enjoy the class for what it is. But im going to do my best and work my ass off to out do the other dps that may be slacking at playing theirs.

Related Posts: Screenshots: The Patient One

Screenshoots: The Patient One

I got my little Puggy Pug. The texture on that pet is really nice and looks like one the best looking pets in the game. I'm still not much a game pet fanatic, but its minor enjoyment all the same. A though came to mind looking at the pet that had me wondering if Blizzard is experimenting with new game textures but doing it in not so obvious ways. I wonder?

So my Shadow Priest barely been at lvl 80 a week. The pixel character may be different whether on my Paladin or any other class, I'm still the same player that have always loved to Pug since ancient times. That has never changed. So I got the Title for The Patient one on the first day I ran him through Heroic on a marathon which was Wednesday. The thing was I didn't even notice I had and was wearing the title till when I logged in on Friday! Duhh. After getting off work Friday night I went on marathon random heroics run and ended up with the new Achievement for Multitudes on early Saturday morning running heroic UK. Almost fully Epic'd as well after that many runs.

Ever the Patient pugger at Ardent Defender. One of the little many things that gives me game enjoyment.

LFG Random Heroics are Fun!

I don't know what to tell you if you haven't as yet tried Patch 3.3 and some the new features. I haven't ventured into Icecrown Citadel for the new dungeons there as yet to do anything though I've picked up the quest on one or two alts. So far just been using the new LFG system and its damn fun.

After playing around updating more addons earlier this morning I finally got around to doing a few Heroics almost at noon. No one was on in the guild so I figure I try things out in LFG while on my Shadow Priest since I needed to get him some adequate gear since he recently hit lvl 80 and have barely started to do Heroics.

I entered LFG and in less than 5 secs I was whisked away to Heroic Nexus. Worked fine as momentarily appeared in the Instance with the cross server group. Some groups i heard was still having some instance problems and in ICC it seem to happen a bit there with some bugs in the new dungeons. But in Heroic the runs went fast as hell and with good groups so far! First group Tank had a whopping 55K HP. WoW! The instance was over before you knew it. Man was it fast.

After left the instance it sends you back right where you were before you entered the instance. So back in Dalaran sitting on my mount where I was before. Re-entered the new LFG system and up was Heroic HoL. Another cross server group and a Tank with some 49K HP. lol all the raid tanks are out in force I guess. If Nexus went fast before this one was hooked on speed!! Literally!! Form beginning to end the instance the tank did not stop pulling, he chain pulled the entire instance form pull to pull to pull. He didn't wait for you to mana up or whatever. And before you knew it the instance was over before it barely began. WoW. We got Heroic Occulus somewhere in between and it seen nerfed allot from what I remember.

I can't remember how many Instances I ran. But I saw Heroic Nexus like 2 times using the LFG random Heroic. I started the day with 7 Emblems of Triumph and when I logged off for something to eat I had 62 Emblems of Triumph. When you enter the LFG system it really don't take long before your group is ready. I mean not long at all, you barely have time to go do anything else before your group pop and is ready. I had to leave LFG and log off because it was like 8pm in the evening and I hadn't even eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner.

As for the new loot system in play in Heroics, it went along smoothly with all the groups I had. It worked just like the usual loot system. If you had a enchanter in group you could see the option to disenchant was actually lit up on the selection to disenchant. I pretty much selected to disenchant the blues if it was not usable. If you did not have a enchanter in group the option to disenchant was not a real option on the loot selection so you had to greed the item. But pretty much it worked as it suppose to and didn't notice any real problem.

I've never seen Dalaran so packed with people all standing around waiting for Instances to pop ready. Needless to say the place lagged allot as well. But the Heroics sure popped fast in the new LFG system and was fun trying things out. All the groups I had went well and fast and the instance was usually over before you knew it. So far really had a fun time in the new LFG system. Lots of Fun!

