TankSpot - Blogs - salihe

God wants me to keep smoking

salihe — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:05:02 GMT

Wow, aren't ya'll lucky...two blog posts in one day, and only an hour or so between em.

So yah, I've come to the conclusion that god wants me to keep smoking. I'd reached my own conclusion that I was going to try and quit, yet again. I called my Dr, had him call me in a prescription for a month's supply of patches, and bought a bottle of 200 toothpicks (for the oral fetish thing....*cough*....yeah). So, 3 days ago, I got down to the last smoke in my pack, and i was mentally preparing to smoke it and be done, but then I remembered that I'd bought a pack of Djarum Blacks a while back (for those who don't know what those are, they're clove cigarettes, ie ground up cloves mixed in with tobacco...yummy as hell...even the filters are sweet), and there was still like 4 or 5 in there. So I got down on my hands and knees to try and find them.

I failed to find them, but what did I find? A brand-new, unopened pack of my normal brand. Ok, that wasn't too surprising.

So yesterday, I got down to the last smoke in that pack, and once again, got down on hands and knees to look for the Djarums (there's a lot of shit on my floor).

I didn't find them, but what did I find? Another pack of my normal brand, this one opened, but with only one missing.

So, today rolls around. There's one left. I've pretty much given up on the thought of finding the Djarums, but it occured to me to go give my bedroom a cursory look-over, and what do I find? A pack of my normal brand, 4/5ths full, lying under my bed.

Ere'go, my conclusion is that god wants me to keep smoking. Never mind the fact that I'm agnostic. I've always imagined finding a magic pack of smokes that always had one more in it, no matter how many times you smoked the "last one", and it seems I've found a fountain of tobacco, as it were, in my own apartment. Either that, or it's a testament as to how incredibly messy and disorganized my apartment really is.

Anyway, I'm thinking the fountain will be pretty dried out by the time this pack is gone, and it'll be the patch from then on out.

Here's hoping it goes as well as I'm...hoping.

Yeah.

Wish me luck. Again.

:D

Finally switching servers....

salihe — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:06:00 GMT

When I first started playing WoW, I didn't give what server I picked much thought. I didn't choose a Recommended one, just because I assumed those were the crap ones that Blizz wanted more people on. So, I went the most noobish way I possibly could've: I picked the first one with a name I liked. I'm not sure why Darrowmere appealed to me, but that's where I ended up. I didn't know this at the time, but out of 226 US servers, it's ranked 197th (or at least it is now..not sure about then). The population, after we had free transfers off to the new Latin American server, Ragnaross, is now about 3000 total characters, with something like 400 lvl 70s. Needless to say, it's a frustrating environment.

So, the other day, I logged on to see a comment next to my co-gm's name in Vent that said, "Sal, we need to talk" and he proceeds to tell me of a plan he'd come up with to do a guild-wide server transfer. Before I'd joined this guild I was this --> . close to switching to another, higher pop, server, anyway, but I ended up deciding to stay. So, it didn't take much effort at all, really, to convince me of his plan. We have been planning on weeding out the massive amount of dead weight we'd accumulated, anyway (over 100 toons, and barely able to put together a decent kara run, to give you an idea), and we figure this way, we'll find out who's loyal to the guild, who is as determined to progress as we are (during and post-BC), and who we simply rely on.

So, the server he picked was in the same area, so nobody's ping should go up, the population is 28,000 (as opposed to the 3000, remember), and it even has one of the same sylables as Darrowmere....Rivendare. Get it? Darr....enDare....anyway, yeah, i'm retarded.

So, anyway, yeah, we're switching over. We had 4 tabs, so pretty much everyone we trust now has a completely full personal bank and all full bags, to bring all the crap over. The only thing I'm waiting for is for a bunch of stuff on my bank alt to sell, so i can bring the gold with me. I have a lvl 17 mage that I'm working on when I'm bored with my warrior that I really want to transfer, as well, but $25 for 17 lvls (and runic spellthread for 450g, just to make lvl'ing easier) doesn't really seem worth it. That being said, I really don't want to delete her, and I don't want to leave her behind. I'm sure I'll probably put what I can't fit on my main on her and bring her over as well, at some point soon.

