Category Archives: screenshots

guild, screenshots

Sometimes a hunter's gotta fly alone

23 Comments

wow_ambassadortawyn1

There is no longer a guild tag under my name. It was not due to any sort of drama or conflict so much as it was due to the sort of communal realization by everyone in our friends circle that a chat channel would serve our socialization needs while allowing us to, well, go off and do what we wanted to do in game. The /gquit itself was not nearly as hard as it was last time, although it was rather sudden, but I do feel somewhat lonely now. Most people left with a clear goal in mind of where they were headed, some raiding guild or other being the most common answer.

Me? Guess I’m just a leaf on the wind. Time to see if I can soar…

alts, fun, screenshots, Uncategorized

Round One: FIGHT!

61 Comments

I really appreciate all the comments and ideas that were left on my blog post where I admitted that I was feeling sort of “lost in WoW” lately. After a bit of thought and a slight break, I’m thinking a major part of my problem is a lack of focus. I feel stretched too thin between my main character and then two level 74 toons– if I’m playing one, I keep thinking “I should be playing one of my others” in the back of my mind. Which is weird because I don’t really have any outside pressure to play any character in particular; I just feel bad when I can’t give them equal attention.

To remedy this, I am going to pick one alt toon to focus on and really concentrate on getting to 80. I think having that as a concrete goal will certainly give me something to do over the next couple of weeks.

And guys… I’ll need your help to pick.

/Announcer Voice On

lunapikerawr

And in this corner we have… Lunapike the Diplomat, level 74 Tauren Hunter. She was Pike’s second hunter to hit level 70 and is on the fast track to becoming her second level 80 hunter… and perhaps her second level 80, period! She resides on the RP-PvP server The Venture Co. (US) where she has resided since her mid-20s when she transferred there from a normal PvP server, and has a good half a level or so on our second contestant.

Strengths:
– Is a hunter, and Pike likes hunters. And playing another one would possibly give her more blog post ideas.
– Has tamed a Giant Enemy Crab which she named Genji
– Is the highest leveled Hordie of Pike’s, and as such has the drive and motivation to get to 80 so she can start collecting badges and passing out heirloom items, not to mention get sexy gear
– As a Hordie, gets to see the other side of the Northrend storyline which Pike hasn’t seen yet!
– Easier to quest with than the second contestant, in general
– Is a Female Tauren, the best playable model in game
– Pike is actually not allergic to cows

Weaknesses:
– Is dirt poor. Lacks epic flying and dual spec. (Not that dual spec is quite so important for a hunter, but ya know.)
– …is a hunter, and Pike already has one (or three, or four, or…).
– Is going to cause Pike to dissolve into fits of tears when she finds out dailies are a gankfest (sort of a repeat of what happened when she went to the Isle of Quel’danas with this character back in the day)
– Has a heck of a time getting into instances. Tends to get ganked by swarms of 80s at the meeting stone after finally finding a group (though she can take on most players of equal level).
– Has no “connections” to any raid groups

tamaryncast

And in this corner we have… Tamaryn, the… Tree! Level 74 Night Elf Druid. Though much “younger” than Lunapike, she has quickly climbed up the levels and currently sits a mere half a level or so behind the tauren, ready to surpass her at a given notice. She lives on the RP server Silver Hand (US) alongside Pike’s main, Tawyn.

Strengths:
– Is not a hunter and is thus an all new experience for Pike
– Has both Swift Flight Form and dual-spec thanks to Tawyn’s obsession with the Argent Tournament
– In Boomkin form, outDPS’s Lunapike, stupid Starfire crits (though to be fair, Lunapike is wearing a leveling spec whereas Tamaryn pretty much snatched something from Elitist Jerks)
– Is invited to instance groups within about thirty seconds
– Has the 10%-extra-XP shoulders
– Already has connections with various raid groups via Tawyn
– Is a Tree, the second best playable model in game