Patch 3.3 and Day After

Well it was hell just trying to log into WoW on patch day. Even just trying to get connected to the game never seemed to happen and when you got pw logged in you still couldn't make it to your realm to get connected and was auto disconnected every time. I gave up after a while just didn't seem was going to get into the game. So much for my scheduled day off work!

Tried to log in later but still couldn't get into the game. I called it a night at that. Tried this morning to log in and still kept getting disconnected. Was eventually able to log into the game but kept getting disconnected when tried to log on realm. Had to log into the game again and tried to log onto a different realm I barely use and somehow that seemed to let me log on a realm and then log off that realm and relog back onto my normal realm. Not sure why but that pretty much seemed to work and worked every time after relog.

Did pick up the new Core Hound pet on all my alts since I had a Authenticated account ever since Blizzard had them. Don't everyone have account authenticators by now?

I just spend much the morning clearing up mail boxes for AH stuff mostly. There seem to be some changes with Quick Auctions 2 in being able to mass cancel items and specifically I guess Glyphs since they are so cheap to cancel all day long. Its kinda noted on the addon and a workaround listed as a notice if you use it so the notes are there. But its just harder to mass cancel stuff.

As well my Postal addon don't work and neither updated for clearing mailbox fast so had to manually remove a ton of glyphs from a few alts by clicking each one, which took forever. While doing that I did notice a change with mailbox as well. Before they used to be a 50 mail limit, but it seem now as you remove stuff from mail that the mailbox auto updates and add new mail you haven't as yet removed. Kinda nice. But nicer to get my stuff out the mailbox faster and not take forever too.

I did find the 3 new glyphs that were added to the game you can find in Dalaran at the glyph vendor but as learn able Techniques from the vendor item seller who sells the parchments. So if your a scribe you can pick them up there for a few gold as recipes. I saw some people had them on AH for as much as 200g the three new recipes.

Haven't had time to do much else since still have to update quite a bit of addons that needs updating even though downloaded a bit of them yesterday.

Hurray Patch 3.3 lands Today!

Can you say people are excited for the new patch that lands today. Probably cant get off work fast enough to boot up WoW to go try out the new patch.

With all the info and new stuff in the new patch and stuff to read and go over and all that I don't really have anything specific to put up on the blog. I'm glad I'm done leveling my alts, so my much long detour is over right before patch 3.3.

I'm just reading catching up on things in patch notes and changes, reading a few my favorite blogs and others and all that I haven't been able to keep up as much with for a while.

So I don't really feel like making a post atm about anything. Its my day off and just busy trying to update my addons and all that stuff.

As long as the patch install goes along well and not too many problems, I'm sure most people will be having a busy day playing around with all that's new in the patch and hitting up the new dungeons for ICC and LFG for random Heroic for marathon runs to rack up some new Emblems.

I'm sure I'll be out there somewhere...

Things to Do...

Its been a long while but need to take a trip down to the garage and pull the dust covers off that antique and rust plated P.Paladin and send him over to Overhauling for major tuning, rework for allot of armor plating upgrade.

Need to redo my Paladin Tanking UI. His UI is completely different to all my dps characters as his needs are just different. His UI has been untouched for months and so so last decade.

Wildcard: I been needing to clean my hard drive for some time and good time to do so. Been putting it off till I finished leveling my alts to 80. Means deleting everything on my drive and having to reinstall everything and and doing it all over and a major distraction to do. Soon probably. Sounds like allot of work reinstalling system, WoW, Addons, configuring addons etc. Thats allot of work!

For today, I get to play with the new patch and get exhausted running Heroics on marathon runs for Emblems. Do I take my Paladin, Shaman, Death Knight, Hunter, Shadow Priest for retooling and Emblems? Uhh. Life was so much simpler to decide on things when their was only one character to play my Paladin than a band of alts. More alts more problems!

Finally my last 80

The journey to level up a few alts all the way has finally come to a end! Finally dinged 80 a little while ago on my Shadow Priest Darkweaver turning in a quest in Icecrown. Got up early today on my day off and knocked out the last 2 levels. I wanted to get it done before the weekend since I have to work all weekend.

