It's been three months. I'm still here. I didn't disappear off the face of the Internet. I just didn't have anything to report. WoW got really boring for me really fast. I wasn't raiding with the raiding guild I'd joined on Loihi, and my attempts to resurrect my horde guild failed. Hard. My subscription ended March 13, and I was content not to spend any more of my hard-earned money on a Garrison Subscription. Then came the token. I had just enough gold to buy one, and I figured, "Why not?" I figured if I leveled up at least one more character and got a level 3 garrison and then stayed on top of my garrisons, I could accumulate enough gold to keep my subscription going. And I was right. A few days before my month was up, I purchased another token and watched my pile of gold drop to practically nothing.
And then last Wednesday I got banned.
I've hinted at it here, but now that everything is out in the open, I'm making a confession: I was one of those hundreds of thousands of botters.
There seems to be a huge misconception about who botters are and what exactly bots do, and I would like to attempt to clear some of that up.
I want to preface this by saying that I understand that what I did was wrong. I was aware of that from day one, and I was always aware of the risk that I was taking. I absolutely deserved my ban, and I am in no way trying to justify my actions. When I explain why I did certain things, it's not because I think my excuse makes them okay. There's no excuse that makes them okay. I'm just telling you exactly what I did.
So let's start with some terminology.
Bot Base: The bot base is the type of bot you're using. All of the bots are in one bot program called Honorbuddy, but different bots do different things. I can't open HB anymore, but off the top of my head the bot bases that I can think of are: Questing, Dungeonbuddy, Battlegrounds, Garrisonbuddy, Combat Bot, and Gatherer.
Profile: The profile is the code that tells your bot where to go and what to do. Of the bot bases that I listed, the only ones that used custom profiles were Questing and Gatherer. There was a really great questing profile pack that would level you straight from 1 to 100. There were also questing profiles for dailies or other questing objectives. The gathering profiles determined where and what you were gathering.
Combat Routine: This is exactly what it sounds like - it's how your bot plays in combat. A rotation. Honorbuddy comes with a default combat routine for each class, but there are lots of user developed routines that tend to be much better. The default one tends to go with the most basic rotation, while the custom ones are generally developed by people who really know how to play their class and some of them are really good. The really good ones also cost money - sometimes a lot of money. I had honestly never heard the term "kickbotter" until after the ban, but they are most certainly using paid routines. I never had a routine anywhere near that good.
Honorbuddy isn't the first bot I've used, but this has already gotten long, and I haven't even started yet. If you're curious about how I got into botting, I'll be happy to tell you. But for now, I'm going to leave my botting background out. I will say that when Josh started messing around with his first bot, I was vehemently opposed to it.
Now the first question is: why? I've seen a lot of people say, "If you're so bored with the game that you have to bot, maybe you should find a new game." Have I ever used the bot to combat boredom? Absolutely. But when I started botting, I was not bored with the game. I just wanted to try something new. Botting adds a whole new aspect to the game that you can't understand unless you've done it. I honestly can't even begin to try to explain it, but I will tell you that I probably spent more hours tweaking my bot and/or watching it play than I would have spent playing. I know how ridiculous it sounds to watch a bot, but I have yet to meet a person who couldn't get sucked into watching it. We had our bots running during a party once, and all of the guests, at some point or another, sat there watching with fascination.
How much gold did you make? Honestly, not much. People have this idea in their heads that all botters are gold sellers and we're all sitting on goldcapped accounts. Do those people exist? Yes, of course. But they are the small minority. The majority of botters are casuals like me. When my account got banned on Wednesday, I had 50k gold on my horde server and 25k on my alliance server. I think 60k is the most I ever had one one server at one time. I know lots of non-botters who have way more gold than that.
What was your arena rating? I don't have one. I haven't used the bot for arenas since Cataclysm, and even then, our rating was shit. Our win:loss ratio was probably about 50:50. We never paid for combat routines, and the free ones weren't going to get you far in an arena.
Didn't you feel bad about ruining BGs for everyone? Okay, yes. I used the pvp bot for maybe an hour per month, and I almost always monitored it. If I saw that I was in a bg that had a lot of bots, I would stop the bot and take over. But what people don't seem to understand is that for all those bots that you see who are running the same path, sitting in the same places, etc, there are just as many people who are using bots for combat but controlling where they go and what they do. Much like the gold sellers, the people who let their bots sit in BGs completely unmonitored all day are in the small minority.
So what did you use it for? I would say I probably used quest bot the most. In each expansion, I leveled at least one horde and one alliance character by hand, and then I let the bot handle the rest. In WoD, I did a lot of back-and-forth between hand leveling and bot leveling.
Prior to WoD, I used dungeon buddy quite a bit to get alts geared up. I geared up my mains by hand, but I just didn't have the time or the patience to gear up my alts. Dungeon buddy is hit or miss, though. Sometimes it's awesome, and sometimes it runs your character into a wall. Or leaves a fresh instance, giving you deserter. Or pulls mobs when it's not tanking. (Yes, it can tank a dungeon surprisingly well.)
I also used combat bot (or variations of it - LazyRaider, Enyo) a lot. We all have off days where we just aren't performing the way we should be, and in those cases, it was always best to let the bot play for me in a raid. I will say that all of the raiding I did in WoD was 100% me. There was no good warlock routine, and even though my numbers were low, I could play way better than the bot could. It was always changing when they made changes to classes. Sometimes the bot could play better than I could, and sometimes it couldn't. Sometimes I was just feeling lazy and I would let it play for me, while still controlling movement myself.
Prior to WoD, I used it to gather. There were gathering profiles for the entirety of EK and Kalimdor where your bot would just fly all over the continent gathering everything it saw. I used a lot of what I gathered, but I also sold a lot. So you could say I had an effect on the economy, I guess, but like I said - I never even had 100k gold. Not even close.
Garrisons. Garrisonbuddy was released shortly after the token was, and it was an absolute Godsend. I spent the last month exclusively using Garrisonbuddy. I would get up in the morning and turn it on. It would do all of my garrison chores - gathering, missions, work orders. And in the afternoon I would come home and collect my missions and send new ones (by hand). I wasn't selling anything that my garrison produced.
I was just living in my own little world when I got banned.
I say that, again, not to justify it. No matter how I was using it, it was cheating. I say it to show you that for every person you could identify as a bot, there were countless others that you couldn't. They may have been living in their garrisons. They may have been questing. They may have been using combat bot and controlling their character's movement. The zombies in the BGs, the kickbotters, and the people running the AH are not the majority of botters.
Do I regret what I did? Not for a second. Like I said, I was fully aware of the risks from day one. I was cautious in the beginning - everyone thought it we monitored our bots all the time, we'd be fine. We thought we just needed to be there if a GM talked to us. In many cases, that was true. But not anymore. I wasn't even online when I got banned. Many botters chose to bot on a second account. I used my main account. I thought I would be sad if it got banned since I've had it forever, but since it isn't a permaban, I'm really not. I lost a bunch of pixels that I never owned in the first place. That's how I look at it. I freed up 26 gigs on my SSD. I suddenly found myself with a whole lot more free time. If anything, Blizz did me a favor.
I've had a lot of people tell me that I disgust them, that if I'm willing to do this, who knows what kinds of horrible things I do in real life. I'm probably a liar, a cheat, and a thief.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion. Everyone I know and care about - both in-game and in real life - knows I bot. No one has disowned me over it, or even told me I should stop. So if strangers want to pass judgment because I cheated in a video game, by all means. But like I tell people who rage in LFG or LFR, it's just a game.
Will I be back when my ban is up? Who knows. Would I bot again if the opportunity presented itself? Absolutely.
(After the banwave, Honorbuddy was taken offline. So even if I had an active account, I could not bot.)
If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. If you want to express your contempt for me and the rest of the bot community, I certainly can't stop you, but I won't engage.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The Story of a Rock and a Hard Place
I made the decision to stop raiding with Loihi due to real life as well as not feeling like I fit in with my guild. I decided to focus on starting up a horde guild and starting to raid with them.
I am very honest with people when I try to recruit them. We only have a handful of 100s right now. We aren't ready to raid right this minute. We are trying to recruit more 100s so that we can start raiding as soon as possible. However, I'm not looking people who are already experts and are just gearing up an alt. I'm looking for people who want to learn together and become a team. A family even. I want everyone to have a fresh start. We did it before, and it worked so beautifully.
The problem is that everyone is pretty much done with Highmaul now and ready to jump into BRF. There aren't enough people in our server group who haven't stepped into the raiding scene but still want to get into it. I've recruited a lot of people who aren't 100 yet, but we've got this epidemic going on where people hit 100 and immediately leave the guild. I try to explain to them that if they could just have a little patience, we would get this thing going. You can't expect everything to happen immediately and on your time; we're trying to build a team and that takes a little bit of effort.
There was a guy that I talked to on Saturday who was absolutely perfect. Our raid times fit for him, he shares our raid mentality, and he had a few friends who he wanted to bring with him. I must have talked to him for half an hour. I never pushed him to join; all I did was answer his questions honestly. He finally decided to join and brought one friend with him. He said he'd invite the others as they came online. Then on Tuesday - just 3 days later, he left the guild with no explanation.
We keep getting super close, and then people leave. It's really frustrating.