In any case, the move's happening as we speak. The new guild is up and running with 2 tabs, so far, on the new server. We have solid commitments from a number of our good and dedicated players to come over as soon as they're financially able. Now, it's just a matter of making the snowball into the proverbial avalanche.

And here...we...go...

Wish us luck :D

It's finally starting to sink in....

salihe — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:13:23 GMT

You would think that, with all the WotLK talk that's been outweighing just about every other subject on here for weeks, it would have sunk in by now, but I can be incredibly stubborn when I want to be, to the point of complete useless stupidity.

Sigh.

I finally saved up my 100 badges to get my [item]Sunguard Legplates[/item], decked em out with [item]Nethercleft Leg Armor[/item] and stam gems. I worked my ass off for those 100 badges. Not to mention, I just spend ~2,200g for the [item]Darkmoon Card: Vengeance[/item] about a week before (that thing's a freaking incredible threat generator...i <3s it)

Yet, in exactly 1 month and 26 days (unless my count is off), all that work will effectively be negated. Up till now, I've been consumed with the drive to get as many people as I possibly could motivated to raid as much as possible, to better their char. as much as they can, and to overall make a decent effort so that we can all get as far as we can before Nov. 13th.

Now, I realize what a futile effort that's all been, and I gotta say, it's depressing. One thing I'm wondering is if the actual stats on the gear we currently have will change, to fit the new base requirements for LK. I remember seeing two versions of the [item]Girdle of the Fearless[/item], the original only with stam, the 2nd with str added, and I'm wondering if, the first time I log on LK, if the new legs I just mentioned will have some str on them, instead of just the stam, like now. That'll make some of the current efforts a little more worthwhile.

Then again, I've always said I don't raid to get gear, I get gear to raid. Then again, the 10 man Naxx tanking set is as fucking sexy as Tara Reid, Kate Beckingsale, and Jessica Alba combined (tho the helmet is kind of...uhh...yeah, wtf's up with the posts coming out of either side?). That notwithstanding, the gear is just a means to an end, while some people treat it as the be-all-end-all of the game.

Umm...yeah, I got sidetracked.

Anyway, on unrelated news, if anyone knows anything the Rivendare server, I'd be most interested to hear any info, since my guild is most likely going to transfer there. We're on Darrowmere now, with a whopping population of ~3000 people total (not 3k 70s, not 3k horde or alliance....3k TOTAL), whereas Riverdare has somewhere ~30,000. We're hoping that, due to the much, much larger player base, we'll have a lot more opportunities to progress farther and easier. Well, at least easier in the respect that we won't have to scratch and claw and spam recruiting macros in trade for days on end to find a single tank or healer (and still not find one of either).

But anyway, is it sad that I imagine every female I run into who plays WoW is a hot, young thang (tho not too young....'27 would be perfect for me), and that lightning will strike and I'll meet one of those in my same town, and we'll up in one of those corny WarCraft Wedding movies?

Yeah, after saying it out loud, that is pretty fuckin' sad. That's ok, tho. We all gotta have dreams. And I need something to keep me from getting too depressed about all the work I'm doing now going for shit.

Well, least it's been fun, and I suppose, when you get down to it, that's the whole point. Fun but frustrating. But that's a subject for an entire other post.

Oh, and did I mention I still harbor a secret dream of being a rockstar?

Tuesday, unbloody tuesday...morning, that is

salihe — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:46:24 GMT

Meh.

I, along with probably at least 98% of the WoW community, hate Tuesday mornings. And, of course, it figures that I'm in a mood to play my lvl 17 mage now, but I can't, because the servers are down. Well, I'm presuming they're down. I haven't actually checked, but then again, there is no real need to. Blizzard works like clockwork, in this regard, at least, if not with anything else.

Tuesday morning maintenance. What the fuck kind of maintenance are they doing, anyway? I've always wondered that. What, are they deleting temp files and defragging the servers? Or do they just make us stop playing for 6-8 hours under the pretense of doing maintenance just for some semblance of professionalism? I wouldn't be surprised. Shit, I go days without even rebooting my computer (then again, my computer doesn't have hundreds of thousands of users constantly logging in and out, constantly switching bits of data around). With that in mind, some sort of epic defrag seems most likely.

