World of Warcraft; A Start.

Bringing everyone up to date.

This is a story....well maybe not.

I recently got into World of Warcraft MMORPG. When I say recently I mean like a month ago. I will say this game has a lot of groovy bells an' whistles. I actually began researching WOW about 3 months ago. I had heard of it from friends and seen some articles online about it but never really looked at it as a game I would get into.
Then one day I happened upon a comic strip in penny arcade. It grabbed my attention and sparked my curiosity. I began to look into the game, checking it out for min reqs and such. Turned out my system wouldn't even be able to run the game with out an upgrade. So I had to wait a few months to get some money together for a new Graphics card and more RAM. Let alone the cost of the game itself. I spent my time sifting through blogs and articles and movies trying to get a feel for the game. I couldn't see it first hand, like say on an account of some friends. They all are on different schedules then me. My research drove my wife nuts, but she’s over that now.

Well a few things came down about 1 month ago.

I had purchased a moderately expensive TV just before I decided to try the game. I knew the PC upgrades were a must even if I dropped the game idea. This was realized after I bought the TV. Unfortunately (or maybe not) I had left the TV in the box till I could clear a spot for it to rest, so it was a big surprise when I pulled the TV out of the box and IT WAS BROKEN. I was real miffed to say the least but I figured I could just take it back to the store and get me another. I was wrong about that. No more in stock and it was discontinued. So I decided to get my kids a new TV which was much smaller and cheaper then the one I'd had originally. What does that mean? Store Credit. Very cool.

I was able to buy the game as well as a few things for the family to enjoy. So I have the game, now.....time for the upgrades. My box is an older Dell prolly a good 5-6 years old. It has handled all the games I have put on it but it was seriously lacking in the graphics hardware department. Also the RAM needed a face lift.
So I turned to my tech friends at work.
These guys know their stuff. They directed me to a few search sites for good prices/real good equipment. So I searched for compatible video cards and memory upgrades. Took me almost a week just because the PC is old enough not to have an AGP or a PCi E slot so I had to find a decent PCI card with enough of a bang to run the game. I ended up spending $150 total for a 256mb card and 1GBz of memory. Not bad if you ask me seeing as I had limited options available.

I can tell you I was jazzed. Just those easily installed components made my machine run so much better then it has ever. I can't see how I had been able to limp along with just 256MB ram for so long and an onboard video.....bleeaach never again.

So my PC is now beefy (*giggle* I know its still pathetic bit it works for my purposes) and I begin the 3 hour process of installing WOW and its newest patches. This was just after 1.10 came out so I had an extra 350mb of stuff to stream after the initial install. After the game was installed I then made the mistake of trying to download the patch from blizzard direct, I know ...stupid. I changed my mind after seeing it would take a few days to get from them, so I went to a mirror site and got it all streamed in less than 30 minutes. Then come the hour for the game to update itself.
Done! Yeah, now I can play.
Nope, got to create an account. Ok. Done, NOW I can play right?
Right. I log on, Username/ password stuff, and get to choose a realm. I see a realm with a bright shiny NEW next to it so I chose DUSKWOOD. This is my new home. Welcome.

Intermission: this is turning into a real long story, but hey, I have a lot to say and knowing where I came from might interest some people.

So I'm now a part of this Duskwood realm thing. Time for character creation. My first choice was a human warrior, an easy pick for to get the swing of the game. I played him up to 10 then decided to switch to a gnome mage, very cool, she is now lvl 21 and coming along very nicely. I also started a dwarf hunter mainly cuz I still like to solo and liked the idea of having a mobile tank that’s not me. See I'm already using the in-game lingo....I am so cool. Not. I know there are a lot of people who don’t like hunters. Well that’s tough I like them and I have played this hunter to lvl 14 in 18 hours of play time. No record I know but seeing as it took twice as long to lvl my mage I think it’s a real accomplishment. Better time on account of the knowledge of quest goals and knowing where to go. Big help. I say I like to solo yet I am more then willing to run instances with groups, needed in most cases any way.

FUN WITH MY MAGE
I took my mage into Deadmines a few days ago. There were 5 of us me with my then lvl19 mage, 21hunter, 19druid, and a14priest who died more then the rest but still contributed well. We also got a 22mage later after we wiped a few times. I will say the four of us didn’t wipe till after we took down the mechwarrior wannabe and his driver goblin. We kicked his booty. The big ogre was not even worth mentioning. We mainly died from the patrols coming up behind. We didn’t know and I was not using proper CC. I got better believe me. As we went deeper we wiped a few times then sent out a call for a 5th player we got a 22 mage, nice. Not an ideal package I know from the forum posts a read but it worked for us. We made it all the way to the docks and worked up to the ugly carpet on top of the boarding ramp. I was warned by the other mage about the 2 stealthed rogues so I was prepped to sheep at the right time. We pulled him and they came. I sheeped one while the other mage sheeped the second. So all we had to face was the first mate. The 22mage TANKED him while the rest of us beat on him with all we had. The mate stunned us then ran. Just as we came out of stun, the sheeps wore of so we ....sheeped them again just as the mate came back. We finished him off the started in on one of the rogues. Took it down then took down the second. Whew! Much different then the mechwarrior battle. We rested....a lot and then began our assault on the ship. I had requested that we try for Cookie for a possible wand for me and everyone agreed. We carefully pulled all the way to the back side, left from the ramp, and took down cookie pretty fast. Though no wand, oh well maybe next time. Though now I don’t need it, but still. We doubled back the dockside of the ship and began the tough, for us any way, climb to the top. We had a bad pull right at the second ramp. Had like 6 adds come after us. Wipe #4 for us four and #1 for the new mage. We rezed and trudged back with only a few respawns, no problem.

We got back to ship and we were much more careful this time. The mage was nominal leader he kept us where we needed to be and was real patient with us. 3 of us were there for the first time*grin*. We made it to the top of the ship and we were doing fine. Till we aggroed the Captain and his buddies, WIPE! Again the long jaunt back. It was quicker this time with no respawns. Back up top we cleared out the extras left. Then planed to take out Captain Greenie. I called left pirate and the other mage took the right one. SHEEP!!!. We then pulled the captain down a flight to isolate him so we could work him over. We killed him after a short fight then waited for the pirates to come at us. Sheeped one again then killed them one at a time. RESTED. Now was time for the big man.

We were in for a butt whoopen.
I had known about the rogues guarding them but I didn’t know how long we would have till he called more. We sheeped and tried to take him down first....not gonna happen. WIPE. He called his friends and had a mudhole stomping party. We tried 2 more times then called it. We just didn’t have the needed tank for this one. Well maybe next time. I think that covers it except I recently discovered the wealth to be had on the AH. My hunter is making bank mining and skinning then selling it in the AH. Yeah money.
To sum up: I Love this Game.
Duskwood
lvl20~ mage Savoy
lvl10~ warrior Manbeast
lvl14~ hunter Jolygreen

P.S. After all the bad mouthing my wife gave me about the run up to this game she now has 3 chars on my account and competes for play time. HA!