Category Archives: Uncategorized

To All The Characters I've Loved Before

September 28, 2009 Pike 18 Comments

As a wannabe cartoonist, one of my personal heroes is Chuck Jones. The mastermind behind Looney Tunes who brought Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and all their friends to life. There is a story that is frequently told regarding him, wherein he introduced himself to a small boy as “The person who draws Bugs Bunny”. The boy promptly corrected him, “No, you’re the person who draws pictures of Bugs Bunny.”

See, that’s how I feel about my characters in WoW. I am not Tawyn. I just play her in a video game.

Tawyn’s path to life has been a long and windy one. There were some parts of her character that I knew from the beginning: for example, that she lived in Stormwind instead of Darnassus. But most of the other aspects of her character wouldn’t manifest themselves right away. In the beginning, largely influenced by the night elf voice acting I think, she was a much nicer and more serene and overall “elfy” individual. It was my first ever Brewfest at level 50 or so where the guild running joke of Tawyn being an alcoholic surfaced, and I later decided to tie this into her personality. After that, it was just a snowball effect, with my character leaping unbidden from “neutral good” to a much more chaotic persona. She became misanthropic; a cowgirl and a mercenary. A Beast Master because beasts were the only thing she could trust. Time and all the changes it has brought to WoW had an effect on her as well, and I tend to say that she has since fled Stormwind due to the political goings-on and now wanders around Northrend as a vagabond.

When I think of her, I don’t think of her as a character in WoW. I think of her as this living, breathing individual. She is of course, not real, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

I think this may effect the way I play the game. For example, the idea of a faction- or race-change seems almost like a crime to me. Sure, there are races I like more than night elves, but the whole idea of Tawyn’s identity as a night elf and the internal struggles she has with this fact is bound tightly to her character. To change her into something different and rip that integral part of her story away is unspeakable. I don’t even like thinking about it.

At this point you may be thinking “Wow, you are superbig into roleplay, aren’t you?” to which my reply is, actually, I almost never roleplay in game. I was never comfortable with it. Primarily because I didn’t want to step into the shoes of this character who I knew I could never do justice. I always approached roleplaying with trepidation, the way an actor might approach playing some historical figure in a film. I don’t much like roleplaying because I know I am not Tawyn and am afraid I’ll play her all wrong. You’re laughing at me, telling me I invented her, but in truth it feels more like she came to me. I don’t fully know her yet. I’m still learning about her.

So it is that I have this character that popped into my head and I also play her in a video game. The video game aspect of it is a large part of it, and that’s why I never quite understood the “I don’t roleplay in WoW because stuff like spirit rez’ing is too unrealistic” thing. That doesn’t make sense to me because what’s happening is just that, a game adaptation of your character’s life. Stuff that happened in game doesn’t necessarily have to be stuff that happened to your character’s backstory. Tawyn didn’t actually murder thousands of the Defias Brotherhood. Tawyn didn’t actually wipe on Sapphiron or Curator billions of times. Tawyn didn’t actually do that infamous “torture quest”. The game is a loose roadmap for Tawyn’s life, but it’s not a home movie. Most World War 2 video games aren’t exactly how it happened either.

No, the Real Tawyn lives in my head and manifests herself to me in stories and in her little personal piece of lore that has been cooking in my head since day one.

All my other characters feel very real to me as well, of course– heck, I’ve been known to level characters only because I like their backstory— but none of them is quite as real as Tawyn is, and I think that’s why after all these years, Tawyn is still my main. Cause how can you shelf a character that real?

I gotta say, in the end, this is why I play World of Warcraft. I mean, the huntering is great. Obviously I love the huntering. But if you shoved Generic Hunter #13458 in my face and told me to play it, I’d lose interest. Very fast. Because in the end, the biggest reason I love WoW is because it’s a gateway for letting some really interesting imaginary people into my brain.

And that’s awesome.

hunter, patches, screenshots, Uncategorized

Two or Three Huntery Things About Patch 3.2.2

September 25, 2009 Pike 15 Comments

Just a few hunterrific things you may or may not have noticed with this latest patch…

1.) Bestial Wrath Graphics Change:
This was pointed out to me by a guildie who wanted to know if my Bestial Wrath went “RAWR” anymore, because his didn’t. I tried it and immediately assumed it did, however, this was because my pet was by my side. See, now your pet will still go RAWR, but the hunter will do a Swirly Ball– a la Old Rogue Detect Traps– and make a cleansing noise. This falls in line with Blizzard’s intention of turning The Beast Within into a “defensive ability” in PvP. However, I still firmly consider it to be 100% offensive in PvE, and I sorta miss my personal RAWR! in all its ragey glory.