Still, it's fucking annoying. I wanna play my mage, damnit /cry. She's all lonely, and I needs to sex her up (donors can check that one thread for evidence of.....well, yeah, I'll leave it at that)(I almost spelled "donors" as "doners" at first....lol, Freudian slip, perhaps....blues will understand ;))(lol, if I keep this up, Cider'll be flooded with new donations, just to see wtf I'm talking about).

Umm.

Yeah.

Anyway, Tuesday mornings suck. I'm merely stating the obvious, but I have a knack for that. In the meantime, while anxiously awaiting for them to come back up (and pretending I'll actually be awake when that time comes), I'm randomly surfing and doing random shit on da intarweb. And writing on here. Tower Defense is a great time-waster.

Anyone else have any regular things ya'll do to pass these mornings?

Since when has tanking not been fun?

salihe — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:36:35 GMT

There's this topic that's been getting thrown around a lot lately, by a lot of different people, regarding making tanking "more fun." I see it everywhere....on GW's beta posts, on Cider's news bulletins, on random forum threads. Everyone seems to be all excited about making tanking "more fun."

The unspoken implication of this, of course, is that, prior to all this, tanking has not been fun. When did this happen?

Speaking for myself and from my personal experience, I don't understand where that attitude came from. I lvl'ed fury, just for the sake of speed and went prot once when I was in the mid-50s, just to check it out, and I hated it. There was way less variety of attacks compared to fury and the attacks there were didn't do much of anything. Keep in mind, I had no tanking gear on whatsoever. Needless to say, I hated it.

That was then, however, and this is now, and as of right now, I absolutely love tanking. I find it a blast. Tanking a heroic, or a 10 man is by far my favorite and the funnest thing I can possibly do in-game. I love standing there, tanking Curator for the 5-6 minutes it takes to bring him down, and it really doesn't matter to me that I'm basically hitting Devastate, Shield Slam, Shield Block, Heroic Strike, and Revenge over and over again. I love the challenge of fighting my dps for aggro. I love being in charge of the group, controlling the speed and tempo (and pissing off the mana-users because I'm not giving them time to drink after every pull), and having the responsibility of the group more or less rest on my shoulders.

As far as WoW goes, I can't think of anything more fun. Oh, sure, I'm sure it's a gas getting random some-odd-thousand crits and whatnot, but like someone said in the thread that Cider started way back, asking for ideas on shirt designs, "It's not about causing the most damage, it's about taking the most."

I mean, what could be more fun than not dying after getting beat on for several minutes at a time by a boss who absolutely towers over you, a boss who would one-shot just about everyone else in teh entire group?

I dunno. All this talk about making tanking more fun is all well and good, but speaking for myself, I'm having a ball just the way it is now.

Random WotLK Wondering (beta folk, plz chime in :)

salihe — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:05:03 GMT

Since the new cap for becoming uncrittable is 540, if I remember correctly, I wonder if there'll be some other magical number, like our 102.4% currently. Since there'll be no more crushing blows (which actually makes me sad, because i was working my ass off to become passively uncrushable), I wonder if they'll implement something else to replace it...

I wonder if the LK equivalent to [item]Solid Star of Elune[/item] will be [item]Solid Empyrean Sapphire[/item], and I wonder what will replace that

Or, I wonder if, since the stats of everything are being buffed to an extreme lvl, if even the [item]Solid Empyrean Sapphire[/item] will be obsolete or equivalent to green gems now....

I wonder what will eventually become the "best" tanking swords, kind of like [item]The Sun Eater[/item] and [item]King's Defender[/item] are now (I know there are other better weapons overall, but those two have that reputation amongst a good deal of the community)...

Similarly, I wonder what enchants will end up being considered the best tanking ones, like Executioner and Mongoose are now...or if those will remain the same and just get severely buffed....

