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By the Way! I’m Back. Sort of.

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It’s occurred to me that I’ve announced this pretty much everywhere BUT here, so I thought I’d announce this here in case you’ve missed it and are interested…

*clears throat*

I have a new video game oriented blog, called The Android’s Closet. (Yes, it’s like my fourth or fifth blog. I know, I know.) This is not WoW-centric (or any other game -centric) by any means, but unless I make a truly serious return to WoW in the future, any future WoW rambles will probably be over there and not over here.

Oh, and! The blog is being co-written by me and one Mister Adequate, aka “The New Boy” (long and lovely story, that! But I digress), so be sure to say hello to him if you do decide to swing by!

Anyways, that’s about it! You’re welcome to follow me over there if you’d like to continue watching me filibuster at length about various games– I’d love to see you! If not, thank you for being here and reading and following along with my WoW adventures for all these years. I can’t say whether or not this particular blog will return, but my memories of both the game and this blog are fond ones and won’t be forgotten.

[insert obligatory “Aliens” reference about hypersleep here]

meta-wow, special

Before You Send Out the Search and Rescue Teams

15 Comments

It’s occurred to me that I haven’t updated this blog in over a month, and as such I should probably say something.

So here is the truth: I have unofficially and unceremoniously quit WoW again. Upon hitting 85 on my main, I looked around and realized that I had no motivation to do what I’d already done several times before in previous expansions. One month later and Tawyn’s still in greens and I’ve hardly touched her.

I did have a brief spurt of motivation when I remembered how much I absolutely LOVED doing Uldum, so I ran over to my Horde-side hunter, powerleveled her to 83 specifically to do Uldum, and went and did Uldum again. It’s just as awesome the second time around. Unfortunately, upon finishing it up, I have, once again, found myself at a loss for what to do.

This is all a very odd feeling for me. I love WoW and always will. In theory, I love Cataclysm, and even in practice I wound up enjoying it a lot more than I originally expected I would. Just a couple of months ago, when working on my worgen mage, I found myself feeling that magical feeling I hadn’t felt since leveling my first character. I really thought that feeling would stick. But… it didn’t.

And so here I am, here to tell you guys that the blog is probably going on indefinite hiatus again. Really, I should have just let it set the way I left it a year ago, because my failed attempt to revive it was just pathetic. But that’s life, I suppose.

To the few of you faithful readers who are still out there (and who really should have quit reading during the Great AotH Quality Decline of 2009, but didn’t), you guys have been absolutely amazing and I have to thank you profoundly for your company, comments, and insights through the years. I could not have asked for a better audience. If you want to keep up with me I’m still blogging (albeit sporadically at the moment) over at Clockwork Hare and I of course am still on Twitter, being a chatterbox over there as always.

And so, I put this poor blog in stasis again. Maybe someday when the time is right, I’ll come back, but I don’t want it to turn into some sort of sad half-baked return like it did last time, so it’ll have to be something big to get me to return.

Until then I’m off to play other games and explore other worlds and write about other things. I’m still working on (more than one) novel, which I will keep everyone updated on over at my other blog, and I’m still drawing commissions for you guys if you have business with me there. Thank you all, and I will see you on the other side. <3

ding, screenshots, trapping

It Starts With a “D” and Ends With an “Ing”

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Feels good, man!

Now I need to figure out what to do next!

In other news, I did Vortex Pinnacle. Guess what? I got to TRAP. My only issue is that I’m still sort of trying to figure out Trap Launcher. I seem to I run into weird LOS issues when I least expect it, thus, I fail at it more than I figured I would. You see, I come from the old school of chain trapping and I’m used to, you know, pulling the mob to me. Which I actually had to do a few times when improvising in Vortex Pinnacle today, which sort of made me feel all warm and fuzzy all over. Still, “Figure out Trap Launcher” is at the top of my To Do List.

classic wow, karazhan, pets, screenshots

Meet My New Friend

9 Comments

That’s Magmadar. Yes, as in that Magmadar.

Solo-tamed him. And yes, I know, he turns into just your average core hound pet once the tame is complete, but there’s something awesome about knowing what he used to be:

A 40-man raid boss.

Can you get much cooler?

…what’s that you say? Taming druids would be cooler?