At least Swirly Ball is sparkly.

Pike’s Final Grade: B-

2.) Feed Pet Graphics Change

You now visibly toss your pet a snack, and your pet makes a cute noise and jumps up and catches it! It’s the cutest thing ever and I love it to bits. Too bad thanks to Bloodthirsty and the Mend Pet glyph, I hardly ever feed my pet anymore…

Pike’s Grade: A+

3.) Pink Elekks are Not Tamable

Self-explanatory.

Pike’s Final Grade: F. But at least we get the minipet, right?

fun, screenshots, Uncategorized

An Even Larger aMOUNT

September 16, 2009 Pike 10 Comments

A sequel to yesterday’s post about Tawyn’s mounts, here are Lunapike’s:

This was her first, your standard Gray Kodo. She got it at level 40– she would be my last character to get a mount at 40 because after that the level for mounts would change (my druid was 38 or something, though.) Anyways, Lunapike is one of my few characters who I didn’t strive for a cross-racial mount from the beginning with– I really liked Tauren and I liked Lunapike being a Taureny Tauren with a Kodo.

His name is Rocky. :3

Gotta admit though, the whole bulkiness of Kodos sorta bugged me, so I made a lot of effort throughout levels 51-60 so I could snag…

My Frostwolf Howler! (Named Snowball)

It actually wasn’t so bad to save up the Alterac Valley marks for him. See, back in those days, Horde on that battlegroup won 99.99% of 51-60 bracket AVs and it was epic and hilarious and there was actually TEAMWORK and people actually DEFENDED AND RECAPTURED TOWERS. An unheard of concept, I know.

I went back there the other day and it had completely changed for the worse, I was depressed. But meh. That’s another story. >.>

So anyways, I hit level 65ish and got to Nagrand. I gotta say, this is a zone that I much prefer on Horde than on Alliance. Better questlines, better rep factions (Mag’har for the WIN), the whole thing with Thrall, you name it.

So combine my love of the Mag’har with my newfound idea that Nagrand should be Lunapike’s home away from home, and my further desire to get the “Diplomat” title for her, and the Talbuk was a given. This didn’t happen until 70 but man, grinding on those ogres was a great way to level pets. I picked the White War Talbuk because it was the best-looking to me at first glance with those bright blue horns, but later I picked up two others…

Cobalt Riding Talbuk, and

Silver War Talbuk!

I have come to see both of these mounts as probably being better looking than my first one, and I gotta say, I think Silver War Talbuk is possibly my favorite of all of them. The colors are subtle, but absolutely gorgeous. <3 Now one of the great things about being Horde is that as a rule, the racial mounts are all Made of Win. Contrast this with Alliance where Mechanostriders and Horses are pretty much the only mounts that I like. Rams are meh, Elekks are awesome if you're a gnome but are otherwise meh, and the Cats are just No. Horde is a different story though, and I've spent the last month-ish working on getting exalted with all the home cities so I could obtain lots of different mounts...

I. Love. Raptors. I’m sure most of you figured this out by now. So, the Raptor mount was a given. I allllmost got the teal-colored one but decided I liked the color scheme on this one instead. I’m glad I got him, I <3 him to death. He needs a good name, methinks. (Before you ask, I do kind of want the Ravasaur, but I’m in no rush… and half the Hordies on my server have it anyway. =P)

I used to be only a “semi-fan” of the Undead horse, as in, I thought they looked cool from a distance but I couldn’t envision myself with one. Then they started coming out with the new colors that have the stripes and everything on the skirt and I decided I needed one. Very happy with my decision thus far; he leaves a glowy trail behind him and Lunapike looks very good on him. (I have come to the decision that while the male tauren tend to look funny on smaller mounts, female tauren often look fantastic on them! <3)

Hawkstriders are hilarious and remind me of Chocobos, so I snagged one, but since then I’ve wondered if it’s the right choice. Lunapike really does look silly on it, and it does this weird thing where it bounces up and down and your character just lurches up and down and up and down and up and down… oddly enough, I never felt that way with the raptor, perhaps because I’m so focused on watching the undulating tail, but yeah, this one is different.

I’m still using it for the time being though… >.> Cause it’s a chocobo.