Weaknesses:
– May possibly cause Pike to start blogging about druidy things (on occasion!! Pike will still be playing her main.)
– Will be redo’ing a lot of leveling content Pike has already seen on Tawyn
– No real drive to get to 80 other than wanting to have a max-level healer alt since a.) Tawyn has already passed out heirloom items like candy on Hallow’s End and b.) it’s not like the way gear looks matters in tree form
– Pike has a deep-seated fear that if she gets a healer to level 80, she will never be allowed to play a hunter in a raid ever again
– Pike is allergic to trees

Who will win and become the part of Pike’s Next Big Project, and who will have to sit on the sidelines and be the “Third” (possible bad Ender’s Game joke not intended)?

ONLY YOU WILL DETERMINE THEIR FATE.

/Announcer voice off

Comment and vote today! *nod*

Note: Just to be clear, I really enjoy playing both of these characters and would be quite happy to level either. That’s why I can’t decide! >.>

screenshots

Sleep

18 Comments

Sleep

Sleep offers the body and brain time to restore and recover, affecting nearly every tissue in the body. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep21, yet almost one third of Americans are getting less than 6 hours per night22. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Prolonged sleep deprivation can also affect concentration and other cognitive functions. Learn more about
exipure benefits.

Without enough sleep, people tend to overeat and choose unhealthy foods. Sleep deprivation affects the body’s release of ghrelin and leptin, two neurotransmitters that tell our brain when to consume calories23. People who are sleep deprived are more drawn towards high-calorie foods24. Chronic sleep loss has been linked to having a larger waist circumference25, and an increased risk of obesity26.

Sleep allows muscle tissue time to recover between workouts. Sufficient sleep is also important in having the energy to exercise. Not getting enough sleep can lead to being less physically active during the day and reduced muscle strength27 during workouts. Sleep deprivation can also affect the safety of exercise28, with increased sports injuries reported in those who are underslept. Read the latest carbofix reviews.

Which is Most Important: Diet, Exercise, or Sleep?

While trying to manage a busy, hectic life, it’s understandable to want to prioritize activities that provide the most benefit. Unfortunately, diet, exercise, and sleep are so deeply intertwined, it’s not possible to say that one is more important than the others.

For people who are tight on time or aren’t able to tackle all three, it can be helpful to talk to a doctor for personalized recommendations. A doctor, with knowledge about someone’s unique health history, can help to prioritize lifestyle changes. Doctors can also refer their patients to specialists, like nutritionists, dieticians, physical therapists, and sleep specialists for more tailored advice.

Improving Sleep Through Diet and Exercise

While most people know that diet and exercise are two important ways to improve their health, sleep is often overlooked. Sleep hygiene, which involves recommendations that promote quality sleep, are a good place to start if you’re looking to improve your sleep. Here are some tips for improving your sleep hygiene through diet and exercise:

  • Don’t eat too late: Be sure to give your body time to digest after eating large meals. Try having dinner earlier in the evening.
  • Avoid caffeine: Beware of stimulants like coffee, energy drinks, and soda. If you do consume these, try to limit them to early in the day. If you find yourself drinking a lot of caffeine during the day, ask yourself if you’re making up for excessive daytime sleepiness.
  • Move your body: Schedule regular exercise to improve your sleep. While any movement during the daytime is good, it’s even better to get regular, moderate exercise a few days a week. Try to avoid working out too close to bedtime, giving your body a few hours after working out to wind down before bed.
  • Get some light: Try exercising outdoors, as exposure to natural light during the day can help keep your body in sync with its natural sleep rhythms.
fun, screenshots

Death Knight Starter Quests Improve With Age

17 Comments

(Warning: Possible spoilers ahead. Those of you who haven’t done the Death Knight starter quests, or haven’t done them in a long time, and would like to be surprised when you do them, feel free to skip this entry.)

Like most everyone else, I rolled a Death Knight the day after Wrath of the Lich King came out.

Like most everyone else, I finished the whole starter questchain because it was a rather captivating experience.