I've even considered leaving my guild - whether it be on horde or alliance - and joining another guild. The problem is that Loihi, despite having done several weeks of Highmaul, still has no gear. And Amayaa has never done Highmaul, so she has no gear. Everyone is recruiting 650+ at this point to go into BRF. Nobody is recruiting people that aren't even Highmaul geared.
I shot myself in the foot, I guess. I mean, I had no way of knowing that Loihi's guild wouldn't work out. It seemed so perfect. And I'm just not going to raid in a guild where I'm unhappy. I'd rather not play the game at all. I'm trying really hard to get things going for Amayaa, but people aren't committed, and I can't control other people.
I'm trying to get my followers leveled up on both characters so I can get some decent gear from missions, but even if I do, nobody wants tanks, and I'm not going to dps on Amayaa.
I'm on the verge of canceling my subscription, and that's not a place I want to be.
I am very honest with people when I try to recruit them. We only have a handful of 100s right now. We aren't ready to raid right this minute. We are trying to recruit more 100s so that we can start raiding as soon as possible. However, I'm not looking people who are already experts and are just gearing up an alt. I'm looking for people who want to learn together and become a team. A family even. I want everyone to have a fresh start. We did it before, and it worked so beautifully.
The problem is that everyone is pretty much done with Highmaul now and ready to jump into BRF. There aren't enough people in our server group who haven't stepped into the raiding scene but still want to get into it. I've recruited a lot of people who aren't 100 yet, but we've got this epidemic going on where people hit 100 and immediately leave the guild. I try to explain to them that if they could just have a little patience, we would get this thing going. You can't expect everything to happen immediately and on your time; we're trying to build a team and that takes a little bit of effort.
There was a guy that I talked to on Saturday who was absolutely perfect. Our raid times fit for him, he shares our raid mentality, and he had a few friends who he wanted to bring with him. I must have talked to him for half an hour. I never pushed him to join; all I did was answer his questions honestly. He finally decided to join and brought one friend with him. He said he'd invite the others as they came online. Then on Tuesday - just 3 days later, he left the guild with no explanation.
We keep getting super close, and then people leave. It's really frustrating.
I've even considered leaving my guild - whether it be on horde or alliance - and joining another guild. The problem is that Loihi, despite having done several weeks of Highmaul, still has no gear. And Amayaa has never done Highmaul, so she has no gear. Everyone is recruiting 650+ at this point to go into BRF. Nobody is recruiting people that aren't even Highmaul geared.
I shot myself in the foot, I guess. I mean, I had no way of knowing that Loihi's guild wouldn't work out. It seemed so perfect. And I'm just not going to raid in a guild where I'm unhappy. I'd rather not play the game at all. I'm trying really hard to get things going for Amayaa, but people aren't committed, and I can't control other people.
I'm trying to get my followers leveled up on both characters so I can get some decent gear from missions, but even if I do, nobody wants tanks, and I'm not going to dps on Amayaa.
I'm on the verge of canceling my subscription, and that's not a place I want to be.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Decisions
I've decided that, for now, I have to stop raiding with Loihi. It was a tough decision because I made a commitment to these people, but real life comes first. I wasn't necessarily falling behind in my classes, but I was in a place that made me feel uncomfortable. I think that if we raided on different nights, it might be different. The problem is that I have class on Tuesday and Thursday. We are usually assigned about 4 hours of reading between Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday is raid night. It just doesn't work.
I raided both days last week. Wednesday night is pretty much farm night at this point; we can kill the first five bosses easily. In my guild, we don't do DKP and we don't have any real loot rules or rules regarding gearing alts or anything like that. Most of them have been raiding together for years, so they are fine with just using group loot and rolling when you need something. You're expected not to roll again if you win something and someone else needs something. That's the only rule. So on the very first week we went into Highmaul, Kargath dropped the cloth helm. I rolled on it, but it went to the other warlock in the group. After that raid, we switched to personal loot. This past week, they decided to switch back to group loot. The warlock who had won that helm had decided he didn't like the major warlock suckage going on right now, so he switched to his shadow priest. So on Wednesday, Kargath dropped the cloth helm again. I still need it, so I rolled on it again. So did the shadow priest who had previously won it on his warlock. Guess who won? Yeah, not me. I've never been in a raiding guild before where that sort of thing was acceptable. But I'm still new and they're all old friends, so I felt like I didn't have a place to say anything.
Later, Tectus dropped his staff. I rolled on it. This time it was won by an alt mage who already has it on his main. This guy gave it some thought, decided it was unfair because he was an alt, and decided to give it away. But rather than looking at the rolls to see who came in second, he said, "did anyone else need this?" and our GM shouted, "I do! I need it! Give it to me!" She had already won something; I hadn't. He gave it to her, no questions asked. These two incidents were pretty much the proverbial straw for me. I know it's a game, and I know it's only loot, and I know my dps sucks because Blizz did my class dirty. But my dps isn't going to get better if I never get any loot, and no one gives me a second thought because I'm just the new girl. It hit me right in the gut, and I couldn't focus for the rest of the raid. My dps was garbage, I was standing in fire...it was bad. And I just told Josh right then and there, "This is my last night of this. I'm not going to make real life sacrifices for this." I had just bought a new headset, too. It came in the mail the day of that raid.
It's been a week, and I'm still pretty upset about all of it. At this point, I don't know what I'm going to do. I really really want a casual raid atmosphere. I don't want to pay to server transfer, but the server Loihi is on sucks. Finding a dps raid spot now in the type of guild I'm looking for... ugh. I really thought this guild was going to be perfect for me. I got in before WOD came out so I'd be in a good position, and it just isn't what I was hoping for at all.
I raided both days last week. Wednesday night is pretty much farm night at this point; we can kill the first five bosses easily. In my guild, we don't do DKP and we don't have any real loot rules or rules regarding gearing alts or anything like that. Most of them have been raiding together for years, so they are fine with just using group loot and rolling when you need something. You're expected not to roll again if you win something and someone else needs something. That's the only rule. So on the very first week we went into Highmaul, Kargath dropped the cloth helm. I rolled on it, but it went to the other warlock in the group. After that raid, we switched to personal loot. This past week, they decided to switch back to group loot. The warlock who had won that helm had decided he didn't like the major warlock suckage going on right now, so he switched to his shadow priest. So on Wednesday, Kargath dropped the cloth helm again. I still need it, so I rolled on it again. So did the shadow priest who had previously won it on his warlock. Guess who won? Yeah, not me. I've never been in a raiding guild before where that sort of thing was acceptable. But I'm still new and they're all old friends, so I felt like I didn't have a place to say anything.
Later, Tectus dropped his staff. I rolled on it. This time it was won by an alt mage who already has it on his main. This guy gave it some thought, decided it was unfair because he was an alt, and decided to give it away. But rather than looking at the rolls to see who came in second, he said, "did anyone else need this?" and our GM shouted, "I do! I need it! Give it to me!" She had already won something; I hadn't. He gave it to her, no questions asked. These two incidents were pretty much the proverbial straw for me. I know it's a game, and I know it's only loot, and I know my dps sucks because Blizz did my class dirty. But my dps isn't going to get better if I never get any loot, and no one gives me a second thought because I'm just the new girl. It hit me right in the gut, and I couldn't focus for the rest of the raid. My dps was garbage, I was standing in fire...it was bad. And I just told Josh right then and there, "This is my last night of this. I'm not going to make real life sacrifices for this." I had just bought a new headset, too. It came in the mail the day of that raid.
It's been a week, and I'm still pretty upset about all of it. At this point, I don't know what I'm going to do. I really really want a casual raid atmosphere. I don't want to pay to server transfer, but the server Loihi is on sucks. Finding a dps raid spot now in the type of guild I'm looking for... ugh. I really thought this guild was going to be perfect for me. I got in before WOD came out so I'd be in a good position, and it just isn't what I was hoping for at all.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Throwback Thursday
So my post the other day got me feeling a little nostalgic, and I thought I'd share some other old screenshots with you.
There was that time we convinced a noob level 17 to come into Shadow Labs with us...
And that time Vare and Loihi stood on the steps of the Cathedral...
The time we attempted to raid Crossroads...
And had guild meetings under Stormwind...
There was the time my cat tried to eat all of the candy...
And the day Loihi got her dreadsteed...
And the time we visited the happy face under Kara...
Sadly, I've lost most of the screenshots I've taken over the years. I never remember to back them up, and I've gone through quite a few new computers/operating system changes/reformats. But these are some of my favorites that I did manage to backup.
There was that time we convinced a noob level 17 to come into Shadow Labs with us...
And that time Vare and Loihi stood on the steps of the Cathedral...
The time we attempted to raid Crossroads...
And had guild meetings under Stormwind...
There was the time my cat tried to eat all of the candy...
And the day Loihi got her dreadsteed...
And the time we visited the happy face under Kara...
Sadly, I've lost most of the screenshots I've taken over the years. I never remember to back them up, and I've gone through quite a few new computers/operating system changes/reformats. But these are some of my favorites that I did manage to backup.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Level 100 Hordies!
We did it!!
Oh, and here's one of the twins.
As you can see, I hit level 100 picking up a piece of treasure. Josh was burned out on questing, so I suggested we go on a treasure hunt instead. From 98 through 100, all we did was pick up treasures. No quests. Just treasures (and rares, but they hardly give any xp). I was both surprised and not surprised that we were able to do it. And I think we only got maybe half the treasures in Nagrand. 22200xp per treasure...pretty sweet. It was different and fun, too. Using all of the gliders to try to get to the ones in otherwise-impossible-to-reach places. I'm not necessarily saying I would do it again, but it was a fun way to finish out the grind.