Flying Mount the First:

And Flying Mount the Second:

I think Wind Riders are cute; I love the way their ears bounce up and down when they run. I also like the blue and violet color scheme on the Armored one, which is why I dumped 1800g on it instead of getting a normal swift mount for much cheaper. I actually bought it before I had the swift flight skill and it sat in my bags for a really long time.

All told, 5000g for flying + 1800g for the mount + 1000g for Northrend flight = Very broke Pike. Thank the Earthmother for the Argent Tournament and crossfaction minipets.

Welp, that’ll do it. You may be asking “WHAT ABOUT YOUR DRUID, ISN’T SHE LEVEL 80 TOO?” And she is, but she doesn’t have too many interesting mounts. Between Swift Flight Form and Travel Form, she isn’t mounted very often anyway. She just uses the Swift Gray Ram at the moment, primarily because it Isn’t A Cat. She may get my Recruit-a-Friend Zebra. We’ll see.

As for my lower-level characters who are primarily working on getting cross-racial mounts… well… perhaps a post about that one in the future. *nods*

But yus, there ya have it. Okay, back in the bus, field trip’s over~!

fun, screenshots, Uncategorized

A Very Large aMOUNT

September 14, 2009 Pike 20 Comments

I like mounts. Not quite to the point of obsession as the people who must obtain every mount in the game, but I’ve collected a decent little number of ones that I really like.

Most of my mounts in the “early levels” have some sort of roleplaying reason to them. In my mind, being a relatively low-level character with a mount of a different race makes a great strong-yet-subtle statement about your character. I have done this on multiple characters and it never gets old (although, as Blizzard lowers the required mount level, it does become more difficult to do.)

Unfortunately, in the higher-levels, Blizzard really pushes you to become exalted with everybody thanks to achievements, the Argent Tournament, etc. so the uniqueness of having a cross-racial mount sorta fades away. For that reason, once one of my characters hits 70 or 80 or so, I typically start branching out and riding what I just plain feel like riding.

Come with me on a field trip and check out the stable of my two most played characters, Tawyn and Lunapike…

Tawyn:

The Chestnut Mare was my Very First Mount ever. Ever. Remember, Tawyn was my first character (and yes, still my main), so yeah. Let me take you back to a time when you didn’t get mounts until level 40 and before the Great Leveling Nerf of Patch 2.3. Let me take you back to a time when I spent what felt like eons Aspect-of-the-Cheetah-ing my way up and down Stranglethorn Vale. Getting a mount was a Big Deal. My boyfriend and I rode up and down the entire southern half of Eastern Kingdoms just cause we could.

I named my new horse Buckles.

I spent days farming Briarthorn and Swiftthistle for the 600 gold you needed for your epic at that time. This is an absolutely gorgeous mount… I still think so. His name is Chip!

Of the three available gryphons, I picked the Golden Gryphon for two reasons. The first was that I reasoned that as Tawyn lived in Stormwind, she would probably ride your plain ol’ Stormwind-looking gryphon. The second is that eeeeeeeeeeverybody had either the black or white variants and I wanted to be unique. I’m silly like that.

His name is Feathers. I’m super creative. /cough

Saving up the 5000g for this guy was one of the most painful things I ever did. It was accomplished by spending several weeks living at The Island of Quel’danas and it was horrible. The only way I was able to do it was with the encouragement of (and a couple of financial boosts from) my friends and then-guildies. It was worth it though; being able to zip around so swiftly and not have to worry about flight points was an Azerothian Dream-Come-True.

I actually don’t think I ever settled on a name for him. In a way, I think I still consider him to be Feathers, but in Armor. He’s a good-lookin’ bird.

…of course, when Wrath of the Lich King came out, I soon upgraded to a dragon. The Red Drake in specific. I wanted him pretty much immediately after doing that quest where you fly around Wyrmrest Temple and fireball stuff from dragonback, and for weeks I did Wyrmrest Accord dailies and wore the tabard. I finally hit exalted and nabbed him on my birthday. It was an awesome present for myself.

His name is Spirakistrasz but Tawyn calls him “Sparks” for short. He doesn’t mind. He is capable of turning into a blood elf form *SNEEZES LOUDLY* uh, did I say something?

I got this guy around the same time, after a few days of absentmindedly doing Brunnhildar dailies. At the time, he was bugged, and was tiny compared to all other bear mounts. It was absolutely hilarious. I proudly rode my BabyBear all over the place until they buffed him back up to normal size in the next patch. Now he doesn’t get out much, but I still like him.

I never really “named” him but I kinda want to call him Iorek Byrnison BECAUSE HE TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE HIM! Don’t you think? Or how I envision him anyway.

