All posts by Pike

alts, druid

Oh man, you guys.

17 Comments

I can’t decide which is more fun, my warlock or my rogue.

My warlock is currently level 47 and I’m leveling her with my boyfriend’s warrior tank. His goal with the character is to Tank Everything In The Fracking Game at the Correct Level. That means if he has to XP-pause at 60 to tank the raids, he’ll do it. And if he has to XP-pause at 70 to do the same, he’ll do that too. And he has roped me into his nefarious plans.

For the record– The Boy is an amazing tank. And he is decked out in blues that are enchanted with stuff like Mongoose. And the other day in ZF I pulled aggro off of him on the final boss.

THAT IS HOW AWESOME MY WARLOCK IS.

Also fun. Did I mention fun yet?

Oh by the way, I never die. Like the other day, after the ZF run was finished, it was just me and The Boy left in group and we were kind of running around for fun and we ran smack into a respawned pack of mobs.

The Boy charges into the fray and is promptly Hex’d and turned into a frog.

Mobs all beeline for me.

/Howl of Terror
/DoTDoTDoTDoT
/Drain Life
/point
/laugh

Yeah that was fun.

But then there is my rogue. Oh my gosh. I have the goggles + the heirlooms and my rogue never dies either. …okay, that was an exaggeration. I’ve died a couple times on my rogue. Sucks to not have heals. Still, I’ve also taken on unexpected packs of like four mobs, and lived to tell the tale. I usually have like 5 hit points left, but still. I LIVE. Also solo’d Hogger at the appropriate level. Did I mention that Evasion + BoA items + dynamite is OP? I love it so much.

It’s probably too early to say anything definitively about the class this early on, though, but it is SO FUN, I am so excited to do more leveling with this one. How did I never get into rogues before? Silly Pike!

So, I’m seriously considering changing mains for Cataclysm (assuming I am still playing– I still have so much stuff going on IRL that I’m really just playing it by ear at this point). No real major reason, just kinda want to try something different. The question, though, is change to what? Healy Druid was my original inclination but I still haven’t recovered from the impending Loss of Perma-Tree, since Tree Form was the entire reason I rolled healy druid to begin with (I know, I’m lame), so now both warlock and rogue (and maybe Goggles Bear) are at the top of the contenders list. We’ll see how things go!

(Also toward the top of the list: Gnome Priest, and Goblin EVERYTHING.)

screenshots

Quick Logistical Post

7 Comments

I get a lot of spam comments. A lot of it. I clear out probably five or so spam comments a day on both of my blogs combined– and that’s not counting the several thousands that Akismet has caught in its spider-web.

Yeah.

Most of the spam tries to cleverly disguise itself as not-spam, which is how it gets through the filters. But it’s still not something I want to deal with every day.

As a result I have decided to auto-close commenting on all posts older than 14 days. I hate to do this, because I know some people have a lot of blogs to catch up on and don’t get around to individual posts for a while, but it will help tons with the spam situation (as 90% of it happens on old posts).

You are, of course, always welcome to contact me via e-mail, Twitter, or by commenting on more recent posts, though!

alts, meta-wow, screenshots

Rah Rah Ah Ah Ah

10 Comments

I always loved hunters but it was a bit of a bizarre relationship. I loved them for what they were, obviously, but I also loved them because I was afraid to try anything new. Because anytime I tried anything new, I was expecting a carbon copy of a hunter, and when this never turned out to be the case, I would quit said new character in frustration. I was, for lack of a better term, caught in a bad romance.

After several months of hiatus things are different. I no longer feel like I have to keep writing hunter guides. I mean, tons of you guys followed me over to my new blog to hear me talk about things like aquarium test strips. Seriously.

I can feel the excitement.

I have also Officially Quit Raiding. I don’t have the time or the previously discussed mental stamina. My guild keeps trying to talk me into letting them drag me to an Arthas fight so I can see it, but I’m pretty apathetic about the whole issue. If I see him, fine, if not, fine. Ya know?

So my beloved hunter has been relegated to the status of BadgeBot. I run random LFGs with her when I’m feeling up to it. I spend the badges on those BoA heirlooms and Primordial Saronite. That’s right, I’m in Ulduar tier stuff and spending badges on stuff that isn’t better gear. Savvy?

Instead of raiding and endgame, I’m dinking around in alts which are tons more fun. When I started WoW again I made a pact to myself that I was going to be The Very Model of a Modern Major Casual, and I’m happy with how it’s turned out. I’ll spend a half hour or so in game every day, doing things that are familiar (starter areas/old instances anyone?) but also different. For example, after avoiding melee like the plague for years, I have a Feral Druid. And a rogue. My word, I love my rogue. And her vanity guild.

...gaga ooh la la?

Stuff dies before I can use Eviscerate. It’s hilarious. Also I’m a gnome, and an engineer, which means that as soon as I go into WSG I am going to become the embodiment of everything that Every Horde PvPer hates. It will be glorious.