Way ahead of ya:

Did I mention I’m running Karazhan once a week now? The necklace I’ve wanted from Attumen since Burning Crusade has yet to drop. This and other earth-shattering announcements at eleven.

alts, amusing anecdotes, druid, screenshots

Just Keep Playing, Just Keep Playing

16 Comments

Cataclysm is really shaping up to be exceeding my expectations. Just playing alts is keeping me more than occupied. I haven’t felt this way since I started playing in ’07. It’s really great.

Both of my high-level hunters are now 81. One is in Hyjal and one is in Vash’jir. I’m keeping them fairly even level-wise and having a lot of fun with it. I did… Blackrock Caverns, I think it’s called? Man. I’m still not sure if I hated or loved that dungeon. It’s sort of a weird mix of both. I hated it because it took about two hours in my PuG group and we wiped more than I have wiped in months. I loved it because the boss mechanics and strats were actually interesting. One of them had beams that you’re supposed to stand in. “Oh, like Netherspite in Kara?” I asked. “Yep,” was the reply. It made me happy. Someone else who had done Kara. Because everyone should do Kara. <3 Speaking of Kara, did you know that Attumen is solo'able by a level 80 resto druid, if you have twenty minutes and a lot of patience?

Now you know!

You can boomkin through the trash with ease, but when you’re tanking both Attumen and Midnight separately at the beginning of the encounter you just end up taking too much damage. Never fear, Tree Tank is here! Waiting around for Innervates was the most time-consuming part.

As always, he failed to drop my necklace, which I will never ever see.

Afterward I switched back to boomkin, charged into that room full of trash and popped Barkskin, Starfall, and Hurricane, and died in a beautiful blaze of glory.

…and speaking of boomkins…

A few months back when I mentioned that I didn’t think I would have money for Cataclysm, you guys really responded. So much, in fact, that not only could I afford Cataclysm, but I could also afford to buy WoW cards for my younger sisters (their accounts were long since canceled due to lack of funds) and also get them Wrath of the Lich King (they were still back in BC-land) and Moonkin Hatchlings. They’re really excited to be back, and the first thing we did was organize a Moonkin Family Reunion, complete with pet biscuits.

The second thing we did was get onto the boat to go to Borean Tundra. Or, we would have, if the boat didn’t glitch and strand a poor level 70, without Cataclysm, in Vashj’ir. Yeah I can’t put my finger on that one either…

Fortunately I went and rescued her. She promptly set her hearthstone to that boat as a joke, which made me panic until she pointed out that she can teleport to Moonglade. Ohhh yeah, I forgot druids could do that.

tl;dr: Alts are fun, dungeons are fun-strating (my new portmanteau of fun and frustrating), Karazhan is still the best raid and boats are glitchy.

alts

Just Can’t Get Enough

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Guys, I don’t know what happened.

I rolled a Worgen mage just to see the starting zone. And then log out. That’s all. I swear, that’s all.

But all of a sudden it’s a couple feverish days later and I’m level 22 and all I want to do is play her. I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s like my first time through the game all over again. Like, I want to see the new 80-85 zones but I want to see them on my mage now. And being a worgen is so cool, I love how hardcore she looks and oh my gosh you guys.

We’re Running Wild, and Blinking down the street
And I just can’t get enough, I just can’t get enough
Every time I think of you I know I have to play
And I just can’t get enough, I just can’t get enough

It’s getting colder, it’s a “Frosty” love
And I just can’t seem to get enough of…

thoughts

Why All the Talk of Brutally Hard Heroics is Bittersweet for Me

14 Comments

So if Twitter is any indication, 90% of the WoW-playing world is happy about the return of CC and “hard heroics” that went the way of the Dodo in Wrath of the Lich King.

But I gotta admit, I’m not entirely with you hallelujah-singers.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved the heck out of Burning Crusade heroics. I loved chain trapping. I loved long, careful pulls with the raid icons on everything. I loved heroics that took like an hour to do. I loved when asking people to get on Vent for heroics was considered a reasonable request. I loved having to claw your way up the ladder of normal instances and then having to get keyed for Heroics and then failing on mini-bosses in said heroics. I loved going nuts over blues. Oh gosh, I loved it all. I look back on it fondly.