(While we’re on the subject, it feels thoroughly awesome to ride around on Iorek Byrnison with a hunter pet for a dæmon and a Haunted Memento for a Death.)

It took me longer to get this than it did for most people, mostly because of my own inability to find a group for the timed run. Once I did nab him, he quickly became my flying mount of choice: he’s such a lovely color. I never came up with a good name for him, though, which sort of makes me feel bad.

He has lately been semi-retired in favor of another mount which I shall speak of shortly, partially because it was starting to feel like everyone in the world was using the Bronze Drake and partially because I was just feeling like something different.

…and this is my current flyer of choice, the Cenarion War Hippogryph. I’ve wanted it for a while now… yes, this is a mount that has been around since Burning Crusade… but despite being exalted with Cenarion Expedition since forever thanks to all the heroics I ran, I never could justify dropping the 1600g on him. But money is a lot less painful to make now than it was then, so I was able to talk myself into doing it a few weeks back. These guys aren’t seen that often, since many of the people who had it originally have moved onto new mounts and many other people didn’t have their current 80 for Burning Crusade and thus don’t have the rep– so he is pretty rare– but the best part is that he’s gorgeous =D

I still need a name for him. It’s gotta be something celestial sounding, I know that.

*movie announcer voice* And now, the Mechanostrider Army:

Black Battlestrider

Swift Green Mechanostrider

And my latest pride and joy, the Gnomeregan Mechanostrider. I have this weird thing for orange-and-purple. I think it goes back to my Neopets days when I was a huge Kreludor fan during the Altador Cup. (Actually I still am. Don’t tell anyone.)

My current mount macro cycles through my three Mechanostriders at random, and uses my Hippogryph when I can fly. I <3 my mounts!

Well, I was going to delve into Lunapike’s mounts here, but now that I look at it she has just as many mounts as Tawyn does and it would make this already long article rather obscenely long, so you’ll just have to wait until the next post. So our Field Trip is on a brief hiatus.

Until then, don’t touch the Magic School Bus*. He’s a bit… unpredictable.

—

* [Magic School Bus] = Summons and dismisses a rideable Magic School Bus and a lizard companion pet. This is a very fast mount that is capable of traveling into space and inside a targeted player’s digestive system.

alts, druid, screenshots, stories, Uncategorized

What Happens When You Combine Two of My Favorite Things

September 10, 2009 Pike 15 Comments

The desert stretched far and wide under the young druid’s hooves and she found herself sighing at this wasteland that she had come to. The goblins had plenty of tasks for young entrepreneurs, but few would help to test and grow her skill with the healing arts, which was her focus– no, most of the goblins asked for bandits to be chased off and roving animal bands to be culled.

She shifted effortlessly into the form of a dust-colored lion and stretched, as she did so briefly inspecting her claws– they were not as sharp as they could be. Neither were her teeth. She hadn’t studied feral combat at all, and she knew that as time went on and she dealt with more and more dangerous foes, this form would no longer cut it. She sighed again, shifted back into her tauren form, and muttered a brief prayer to the Earthmother as she strode into Gadgetzan’s inn.

That was when she saw him; a blood elf with a red lion’s mane of hair and a large, beautiful cream-hued moth fluttering next to his head. There was something about this elf that shook the druid as unusual, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

She thought for a bit, wondering if she should approach him; these blood elves were somewhat unpredictable in their actions and many of her comrades at home in Mulgore had muttered their quiet disapproval of having to work with them. Still, she figured it was worth a shot, since there was no one else around at this time except for the goblins, and so she sat down next to him on the bench.

He immediately glanced up at her with expressive bluegreen eyes as she attempted to word her request in Orcish, a language which she still did not have a strong command of. “Hello, sir… I am a healer… would you like my help?” Mentally she berated herself for not being able to word that as eloquently as her mind cwas able to, but her thoughts were soon interrupted by the blood elf chuckling and responding– in Taurahe, no less– “I certainly wouldn’t mind some company.”

The druid found herself taken aback at his use of her language. She blinked as he continued, “Did you have anything in particular that you aimed to do while here? I have spent a lot of time here myself; I’m sure the goblins are sick of me by now.” He laughed a bit again– a friendly, good-natured laugh.