What a nice family portrait! haha. I didn't have time to turn the names off. Zelu never sits still long enough for that. I had to snap the pic the moment I saw the opportunity!
But I did turn them off after that in case the opportunity presented itself again. And it did. Sort of. We went to visit Khadgar to get our rings, and Zelu was standing there looking all badass. Funny story, Amayaa started out with that blue/purple hair. But it made them look like brother and sister. We couldn't have that. She went platinum when the barber shop came out and never looked back.
Oh, you want to see? Here she is looking scandalous at level 29.
The date on this picture is 3/19/2008!
Awkwarddd...
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Finding a Balance
Yikes, it has been three weeks again.
I'm having a lot of trouble juggling everything in my life, and everything is suffering for it. The last time Josh and I were part of a raid group, we were working dinner shift at a restaurant. We were in a west coast guild (we live on the east coast) and it worked out perfectly. We would come home from work around 10 and jump into our raids. We didn't have to be up early in the morning and we had our days off.
Now we both have grown-up jobs. Josh has to be at work at 6:30am, so long gone are the days of raiding until 1:30am. Our guild raids Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 to 11, which is pretty perfect for us. Our first raid was on January 7th. I've been blessed with the opportunity to go back to school this semester and finally finish up my degree. My class started on January 8th. It's Tuesdays and Thursdays from right after work until 6:30. I think I bit off more than I could chew, getting on a new raiding schedule and starting classes at exactly the same time. Both my contributions to the raids and to my class have been suffering. It's been a long time since I really had to manage my time - 6 years since I was last in school. I've already had to sit out two raids because of it. I'm determined to find the balance, though. I can make it work.
Josh and I are also struggling to find a balance because it has recently become abundantly clear that my heart lies with the horde, and his lies with the alliance. He has humored me, and we've been working on Zelu and Amayaa. Slowly but surely. We are making sure that we only play when we have an abundance of rest. We've made it to level 97 so far. But any time we aren't playing together, he is playing alliance and I'm playing horde.
And maybe it's not even so much a horde/alliance thing as a warlock thing. Being at the bottom of the meter in every raid because your class is just plain awful is not a good feeling. I'm good at my class; I know I am. But my performance looks bad because warlocks are bad right now. It's extremely frustrating and disheartening. The horde has always been my refuge, and maybe that's what it is right now.
I'm also getting some iffy vibes from the guild Loihi and Popkorn are in. At first I thought it was a perfect match. Even after my first raid night with them, I thought it was a perfect match. But lately I'm not so sure.
I have been indiscriminately recruiting for Diabolical, Zelu and Amayaa's guild. We've gotten quite a few people, and we have another tank and a healer who seem pretty serious and reliable. They may end up leaving because Josh and I aren't leveling fast enough, but if they stick around, I'd really like to get a raid group together. But when am I going to have time for that?! I can barely manage what I've got going on. I have my weekends, but I have always been pretty adamantly opposed to raiding on the weekends. So I guess we'll see what happens.
Here. Have some screenshots of my pretty ladies.
I'm having a lot of trouble juggling everything in my life, and everything is suffering for it. The last time Josh and I were part of a raid group, we were working dinner shift at a restaurant. We were in a west coast guild (we live on the east coast) and it worked out perfectly. We would come home from work around 10 and jump into our raids. We didn't have to be up early in the morning and we had our days off.
Now we both have grown-up jobs. Josh has to be at work at 6:30am, so long gone are the days of raiding until 1:30am. Our guild raids Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 to 11, which is pretty perfect for us. Our first raid was on January 7th. I've been blessed with the opportunity to go back to school this semester and finally finish up my degree. My class started on January 8th. It's Tuesdays and Thursdays from right after work until 6:30. I think I bit off more than I could chew, getting on a new raiding schedule and starting classes at exactly the same time. Both my contributions to the raids and to my class have been suffering. It's been a long time since I really had to manage my time - 6 years since I was last in school. I've already had to sit out two raids because of it. I'm determined to find the balance, though. I can make it work.
Josh and I are also struggling to find a balance because it has recently become abundantly clear that my heart lies with the horde, and his lies with the alliance. He has humored me, and we've been working on Zelu and Amayaa. Slowly but surely. We are making sure that we only play when we have an abundance of rest. We've made it to level 97 so far. But any time we aren't playing together, he is playing alliance and I'm playing horde.
And maybe it's not even so much a horde/alliance thing as a warlock thing. Being at the bottom of the meter in every raid because your class is just plain awful is not a good feeling. I'm good at my class; I know I am. But my performance looks bad because warlocks are bad right now. It's extremely frustrating and disheartening. The horde has always been my refuge, and maybe that's what it is right now.
I'm also getting some iffy vibes from the guild Loihi and Popkorn are in. At first I thought it was a perfect match. Even after my first raid night with them, I thought it was a perfect match. But lately I'm not so sure.
I have been indiscriminately recruiting for Diabolical, Zelu and Amayaa's guild. We've gotten quite a few people, and we have another tank and a healer who seem pretty serious and reliable. They may end up leaving because Josh and I aren't leveling fast enough, but if they stick around, I'd really like to get a raid group together. But when am I going to have time for that?! I can barely manage what I've got going on. I have my weekends, but I have always been pretty adamantly opposed to raiding on the weekends. So I guess we'll see what happens.
Here. Have some screenshots of my pretty ladies.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Disappearing Act
Has it really been that long?! 3 weeks?! I've definitely fallen into the "I've been too busy playing to blog about playing" thing that I've heard from some other people.
My gut instinct was to level all of my characters straight to 100, and I've seen a lot of people doing that. But I'm taking my time. Loihi and Adelaide are still my only level 100s. I've got my new (boost character) druid, Stitch, to 98. I've got my priest, Bisous to 94. It's unlikely that either of those will ever be "serious" characters, though. L & A have always been my only serious alliance characters, and I don't see that changing now. And Todd & Co. bailed on us with the guild they formed (and we joined) so I've somewhat abandoned A.
I did finally convince Josh to start playing horde with me. I have been maintaining Amayaa's garrison this entire time. I've made sure to send my followers on missions at least once a day since I got my garrison (November 20) and it has put me way ahead of the game. Amayaa is only level 93, but she has four level 100 followers and over 4000 resources. I'm pretty dang excited about it. Since Josh didn't get Zelu's garrison until about a week ago when he started playing him, he's not so far ahead. But with these characters we've decided to really take our time, think things out, and do things right. We're learning from the mistakes we've made with Loihi and Popkorn (and Adelaide and Vare) and we won't make them this time around. There's no rush to 100. Amayaa and Zelu probably won't see Highmaul, or if they do, they'll be on the tail end of it. Loihi and Popkorn are our "main"s and they'll teach us everything we need to know.
I'm a little unsure what to do about Amayaa's professions, though. She is an enchanter/jewelcrafter, and it has always worked out really well for us. But now that gems are sort of a non-thing, I hate that I have a jewelcrafting building taking up space in my garrison. I guess when they designed garrisons, they assumed one of your professions would be a gathering one so they didn't make those take up space, and then you'd have a space for a building of your choice. Unfortunately, Loihi is a tailor/enchanter, so that didn't work out for her either. I'm hesitant to drop jewelcrafting for fear that gems will once again be a thing (that they'll start putting definite gem slots on items) but I guess it doesn't matter that much. Somehow Amayaa is always rolling in gold, so I can easily buy gems when I need them. But leveling a new profession. Ugh. And what would I choose? I could go blacksmithing, but by the time I need that gear, it will probably be obsolete. I could pick up a gathering profession and then just get a building to do the work for me (like alchemy, maybe). I could go engineering because that's always fun but super expensive to level. Oh, the decisions!
My gut instinct was to level all of my characters straight to 100, and I've seen a lot of people doing that. But I'm taking my time. Loihi and Adelaide are still my only level 100s. I've got my new (boost character) druid, Stitch, to 98. I've got my priest, Bisous to 94. It's unlikely that either of those will ever be "serious" characters, though. L & A have always been my only serious alliance characters, and I don't see that changing now. And Todd & Co. bailed on us with the guild they formed (and we joined) so I've somewhat abandoned A.
I did finally convince Josh to start playing horde with me. I have been maintaining Amayaa's garrison this entire time. I've made sure to send my followers on missions at least once a day since I got my garrison (November 20) and it has put me way ahead of the game. Amayaa is only level 93, but she has four level 100 followers and over 4000 resources. I'm pretty dang excited about it. Since Josh didn't get Zelu's garrison until about a week ago when he started playing him, he's not so far ahead. But with these characters we've decided to really take our time, think things out, and do things right. We're learning from the mistakes we've made with Loihi and Popkorn (and Adelaide and Vare) and we won't make them this time around. There's no rush to 100. Amayaa and Zelu probably won't see Highmaul, or if they do, they'll be on the tail end of it. Loihi and Popkorn are our "main"s and they'll teach us everything we need to know.