He was really really fun to level up and i've now got quite a bit of leveling fatigue after leveling up 4 alt 80's all back to back. With that I've accomplished one of my big goals i've set much earlier in the year for WotLK to level up a few alts, four in all to lvl 80.

So I now have 5 lvl 80 characters a big brother Paladin and his band of brothers with a Shaman, Death Knight, Hunter and a Shadow Priest. And thats about as much characters I can stand to level up and play in some fashion without feeling i'm completely stretched too thin while maintaining some sense of good playing skill among each.

My Shadow Priest will only dps. He never ever will have dual spec because I just don't play healing! Its just not my thing.

I'm just glad the journey to level up a few alts is finally over as i'm a bit tired from it all. And quite glad got it all done before the final Patch of 3.3 arrives for WotLK.

Pilgrim?

The Turkey stuffing feast is over and a multitude of achievements to go with them. Tobold ask: Are you a Pilgrim?

Me. Nope!

Don't even think my Paladin even killed a Turkey. Not that i even had him do much either beyond learn the new recipes since he's been at max cooking for forever.

I decided long ago to be a underachiever. I make my own goals of what interests me and those are what i really do or spend time doing. Achievements don't really do much for motivating me. I just do what i feel is fun or quick to do and thats all i'm doing.

The only thing I really did was to get the cooking leveling done on a few alts that I hadn't had time to level cooking skills on at the time of the holiday event. Did throw some food at some people since it was easy and right there by the tables. But i didn't go chasing any Rogues or anything like that or LTB Rogue to shoot for Achievement, paying 100g. Nope didn't do any of that.

What i did spend my time doing was getting my Shadow Priest to lvl 76. I did making enough of that Cranberry stuff for that nice spell power food buffs for leveling with my Shadow Priest for having a good stack of cheap good food buffs on hand the entire way to 80. I did them on the last day of the event so had enough to last for 7 full more days and picked up a few of the items to make a the platter feast for instancing.

But not much for chasing after all those Pilgrim holiday achievements even if they were fairly easy. What they were and usually are is time consuming. Time is precious.

But i'm sure some of you got the Pilgrim title and all the achievements right?

Pilgrim Cooking from 1-300 on the Cheap.

I'm not usually much for running around doing holiday stuff just for fluff. I tend to stick to doing more important things for me that i need to get done. As the Goblins say time is money. But this Pilgrim Cooking for the Holiday event is just AWESOME!

It something you need to log on to every Alt you have, high or low that don't have much cooking skills yet. As on the cheap you can level up your low lvl cooking from 1-300 right there in the cooking area outside any your faction major city. There is even a Cooking Trainer right there as well.

If you don't know how awesome that is. Consider that a freebie from Blizzard! Because you can level up cooking from 1-300 or as high as your alt can go per their lvl on the total cheap and only cost you mere silvers maybe a gold or two. Folks you normally cant level up cooking that cheap ever or which as less effort as you can here at the.

Even the food stuff you cook with the Bountiful Cookbook gives some really nice food buff comparable to lvl 80 cooking food buffs like Spice Bread Stuffing and more. Only last 7 days but hell its damn cheap buffs for Instancing or Raiding for seven days.

Few of my Alts I haven't had time to lvl cooking on as yet. So this is what I'm doing. Even my lvl 80 DK only had 1/300 cooking. Just haven't had time to level his as yet as well my other recent new alts. Some city vendors have select recipe items for cooking so you may have to check the different city event vendors if you cant find a item.

Get cracking and save you lots of time and effort with cooking. Then go do whatever else fancy your taste to waste time doing.

I Know You Really Want It!

Yeap gaze upon that thing with total envy, as I know you want it. You have enough reasons to really want it just and one reason would do. I won't blame ya, I would want it too. I got both a dual spec Paladin and a DK that can use that. That weapon is AWESOME!