The tauren studied the blood elf; here she noticed what it was about him that had flagged him as “unusual”. Namely, instead of wearing the bright, polished armor and colors preferred by most of his race, he was dressed in practical and somewhat bland mail and leather garb, and wore beads and feathers in his hair. His weapon was a gun of typical Tauren worksmanship, and to top it off, his Taurahe, albeit having a foreign (but not entirely unpleasant) lilt to it, sounded fluent.

It was as though he had come from Thunder Bluff instead of Silvermoon.

All at once the druid relaxed. It was a mystery to be sure, but there was a down-to-earth friendliness in the blood elf’s face, and it was reassuring.

“To tell the truth I just arrived not to long ago,” she replied, glad to be conversing in her native tongue. “I am training to be a healer, though, and it’s getting hard to find such work when there are so few about…”

The blood elf nodded. “That’s unfortunate, but sadly, understandable. You’re welcome to adventure with me, though… I could use the company. Not that Chakapas here isn’t good company…” he reached up and gently stroked the moth’s furry face, and it chattered back happily. The elf turned back to look at the druid. “We’ll start you with the basics; this is a rough land. I know a good place where we can practice working together.” He stood up and brushed off his trousers, then extended a gloved hand out to the tauren. “I’m Althalor,” he said. “And you…?”

“Songlark,” the druid smiled.

—

So for Recruit-a-Friend I transferred my Sapling Tree (as opposed to the Full-grown Tree I already possess) over to my new account, specifically so she and the third hunter in my repertoire could level together. The main catch is that for the lowbie to receive bonus XP, the group must not be killing anything that is “gray” to either character, and for both to receive bonus XP, they must be within a few levels of each other. And currently, Althalor has a head-start on Songlark of some ten-odd levels.

Still, I figured I could find something in the middle of their respective leveling ranges and at least get Songlark started on her way.

Enter Zul’Farrak.

The mobs are orange (or red) to Songlark and green to Althalor. Armed with Spirit Bond and a Glyph of Mending, I was able to successfully solo the vast majority of the trash in that place, with Songlark obediently following along and providing Mark of the Wild and the rare backup heal, whilst soaking up all the bonus experience.

I experimented with a couple different computer setups, including this one:

(Mega Man wallpaper is sexy and you can’t stop me from thinking so! *nods sagely*)

However, the windows were too small to do much work in, and since I was spending 95% of my time on Althalor the Hunter anyway, I eventually wound up making both windows larger and simply keeping one minimized. I didn’t full-screen either of them, to make it easier to swap between them, though.

Oh, and before you ask, it works flawlessly on Linux/Wine. /flex

By now I’ve toted Songlark through good portions of ZF, several quests in both Feralas and Tanaris, and also jumped onto Lunapike to run her through Scarlet Monastery a few times for Whitemane’s infamous hat (which failed to drop and then I got bored…) Suffice to say she was level 38 when we began this little adventure and she’s now a fraction of a bar away from level 43.

I like this Recruit-a-Friend thing. *cough* It feels super awesome to have both Hunter PewPew and Druid HoTs at my disposal– two of my favorite things!

It does feel odd, in another way, though. See, leveling is something I really enjoy doing. I even like leveling “the normal way”. So this would aaaaaallllmost feel like cheating, except that I already have a level 80 hunter (two actually) and a level 80 druid and I’ve leveled both Horde and Alliance characters to 80 at this point so it’s not like I’m missing out on anything new, ya know?

I don’t think I would actually ever use Recruit-a-Friend with someone who hadn’t played before, though… I’d level with them the old-fashioned way, I think. Personal preference, really.

By the way– I’ve gotten LOTS of comments about dual-boxing and programs to use and that sort of thing. I do appreciate all the advice, but at this point I have little interest in “serious” dual-boxing beyond sticking the druid on follow and having the hunter go demolish stuff. Not to mention, I have my doubts about how well various dual-boxing programs would work on Linux. Still, I will keep all the input in mind, just in case.

Uncategorized

Recruit-a- …me?

September 9, 2009 Pike 22 Comments

I’ve been feeling a little silly lately since I feel like I don’t have much to blog about. Not to say that I’m not enjoying myself in game, but really, I figure who really wants to hear about me ramble about dailies, alts, and the occasional heroic?

(Though if you do want to hear me ramble about that stuff for some reason, lemme know =P)

Fortunately I may have found something of interest to talk about: namely, yesterday I decided to splurge and I got myself a second WoW account and Recruit-a-Friend. The whole set up + upgrading to WotLK + transferring a “test alt” over there was kind of pricy, but I allow myself to splurge a little every six months or so to keep me from going completely nuts about watching 95% of my income go to bills and food, so this was my splurge this time. /nod

Also, this is the graphic Blizz displays as an Easter Egg on the “Upgrade-to-WotLK” page:

For great justice.