…and like a lot of people, my first Death Knight sits at level 58 because at the time, the Hellfire Peninsula quests were being camped so badly that it was like a foreshadowing of Noblegarden egg-hunting or something.

I always intended on making a second Death Knight sometime later, when all the initial hype and “PRESS 1 FOR HORSE” General Chat spam had died down, but I also wanted to do it when I knew I would have time to do it all in one sitting or close to it. So when I had a few hours to myself last night, I rolled up a shiny new Tauren Death Knight. Because I am an RP-geek, I wanted a name that was both Taureny and DeathKnighty, so I named her Bryonia, after an herb that causes “a profuse and uncontrollable diarrhoea, vomiting, vertigo, reduction of temperature, dilatation of the pupils, cold perspiration, extremely small pulse, colic, collapse, and death”. Sounds good, no?

Anyways the Death Knight starting quests were as wonderful the second time as they were the first, and I’d argue even more so. Ya know why? Cause now that I’ve played a good deal of Wrath of the Lich King, a lot of the references that I hadn’t noticed the first time are very potent and, in many cases, absolutely hilarious. Observe:

wow_thassarian

Oh my gosh! It’s Thassarian! You know, the guy who has a whole super long and awesome questline dedicated to him in Borean Tundra and who now flies around Icecrown! *gasp*

wow_razuvious

Show him what you’ve got!

wow_gothik

Poor Gothik. He finally gets a vacation and he’s still got work on the brain. For the record, and The Boyfriend can probably confirm– this made me laugh harder than anything else in WoW ever has, ever. Oh, and Gothik is also responsible for coining the phrase “Vacuum Cleaner of Souls” later on in this particular questline. Snaps for you, Gothik… snaps for you.

“Noth, where is Heigan?”

wow_noth1

wow_noth2

I’m thinking Noth is just bitter because he can’t dance. (In other news, I’d pay good money to see Heigan hosting an episode of Mousercise).

wow_mograine

ZOMG! Corrupted Ashbringer!

patchwerk

Aww, poor guy. /sniff. I gotta say though, what I wouldn’t give for a sound bite of “Loan make Patchwerk ANGRY!” to play over the phone to telemarketers.

wow_fightingpatchwerk2

Even in the DK starter zone he’s a tough cookie; enrages at the end and everything. Thanks, temporary invincibility buff!

Baron Rivendare was there too although I didn’t snag a screenshot, perhaps because it seems like he’s everywhere (Naxx, Stratholme, et al.) I did notice he’s actually pretty good looking though. I think it’s the hair. But yeah, good times, good times. DK quests are definitely worth a do-over if you’re someone who hasn’t visited Acherus since November; it’s better the second time.

My spec? Unholy, of course. Ghoul Frenzy is hot-keyed to my Bestial Wrath button. /grin

rp, screenshots, stories, Uncategorized

Hooked

19 Comments

I don’t know if I will ever quite forget that first odd feeling, nor can I still really compare it to anything else.

Lemme explain what I’m talking about.

There I was, level ten, on the trial version of WoW. I had little clue what I was doing. I was merrily questing in Elwynn Forest since a friend dragged me there from Teldrassil at the tender level of six. I’d kept my hearthstone set to Teldrassil in case I ever needed to return there in an emergency, because I knew I’d never figure out how to get back otherwise. So there I was, questing away and picking flowers because I trained in herbalism specifically to give my boyfriend a Peacebloom. (Yes, that is the honest-to-gosh reason behind what is still one of my professions.)

So there I was going around Raptor Striking things and having a grand ol’ time when suddenly I hit level ten and was informed by the hunter trainer that I was to return to NightElfLand to get my pet.

I was scared to death that if I went back there, I’d never be able to find my way back, but I really wanted a pet, so I took a last look around at Elwynn Forest and then used my Hearthstone.