I'm a little unsure what to do about Amayaa's professions, though. She is an enchanter/jewelcrafter, and it has always worked out really well for us. But now that gems are sort of a non-thing, I hate that I have a jewelcrafting building taking up space in my garrison. I guess when they designed garrisons, they assumed one of your professions would be a gathering one so they didn't make those take up space, and then you'd have a space for a building of your choice. Unfortunately, Loihi is a tailor/enchanter, so that didn't work out for her either. I'm hesitant to drop jewelcrafting for fear that gems will once again be a thing (that they'll start putting definite gem slots on items) but I guess it doesn't matter that much. Somehow Amayaa is always rolling in gold, so I can easily buy gems when I need them. But leveling a new profession. Ugh. And what would I choose? I could go blacksmithing, but by the time I need that gear, it will probably be obsolete. I could pick up a gathering profession and then just get a building to do the work for me (like alchemy, maybe). I could go engineering because that's always fun but super expensive to level. Oh, the decisions!
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Go for the Gold
I don't think I've mentioned this, but I've been struggling with Loihi. I've been struggling hard. I mentioned how my dps was deplorable the one time I ventured into SoO with my guild, and it wasn't getting better. I've been kicked out of two heroic groups for having terrible dps. It's really frustrating because I have the item level and the silver proving grounds achievement that say I'm allowed to be in heroics. I wasn't causing wipes, and we were killing bosses. People just like to be asshats.
Ever since Elitist Jerks stopped being the go-to place for information about how to play my class, I've been using Noxxic. I stumbled upon Noxxic on a Google search, and I've never really felt like I could trust it. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I think it was mostly that I'd never heard anyone else mention it, whereas, everyone had talked about EJ.
Last week, someone in trade chat said, "Noxxic is the Fox News of WoW." I went, "AHHHH I KNEW IT!!!!" Hahaha. So it became a discussion and the consensus seemed to be the Icy Veins was the way to go now. I, of course, immediately went to check it out. My talents were a little off. My priorities were a little off. Everything was just a little off. I literally read every word that Icy Veins has to say about destro warlocks, and I learned a lot.
My guild has a requirement that you have to get gold in the proving grounds to be allowed to raid. I had really struggled with silver, so I was not looking forward to attempting gold. With my new information came new-found confidence, so I gave it a whirl. And I failed. Repeatedly. I kept getting stuck on wave 6. The AoE was killing me. I didn't want to look up any strategies. I wanted to do this on my own. After all, it is called the proving grounds. (Although, when Josh mentioned the proving grounds over the phone to his friend, the friend replied, "You mean 'prah-ving' grounds?" Uhh, no, I mean 'proo-ving' grounds...) I'm supposed to be proving my ability to play, not my ability to Google.
I used what Icy Veins had taught me and reworked my talents again. I gave it a little more thought and came up with a better strategy on my own. And this time I made it all the way to wave 10. I didn't beat it, but I saw every wave. I was so excited. I gave it several tries before I decided I needed a break. We went out to dinner and then ran an errand. We came back, I gave it a few more tries, and BAM!
I don't think I have ever been as proud of an in-game achievement as I was of that one. I truly was starting to think it would never happen. It was such a weight off my shoulders too; I wouldn't be sitting on the bench while the rest of the guild goes off to Highmaul. There were still several people after me who hadn't done it yet too. So, YAY LOIHI!!
Ever since Elitist Jerks stopped being the go-to place for information about how to play my class, I've been using Noxxic. I stumbled upon Noxxic on a Google search, and I've never really felt like I could trust it. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I think it was mostly that I'd never heard anyone else mention it, whereas, everyone had talked about EJ.
Last week, someone in trade chat said, "Noxxic is the Fox News of WoW." I went, "AHHHH I KNEW IT!!!!" Hahaha. So it became a discussion and the consensus seemed to be the Icy Veins was the way to go now. I, of course, immediately went to check it out. My talents were a little off. My priorities were a little off. Everything was just a little off. I literally read every word that Icy Veins has to say about destro warlocks, and I learned a lot.
My guild has a requirement that you have to get gold in the proving grounds to be allowed to raid. I had really struggled with silver, so I was not looking forward to attempting gold. With my new information came new-found confidence, so I gave it a whirl. And I failed. Repeatedly. I kept getting stuck on wave 6. The AoE was killing me. I didn't want to look up any strategies. I wanted to do this on my own. After all, it is called the proving grounds. (Although, when Josh mentioned the proving grounds over the phone to his friend, the friend replied, "You mean 'prah-ving' grounds?" Uhh, no, I mean 'proo-ving' grounds...) I'm supposed to be proving my ability to play, not my ability to Google.
I used what Icy Veins had taught me and reworked my talents again. I gave it a little more thought and came up with a better strategy on my own. And this time I made it all the way to wave 10. I didn't beat it, but I saw every wave. I was so excited. I gave it several tries before I decided I needed a break. We went out to dinner and then ran an errand. We came back, I gave it a few more tries, and BAM!
I don't think I have ever been as proud of an in-game achievement as I was of that one. I truly was starting to think it would never happen. It was such a weight off my shoulders too; I wouldn't be sitting on the bench while the rest of the guild goes off to Highmaul. There were still several people after me who hadn't done it yet too. So, YAY LOIHI!!
Friday, December 5, 2014
Broken System is Broken
I get an awful lot of page views over here, but zero comments, so I have no idea if anyone is actually reading this, or if it's just bots.
But tell me if you know anything about this.
Way back in the Wrath of the Lich King days...I can't remember how it all went down. They implemented the Looking for Group system, and I don't think it was right away, but they implemented a penalty system for kicking too many people. It's been quite awhile now, but if memory serves, in the beginning you had to wait 15 minutes before you could attempt to kick someone. Each person was allowed to initiate one kick per dungeon. You couldn't kick in combat or shortly after combat.
Then they implemented this penalty system. Ever since then, both Josh and I have had a 4 hour timer on our ability to kick people. There is no dungeon in the game that takes 4 hours, so there is no way we can ever kick people. The best part is that sometimes it will say 2 minutes, and then when the 2 minutes is up, it switches to 4 hours.
I have opened tickets a number of times, and every time I get a completely different answer. My second to last ticket got a response saying that it is a known issue and they're working on it. This was a couple of months ago, and after a particularly frustrating dungeon experience earlier this week, I decided to open another ticket. This has been going on for more than FOUR YEARS now. That's right, folks, neither Josh nor I have been able to initiate a kick in a dungeon for four years. I think if it's a known issue, four years is a pretty reasonable amount of time to get it fixed. And if you can't fix it, turn the system off. It isn't fair that I pay to play this game just like everyone else, but one aspect of it is broken for me that isn't broken for most people.
The most recent response that I got was this:
This is Game Master Phaelonum and I have your issue about the vote to kick! Thank you for taking time out of your day to hit me up about this, so that I could look into it for you :D
So, about the vote to kick, not sure if one of the things mentioned is that it is account wide, so any of your characters participating in the vote to kick, in any way, be it targetted, initiated, or even if you just click to vote someone, will reset the cooldown. Yes, even if you are the target of that kick, or the one who is voted to be kicked, even if it doesn't go through :(
I am so glad that I could look into this for you, Nicole! Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you come across any other ways we could assist. Take care and may all of your adventures be EPIC! o(^_^)o(#) A cookie for you!
Okay, GM Phaelonum. Thank you for not even attempting to address the issue and telling me something that I very clearly already knew and talked about in my lengthy explanation of the problem. Here's the thing. It has been four years. Okay, I may have been the target of a few kicks in that time. I'll never know about the ones that didn't go through. (And if they don't go through, doesn't that typically mean someone is just kicking you to be a jerk and it isn't deserved? Why should that count against you?!) And every few months, I will attempt to initiate a kick in hopes that it has been fixed. But even before this happened, I really don't think I kicked people more than the average WoW player. Can you honestly tell me that four years isn't enough of a punishment? Even if I have been kicked and have attempted to initiate a kick a few times during that time, there's no way it has happened enough times that I haven't served my time in four years.
How do I know it's been four years, you ask? Because back when it started, when I opened the first ticket, I started tracking my dungeons. I made absolutely certain never to initiate a kick or to vote yes if someone else initiated it. I tracked over 150 dungeon runs, and I was guilty of a kick about 1% of the time. And the only times I did kick was when people were offline and my vote was required.
Meanwhile...Josh and I were in a group last night. The healer was just standing around and we wiped, so Josh said something like, "Are you afk or what?" They initiated a kick against him with the reason "gay." You cannot tell me that someone who is willing to kick someone that quickly has not kicked hundreds and hundreds of people...and yet...no penalty for them? And why in the hell should that count against Josh?! He did absolutely nothing wrong; someone initiated a kick because they wanted to be an ass, and Josh gets penalized for that? Bullshit.
It makes no sense. I responded to GM Phaelonum and demanded to see my stats in comparison to the average WoW player because they're going to have to do some serious work to convince me this system isn't broken. I doubt they will give me the stats, but I will open a new ticket every day for the rest of my life if I have to. It's not fair, and I'm tired of it.
I'm not one to complain about problems in the game. When everything was messed up on launch day, I sat back and relaxed. The game would be there later. When maintenance gets extended by several hours, I don't let it bother me. I don't write angry posts on their Facebook wall telling them it's their fault they're getting DDOSed. Almost every ticket I have ever opened has been about this one problem. And it's really starting to make me angry.
But tell me if you know anything about this.