Anyways, I haven’t had much of a chance to play around with my new second account yet, other than discovering I can’t invite my alt back to my little personal Horde Guild (I think maybe you have to have had an account for a few days or something before it will let you join a guild?) I have also decided the way battle.net handles more than one WoW account is pretty nifty. You just log in with one overriding account and then you choose which account you want to log into before you get to the character selection screen.

But yeah, looking forward to messing around with it after work today. To tell the truth I have no major overriding plan for what I want to do with a second account. I have little interest in the zebra mount, and no real alt plans for Recruit-a-Friend (other than satiating my morbid curiosity about just how fast the 3x experience + herilooms + rested goes…) and seeing as what I’m most excited about is being able to do things like get myself into raid groups for solo’ing stuff, or being able to invite myself to alt guilds (things that I was able to utilize the boyfriend for until his account expired >.>) I’m actually not sure it will be worth the extra $15/month in the end. But we’ll see how it goes– I’m pretty sure I’m creative enough to come up with something interesting– and if it isn’t as fun as I was expecting, it’ll be easy to just cancel that subscription and go back to one!

*nod*

fun, screenshots, Uncategorized, weapons

Of Guns and Robotics – Why I Like All The Things Lots Of You Don't

September 6, 2009 Pike 20 Comments

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that I usually get confused and curious comments or Twitter messages when I mention that guns are by far my favorite type of ranged weapon, or that I am obsessed with Mechanostriders, or that I like gnomes and goblins. And because curiosity is typically a good thing, I am here to reward that curiosity with answers! *nods*

Okay, first, let’s go back to the basics. I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll mention it again because it’s relevant: I’ve always been more of a sci-fi person than a fantasy person. When I was a kid, I found aliens and spaceships and androids to be much more interesting than more abstract concepts like elves and dwarves. I shoved various fantasy films and cartoons aside in favor of Star Trek or Star Wars, which never bored me, despite the fact that I’d seen the various movies enough times that I could quote entire scenes verbatim.

As I grew older, I finally started to sort of grasp and appreciate fantasy much more than I had in the past, but that longstanding love for sci-fi has really stuck with me.

As such, I really REALLY like anything involving robots, steampunk, rube goldberg devices, mechas, crazy machines, airships, flashing lights, and any sort of otherwise otherworldly and machiney contraptions.

One of the awesome things about WoW and the Warcraft world is that Blizzard isn’t afraid to occasionally toss all those awesome things into their games. Sure, I was always the girl who preferred StarCraft to WarCraft back when they were strictly RTS games (go figure), but even the WarCraft games had glaive throwers and flying machines and all sorts of fun stuff. So I’m naturally drawn to all that stuff (and by extension, to gnomes and goblins).

Anyways, this fangirlishness of mine has manifest itself today in the form of showering my characters with all sorts of fun contraptions:

I’m not sure if it’s quite possible for me to express the awesomeness of having a mechanical mount and a mechanical minipet. I have actually started collecting Mechanostriders in various colors and while I love all minipets, the robotic ones (such as Clockwork Rocket Bot) are my favorites. The particular set you see here; the Gnomeregan Mechanostrider and the Mechanopeep, cost 140 Champion’s Seals all told. That’s a lot of dailies. And you know what? It was totally worth it.

I love the way Mechanostriders appear to have so much personality for being a machine (I am a sucker for that sort of thing), but recently I discovered that they have tail-lights, and my Fangirly Squee reached new heights:

Tail-lights. On my mount. Tell me that’s not awesome.

Now let’s move along to guns. Truthfully, there are sort of a myriad of reasons why my various hunters tend to gravitate towards guns instead of bows/crossbows, the major ones among them being a.) roleplaying (Tawyn has close ties with the Dwarven District of Stormwind, for example), and b.) Me being shallow (Male blood elf + gun = drool)

Largely, though, it all goes back to phasers and light-pistols and tricorders and things that go PEWPEWPEW very loudly and with lots of flashy lights. It reminds me of Trek and Star Wars and those warm, cozy, and oh-so-fun childhood memories of watching the good guys triumph with their little laser guns in hand. (Well, and lightsabers, but that’s what glowy stat-sticks are for.) I want my made-up hero to be like that too. So gimme guns, baby.

Now I know what you might be thinking. You might be thinking, “Pike, are you seriously going to pass up a ranged weapon upgrade just because it isn’t a gun?”