Several hours later, having spent hours doing the pet quests and scouring the archives of the first WoW site I ever visited– Petopia— before settling on taming an owl, Tux and I were ready to head back. There we went, taking the boat and schlogging through the Wetlands and finally ending up in Thelsamar where I (finally) remembered about this strange concept called “Flight Points” and proceeded to fly back to Stormwind.

That feeling of flying over the waterfall from Burning Steppes into Elwynn is what I haven’t forgotten. It was a feeling of relief, but more than that– it was homecoming. I was very struck by this odd feeling. No video game yet had given me a similar feeling, and I’d played hundreds of them. Some of them I had loved dearly and felt very immersed in. But none of them made me feel like I was coming home when I entered a zone. This one did.

That’s when I knew that I wouldn’t just be playing the free trial.

That’s also when Tawyn’s character really started to materialize and when I knew I’d be happy on my RP server, despite my initial misgivings. Tawyn who felt more at home among the humans than among her own people. Tawyn who was good friends with the inhabitants of the dwarven district, who prefers guns to bows and who has never in her life owned a saber mount because she has always ridden horses (or mechanostriders, or polar bears… but mostly horses, I promise) instead.

And as soon as my gryphon landed– that’s also when I set my hearthstone to Stormwind.

tawynofstormwind1

tawynofstormwind2

So this was a long time coming. Two years, in fact. Since long before the title even existed. My inner RP geek is satisfied.

screenshots

And Piggy Makes Three

10 Comments

With Tawyn’s acquisition of Mr. Wiggles yesterday, she now possesses all three of the “old-world” Children’s Week minipets– Speedy being her first and Whiskers being her second. Because Childrens’ Week was the first ever in-game holiday I experienced (seriously, I was about level… 16?), this means I’ve officially headed into my third year of playing World of Warcraft.

wow_turtleonmybed

For those of you who have been playing a lot longer than I have, that’s probably nothing, but for me it’s sort of a “wow… crazy” moment, that I have now played for two full years and am headed into my third. Two years ago I was on my last week of university courses ever and I opted to install the demo version of the game knowing I could now safely play it without having to worry about being distracted from homework and various super-important projects. I rolled up Tawyn, the teal-haired hunter, who was supposed to be a tauren except that the person who got me into the game was Alliance so I had to follow suit. Two years later she is (perhaps astonishingly?) still very much my main, and I’ve made some of my current best friends in-game and become some sort of blogger. Weird, huh?

Happy birthday, Tawyn! And thanks to all my readers for letting my share my WoW experiences with you guys. <3

screenshots

It Was Worth Every. Last. Mark.

12 Comments

tawynmechanostrider

I had like 75 of each Mark of Honor laying around collecting dust in my currency tab, and mechanostriders are basically the best mount in the game, so yeah.

The bunny ears? A leftover from my Aspect of the Hare proc, of course.

***

So if everything goes according to schedule, I have a Naxx raid tonight. This is good, because I haven’t been to a raid in a few weeks and I am getting reeeeeally antsy. I am loving the Argent Tournament which I just started doing these past few days– it’s way more fun than I was expecting, and I am addicted to jousting (I’ve got to a point where if I’m lucky, I can get the other guy down to 0% health in about fifteen seconds)– but yeah. I wants me some raid action. *twitch*

By the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, you probably won’t be getting any Ulduar posts from me anytime soon. I do not have the raiding group or schedule for it, and I’m probably not geared for it anyway. >.> It’s okay though, there are plenty of other good bloggers talkin’ away about it, so it’s not like you’re completely out of luck! I’ll still be here if you want some non-Ulduar chatting.

*bounds around on Mechanostrider*

screenshots, thoughts, Uncategorized

The Beast (Master Spec) Within

14 Comments

I don’t know about you guys, but I am a huge dork so I tend to play a little game with myself where I’ll try to come up with awesome new talents for the Beast Master tree. Most of these imaginary talents really focus on my favorite part of that spec– the synergy between pet and hunter. So most of my ideas involve the hunter and pet bouncing things off of each other, making each other more powerful. My ideas also tend to be a little, well… let’s put it this way. I really dislike those talents that are a flat “Your pet does n% more damage, period.” Not so much because they are bad talents, so much as they are a.) overdone and b.) simply not very exciting!