Way back in the Wrath of the Lich King days...I can't remember how it all went down. They implemented the Looking for Group system, and I don't think it was right away, but they implemented a penalty system for kicking too many people. It's been quite awhile now, but if memory serves, in the beginning you had to wait 15 minutes before you could attempt to kick someone. Each person was allowed to initiate one kick per dungeon. You couldn't kick in combat or shortly after combat.
Then they implemented this penalty system. Ever since then, both Josh and I have had a 4 hour timer on our ability to kick people. There is no dungeon in the game that takes 4 hours, so there is no way we can ever kick people. The best part is that sometimes it will say 2 minutes, and then when the 2 minutes is up, it switches to 4 hours.
I have opened tickets a number of times, and every time I get a completely different answer. My second to last ticket got a response saying that it is a known issue and they're working on it. This was a couple of months ago, and after a particularly frustrating dungeon experience earlier this week, I decided to open another ticket. This has been going on for more than FOUR YEARS now. That's right, folks, neither Josh nor I have been able to initiate a kick in a dungeon for four years. I think if it's a known issue, four years is a pretty reasonable amount of time to get it fixed. And if you can't fix it, turn the system off. It isn't fair that I pay to play this game just like everyone else, but one aspect of it is broken for me that isn't broken for most people.
The most recent response that I got was this:
This is Game Master Phaelonum and I have your issue about the vote to kick! Thank you for taking time out of your day to hit me up about this, so that I could look into it for you :D
So, about the vote to kick, not sure if one of the things mentioned is that it is account wide, so any of your characters participating in the vote to kick, in any way, be it targetted, initiated, or even if you just click to vote someone, will reset the cooldown. Yes, even if you are the target of that kick, or the one who is voted to be kicked, even if it doesn't go through :(
I am so glad that I could look into this for you, Nicole! Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you come across any other ways we could assist. Take care and may all of your adventures be EPIC! o(^_^)o(#) A cookie for you!
Okay, GM Phaelonum. Thank you for not even attempting to address the issue and telling me something that I very clearly already knew and talked about in my lengthy explanation of the problem. Here's the thing. It has been four years. Okay, I may have been the target of a few kicks in that time. I'll never know about the ones that didn't go through. (And if they don't go through, doesn't that typically mean someone is just kicking you to be a jerk and it isn't deserved? Why should that count against you?!) And every few months, I will attempt to initiate a kick in hopes that it has been fixed. But even before this happened, I really don't think I kicked people more than the average WoW player. Can you honestly tell me that four years isn't enough of a punishment? Even if I have been kicked and have attempted to initiate a kick a few times during that time, there's no way it has happened enough times that I haven't served my time in four years.
How do I know it's been four years, you ask? Because back when it started, when I opened the first ticket, I started tracking my dungeons. I made absolutely certain never to initiate a kick or to vote yes if someone else initiated it. I tracked over 150 dungeon runs, and I was guilty of a kick about 1% of the time. And the only times I did kick was when people were offline and my vote was required.
Meanwhile...Josh and I were in a group last night. The healer was just standing around and we wiped, so Josh said something like, "Are you afk or what?" They initiated a kick against him with the reason "gay." You cannot tell me that someone who is willing to kick someone that quickly has not kicked hundreds and hundreds of people...and yet...no penalty for them? And why in the hell should that count against Josh?! He did absolutely nothing wrong; someone initiated a kick because they wanted to be an ass, and Josh gets penalized for that? Bullshit.
It makes no sense. I responded to GM Phaelonum and demanded to see my stats in comparison to the average WoW player because they're going to have to do some serious work to convince me this system isn't broken. I doubt they will give me the stats, but I will open a new ticket every day for the rest of my life if I have to. It's not fair, and I'm tired of it.
I'm not one to complain about problems in the game. When everything was messed up on launch day, I sat back and relaxed. The game would be there later. When maintenance gets extended by several hours, I don't let it bother me. I don't write angry posts on their Facebook wall telling them it's their fault they're getting DDOSed. Almost every ticket I have ever opened has been about this one problem. And it's really starting to make me angry.
Monday, December 1, 2014
So many choices...
Being level 100 is overwhelming. In the last few expansions, you would hit level cap, and you knew exactly what you were supposed to do - jump into heroics and get geared.
This time around, it isn't that simple. So I did the reasonable thing - I quit and started leveling another character.
Just kidding.
No, but really. I've been playing Adelaide on and off and I made it to halfway through 98 rested. I completely skipped Gorgrond and I was able to skip half of Spires. It was glorious. Once I got to that home stretch, I stopped caring about rest and just pushed right through to 100. Adelaide is in a guild with people that I have known on WoW for many years now. Todd, Kyle, Stevie, Ryan, Anthony, and...probably other people. Ryan was the first 100 on The Scryers and he is determined to do this thing hard core. They're jumping into High Maul tomorrow. They want Josh and me to come, but our item level is sitting right around 600. Besides that, they plan to start at 9:30. Assuming they start on time, we'd be able to stay for about an hour. They really want us (and by us I mean Josh) to be on their A team, but it's not going to work out. I have no problem being backup, but I've already made a commitment with Loihi. And that commitment is to people who actually raid at a time that is reasonable for me.
As soon as I hit 100 with Adelaide, I jumped in the proving grounds and did bronze healing. It was cake. I went out of mana because I was panicky and spam healing when I didn't need to be, but it was still super easy. Then I did bronze dps. Also super easy. It was kind of upsetting because bronze dps took Loihi several tries. Last night, I did silver healing. It took me a few tries. I have to remind myself that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I have to slow down and breathe. I don't have to heal every time someone takes the tiniest bit of damage. Once I got that under control, I did it with ease. Silver dps took me a couple of tries, but I got it done.
It made me feel kind of crappy about Loihi because I feel like I must have tried 100 times before I finally got it down with 610 item level. Then I learned that the proving grounds scale to your item level. This doesn't make sense to me because I tried it with Loihi SO MANY times when she had a lower item level, and I didn't come close. Then when my item level got higher, I was able to do it. But I'm not even close to gold. So am I just that awful? Do warlocks just suck right now? (Because seriously, it was so much easier with Adelaide, who is an elemental shaman.)
So I've got my garrison to a place where I'm comfortable with it. I've completed all the quests in all the zones. I'm working on my professions as quickly as they'll allow me. (I've made a cloak for myself and I'm halfway to making one for Popkorn.) Now I'm finally ready to jump into heroics. It's time for Loihi and Popkorn to get geared so they'll be ready when the time comes.
I am thoroughly enjoying this expansion so far. I can't wait till Josh is ready to play his blood elf. I'm excited to try out the horde!
This time around, it isn't that simple. So I did the reasonable thing - I quit and started leveling another character.
Just kidding.
No, but really. I've been playing Adelaide on and off and I made it to halfway through 98 rested. I completely skipped Gorgrond and I was able to skip half of Spires. It was glorious. Once I got to that home stretch, I stopped caring about rest and just pushed right through to 100. Adelaide is in a guild with people that I have known on WoW for many years now. Todd, Kyle, Stevie, Ryan, Anthony, and...probably other people. Ryan was the first 100 on The Scryers and he is determined to do this thing hard core. They're jumping into High Maul tomorrow. They want Josh and me to come, but our item level is sitting right around 600. Besides that, they plan to start at 9:30. Assuming they start on time, we'd be able to stay for about an hour. They really want us (and by us I mean Josh) to be on their A team, but it's not going to work out. I have no problem being backup, but I've already made a commitment with Loihi. And that commitment is to people who actually raid at a time that is reasonable for me.
As soon as I hit 100 with Adelaide, I jumped in the proving grounds and did bronze healing. It was cake. I went out of mana because I was panicky and spam healing when I didn't need to be, but it was still super easy. Then I did bronze dps. Also super easy. It was kind of upsetting because bronze dps took Loihi several tries. Last night, I did silver healing. It took me a few tries. I have to remind myself that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I have to slow down and breathe. I don't have to heal every time someone takes the tiniest bit of damage. Once I got that under control, I did it with ease. Silver dps took me a couple of tries, but I got it done.
It made me feel kind of crappy about Loihi because I feel like I must have tried 100 times before I finally got it down with 610 item level. Then I learned that the proving grounds scale to your item level. This doesn't make sense to me because I tried it with Loihi SO MANY times when she had a lower item level, and I didn't come close. Then when my item level got higher, I was able to do it. But I'm not even close to gold. So am I just that awful? Do warlocks just suck right now? (Because seriously, it was so much easier with Adelaide, who is an elemental shaman.)
So I've got my garrison to a place where I'm comfortable with it. I've completed all the quests in all the zones. I'm working on my professions as quickly as they'll allow me. (I've made a cloak for myself and I'm halfway to making one for Popkorn.) Now I'm finally ready to jump into heroics. It's time for Loihi and Popkorn to get geared so they'll be ready when the time comes.
I am thoroughly enjoying this expansion so far. I can't wait till Josh is ready to play his blood elf. I'm excited to try out the horde!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Loihi has earned the achievement Level 100
We did it!! *happy dance*
Initially, I thought it would take longer. But then at some point, I just knew it would happen on Wednesday, and sure enough!
On Friday night when things were still a little buggy, I wasn't able to log in to any of my alliance characters. So I ended up logging into Amayaa and giving the horde quests a go, even though I told her that she was in for a long rest. She was pretty excited to see me again so soon. I spent the evening leveling her. I kept switching back and forth from prot to ret. Neither made me very happy. In ret, I was super squishy and kept dying. But prot is only good if you're able to round up a whole bunch of mobs and then mow them down. Once Josh catches Zelu (his BE hunter) up, I think I'll stick with prot and we'll be set. But he isn't ready to play Zelu just yet.