Quest for Shadowmourne the Legendary is only available in 25 man Icecrown Citadel raid and you also have to kill the Lick King to get it forged at the end of the quest chain. Good Luck on that Epic Journey! That sure cuts out the amount of people that will ever see that including myself since its a 25 man raid as well and i'm only likely if ever to see Icecrown in 10's.

If you want one good reason to 25 man raid Icecrown Citadel in patch 3.3, right there gazing upon that weapon is one good reason to slave away for quite sometime to try and wrap your hands around.

People will really mourne in envy you when they see you with it. What will you do to get your hands wrapped around your legendary? You know you want it right?

What would I do, hmmmm. If Zan my old fun ex Warrior buddy and former GM restarts playing WoW again and reforms the old guild back to 25 man's just a possibility I'll move servers and rejoin him. Just day dreaming, but thats what I would do. Doubt that will ever happen.

WoW Blogosphere Drama In Play

Not often the WoW blogosphere get filled up with drama. But it sure can feel dramatic being in the community when it happens. I mean there is enough drama is the game itself. But sometime the drama evolving around the game itself can be just as fun to watch it play out. Its like watching soaps sometimes.

Last community drama episode I remember involved a Paladin author trying to pass as someone else that was writing for a popular paladin site. Was really confusing to say the least the whole thing.

The latest drama involve guides about gold selling guides, a WoW blogger and a few well prominent WoW bloggers. You can read Tobold or Greedy Goblins blog.

Im not getting into this, but its just fun watching it all play out from my little corner of the community. Its not often the WoW community is filled with drama and watching it all play out. Gives everyone a chance to weigh in for about a week on this if you don't have much to write about already.

I'm just going to watch this all play out. Sometime this kind of drama can seem more fun to read than playing WoW itself.

WoW Update 11/16/09

Busy leveling my Shadow Priest. So got Shadow boy to Outland. Got him some Outland gear, and cleaned up Hellfire Peninsular weaving shadow magic. Got him some wings as well. Toured around Zangarmarsh a bit them was off to Nagrand a zone which I always enjoy.

With that managed to get him to lvl 66. Even got him a name change to from Eternallord to Darkweaver to more kinda match his dark magic nature. Kinda matches my Shaman name a bit since he's Voodooweaver. Just 2 more levels in Outland and be off to Northrend on the home stretch. Shadow continues to be fun and has gotten more fun since getting to Outland and getting better Outland gear.

Thats about all I've been up to.

Happy Veterans Day!!

Happy Veterans Day to all you Veterans and whatever branch of service you freely served in and Wars past! And to all you who freely serving in harms way during this Veterans Day keep it safe.

And Happy Veterans Day to all you salty behind the ears squids and shellbacks like me from the Navy. I proudly served there too.

I remember my very first Veterans Day as a Veteran. Iraq had already invaded Kuwait and I was on deployment aboard my first navy ship in the Arabian Gulf with out navy battlegroup awaiting orders to strike. I was in engineering a GSM and I was barely 18 years old. I remember all those days, I used to think all day long if i would ever see home, my friends, my family, if i would make it to 19 years old. I guess i did. Served 8 long years.

I will always miss my buddies. They were like a brotherhood that only someone that's been there can ever understand.

Wish all you who both proudly and freely served or payed the price in service to country, Happy Veterans Day!

My old ship and last command USS Bunker Hill CG-52. Its a she, and she can do and deliver allot of solid fast dps!

Thoughts on Leveling my Shadow Priest

Ahh maintenance day. I get to have the day off and servers are down for maintenance consuming my day off...... bummer! Unfortunately I didn't get to play much or at all on the weekend either, since was too busy working as well. But did get to play a little before the server shut down for maintenance enough to move my newbie Shadow Priest along to lvl 51. As well he will remain my entire focus in game play till he gets to lvl 80.

Good thing as well the Shadow Priest is my very last Alt I'm leveling up for the rest of WotLK as well and my last time leveling through the soon to to be forgotten world. I will be finally glad to be done with my leveling project as well. So the end is in sight as well.