I wonder how painful it will be to vendor my [item]King's Defender[/item] for some blue or, i-think-i'll-cry a green, only a couple months after I put Mongoose on it...

I wonder how much more space I'll have to clear up on my computer, just to install LK...

For that matter, I wonder when I'll manage to scrape up enough money to just get a new computer...

And for that matter, I wonder if I started a post asking-for-donations-so-I-can-get-a-comp-that-isn't-5-years-old-and-only-has-a-40-gig-harddrive, how much money would suddenly appear in my PayPal acct...:p

(all donations can be sent to salihe66@yahoo.com)

(lmao)

I wonder what kind of things Arthas will say as we fight him...

I wonder how hard Illidan will be to take down at lvl 80, and I wonder how much of an impact the warglaives will still have...

Hmm...I wonder what sort of cd Shockwave will end up with, and whether they'll ever expand it's cone effect...

I wonder if I'll ever get decent enough with Intervene to warrant putting 2 points in Safeguard, and even then, if, with Warbringer, it'd be worth it...

And finally, I wonder if Blizzard will be Blizzard and knock back the release date for LK to early next year sometime (personally, I wouldn't mind one bit)...

I think too much...:D

After some thought...(re. my last blog post)

salihe — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:04:45 GMT

....I just wanted to apologize for my last blog post where I discussed pally and druid tanks and pretty much talked about how I wished they didn't exist at all. It was written in a flurry of the heat of the moment, after being told one too many times how those two classes were superior to me in almost every way, and after spending a little bit too much time on teh Beta forums, which, at least in teh section I was at, was innundated with disgruntled warriors bitching about all the major changes we'll soon be dealing with.

So yah, with that, I'll restate what I said in the last comment I made in the blog post in question: I have nothing but respect for tankadins and feral tanks. What it all really comes down to is we're all tanks, and while some of us may ultimately have different aims for our overal role, it remains the role we all love. I still may be jealous and have somewhat of an inferiority complex, just because there are, I must admit, a few things that the two other classes can do better (tho I'm working my ass off to disprove that notion to everyone I run with...you should've seen me in heroic slave pens, tanking 5 mobs at once, pretty comparable to a pally, except i was spamming tab, devastate, tab, SB, tab, revenge, tab, etc, etc, instead of hitting concecrate and then alt-tabbing, lol).

But anyway, the point of all this is to apologize to any druids or pallys I may have pissed off, even tho I did mention multiple times than no offense was intended.

I suppose everyone lets their fiery impulses get the best of them sometimes, and that was one such time.

So, with that, let the merry debates continue :D

A warrior's biased view....(don't hate me)

salihe — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:16:06 GMT

First off, let me say that I mean no offense to any pallys or druids or any future DKs. This is all my opinion, and since this is America, the land of free speech (so far), I won't worry too much.

I hate the fact that druids and pallys can tank. There, I said it. I hate it. I despise it. I think the fact that there's a comflict between all 3 classes as to who's better, who needs to get nerfed, who's jealous of who and cries to blizz about it....I think all of that is complete bullshit and shouldn't even be an issue, and the fact that it is a very real, and quite large issue is even more ridiculous.

Call me old fashioned, but the way I see it is: warriors are tanks. End of story. I know very few warriors who choose their class for something other than tanking, and dps warriors are probably the most stigmatised class in the entire game. I can't tell you the amount of times, when i was lvl'ing, I was invited to a group for an instance. A second later, I would inform them that I wasn't prot, and next thing I know, I was kicked from the group wtihout so much as a "thanks anyway". People only generally take fury warriors on raids unless there's no other choice. Therefore, we really only have one real option: tanking.

On the other hand, what druid was ever booted from a group because he wasn't feral? He can heal and dps (in either cat or bear form, for that matter, even if he isn't tanking), and the same goes for pallys. My point is that both classes have viable options for other roles in a group, while warriors basically are expected to be tanks, or they're not wanted at all.

And, to tell you the truth, I like it like that. Again, maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like the fact that we warriors are the leaders of the pack, keeping all teh squishy's safe and sound while they stand back and pelt whatever it is we're holding. I like the fact that they expect us to lead the way, direct them what to do, and let them know what's up ahead.