So aside from Friday night, I've spent all of my time playing Loihi. We took a couple of short breaks on Saturday and Sunday because there comes a point where I can't sit still anymore. But Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we played from the time I got home from work till the time our heads hit the pillows. We attempted to play with Todd on Monday night, which I think set us back a little. All three of us were 96, and Josh and I were questing in Spires of Arak. Todd had been PvPing and hadn't quested since Gorgrond, so he couldn't get most of the quests that we had. We ended up going around doing bonus objectives and killing rares until he had to leave. Let me just say that I am over the Arakkoa. Their quest line was WAY too long and annoying. Overall, Spires was my least favorite zone so far.
Josh and I are in the habit of moving onto the next zone as soon as it's available, and we never complete any of the zones. This time we felt it was important to complete a zone before we moved on, so we hit 100 just as we reached Nagrand. We only did the first few quests in Nagrand, but I am loving it. It feels like home. But of the zones I've completed, I think I liked SMV the best.
I went back to my garrison and upgraded to level three. So exciting!! Josh, unfortunately, didn't think things through and wasted all of his resources changing buildings. So he only had about 100, when he needed 2000. Ooops. Needless to say, he was a little butthurt. I haven't done any research on garrisons, but I knew better than to mess with things before I was 100!
I tried out the proving grounds, and bronze took me several attempts. I'm really really struggling these days, and I don't know why. I've always been good at warlocks, even when warlocks were bad, and it's really upsetting that I'm doing so poorly. I know gear is a factor right now, but I know my skills (or lack thereof) are a bigger factor. I need to do some research. We ran Sky Reach, and Josh was doing 3-4k more dps than I was with a lower item level. Ugh. Gotta get my shit together!!
Friday, November 14, 2014
Welcome to Draenor
Yesterday was probably the longest work day of my life. It's hard to say though. It was comparable to the day I was leaving for Disney World a couple of months ago. I'm not sure which I love more - WoW or Disney World. Haha. I stopped by the grocery store on my way home to stock up on Mountain Dew. I almost never drink Mountain Dew except when I'm planning on an epic gaming session. (Honestly, I knew it wasn't going to be that epic last night because I had to come back to work this morning.)
So I got home, logged in, and got straight to it!
So I got home, logged in, and got straight to it!
For all the whining I've done about always being on a low-pop server, I was glad last night. I didn't have to wait for one minute in a queue to log in. However, Josh did run into a bit of a snare. He had been playing his druid (Yonywu) earlier, but he had intended to level his rogue (Popkorn) with me. He wasn't logged on at all when I got home. So he went to log in to Popkorn, and it was doing the 90% loading screen thing. Finally, it went back to the character screen and said, "A character with that name already exists." I searched the /who, and sure enough, it said Popkorn was online. Only, she wasn't. I checked the forums, and it seemed all the people it had happened to had been knocked offline, and when they tried to come back, it gave them this error. It was strange because Josh hadn't been online at all. But we waited 15 minutes for it to "log off," and then we were set to go.
General chat was so full of tears, I'm surprised it didn't flood. So much, "You would think Blizzard would know how to release an expansion by now! They should be prepared for this!" Y'all. That's like saying, "You should be prepared for someone to drop a bomb on your house." Even if you know in advance that it's coming, what the hell are you going to do? There's only so much preparation they can do. The rest has to work itself out (for example, after a few days, EVERYONE won't be trying to log in at the same time) or get worked out as they see the issues.
One of my favorite WoW memories was on the WotLK release day. I was out in Borean Tundra killing things, when all of a sudden, every NPC in sight disappeared. Friendlies, enemies, neutrals...all of them. Gone. What could I do but laugh? It was funny! I don't understand these people who rage over things like this. They came back after a few minutes, and I stopped laughing and got back to killing things. I've seen every release except Vanilla and MoP, so I knew what to expect. Everyone is saying this one is the worst, though. Maybe that's true, but for me it doesn't seem so. And it wasn't the lag or the problems with the garrisons are any other game factors that upset me. It was only the other players whining about the problems that got under my skin.
And Blizz's hatred for warlocks. So way back in the day, warlocks didn't have any instant spells except for curses, and a curse wouldn't tag a target. Because, you know, people are always just accidentally throwing curses around. You have to throw a 3-second shadowbolt to show you really mean it. (I don't know if shadowbolt ever really had a 3-second cast time. It seemed like it was a 5-minute cast time before haste was a thing. But I'm destro; I don't even have a shadowbolt anymore.) So on a release day, or in daily zones, when there were a ton of players and not so many mobs that needed killing, it was nearly impossible for a warlock to get what she needed unless she was killing things with a friend. Then Blizz finally realized, hey, this isn't cool! A curse is a spell and it should tag a target. Thanks, Blizz! I love you guys! All was well in the warlock world. I could quest on my own again. And then they took away our curses. I can conflagrate every so often, but that just isn't enough. So last night, when I was in a crowded area, I would just cast rain of fire right over myself. It wasn't stealing mobs from anyone because the chance of hitting a mob is still pretty small and it was only getting the mobs that I should have been able to get on my own. So then this death knight comes and lays death and decay directly under my rain of fire. Really dude? You're melee. You have death grip. You have zero trouble getting mobs. Even if you still wanted to use my tactic, you couldn't move over ten yards and get the mobs that would never have even come near my rain of fire? When I finally finished that quest, I had a few choice words for him. His response was to try to invite me to a group. Really?!
I'll be sure not to get separated from my pocket rogue anymore.
I got about two bars into 91 before I called it a night. We got a bunch of upgrades, which was pretty sweet. Okay, so maybe a lot of them weren't actually upgrades, but we figured we ought not look a gift horse in the mouth. If they want me to show a little lot of skin, I guess that's what I'll do.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Goodnight, Sweet Amayaa
Last night, I didn't feel much like playing WoW. I live on the east coast, which meant that if I wanted to see the release of the expansion, I would have to be up at 3am. I was online around 5:30pm and saw a bunch of people saying they were going to bed so they could get up at 3 and start playing. Later, I lamented that I had not done the same. But let's be real; I would be falling asleep at my desk right now if I had done that. Game release or no game release, I had to come to work today.
I sat in Stormwind, talking in trade chat a little, but mostly just watching. There were so many names that I haven't seen in years. It was amazing to see those people coming back. The Scryers was always a low-pop server, so it was a pretty tight-knit community. You recognized people's names, and you knew who their alts were, even if you weren't friends with them. It made me all warm and fuzzy inside to see those familiar names again.
Before logging off, I went to have a moment with Amayaa. It's always a tough decision - who am I going to level first when a new expansion comes out. But it's always been Loihi. It's just the way it is. It doesn't feel right any other way. But I love Amayaa just as much, and I feel that I am truly horde at heart. (Probably why I have a real life horde tattoo.) It's hard to leave her. So I told her I'll see her when I can, and I tucked her into bed with one of her many kitties. She's going to need plenty of rest when it comes time to venture into Draenor.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Ye Olde Scourge Invasion
Remember the Scourge invasion pre-Wrath of the Lich King event? Yeah, so do I.
I dreamed about it the other night. I dreamed about it! It's pretty safe to say that was my favorite thing that ever happened in World of Warcraft. In searching for an image to use for this post, I learned that it happened the first time Naxxramas came to town as well. (That was about six months before I started playing.) So there is hope!! There is a new Lich King, and we will have to defeat him sometime, and when that time comes....another Scourge invasion!! Please? Pretty please, Blizz?
I know a lot of people hated it and cried about it because they couldn't do their dailies and boo hoo hoo, but I had so. much. fun. I think that's pretty obvious if I'm dreaming about it six years later. So here's hoping the next expansion brings us some zombies. (Not WoD. The next one.)
I dreamed about it the other night. I dreamed about it! It's pretty safe to say that was my favorite thing that ever happened in World of Warcraft. In searching for an image to use for this post, I learned that it happened the first time Naxxramas came to town as well. (That was about six months before I started playing.) So there is hope!! There is a new Lich King, and we will have to defeat him sometime, and when that time comes....another Scourge invasion!! Please? Pretty please, Blizz?
I know a lot of people hated it and cried about it because they couldn't do their dailies and boo hoo hoo, but I had so. much. fun. I think that's pretty obvious if I'm dreaming about it six years later. So here's hoping the next expansion brings us some zombies. (Not WoD. The next one.)
Monday, November 3, 2014
Another Hallow's End Gone By
We didn't get the mount.
Excuse my interface. Adelaide and I were too distraught to think about hiding it.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Deplorable DPS
I don't know if I mentioned this, but Loihi recently joined a new guild. I haven't raided seriously since ICC, and I really really want to raid in WoD. The problem is that the guild I used to raid with is a.) on a different server and b.) on a west coast server. Back in the ICC days, I was working in a restaurant. The earliest I ever had to be at work was 10am, usually more like 11 or 12. It wasn't a problem for me to raid on west coast time and finish at 1-2am. But now? Now I have a big girl job. I have to be at work at 8am. Staying up until 2am is not an option.