The correct answer is: no, of course not. I only saw Arrowsong drop once, ever. But I rolled on it so fast your head woulda spun. I lost, but you know. Back in Burning Crusade I replaced the sexiest ranged weapon of all time, Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle, with The Choco-Bow as soon as I had the badges. I am, afterall, a hunter. I’ll take any good ranged weapon.

…but that doesn’t mean having a gun gives me a little thrill and makes me happy in a dorky way.

I used Nesingwary 4000 for a very very long time. I love that weapon. It looks absolutely gorgeous. I think it’ll stay in my bank for time and all eternity (alongside Wolfslayer). The other day, the new gun from Trial of the Champion dropped. I waffled on taking it for a bit because the stats alone weren’t super hot, but in the end, it’s enough of a white damage increase that I’m pretty sure it is an overall upgrade. It’s not quite as pretty as Nesingwary, but I like it; it’s a very handsome weapon in its own right.

…and it’s a gun. *squee*

I’m loving Ulduar so far. Guys, it’s full of robots and vehicles that chuck bombs at people. HOW IS THIS NOT AWESOME? (Hint: It is, in fact, extremely awesome.)

Okay, I’m done fangirling. Just figured I’d explain some possibly odd little obsessions of mine. Carry on now…

Uncategorized

Note To Script Kiddie

September 1, 2009 Pike 18 Comments

My site was defaced in the wee hours of the morning last night. Fortunately, the attacker had no idea what he was doing so all my stuff was pretty much still there. If you do see any issues, please let me know via e-mail, Twitter, comments, etc. ^_^ Here is a special note to the offender, though:

Dear Cute Widdle Newbface,

If you are gonna mess with my site at least be honest and call yourself the script kiddie that you are and stop trying to pretend that you are “hacking” something. Cause, um, you aren’t. You can stop pretending you’re cool now. Your attempt was kind of cute though, I suppose. *pats on the head*

<3, Pike

WELL, now that that’s taken care of, be sure to go check out OutDPS today. There is a new podcast up and it includes an interview with yours truly! =D

beast mastery, raiding, screenshots, Uncategorized

TWO JORMUNGARS IN THE MOUNTAINS cough (Screenshot Fun)

August 29, 2009 Pike 15 Comments

“Okay, Dragonbots… roll out.”

Raidbuffed. I basically pulled my character screen up and promptly made a O_O face.

Wash, raidbuffed. 4458 Attack Power.

My jaw. It was on the floor.

~~Caster? What’s a caster?~~

This was on trash, so nothing important, but as far as I am aware this is the highest single-target (aka, none o’ that silly Volley spam) DPS I have ever attained. I was very happy to do this well as a Beast Master. ^_^ I giggled like a maniac when I took this screenshot. This also means Wash was doing somewhere in the area of 2500 DPS by himself. You probably won’t want to curse his sudden but inevitable betrayal anytime soon. *sage nod*

Since last week, I have replaced four pieces of gear; since two weeks ago, I have replaced five. They have all been pretty substantial upgrades, and it’s really showing in my DPS. Last week, I was feeling kind of sheepish, putting along somewhere in the middle of Recount– this time, whenever I remembered to check anyway, I was somewhere near the top. I am so glad to be able to contribute to my guild and raid group via Massive Quantities of Sustained Ranged PewPew. *nods*

I had a lot of fun today, I didn’t even see many new bosses (well, I saw a few), but I had so much fun! We did some messing around in the new 25man as well. You know, the one with the infamous Two Jormungars. We had some issues that prevented us from nailing Northrend Beasts but we got pretty close a couple times. I was doing about 4500ish DPS all told on those bosses, from what I saw. It is really weird to think that just a few months ago, 3800 was my high score on Patchwerk. But yes, I am glad to report to you all that Beast Mastery seems to be back in business for the most part ^_^

Just for fun, and because I stink at remembering the names of bosses, I present to you:

Pike Names The Ulduar Bosses She Has Seen So Far:
(Can you figure out who is who? =P)

Vehicle Fight
Dragon Thing
Fire Guy
Elmo Bot
Doctor Octopus/Falcon Punch/That Group of Three Annoying Guys
Giant Popup Book Guy
Cat Chick
Hodir (Oh hey, I remembered someone’s name!)
Fight That Involves Running To Walls and Millions of Adds Because It Is Kel’Thuzad Redux In The Mountains

…hmm. That’s all I’ve seen so far. >.> The list shall be expanded at a later date.