I love all that, and I'll be damned if I want to give it all up to a couple of undedicated hybrid classes, thrown in because people whined and complained that they wanted to be "just like us". Freaking copycats. Find your own goddamn role and let us have ours. We like it...it's ours....and we aren't giving it up without a fight.

Sadly, that fight has already been lost, for the most part, with the addition of the 2 other tanking classes, and to add insult to injury, the addition of yet another one on the way. Sigh. Warriors have become a watered-down class, and easily replacable.

Of course, I realize that all of this would've been a lot more relavent a couple years ago, but i wasn't playing wow a couple years ago, so I'm giving my reaction now.

It's not too late to fix it, tho. Make each class special and unique, not Frankenstein'ish mixtures of every other one. Make someone pick a class for a specific reason, not because they want to switch back and forth between roles at their whim. Make people think and have the least bit of dedication.

Just like we tanks already do and have.

Again, no offense to any pallys or druids.

Worried and Sad and a little bit Excited...

salihe — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:23:10 GMT

I've always been one who likes stability. I like to be in teh same guild for a long time, to get to know the people around me and teh way they play, their strengths and weaknesses. I like to be able to travel long distances using landmarks and without needing to look at the map to be able to tell whether or not I'm going the right way. And I like to find a piece of gear overflowing with awesomeness and know that I can get it enchanted, and it'll stay by my side (or around my arms, or on my chest, or covering up my naughty bits, or...you get the idea:p) for a long time to come.

All this is on the verge of being torn up like a mansion on a faultline in SoCal. I've spent all this time building up my mansion, pimping it out and arranging it exactly how I want it. Oh sure, as with everything, there are still upgrades to be had, but I have my own basic template down, and I like it that way.

The earthquake is still coming, tho, which is going to take my little mansion and toss it around like leaf in a hurricane. Sure, the foundation is strong and will still be there, but I'm sad that I'll have to start all over, almost from scratch, rebuilding my once-awesome mansion. And so will everyone else.

For a few examples....we've been working our asses off to get passively uncrushable. Oh, there are no more crushing blows. We (or at least I, and if anyone does know, please share the knowledge) have no idea what new Defense rating it'll take to become uncrittable. We have no idea what other stats, stats that have, up till now, largely been ignoring, like strength, will suddenly rise in prominence and become as important as Dodge is now.

Our mansions are crumbling, and it makes me just a lil sad.........ok, it makes me a lot sad. Of course, maybe I'm overreacting, and I freely admit I don't have all teh data, and I have no idea what the final ready-for-release build will look like. At this point, however, I can't help but be worried and anxious to see what that final build will look like.

I'll admit, too, that I am just a little bit excited for WotLK, if only to see the new sites and all the new things it has to offer. Sadly, tho, at this point, the worry outweighs the excitement.

Freaking pissed...

salihe — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:09:38 GMT

Before I begin, I just want to give a disclaimer that this post contains pretty much nothing related to WoW. I'm just seethingly pissed right now and need a place to vent. A couple parts might seem a little vague, as well, but once you read farther, you'll understand why.

So, a few weeks ago, I had this roommate. I hadn't wanted him to move in to begin with, because I only have a pretty tiny one-bedroom apartment. He was unhappy with his current living arrangements (with his grandparents) and almost begged me to let him sleep on his couch. I've never been the most asertive one, not to mention I was pretty much drugged out of my mind on pain killers (chronic health issues, 7 surgeries in the past 2 years, etc, etc, etc), so I acquiesced and let him move in. He didn't have a job and so couldn't pay any rent, but, in a deal that he apparently made up himself, he cleaned occasionally and that was supposed to make up for it.

So, anyway, I'm a good, straight-laced guy, at this juncture (haven't always been, but I've learned from my past transgressions) for the most part. Sure, I have my vices like everyone else, but nothing major, and certainly nothing that causes damage on anyone else. My EX-roommate (emphasis on teh EX) apparently had no such qualms, tho, because he did something I won't elaborate on to make money, and involved me in it. I refused to participate in any way, however because he lived here, I'm now having to deal with all his bullshit. I won't bore you wtih the specifics but I will say this: court sucks. Oh, and my car might get seized and sold at auction.