A few years ago, I had transferred Loihi to another server to play with some friends. Some of those friends are no longer playing, and some of them are no longer my friends. I decided to do a quick search and see if there were any guilds on that server that met my needs. If I couldn't find one, I was going to transfer out. But I quickly found Under***d. They finish raiding at 11pm, which is still a little late for me, but they only raid two nights a week, so I can do it.
They asked me to join their SoO group, and I've been hemming and hawing about actually doing it. My gear isn't great. I haven't even done SoO on raid finder. I don't like going into a raid without being 110% prepared, and I just wasn't there. But last night they asked me to join their flex, and I decided to just take a leap and do it. I died a few times because I didn't know what to expect. On the first boss kill, I accidentally need rolled a cloak that dropped. I've never raided with a guild that didn't use master looter/dkp, even when the raid was on alt farm, and when the loot popped up, I clicked it out of habit from dungeons. I felt a pang of regret as soon as I did it and quickly apologized in raid chat. No one was mad, and if there were loot rules, no one made mention of them. Still, I only rolled greed the rest of the night.
But let's talk about my dps. I was at the bottom of the chart. I mean the bottom bottom. Just barely above the healers. Everyone else was on their alt; I was on my main. Granted, my main has gotten very little attention in this expansion. (Or the last one, for that matter.) Still, I was extremely embarrassed. It was almost as embarrassing as the first time I raided with Veritas back in BC. We were doing Gruul's Lair. We had just come back from a wipe, and my run key got stuck. I ran straight into Gruul and wiped us again. Ugh. It makes me cringe just thinking about it!!
Hopefully I will have time to get some raidfinder gear this weekend and learn the fights so I can be more prepared for the rest on Monday. For now, I'll leave you with a picture of Loihi in her (transmogged) PvE gear.
The helm/shoulders don't necessarily match that robe, but it is my favorite robe, and they are my favorite helm and shoulders. I don't think it looks awful, so this is the transmog I tend to keep. I don't really have a sword that I love enough to transmog this one. I think this one looks pretty cool.
A few years ago, I had transferred Loihi to another server to play with some friends. Some of those friends are no longer playing, and some of them are no longer my friends. I decided to do a quick search and see if there were any guilds on that server that met my needs. If I couldn't find one, I was going to transfer out. But I quickly found Under***d. They finish raiding at 11pm, which is still a little late for me, but they only raid two nights a week, so I can do it.
They asked me to join their SoO group, and I've been hemming and hawing about actually doing it. My gear isn't great. I haven't even done SoO on raid finder. I don't like going into a raid without being 110% prepared, and I just wasn't there. But last night they asked me to join their flex, and I decided to just take a leap and do it. I died a few times because I didn't know what to expect. On the first boss kill, I accidentally need rolled a cloak that dropped. I've never raided with a guild that didn't use master looter/dkp, even when the raid was on alt farm, and when the loot popped up, I clicked it out of habit from dungeons. I felt a pang of regret as soon as I did it and quickly apologized in raid chat. No one was mad, and if there were loot rules, no one made mention of them. Still, I only rolled greed the rest of the night.
But let's talk about my dps. I was at the bottom of the chart. I mean the bottom bottom. Just barely above the healers. Everyone else was on their alt; I was on my main. Granted, my main has gotten very little attention in this expansion. (Or the last one, for that matter.) Still, I was extremely embarrassed. It was almost as embarrassing as the first time I raided with Veritas back in BC. We were doing Gruul's Lair. We had just come back from a wipe, and my run key got stuck. I ran straight into Gruul and wiped us again. Ugh. It makes me cringe just thinking about it!!
Hopefully I will have time to get some raidfinder gear this weekend and learn the fights so I can be more prepared for the rest on Monday. For now, I'll leave you with a picture of Loihi in her (transmogged) PvE gear.
The helm/shoulders don't necessarily match that robe, but it is my favorite robe, and they are my favorite helm and shoulders. I don't think it looks awful, so this is the transmog I tend to keep. I don't really have a sword that I love enough to transmog this one. I think this one looks pretty cool.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
It's time for introductions
Uhh, better late than never, right?
Some of my characters are not in the gear in which I'd like to present them, but I'm at work, so there's nothing I can do about it right now.
My very first character was an itty bitty baby warlock named Loihi. Though I knew nothing about the elements that warlocks use, nor that a fire (destro) lock would become my favorite class/spec in the game, I wanted to name her after a volcano. Loihi is actually an underwater volcano that no one has ever heard of. I've never been to Hawaii, and I don't speak Hawaiian. I couldn't find a pronunciation anywhere online, so I took my best guess and pronounced it lo-wee-hee. A month or so later, I met someone in game who claimed to be from Hawaii. He told me I was wrong and that it was lo-why-hee. After a couple of years, I learned that my first guess, lo-wee-hee, was absolutely correct. But it had been too long. The name was stuck, and so I pronounce her name incorrectly to this day.
After a couple months of playing, I had reached level 25. (Hey, it was hard back then!) Shortly after BC came out, they opened up free realm transfers from highly populated realms. Josh decided to take it, and I decided not to. I was being stubborn. Scarlet Crusade had been my WoW home those few months, and I didn't want to leave it. He tried to cancel his transfer, but it was too late. By the time I realized it was stupid to play without him, the free transfers had ended. And so I left behind my level 25 Loihi, and she's still there on Scarlet Crusade.
I created a new warlock with the same name who looked exactly the same on The Scryers and pretended it had never happened. So I think I created her around March of 2007, and if I remember correctly, I finally reached level 70 in February of 2008. In January 2010, I faction changed her, and within two weeks, I changed her right back. I'm really weird about Loihi. She has to be exactly as she's always been, or it really gets to me. I've never been able to change her hair or anything. I'm still dealing with her new face.
She's my baby. Before achievements, mounts, etc, were account-wide, I did everything with her, even when I had lots of alts. She's always the first one I level in a new expansion. It may sound silly, but I feel like she's a part of me. So here she is in silly pvp gear.
We weren't in a raiding guild and weren't really doing much of anything else, so I just decided to level another alt. This time I went with a warrior. If I remember correctly, I leveled her all the way up as protection, and I enjoyed warrior tanking just as much as pally tanking. Whimsy has had her hair and her face changed since the patch, and she's still not as cute as she was before. :/ Right now, she's fury because that's how I leveled her.
Some of my characters are not in the gear in which I'd like to present them, but I'm at work, so there's nothing I can do about it right now.
My very first character was an itty bitty baby warlock named Loihi. Though I knew nothing about the elements that warlocks use, nor that a fire (destro) lock would become my favorite class/spec in the game, I wanted to name her after a volcano. Loihi is actually an underwater volcano that no one has ever heard of. I've never been to Hawaii, and I don't speak Hawaiian. I couldn't find a pronunciation anywhere online, so I took my best guess and pronounced it lo-wee-hee. A month or so later, I met someone in game who claimed to be from Hawaii. He told me I was wrong and that it was lo-why-hee. After a couple of years, I learned that my first guess, lo-wee-hee, was absolutely correct. But it had been too long. The name was stuck, and so I pronounce her name incorrectly to this day.
After a couple months of playing, I had reached level 25. (Hey, it was hard back then!) Shortly after BC came out, they opened up free realm transfers from highly populated realms. Josh decided to take it, and I decided not to. I was being stubborn. Scarlet Crusade had been my WoW home those few months, and I didn't want to leave it. He tried to cancel his transfer, but it was too late. By the time I realized it was stupid to play without him, the free transfers had ended. And so I left behind my level 25 Loihi, and she's still there on Scarlet Crusade.
I created a new warlock with the same name who looked exactly the same on The Scryers and pretended it had never happened. So I think I created her around March of 2007, and if I remember correctly, I finally reached level 70 in February of 2008. In January 2010, I faction changed her, and within two weeks, I changed her right back. I'm really weird about Loihi. She has to be exactly as she's always been, or it really gets to me. I've never been able to change her hair or anything. I'm still dealing with her new face.
She's my baby. Before achievements, mounts, etc, were account-wide, I did everything with her, even when I had lots of alts. She's always the first one I level in a new expansion. It may sound silly, but I feel like she's a part of me. So here she is in silly pvp gear.
Don't worry. No one else will have that long of an intro.
So next is Adelaide, my draenei shaman. She was my first alt. Josh and I had done refer-a-friend, and I was able to boost her to level 60ish right before WotLK came out. Josh had already had two max level characters at this point (warrior and warlock) and I was happy to be able to catch up. I leveled her as enhancement, but once I hit 80, I decided to try my hand at healing. I loved it. And I was good at it. Hell, I played on a laptop with the touchpad mouse, without healbot, and I was still good. So when I started playing on my desktop with a real mouse and with healbot, people didn't die. Ever.
Shortly after leveling both of them to 80, we got burned. We decided to switch to horde. I decided to give a paladin a try, since everyone always talked about how easy they were. I leveled retribution, of course, and I hated it. I sucked at it, and it was just so boring to me. So once I hit 80, despite my affinity for healing, I decided to go protection. And I loved tanking even more than I loved healing. Josh had always been a tank on his warrior, and it made him rage a lot. But tanking was just so much fun for me. (I did eventually give pally healing a try, and I hated it.) So meet Amayaa, my blood elf protection paladin. (Excuse her ugly gear.)
We stuck with horde for awhile, and I started to miss my warlock. Amayaa had everything she could ever want or need out of Naxxramas, so I leveled up another warlock...also named Loihi. Lol.
