Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Month of busy, Enjoy.

I’m looking at the dates on my posts and realize I’m not very prolific. Most times I write anything it’s in response to something some one else has said. If it’s about my in game adventures I lag like a mug in getting it all down. So unfortunately it makes for long posts and missed stories. So I’ll get to the meat.

When last I posted I was a mere 52 Paladin, now I’m 62 ½. How you say? Well let’s see if I can remember a bit of the last 25 days in game. ….ah yes I was pissed about losing out on Sul Thraze, or at least the chance at Sul, and consoling myself with Destiny. Well I never used Destiny, I had forgotten about the level 51 AV quest where you can get this awesome pole arm. The Icebarbed Spear. Very nice. I got this one easy and slapped crusader on it. Very cool. I used this bad boy all the way up till I got me an upgrade in the Outlands, more on that later. Any who, after several times trying to resell the Destiny blade I just sent it off to a mule for storage until I need it for a character or find a buyer. Soon after I got my new spear I went off to WPL and smashed through a few quests there. At some point my guildies decided it was a good time for a Strat run to farm some Righteous Orbs, and they dragged my happy level 53 ass with.

Now I had only been to a few strat runs…most times I had to leave or the group would fail after 2 pulls. This time I was with 2 70 pallys, a 70 hunter and a 70 warrior. Cake doesn’t even come close to the ease. We wiped a few times only cuz the pallys got bored and wanted a challenge…..an then had to work to make it so then shot themselves in the foot. Oh well. I got some decent exp, drops and a mess of stones for AD rep, oh yeah they boosted rep gains in Strat to at least 10 per kill. After 1 Strat run and Sholo run after I was half way through Honored with AD, and had enough stones to push me to revered easy. So we blast through the undead side in less then 45 minutes then go to the live side. We kilt the guy that goes to warn the baron of our arrival and I got my key to the city…at 52. It is then decided to try for a 45 minute baron run. No one needs it we just wanted to see how long it would take us.

We roll through the gate and the timer starts. Our pallys spread out and grab like 4 groups. They get most of them down. The spiders seem to like casting silence on the pallys. We wipe spectacularly and have to run back. Now in the old days this would be a scrap, but not with 4 70s. We roll back sans handy timer, and proceed to get serious. We blast through everything, well they do I’m just along for the exp and rep. We roll to the final room with the 20 Patchwork wannabes, and the 10 minute warning sound. Oh shit. Will we have enough time I ask? They say yeah no problem. So I watch as they pull 2-3 of the brutes at a time till none are left. We all trump back to the gates to wait the next wave, smash them and roll in for the fight. About this time we hear the timer expire and the baron offs the chick. Too bad. One pally runs in and aggros the boss while most are still out side. A pally, the warrior, and the hunter make it in before the door closes. Leaving me and the other pally outside to sit and listen. They smash him for his crimes and we roll out, 2 orbs richer.

After we get out another group of guildies decide to run sholo and want to take me along. I ask if they want me to take Mindkiller for dps, they reply no. They want to drag Gawds through Sholo. Hells yeah I’ll go. We tore through sholo, even the chick in the basement that no on wants to fight cuz she’s such a bitch. We did the whole place in like 40 minutes. I got my freaking lightforge helm and some decant gloves…too bad their both 57. So they go in to the bank. By now I have a huge stack of all 3 types of stones for AD rep. I go to the AH after and pull the mats for the rep quests in Light hope, 30 of this 30 of that. They had to sit in the bank till I was hig enough to get those quests but when I turned them in finally it gave me like 45k exp for just a few quests. I spent a lot of time in WPL and EPL over the next few levels with a quick jaunt to Felwood and Winterspring to do a few of the easy stuff in those two areas. I got to roll on a few BRD runs that were a real waste of time. Not much exp and no rewards to speak of. I blasted through some Burning Steps quests also, man I look forward to leveling my next alt after 2.3 hits. The march from 52 to 58 had some spurts an stops but I got there about a week and a half ago. Me an another guildy hit 58 at the same time so we met up at the portal and marched through together and started the first few quests. He had to log after an hour but I kept on rollin. I didn’t touch any of the real meat quests till I ran Ramparts a few times…like 15 times. Most times I was with guildies so only a few were pugs. I got some decent gear but what I was really looking for was the rep. I got it too.