So, on top of all that, I just found out.....well, wait, a little background will show why this sucks so badly. I mentioned earlier my chronic health problems (Crohn's disease, which has caused innumerable other issues) and the multiple surgeries. I'm currently on Social Security disability and Medicare, since all this crap makes me unable to work. For some odd reason, my insurance changed at some point, and I began wracking up co-pays for surgeries that Medicare didn't cover. I started getting bill after bill, and then, letters from collection agencies. I tried calling them to work out some sort of payment arrangement, but they weren't interested in the small amount I could afford.

So, yesterday, I received a letter in the mail with the title of "Garnishment Disclosure". There was a form attached to it, where I had to put in my income, and that type of thing. It clearly states that Social Security benefits are NOT considered disposable income (which is what they garnish), however, an hour or so ago, I went to my bank's website to check my balance, only to discover that I'm almost $160 in the hole, because, unbeknownst to me, the dirty fuckers went in and took every dollar I had, the little bit of savings I'd managed to accumulate to give a little buffer (a paltry $450), and left me with .24c. That happened 5 days ago, no warning whatsoever, and now, because of that, my acct is negative, and I honestly have no idea where I'm going to get the money to not only bring it back to positive, but to feed myself, until the 3rd of next month, when my next SS check is deposited.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

As I said, this post had nothing to do with WoW, but it's 7:04 in the morning, nobody I know is on Vent, and it's too early to call anyone, and I had to vent somewhere. I'm going to be calling every number on this apparently worthless notice they delivered once the office opens up to try and get my money back, but considering that I'm dealing with the gov't, my hopes of getting it back aren't that high.

Sigh....when it rains, it pours :(

EDIT: Well, after an entire day, almost, of being on the phone, I'm getting my money back. I almost gave up but then thought to call the lady at the bank and tell her just where, exactly, the money they'd set aside came from, namely Social Security. She sent my info and whatnot to their off-site attorney, who told them to release my funds back to me. She's also refunding the multiple overdraft fees, as well.

Whew. That's a huge load off. I can tell you with certainty, too, that as soon as it's all back in there, I'll be hitting up an ATM to take it all out. I don't enjoy the fact that it's apparently so easy to take it all out without my knowledge.

But anyway, here's hoping things stay positive.

Why even bother inspecting anymore?

salihe — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:07:02 GMT

What I'm about to rant about isn't in the least something that everyone doesn't already know about and hopefully loathes as much as I do. I don't care, tho. It reached a cresendo yesterday, and I wanted to start pulling my hair out.

So, I was in World's End, after hearing Saul-whas-his-name announce the Tauren Chieftans playing at the top of the hour. They usually play the same song, but that's ok. It's still fun. So, I'm sitting there, watching the lil' band go at it and see a pally walk in. I hit inspect and what do I see but a full deck of Merc Glad gear. Meh. I'm used to that, so I closed it and switched to inspecting someone else. Once again, full set Merc Glad gear, exactly the same, except leather instead of plate. Shaking my head, I closed that one and inspected yet another person, in hopes that I'd maybe get to see an original piece of gear I haven't already seen 1000 times.

Can you guess what he had on?

I'll give you a hint: it starts with two words, one of them begins with M and the other G. Yes, three completely random people all had the exact same set of gear. Oh sure, they had difference weapon types, but the dirty little M.G. words were still prefacing them. I know it's not uncommon, by any means, for so many people to be wearing the same sets, but something about those three, all in a row, within 30 seconds, really bugged me.

What happened to the days when you inspected someone expecting to see something different and nifty and, omfg, original. Nowadays, there's barely any point to the inspect option. And what happened to the days when PvP gear was for...*gasp*...PvP?! Nowadays, every Kara group I run with is full Merc. Well, not counting me, of course, because tanks get screwed in teh regard that while every single other class can get welfare epics, there's not a single piece of defensive tanking gear to be had in the Hall of...whatever the hell it's called...I've only been there, like, twice. PvP is about my least favorite thing to do in-game, and even if welfare epics were available to tanks, I highly doubt I'd avail myself of them.