And so far I'm also enjoying learning the ways of playing and leveling up Shadow Priest strictly for dps and to play around with like my other few 80 Alts as a option to the weekly emotional gyrations to all things Paladin.

I've had my Priest for almost as long as my Paladin has been around. He's was at first my banking mule, then prime banker for way too long. So its good he's finally seeing some long delayed adventure. One the thing whether I was tanking or in a instance I just never see much Shadow Priest around. Holy and Disc Priest for healers but few "fultime" Shadow Priests. I did read 35 pages of thread at Elitist Jerk forum to get up to speed. I cant say exactly what i remember, but I did learn a few things, though I cant really say what exactly that was after 35 pages and I read every one of them.

For leveling up my last Alt I needed something a bit different to play and something interesting to me at least. It was almost a shoe in bet that I would level up my lvl 22 Druid. I was sure it would be my Druid as well. But when I logged onto my Druid and looked at his spells having not played him in forever I just couldn't think of what the spells remotely was used for nor did the names make easy sense to me. My Priest remained a option, but it was my last option.

So I decided I would test run a Mage and a Warlock both to lvl 10 to see if it was something I felt like playing. And I did lvl both to lvl 10 quickly and couldn't quite decide between been a evil Warlock and a nukeum Mage. DPS capability of either class had no really factor to me. Something different and something fun, but something different! Between the Warlock and the Mage, i think i somewhat preferred the Mage. So then I decided to take my lvl 20 Priest for a test spin somewhere. I hadn't played him in years, I wasn't even sure what his spells did anymore or how to use.

He still had quests from Ghostland. So took him on a few quest spin through Ghostland on green quests to get relearn how to use spells and abilities and get a feel for things. Took me at least 2 levels to get the hang of playing things. And at some point playing my Shadow Priest it just seemed like something I would enjoy in a evil way. The style felt like something different and interesting to play. I noticed I never died much or barely ever. So I just kept playing and it seems like fun to me at least and kept playing and all options of possibly leveling my Druid with much versatility evaporated as well as any options of a nuking Mage. I'll level a Druid someday though I'm sure.

So 31 levels later I'm still playing my Shadow Priest. One the odd thing is I play classes that can heal, but you will never see me playing a healer. I like the versatility in utility but I simply don't play healer. I just don't enjoy it as a full time gig. In emergency as a utility yes, but otherwise no. My Paladin can heal, my Shaman can heal, but neither will ever be spec to heal. So my Shadow Priest will just be for pure dps.

My experience so far leveling and learning the ways of a Shadow Priest seems a bit like roguish Warlock. Both use dots and dots but with a few Blasts and Mind Seering that seems fun. And for me it was interesting enough as well and figure out how to use spells. In some way I find a Shadow Priest quite a bit tough even though they wear cloth and can take a few hits. And I guess what i mean they have survivability and seem tough to die vs the other cloth wearing class. And I guess I've always like that as well and was something to grow into liking about my newest alt.

Stuff seem to dies fairly fast leveling as Shadow within use of a few spells. And i guess you have to get use to playing the class and using the abilities as well. At some point at low lvl sometimes it can seem a bit boring but with limited spell options its easy to see why as well. Leveling I never ran into anything I couldn't kill or kill with a bit of strategy and some thinking in how to approach. At best If things seem challenging I could just fear away a mob and tow it about and mind seer it to death which always seems fun to do.

At least I survived which is always a good thing. But I've fought mobs at +3,+4 and fairly easy. At +5 it becomes a bit quite difficult due to spell misses which is tough on mana if spells are missing leveling. But I've managed to win the greater majority of the time still despite that but its usually a close call. But its fun testing out what your limits are and how tough you can be to manage to survive being killed by a mob. And that's something for me to like in playing Shadow.