I also really like her name. Tourbillon. This is a tourbillon:

It’s POWERED BY PHYSICS! Fully mechanical; and it goes on a watch, which means it’s about the size of what, your thumbnail?

Perfect name for a gnome rogue engineer, no? <3 I've also started making alts on the servers of friends and fellow bloggers. I used to avoid doing that because I was really bad about logging on to them and then I'd feel horrible about making an alt somewhere and never playing it. I'm trying to be better this time, though. I'm Pike, and I endorse this Pointless Post.

meta-wow, thoughts

So I was playing this game and OMG LOOK A SHINY

22 Comments

When I was younger I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. (And before you all go into some sort of tirade against clueless parents or something, be aware that it was mostly my idea– I was a rather informed young thing.)

There is a long and convoluted story behind all of this but suffice to say that the second school stopped interesting me was the second I stopped caring. As far as I was concerned, my games of make-believe held much more weight than whatever boring homework the school system was throwing at me at the time. The result was that suddenly the “gifted school” girl was failing everything in sight, and nobody knew why. Yeah, that was kind of an uncomfortable time in my life.

I struggled with this issue for quite some time– all through middle school and then some of high school– and then finally I started taking meds.


Mmyep, I read the label, and this was pretty much it. Seriously.

That was when something crazy happened. See, the meds had a completely different effect than what was originally intended. Instead of giving me the drive and focus to concentrate on school, they gave me the drive and focus to concentrate on video games. For hours on end.

Up until that point, I could only play video games for small amounts of time and then need a break. Suddenly I was binging on everything in sight. Zelda: Ocarina of Time for 18 hours a day? Did it. Starcraft for 18 hours a day? Yup. Mario Freaking Golf? Did that too.

Aaaanyways I was on the meds for a while and then halfway through college I quit, cold turkey. There were a few reasons for this but chief among them was “Why am I taking this super addictive crap when the tradeoff is probably not even worth it?”

Plus I missed my imaginary friends.

Well once I got over about a month of painful Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms  (further cementing my desire to not touch the stuff ever again), things had returned to normal– so it would seem. See, I wasn’t playing a whole lot of video games at this point because I was working and going to college. In fact, I wouldn’t really seriously game again until I graduated college and installed WoW.

I was soon back to my old shenanigans again as far as video games were concerned: I am unable to sit still and play a game for more than a couple of hours at a time. Oh, believe me, during the early WoW honeymoon phase it was several shifts a day, but these were interspersed with frequent breaks.

Anyways, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Pike, where are you going with this?”

Okay, I’ll cut to the chase. This whole insanely long prologue was meant to be a lead-in for this:

I can’t do that thing that everyone else does and binge play.

Seriously.

Chain heroics? Really? I can do two heroics, max, before I want to smash my head into a wall.

Raiding? An hour in and I’m done. I just stay the rest of the way out of courtesy more than anything. Karazhan was really the only raid that was near-immune to this phenomenon, because it was interesting. And Naxx wasn’t too bad, I guess. But ultimately this was one of the big reasons why I quit raiding. I just don’t have the mental stamina for it. After an hour or so, I simply don’t enjoy it anymore. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I kind of liked ToC. Short and to the point.

Leveling? Guys, not even heirlooms and the new in-game Quest Helper map can save me from how slowly I level. One level a day is a good day for me… and that’s pre-60. All you people that say stuff like “Oh I am leveling from 76 to 80 this weekend?” Seriously, you can do that? I think when I leveled my druid from 76 to 80 it took about a month. And I was a freaking healer and was getting groups every five seconds.

Doing anything on one single character for more than about an hour? There is a lot of crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth on my end.

Let’s not get me started on dailies. Dailies have tossed a sharp pointy stake in the heart of more than one online game for me.

I don’t know how you guys can do it. I mean, clearly, I must have at one point, because I think back to all the video game marathons I managed back when I was on Speeeeeeed™, and I did it back then. These days, though, I can’t go back to that, and ultimately I wouldn’t want to. I like how I am at this point, you know, with the whole doing-one-heroic and then having-to-log-off-for-several-hours-to-recuperate thing. Because in all those several hours that I am logged off, I’m doing other things like drawing or reading or writing or what-have-you, or maybe even taking out the trash when I’m feeling really inspired.

Well, now that I have elaborated far more on this than I was originally planning to, I hope that maybe you have an unde- SQUIRREL.

special, Uncategorized

Dear Jocee of Sen’jin

3 Comments

It’s not often that you meet someone that is

  • awesome at DPS
  • unfailingly friendly and supportive through not one, but two PuGs otherwise consisting of equal parts fail and QQ/whining, and
  • willing to kill themselves, with no compunctions about it, so they can show the dead huntard who hasn’t played in months where the entrance to Pit of Saron is.

Thanks for being that person.

I don’t know if you realized that whispering me boss strats or level headed encouragement amidst all the bawww’ing that was going on in /group would make my morning, but it did. So, thank you. <3

beast mastery, shot rotation

Beast Mastery Q&A June 2010

31 Comments

I haven’t raided since February. But I’ve done some heroics and testing/spreadsheeting.