Call me crazy, but I sorta like to stand out from people. Oh sure, I have [item]King's Defender[/item] and [item]Dawnforged Defender[/item] but I actually worked for them. I didn't just mindlessly run around the same limited space collecting bonus honor.

There's a reason there are so many bots for bgs and none, that I've seen, for tanking. They take so little skill, a mindless computer program can run you around endlessly, collecting bonus honor, and when you come back, bam!, there's a new epic waiting for you.

Maybe it's just me but that certainly does not sound very epic to me.

I honestly wonder how many people would quit playing WoW if Blizzard decided to reemphasize what the game is supposed to be all about: PvE, and they subsequently eliminated all bgs. Sure, a lot of people that are exclusively interested in PvP would quit, but I wonder how many people who want to raid would quit because their easy, lazy access to raid-quality gear is cut off from them. Next to nothing would please me more than if Blizz decided to make PvP gear truly for PvP and PvP only.

If it's next to worthless in a raid encounter, it would definitely cut down on the amount of people just getting by on stats and hubris alone.

The Lore Behind it all...(and a lil' showing off)

salihe — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:20:59 GMT

The past couple weeks, I've been getting more of a fill than any one person should in such a short time of Warcraft lore, legend, and overall history, and from the looks of things, it doesn't appear to be stopping any time soon. I beat Warcraft 3 Rein of Chaos for the very first time a few days ago (I was a Starcraft whore, so I never much got around to the WC series...), and Frozen Throne, which I'd never played at all before last nite, showed up in the mail yesterday, ordered from my favorite place to shop in the whole widest world, Amazon.com. So, not only have I been playing that obsessively on top of my time spent on WoW, but I've been working my way through the War of the Ancients trilogy. I ordered the Archive version, so all 3 books came in one big one (I'm lazy like that...and it looks so much more imposing, topping out at 700 pages...). It really is somewhat astounding to get the incredibly-detailed backstory of so much of what I've experienced in-game before now. For instance, I just learned a couple hours ago that Lady Vashj was originally a Highborne servant to Queen Azshara (sp), the very same Queen who was responsible for bringing the Burning Legion into the world of Azeroth to begin with, 10,000 years ago. Oh, and something I learned, much to my astonishment, last nite, from playing Frozen Throne was that the Naga were all once Highborne Night Elves who....well, they kinda got on the wrong track. I've hated them for so long, in the WoW world, which is really one and the same world, but that's besides the point.......umm......yah, they've been a royal (literally, heh) pain in my keister for such a long time, it was a head-turner to discover where they really came from.

I'm currently in the 3rd book of the trilogy, and waiting for another Warcraft Archive, written by the same man, Richard Knaack, to show up in the mail. This one is one better than a trilogy...it's a quad..uh...quadrilogy? Yah, there's 4 books in this one, so I'm quite sure it'll keep me even more occupied than I am now. The 4 books aren't a series as the War of the Ancients one is, but needless to say, they're all related.

That reminds me of how pleased I was when I discovered what the Caverns of Time actually are. It's as if Blizzard wants everyone to experience at least some of the storyline behind everything. I like that. I think if more people actually delved into the background of what they're playing, everything, including those little things that don't really seem to matter much, like what the Naga really are, would take on a whole new light, and the game itself would gain a new depth.

Anyhow, now that I have that out of my system, I feel the need to brag a little :D My guild's been going through some trouble lately. We're still fairly new, and what was supposed to happen when we were formed was a lot of the leet people from our slowass server were supposed to join. Needless to say, things didn't work out entirely as planned, we went through a rough spell, but now it looks like we're gaining a little stability. It was the founders goal to start doing Hyjal within a couple weeks, but since that's quite evidentally not going to happen, we're focusing on Kara and ZA for the most part, with whoever wants to joining in other groups for other places. That doesn't really bother me, because when I'd first joined, I wasn't really geared for anywhere beyond Kara, sadly (and imagine how I feel when I read posts on here about how easy BT is...meh...:rolleyes:). We went last weekend, and I have to say, a better run for me personally, I could not have asked for. Now, I know that most of the stuff I'm about to list would make people doing Sunwell and whatnot stifle a laugh (or not even bother trying to stifle it at all, depending on how polite they are...), but gimme a break...everything that's listed replaced a blue, so yah, they're all nice upgrades for me. We all gotta start somewhere.