Until you really pick up Shadowform things can seem a little slower. You do drink a bit after dot dotting a few mobs for a kill in a row for mana. But after picking up Shadowform the spells start getting a bit interesting for talents and abilities. While leveling I could easily stand surrounded in a camp of mobs and take down 3-5 one after another without needing to drink for mana and it can be fun. Sometimes I just play to kill a mob but mostly conserve mana to lessen the down time. Later on you pick up the Vampiric Touch for more Shadow Damage and mana regen and it gets even more fun and have even less of down time but more manageable. But it seems to get easier leveling with the talents and abilities. And that's making it fun to play the class and character. Something about dealing Shadow damage seems fun to me while melting the minds of mobs. Im aware of some the class/spec issues reading around on Elitist Jerk but class changes been at warp speed in WotLK and im sure things will keep changing for improvements and into the next expansion for the better hopefully.

I guess with good skill and gear allot of those abilities get enhanced. In leveling good gear can be difficult as well to come by reliably. For the most part i just make due and not worry about gear to much and just have fun toying with mobs. I can eventually see myself playing or dpsing as a Shadow Priest at 80. It seems fun enough to play despite whatever the class challenge is. Some people play classes just to be epeen on damage meters. I at least like to have fun in what I'm playing while seeing how good i can get playing my class and to work at increasing my damage output in what I'm doing.

So far my Shadow Priest is a Tailor and Jewelcrafter and only manage so far to be working on Tailoring since he had to drop 225 Enchanting since he's had that for forever to pick up Jewelcrafting since my Shaman is a full Enchanter. But so far I'm enjoying Shadow, its seem roguish to me as a caster. I'm not sure if you would enjoy it with a fair amount of play for the class, but I know I do.

For now its fun and I'm sure it will continue to be even more fun as the levels goes by. I'm enjoying the leveling and learning experience and that remain run in learning a new class for diversification

Reflections on 1000 Emblems

Some days you just going playing the game and something happens that make you reflect on how you've played the game. I've never quite like chasing Achievements. I like when things happen naturally and unexpectedly doing stuff as a surprise for doing whatever it is you were doing. And BAM it happens!

But the other day I hit a 1000 Emblems and I was totally surprised when it happened.
A guildie needed help with a Daily Heroic and couldn't find a tank. He knew I had one, and I didn't want to tank either for him the Heroic. I just didn't want to have to tank anything period! I didn't want to have to log on my Paladin and roll into a Heroic which I haven't stepped foot into for months. I was reluctant to tank to say the least. Ever been there? He was a good guildie and told his to see if he can find someone else since I was playing or leveling one my dps characters and it was what I played daily. So I said if you cant find any tank for Heroic in LFG or Trade I could tank it for you. Most reluctantly really!

Logging on to my Paladin felt a bit wired. I barely recognized my UI, I barely recognized my spells. I had to think for a while what they really did even though I knew what they did in general. But I had to reacquaint my mind with things. I though to my self, its been a while since I've been here. Hope i can remember how to swing a sword and shield. Sounds funny, but really it happened. I felt rusty beyond belief. Numerous reasons why I was reluctant to tank even for a guildie. Ever hate when someone ask you to do something you don't even want to do?

Anyway the guildie just needed me to tank for his group in Heroic DTK for the daily. I could of cared less about the Heroic, I just didn't want to have to play my Paladin. I'm still on vacation from sword and board. I still remember how to tank, but my tank reflexes were slow, i felt rusty going through the motions of things and thinking what this and that spell do and what to use. I could barely remember my macro's and how I had them set up to use. I had to think vs things been a reflex action to things. To most other people on the run I don't even think they could tell the difference though the run went fast. But I knew the difference in my performance.

So tanking Novos the Summoner I saw a flash on the screen for a Achievement. I barely noticed what it said since it was so sudden. But it said Achievement for 1000 Emblems. At that point I started reflecting on things. I thought wow 1000 Emblems really? Big deal some people got 2000+ Emblems since WotLK, most are really progression raiders on content with that much Emblems. WotLK dungeons been open a year now, so allot of time to rack up lots of Emblems/gear for players playing endgame content.