Observe:

In the Beast Master tree:
Unleashed Fury: Increases the damage done by your pet by 15%.
Kindred Spirits: Increases the damage done by your pet by 20%.

In your Ferocity pet’s talent tree:
Spiked Collar: Increases the damage done by your pet by 9%.
Shark Attack: Increases the damage done by your pet by 6%.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to complain or anything. I like having a pet who can make things explode with a single swipe.

But I’m that person who sits here and thinks “Ooooh they’re redoing talents this expansion/patch/etc., I wonder what types of things we’ll get! Maybe we’ll get like… a Poison Dart attack that increases the damage done by mine and my pet’s special attacks for ten seconds and maybe if my pet crits it will increase the critical strike chance of my next hit or maybe my pet’s attack power will be increased by a percentage of my stamina and my intellect will be increased by a percentage of his stamina, or maybe when his Frenzy procs I go into a Frenzy too and I get some sort of bonus, or or or or…

…

…or more increased pet damage. Kay.”

Ya know? Now those are just examples I pulled out of my hat, nothing too serious, but you get the drift. I guess my point is that a lil’ more variety would be nice.

Ah, but a hunter can dream. I’m sure most of us have spent some time thinking about a personal “idealized” version of our spec or class. …or maybe that’s just me cause I’m a supergeek. I’m okay with that, too. Still, I’d be curious to hear if any of you are like me, and if you are, what sort of ideas you fine folks have thought of.

And in other news, this sort of scenario is kind of turning into a tradition:

wow_lunapikevsnexus

guides, hunter kindergarten, screenshots, Uncategorized

My Viper Sting Brings All the Mana to the Yard

16 Comments

ability_hunter_viperstingAh, Viper Sting. Up until this latest patch I used it for two reasons, and two reasons only: to extinguish mage-type mobs who had nasty fireball attacks that hit like a truck on my pet, and to tick off casters in Alterac Valley. Well, the first is rather situational, and the latter hasn’t gotten much use since I decided I don’t feel like doing the PvP gear grind again anytime soon so I’m on extended hiatus from battlegrounds… not to mention the drain itself has been rather distressingly nerfed. Anyways, the point is, when Serpent Sting finally became a bread’n’butter hunter ability, there was really little use for Viper anymore.

Recently, though, Viper Sting has changed entirely. Namely, that mana it drains from a mob? It now also gives mana to you.

There are two reasons why this is awesome.

First, it makes solo’ing easier. My current preferred solo/leveling talent build scoops up 2/2 Invigoration, and if you combine that with the new Viper Sting, and then finally Aspect of the Viper, your downtime is pretty much zero.

Now, you should be aware that the mana you gain back from Viper Sting from most mobs in the field, while certainly not nothing, also isn’t exactly earth-shattering. You’ll still find yourself switching to Aspect of the Viper a lot. So this brings us to our second point…

There are a lot of instance and raid mobs or even bosses who have metric tons of mana. Guess who can drain it? And guess who gets a lot of mana back for it?

lunapikeflex

That’s right, you. While I’ve actually yet to test this in a raid situation (all the raids I wanted to test this in this past week either failed to ignite or conflicted with my schedule), I’ve tested it in a few heroics and it’s quite amazing how much mana you can get. Now, Serpent is still preferred in most situations from an instance/raid standpoint. But if you need the mana, well, now you’ve got a great backup. And my Marksman friends out there get a nifty bonus when they combine it with Chimera Shot.

In short? Say hello to your new little friend, Viper Sting. It’s an ability that I think will come in handy whether you’re a lackadaisical hunter (thanks Mania for the term!) or one who likes to go swimming in the raiding pool.

Caveat lector: Not every mob or raid boss has mana. A good many don’t, in fact. In those situations, you’re back to your old tricks. =P