Best Pet?: Elitist Jerks says Raptors (yay!) at very high gear levels. Wolves & Devilsaurs are testing out to be slightly higher for me in my ToC duds. By “slightly higher” I mean “about 20 DPS fully raid buffed”, whether or not that’s worth it for you is up to you.

Shot Rotation? Again, going by very high gear levels, Elitist Jerks says you can drop Arcane Shot. Spreadsheet tells me I can’t yet. Praise the light, I hate dropping shots, it makes me bored out of my mind.

Spec? I am still 53/11/7. I tried playing around with dropping Survival Instincts in favor of more points in Mortal Shots but the difference is minuscule (less than 10 DPS, fully raidbuffed). It might be worth a shot if you are better geared, however.

Is BM “viable” yet? Ah yes, that word with the nebulous definitions that people love to toss around. Ultimately this one comes down to you, what you are doing, and what your personal standards/opinions are, but I can tell you two things for sure:

One, Elitist Jerks says that at high gear levels the difference between BM and SV is now very minimal. Both lag noticeably behind MM, however.

Two, if I can pull this off on a single-target boss fight in a heroic as BM in oldschool ToC gear & freaking blue ammo:

…then anyone who makes fun of you for being BM in a heroic is, quite honestly, out of their looney little mind. And yes, you can tell them I said so.

Uncategorized

False Alarm

4 Comments

As it turned out I picked the worst time ever to return to WoW/Blogging. I am going to be moving at the end of the month (nowhere exciting; just the dawning realization that “moving back home” makes the best financial sense when you are trying to find a new job) and the next few weeks will be spent packing/cleaning/etc., not to mention working on the book that I am still working on. As such, don’t expect any blogging miracles for a little while. C’est la vie.

fun, interesting info

By the Way

9 Comments

I’ve been doing one LFG PuG every morning on Tawyn, just for the heck of it. By “morning” I mean somewhere between 5 and 6 am Pacific Time (which is the time zone of my server). Yeah, it’s pretty early, but ya know.

Anyways, why am I saying this? Because if you happen to be in roughly my gearscore-level (I think I am sitting right close to 5000 but honestly I don’t pay attention) and are Alliance in the Bloodlust battlegroup, and you queue that early too, well, you just might see me around.

Hey… it could happen!

So be sure to /wave if you see me, unlike a certain Shy Moonkin who, by the way, was the impetus for point six on my last post, regardless of what said Shy Moonkin says.

art, lists

Ten Things I Have Learned Since Returning to WoW

32 Comments

1.) People (especially healers/tanks) who queue for something just long enough to a.) ding or b.) get one more badge, and then drop group, are not earning any Pike Respect Points

2.) Nor are people who go “Pack plz Pack plz Pack plz Pack plz” when I need to Viper. EVERYONE OVERGEARS HALLS OF REFLECTION NOW, YOU WILL SURVIVE WITHOUT ASPECT OF THE PACK, PLEASE RELAX.

3.) HOLY HONOR, BATMAN WINTERGRASP

4.) Feral druid PvP taught me how to mouse-turn. It only took, what, three years to beat the keyboard turning out of me?

5.) Nothing against Sparkle Ponies or those who have them, honestly, but every time I see one I remember that I’m broke IRL. >_< 6.) Since when were moonkins tearing up Recount? What sort of madhouse world have I returned to? ( <3 ) 7.) Attumen still hates me 8.) I miss the Mechanar 9.) Warlock-kiting the slimes in Maraudon is surprisingly fun 10.) ...melee is surprisingly fun, also. Especially when you are a goggles-wearing bear! >:3

P.S. I’ve thought about it, and I’m back, suckas. Can’t guarantee I’ll be writing about hunter stuff. Oh well. I miss the community <3

Uncategorized

*taps mic* This thing on?

15 Comments

Can you hear me in the back?

/waves

Okay!

So folks, here’s the deal. The Boy wants to play alts with me and bought me a game card to prove it. As such, as of a few days ago, I am back in WoW. I do not know for how long. I do know that I want to be Super Casual– I still have too much to focus on outside of game not to be. I have no real plans to raid right now or really do anything outside of leveling alts with The Boy as an occasional social activity. (And dink around in Wintergrasp, which I have never done before, but is far more fun than I expected.)

As such, I have not yet determined whether or not I’m going to return to updating this blog. I am having tons of fun over at my new blog, as the freedom to write about whatever-strikes-my-fancy is exhilarating. If I do eventually choose to rez this blog, I imagine it will really only be for the rare occasional Really Hilarious PuG Story or something. I don’t think I have it in me to write much in the way of hunter guides when all I’m doing in game is leveling my warlock and feral druid, or getting the vehicles as soon as I possibly can in Wintergrasp *cough*

Nah, just wanted to give you all a headsup because I figured it was only a matter of time before somebody realized that my Armory profiles were suddenly mysteriously being updated again.

As a parting gift for reading, have a Lady ChuChu!:

<3 you guys! -Pike