But see, here’s the thing. My life has changed. A lot. And I don’t have time for that anymore.

I am sure you all know about the IRL problems that have been plaguing me lately, so I won’t recount them any more here. It’s why I quit raiding; I don’t have the time or dedication to be able to put a lot of energy into that sort of thing anymore. Doesn’t mean I don’t like raiding. I love raiding. Just means it’s pretty low on the priority totem pole at the moment.

Same deal goes for heroics. If it takes longer to do heroics– if heroics are like mini-raids– then they are no longer something I can do if I have a spare twenty minutes. You know?

Wrath of the Lich King was nice for me because it happened to “turn casual” right when I needed it to. Unfortunately, I’m not ready for it to go back on that difficulty upswing again.

I’m not crying or asking for the game to change to fit my needs; that would be silly. A lot of people have been asking for a return to BC-esque Heroics for a long time, and I know where you guys are coming from. I hope you guys enjoy it all. I hope all the WotLK-babies out there get to see a nice glimpse of one of the things I loved so much about Burning Crusade.

But me, well, I’ll be playing low-level alts. I haven’t even stepped foot in the new level 80+ zones yet. Why rush to something I may not really be able to properly participate in?

I am in the opposite of a hurry. I’ll wait until I have time again.

alts

Because Team Lupin Is Superior to Team Jacob

14 Comments

I rolled a Worgen, and I liked it.

You have to understand, I have been pro-Goblin since the Goblin and Worgen mask rumors showed up on MMO-Champion a couple years back. Worgens in Goldshire, I loudly proclaimed, would be the reason I perma-switched to Horde. Until I remembered that there were no gnomes Horde-side, at which point I reminded myself that goblins would be the new gnomes.

So this whole time I’ve been stoked for Goblins, and when I got Cataclysm the other day the very first thing I did… okay, the very first thing I did was check to see if you could fly around in Stormwind now, and you can. The very SECOND thing I did was roll a Goblin. Hunter, duh. Named Ratchets. She’s pretty fantastic. The goblin starter quests are one of the greatest things ever. (Those of you who have done them, back me up here!)

But then I thought, “You know… let’s try one of them newfangled Worgen things. You know, just for kicks. Just to look around. I’ll probably log out in a couple of levels.”

Well, then, you see, this happened (click for larger):

Pic related: my face when.

Penny Arcade is spot on.

I now have a Worgen Mage who is level 14. I got there all in one sitting. I NEVER LEVEL TO 14 ALL IN ONE SITTING EVER. Apparently I do now? And I would have gone farther, too, if I didn’t have to go to bed. I think it’s the top hat quest reward. It has magical experience-granting powers.

Although do allow me to express my disappointment that you cannot equip both the top hat and engineering goggles simultaneously. I mean, really.

meta-wow

Lanjelin’s Signature Generator

13 Comments

Today’s post is a shoutout to Lanjelin’s Signature Generator. Now, through the years, there have been a lot of WoW signature generators out there. Many of these promised all sorts of shiny things like huge amounts of customization and automatic updating and then failed to deliver. Heck, I have some of these “automatic updating” banners bookmarked that still say I’m level 70 and spec’d 41/20/0.

So I gave up on signatures for a while, figuring they weren’t really worth the trouble of upkeep, but then I stumbled across Lanjelin’s Signature Generator, which is perfect for workaholics that have a business, and the use of fulfilment companies uk are the best to deliver their products on time.

Isn’t that cool? It gets right down to business and tells you the race/class/level of my active characters that I want it to display.

The best part is that Lanjelin is active with it; I submitted a bug recently and it was fixed within a couple of hours. In addition, we had a very nice e-mail exchange.

So if you have billions of characters and want a nice compact way to display them, go check it out :3

Edit:

I got some feedback from Lanjelin on Monday, December 6:

“Thanks for the positive feedback, glad you like my signature generator.

Got some bad news about it though, Blizzard have decided to release a new version of Armory, on a new server/address with everything completely rewritten.

As for now, they haven’t released a way for 3rd-party sites to fetch data from Armory, so my signature generator is currently not able to update/add any characters.

I even made it ready for Cataclysm races, when I get this thrown in my face.

Hope to get it back up & running as soon as possible.”

Everyday I'm Huntering