And then we got burned again - this time by real life "friends." So we went back to the alliance. I had loved paladin tanking so much that I decided to level a draenei paladin. And so we have Lumey. (Excuse her ugly gear too.)
Now here's where we enter the Land of Too Many Alts, and things start to get a little fuzzy. I think I leveled Gatsbie next. Gatsbie is a druid. I leveled her up as a kitty with the intention of having my offspec be boomkin. However, I decided to try out a bear spec, and guess what? I loved it. I just really love tanking. The only kind of tank I don't like playing is a deathknight. I don't like playing any kind of deathknight. So Gatsbie never got any kind of caster spec. She's always been kitty/bear, and I enjoy them both, which is interesting because I don't like playing rogue at all. (For some reason, wowhead would only give me her old model.)
I think Ladella came next. I didn't have a healer horde side, so I decided it was time to give priest healing a try. I like discipline a lot, and I went through a phase where Ladella was my preferred character to play.
Then maybe Avena came after that. She has pretty much always been a dps warrior. I'm really not one for melee dps classes because I suck at staying behind the target, but I had fun with her. She's currently arms (and only level 89.)
Next came Katnìss. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea why I chose to level Katnìss. I think it was that I had just finished reading The Hunger Games, and I thought it would be cool to have a hunter with that name. Her main pet is a cat named Buttercup. I've never done a whole lot with her besides leveling her to max level. But I do think her new model makes her look beautiful.
And last, but not least, is Liora. Somewhere along the way, Josh and I had done refer-a-friend again and I leveled a shaman. We had a shaman/mage 2s team, and it was freaking amazing. But I was too cheap to transfer that character to my main account, so she's still sitting there at level 85. I decided to level a new one, but I stopped about halfway there and just finished leveling her this week. Right now, she's enhance, which I hate. If I decide to do anything with her, I'll probably go ele/resto. She also needs a new face, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I think she looks like a human man haha.
I do have a mage and a priest (both alliance) that are level 81. I was trying to get them leveled up to use them for the last few days of horseman, but I don't think that's going to happen.
So there you have it. My happy little big family!
Come on, man!
So at this point, I've killed the Headless Horseman well over 200 times. I think at the beginning of Hallow's End this year, I had 6 or 7 characters that could run it. I had a bunch of 85s, so I leveled them all up, and I now have 11 characters that are 89-90. Josh has 12. Neither one of us has gotten the damn horse. And if the 0.5% drop rate is correct, I should have gotten it by now. Although I did see it drop once, so I guess that counts as my one time in 200.
I've gotten both the helm and the sword on my SHAMAN. Super helpful!! I wish they would take away the damn loot filled pumpkin, make it so you can only run the instance once a day, and make it all drop off the horseman again. I wouldn't roll on the helm or the sword on a character who can't use them, so someone else in the group who could use them could have them. And I assume the mount is ending up in pumpkins of people who already have it. If it were a drop, they wouldn't get it multiple times, and it would give the rest of us more of an opportunity to get it! My friend Todd told me last night that before they made mounts account-bound, he had the horse on three characters. THREE. And he has never been as dedicated to killing the horseman as I am, nor has he ever had as many max level characters as I tend to do. Damn you, WoW gods.
I've gotten both the helm and the sword on my SHAMAN. Super helpful!! I wish they would take away the damn loot filled pumpkin, make it so you can only run the instance once a day, and make it all drop off the horseman again. I wouldn't roll on the helm or the sword on a character who can't use them, so someone else in the group who could use them could have them. And I assume the mount is ending up in pumpkins of people who already have it. If it were a drop, they wouldn't get it multiple times, and it would give the rest of us more of an opportunity to get it! My friend Todd told me last night that before they made mounts account-bound, he had the horse on three characters. THREE. And he has never been as dedicated to killing the horseman as I am, nor has he ever had as many max level characters as I tend to do. Damn you, WoW gods.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
The Horseman's Reins and What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
This is going to be my year. I can feel it.
Despite having killed the Headless Horseman every day of the event almost every year, many years on multiple characters, neither Josh nor I have gotten the mount. I saw it drop once back when it was a drop and not something you got in a pumpkin, but that was the closest I've ever gotten. I mean, I've killed him at least 140 times, and that's probably a really low estimate. (Is there a place I can see this statistic? I know they track certain boss kills, but I don't think he's one of them.) I mean, I know it's only got a 0.5% drop rate, so it's pretty reasonable that neither of us has gotten it. But it feels like we're the only ones. I don't know anyone else that doesn't have it.
I've also soloed Kara plenty of times in an attempt to get Midnight. It may have a different name, but it's the same model, and I'll take what I can get! The drop rate is slightly higher (0.9%) and I really need to make it a point to do this every week on all of my characters. I just never remember.
One day, my friends. One day I will have that horse.
Despite having killed the Headless Horseman every day of the event almost every year, many years on multiple characters, neither Josh nor I have gotten the mount. I saw it drop once back when it was a drop and not something you got in a pumpkin, but that was the closest I've ever gotten. I mean, I've killed him at least 140 times, and that's probably a really low estimate. (Is there a place I can see this statistic? I know they track certain boss kills, but I don't think he's one of them.) I mean, I know it's only got a 0.5% drop rate, so it's pretty reasonable that neither of us has gotten it. But it feels like we're the only ones. I don't know anyone else that doesn't have it.
I've also soloed Kara plenty of times in an attempt to get Midnight. It may have a different name, but it's the same model, and I'll take what I can get! The drop rate is slightly higher (0.9%) and I really need to make it a point to do this every week on all of my characters. I just never remember.
One day, my friends. One day I will have that horse.
Hallow's End is definitely my favorite holiday. The Midsummer Fire Festival is a close second, but sadly I managed to miss it this year. :( Those are the only two that I really get into and do all of the quests and everything. There are a few that I hate, like Lunar Festival. These are the reason I still don't have "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been." Maybe this year I'll go for it. Maybe.
I still need the following achievements:
Winter Veil
- 'Tis the Season
- Let it Snow
- The Winter Veil Gourmet
- A Frosty Shake
- With a Little Help From My Friends
- Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la
- Bros Before Ho Ho Ho's
Lunar Festival
- Elders of Cataclysm
- Elders of the Dungeons
Love is in the Air
- Charming
- Flirt With Disaster
- Nation of Adoration
- Shafted!
- Lonely?
- The Rocket's Pink Glare
- Fistful of Love
- I pitied the Fool
Children's Week
- School of Hardknocks
- Bad Example
It's kind of a lot. But only four holidays. So if I do it, I'll have my mount in April. If you notice, with the exception of Lunar Festival, each of the holidays I haven't completed has a PvP achievement. The reason I haven't bothered with the non-PvP achievements for those holidays is because I know I won't do the PvP ones!! (Particularly School of Hardknocks. I have never done any of those things with or without an orphan involved.) But this time around, I'm going to suck it up. Really. I mean it this time.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Thank the WoW gods...
...for allowing us to change our faces at the barbershop. I truly didn't think Blizzard would do this for us; after all, we had to pay to do it before. I saw hundreds of players who said they would be satisfied if, the first time we logged into a character post-patch, we got the chance to change our face. If we didn't take it, too bad, we'd lose it. Blizz really outdid themselves this time, and I am so happy they made the right decision this time.
Because Loihi's face was awful. Right? Right. I mean...wasn't it?
I found out yesterday morning that this was a thing, and I ran home from work at lunch to change my face. Seriously. I was that excited that I got to get rid of her ugly face.
I went to the barbershop. I sifted through the other faces. I picked one. I paid my gold, and I left the barbershop. I stopped in the Trade District to admire my new face...and I hated it. I hated it just as much as I'd hated the one they gave me. Okay, let's try again. I went back and sifted through the faces again until I found the best one. Once again, I paid my gold and left.
I went back out to the Trade District to admire my new face. That's really quite a lot of cosmetic surgery in one day, but it was so worth it. This face was much better than the last one. As I was looking at my face, I started to think, "Is it? No... It can't -" Sure enough, it was the face Blizz had originally given me. So I spent 60 something gold, only to end up back where I started. Oh well!
I did make one more trip to the barbershop to change my hair. It's such a subtle change that you really can't tell the difference in a picture, or else I would show you.
I will be changing some of my other faces for sure, though. All of my gnomes got beaten with the ugly stick.
Because Loihi's face was awful. Right? Right. I mean...wasn't it?
I found out yesterday morning that this was a thing, and I ran home from work at lunch to change my face. Seriously. I was that excited that I got to get rid of her ugly face.
I went to the barbershop. I sifted through the other faces. I picked one. I paid my gold, and I left the barbershop. I stopped in the Trade District to admire my new face...and I hated it. I hated it just as much as I'd hated the one they gave me. Okay, let's try again. I went back and sifted through the faces again until I found the best one. Once again, I paid my gold and left.
I went back out to the Trade District to admire my new face. That's really quite a lot of cosmetic surgery in one day, but it was so worth it. This face was much better than the last one. As I was looking at my face, I started to think, "Is it? No... It can't -" Sure enough, it was the face Blizz had originally given me. So I spent 60 something gold, only to end up back where I started. Oh well!
I did make one more trip to the barbershop to change my hair. It's such a subtle change that you really can't tell the difference in a picture, or else I would show you.
I will be changing some of my other faces for sure, though. All of my gnomes got beaten with the ugly stick.
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