The best and brightest piece I got was [item]King's Defender[/item], which I promptly went and put Mongoose on (no comments from whoever in the peanut gallery favors Executioner...I debated and decided Mongoose would work better for my purposes...), and my threat and rage generation blow me away now. The 2nd piece was an [item]Eternium Greathelm[/item], 3rd were [item]Boots of Elusion[/item], 4th was [item]Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle[/item], 5th was a neckpiece that ended up not being as good as the one I already had on, and the 6th, and final piece, which was from badges instead of Kara but it still counts because I got it on the same day, were the [item]Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx[/item].

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good couple days :D

PS. Mongoose is friggin expensive. I'd already known that, and it actually came out about 150g cheaper than it had been when I'd checked the prices about a week before, but still...600g for an enchant, any enchant, seems a bit excessive. That's ok, tho. I absolutely love it when it kicks in at the same time as my Light's Ward, from my SSO neckpiece. Increase in agility by 120, increase in dodge by 100.....hehehe, I'm freakin untouchable when that happens, and it seems to happen quite a lot. I love it :cool:

PPS. Oh yeah, go check those books out, and then after you've checked them out, order them, and then once they've arrived, then....can you guess what the next step is?....that's right, once they've arrived, turn the comp off, grab some munchies, and exercise the part of your brain that deals with small, abstract symbols meant to represent ideas. You'll find those ideas are pretty cool. ;)

Alone in the Dark

salihe — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:53:51 GMT

I've never understood why people say it's unhealthy to stay indoors the vast majority of the time, to get very little interpersonal interaction (in person, that is...), and to generally live however it is that one sees fit. To eat when hungry, and to eat whatever hungry for (without worrying that you're eating lasagna at 7:00 in teh morning, or bacon and eggs at 10:30 at night...), to sleep when tired, even if that means multiple times a day, and to spend the time doing whatever is enjoyed most.

Almost every time I talk to the little family and few friends I have, they always ask, "Are you getting out more these days?" And my answer is invariably the same, "Not really, I can go out if I need to, but I choose not to because I enjoy it at home."

Always the same.......sigh.

Something that's always seemed to go hand-in-hand with staying inside 98% of the time is endless hours spent playing video games (and, in this case, writing, reading, and researching about them...). Just because someone chooses to immerse themselves into a fictional, pixelated world more than the supposed "real world", that doesn't mean that they're defective, or socially inept or stunted. It just means that they enjoy the game world more than their real one. And yet, when someone like myself chooses to spend most of his time online playing WoW, they get branded as a hermit, an outcast, some weirdo who never leaves his house. The ironic part, and what people who do the branding, will never understand is that since I started playing WoW, I've gotten more social interaction than I ever have before. I know vastly more people via that game than I do in RL. And that's good because my life in WoW is way better than the creeping sack of shit my real life is now. Is that sad? Oh, I know a lot of people would say certainly, but I don't really care. It works for me, and that's what matters.

WoW is kind of like online dating, tho generally without the romance. You have a staggeringly massive pool to choose from, and there's bound to be large numbers of people just like you. Before I started playing WoW, days and days would go by without me talking to one single person, not even a grocery clerk or gas station attendant (I have numerous health problems and live off of Disability, so I can afford to do that...).

Not anymore. No, now, I hit the log-on button, and seconds later, I usually have tells from people saying Hi, people on Vent asking whassup, and of course, random people I've never talked to before whispering and asking me to tank this or that. I can be alone, as my solitary personality demands, and yet not alone, at the same time.

I like that.

So what's the point of this? Nothing, really. Just me rambling. Have I said anything that almost everyone hasn't already thought of? Of course not....there's not a speck of originality in this world anymore. That's ok, tho. Writing is just communication without the demand. It's perfect for a hermit like me :D