I kept thinking the whole time and reflecting on the achievement. For the most part none of my achievement really mean that much to me, I just don't care that much about them that much. But some do make me thing or reflect on things playing my character. This one made me reflect on my time up to now even though I was just taking my Paladin out for a spin to help a guildie out most reluctantly.

And when I really though about things with the Achievement, my total time playing WotLK on my Paladin is just 3 months including the time going from lvl 70-80. Sometimes Achievements alone don't always tell the whole story of a character or why or how you got to that point in time.

After coming back from my long hiatus since WotLK launched, my first Northrend Dungeon starting leveling from 70-80. I was right at lvl 70 then.

That was my first Heroic at lvl 80 while working on my gear. My guild at the time was busy running Naxx 25. They offered to help me gear up or come to Naxx and get somewhat easy gear. Our ubar Holy Priest Jimmy at the time even offered to heal my Heroic runs to help me out. Wasn't my style to get gear like that in raid, I like working for what I have. So I ran Heroic and geared up on my own while my guild ran Naxx 25 at the time for lots of Emblems.

Fairly geared up as one of our guild tank core that was my first time in Naxx and it was a Naxx 25 Raid. I was OT with my former guild buddy and GM our Warrior and another Paladin. A few more Emblems.

My first Northrend 10 man raid. Just a few Emblems.

On our weekly Naxx 25 guild raid progression we finally downed Sapphiron to some degree of effort on our third try or so it was. But raiding was taking a bit of toll on the guild and our GM in the effort. A few more Emblems though. Much drama went down after that raid and the guild fell apart soon after. Was a sad time playing WoW and for raid progression.

Around this point out guild Warrior and GM quit wow due to other guild members lack of dedication and weekly raid progression issues. So sadly guild broke up and I transferred server to a new server starting over. On new server I answered a call for a pugged Ulduar 10 man raid as the OT and got my first Ulduar 10 man progression kill. It felt hollow as it was without my old guild as well. But progression it was and a few more Emblems.

This was my last Heroic ran on my new server even though I was new to the server. I was just loosing all interest to swing my sword and board. The guild break up was rough! But a few more Emblems. Remembering back I didn't really run any more Heroics after since till hitting 1000 Emblems. I was starting over somewhat playing a alt Shaman and more.

Another pug Naxx 25 man raid on the new server. Was finally able to clear Naxx 25. It still felt hollow to complete Naxx 25, as it was in a pug and not with friends. But it was complete the raid dungeon. A bit more Emblems for the effort.

Another random pug on the new server for a Ulduar 10 man run. I was in Dalaran one night with nothing really to do on my new server. Need a OT for Ulduar then gtg. Why not! Hey I'm available. A few more Emblems. Total raid time in Ulduar 3.

After that raid that was the last time I progression raided, ran any heroics or played my Paladin to do anything worth while or just played my Paladin at all up until this point. Its been that long since I've really played my Paladin. So taking him on a around the block tank run I hit a 1000 Emblems for just 3 months of WotLK playtime.

So i reflected on that and things that have transpired since. I would imagine If I had kept raiding or kept at things I could of had double that amount of Emblems/gear and more in raid progression. It just wasn't my focus anymore to raid or stack up Emblems for gear. At some point I just made a choice to just not log in and do anything meaningful on my Paladin for focus. So hence my reluctance as well when the guildie asked me to Tank for his Heroic. I just didn't want to. But eventually I did.

I guess that's the story of my 1000 Emblems where Achievements never tell you the whole story of things or how you got there. I guess i reflected on that and how many patches its been since all that time or how much things have changed as well as class changes. Lots to reflect on as I did. I could of been further along I thought thinking of things and more Emblems and better gear for the count. However I don't have any regrets in the months that has passed since.

In patch 3.3 1000 Emblems can get you a ton of gear. I'm behind much in the gear curve now. I guess I'll need allot more Emblems now and loot luck to catch up. I guess that's something now to think about as well. I guess that Achievement made me reflect on all that. Funny how things are.