WoW is so fun lately, between raidstuff on Tawyn, gearing up Lunapike, and dinking around on my lowbies, I’m having a blast <3

gear, raiding, screenshots, Uncategorized

tips to healthy eating this Super Bowl Sunday

August 22, 2009 Pike 21 Comments

One of the best parts of the Super Bowl is gathering around with family and friends, and eating amazing food while watching the big game.

If you’re trying to count calories or stick to a healthy diet, though, you may be tempted to feel like you can’t really eat snacks — or at least none of the great ones — come game day. Read more about Alpilean benefits.

To bust this myth and share tips on enjoying delicious, healthy foods and how we can approach our dietary choices during the annual football feast, FIU News spoke with dietitian Tania Rivera, an assistant clinical professor at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work.

Here are her top tips for keeping it healthy while enjoying the Super Bowl: Check these prodentim reviews.

Healthy snacks at a glance

Top recipe suggestions:

Seven-layer bean dip — Use vegetarian beans, low-fat sour cream, low-fat cheese to top off the dip and layers of onions or guacamole or avocados. You can also use salsa and fresh tomatoes, cilantros and some olives or even taco powder to give the dip some flavor. Use veggies or baked chips to eat this dip. It’s one of Rivera’s favorite recipes.
Baked sweet potatoes — “These are very healthy,” Rivera says. Sweet potatoes are rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium and much more. They help your eye health and immune system, to name a few.
Roasted cauliflower — Put buffalo seasoning on the roasted cauliflower and you’ll have a nice, meaty flavor that adds volumes to the snack.
Potato skins — You can transform the traditional potato skins recipe to a relatively healthy one. Skip the bacon and use low-fat sour cream as well as low-fat cheese. With these low-fat ingredients, it’s a pretty good snack (just make sure to balance it out with other healthier choices throughout the day, Rivera says).
Others mentioned below in more detail: hummus and carrots; baked chicken wings; and extra lean ground beef burgers. Read more about metaboost connection.

Hummus and veggies are a winning healthy snack platter

Tips to stay healthy during Super Bowl feasts

1. Skip the dip — go for hummus and carrots (or other veggies) instead.

Those creamy, white dips are the ones that come chock-full of fats. Substitute the dip for hummus and, instead of dipping chips, enjoy veggies.

“Hummus is an excellent dip for everything,” Rivera says. “Hummus with carrots is always a fan favorite. And as much as you can use veggies, that ups the nutritional value in any snack.”

Rivera adds that salsa is also a great option for dip. The tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime and other vegetables usually found in salsa are healthy for you.

If you really want chips, she adds, choose the baked ones. “You save a lot of calories and saturated fats with baked chips.”

She also recommends chopping bell peppers and using them for dipping or even stuffing bell peppers with lean ground beef. “Those are great snacks,” she says. For more veggie layering, you could also stuff avocadoes with fresh vegetables like tomatoes, onion and cilantro.

Whole grain crackers are another substitute for chips. “Fiber fills us up more,” Rivera explains. “So, we tend to eat less whole grain crackers. Let’s let the crackers and veggies fill us up instead [of filling up on the more fattening foods].” These are the latest ikaria lean belly juice reviews.

2. Use lean meats and bake chicken wings.

Burgers and wings are the royalty of Super Bowl foods. You can modify recipes to enjoy them both while staying on a healthy meal plan.

Use extra lean ground beef instead of sirloin for burgers. Instead of chicken wings, you can try other chicken cuts. “Chicken breasts are healthier than chicken wings,” Rivera says.

If chicken wings are your heart’s desire, baking them is your best choice. Rivera says baked chicken wings are completely fair game when it comes to a healthy diet.

“The biggest health culprits at Super Bowl gatherings are often fried wings,” Rivera says. “That’s a hot ticket item. You can make a big difference in your health by baking them instead.”

Guacamole is one of the top Super Bowl snacks — and it’s healthy!

3. Try to avoid foods with very high amounts of sodium and preservatives.

Charcuterie boards with cold cut meats are one item you may want to stay away from, Rivera says.

Ham and salami often contain high amounts of salt and sodium. And, if not eaten in moderation, those cold cuts could turn into high sodium numbers.

Desserts that are loaded with sugars are obviously not the best option. If you want to have a cookie, let yourself have one. “Limit yourself to one or two as opposed to mindlessly filling up your plate,” she says.

As for drinks, Rivera recommends sticking with water.

Aspect of the Hare