My guildies kept dragging me through till I got to 59 ½, and I got all the gear I could use from there. I had 6 pieces I couldn’t use till level 60 sittin in my bags. We did one more run mid week last week and my new pole arm dropped. Hellreaver. Very cool . I slapped Savagery onto the bad boy. It is one of the most awesome looking blades. I am very happy to have it and thanked the guys who ran me profusely for there help and patients. Next I’ll need to bug them for Underbog runs, not yet though I still got a few things to do first.

After I got the blade I saw that I was very near honored so I went ahead and started to blast through the Hellfire quests, I had most of them done in a day. Yeah all Saturday last weekend, I finished up a few group quests Sunday morning and decided to dip into Zangarmarsh. I picked up a mess of quests an proceeded to wail on them. I’m almost done with all the Refuge and Telredor quests. I was gona finish them up before goin to the Haborage and the chick near sporragar. I’ll have to check if it’s gonna be worth it to farm sporragar rep. CE has a nice head enchant I want so Ill defiantly be crankin some rep there. I have noticed a marked change in how easy it is to kill things. There was the same thing on Mindkiller when he moved into Zangar fro Hellfire. Another thing is some of the more obnoxious kill/collection quests seem to go a lot smoother with a plate wearer, basic, but still it’s nice to know plate is worth having. I also had a “Holy Shit!” moment when I took down bog lash solo, hell I had an add too. The add killed me but not until after I rolled Boglash.

That about rolls it all up to now, I haven’t done crap on Mindkiller cept gather mats for his epic flyer when ever 2.3 rolls out. He has been shelved until I hit 70 on Gawds. I just don’t get that excited like I used to about him. It probably the lack of progression and rewards. Spending 4+ hours every few nights in Kara just don’t blow up my skirts. The rewards are spotty and only moderate upgrades for the work it requires. If you team is decently geared and experienced then you can fly through the place, but group 2s usually have the lighter geared people with less exp. Even splitting the elites into the 2 groups make for a long run, with a minimal hope of reward. Is it bad of me to want a new shiny for my efforts all the time? I don’t think so really, but I try not to say it out loud. That would piss some people off. I’m not really a lewt whore, I like upgrades and working toward them. However the stuff in Kara is not exiting enough for me, and to make it really snap you need to get a few of the pieces or it just doesn’t have a great impact on character power. I know they are not sets, but I went head to head with the wife’s rogue, who is decked out in no less the 7 Kara Epix. We have the exact same build. I have all quest blues an greens with very few dungeon drops. We did a few tests on regular mobs solo with 2 damage meters running to catch all the goodness. I was about even with hers for most of the fights. A few times I went over her in damage, and on mobs we duo’d I pulled aggro. I do not see me needing a damn thing from Kara before WoTLK hits. I may get into it with another guild, or mine, but what I really and only want from Kara are 2 new weapons. Ill take the Ripper off Moroes and the weird named dagger off of prince. I need to figure out if I really want to go and make the time to go. I tried to get into group 2 last week. I was excited to go, even prepared by getting all my shit straight. I log on and realize I read the start time wrong. I was 45 minutes late for the start. No one cared, doesn’t make me any happier. The wife offered up a spot on her guild’s Kara runs, she has no authority to do that so I’m not holding my breath. She also keeps trying to get me to move my pally over to her guild. Maybe some day….prolly not. I’m a lump. I think I’m real close to becoming guildless. I don’t bring anything to my current guild but a few bits of humor. As dps I am ok, not fantastic, could be blamed on gear but I’m not sure that’s all that’s lacking. As a pally I do not do what is needed to make me an asset to a raid, and I will not respect to healadin or tankadin. I’ll stay a ret noob. Wow this got really depressing.

Gawdsicon;

OUT.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Just some update on a Friday.

I haven’t posted anything for awhile. Mostly due to just not having the will power to put anything down. SO I will try to get something written here now. It’s a slow day with not much going on so I can spend a few hours typing and it will look good to the outside observer.

I have not been playing Gnome Mindkiller all that much. He’s been to a few Kara raids but has received nothing but a repair bill, I’m not complaining, I got to see some neat fights and Kara is gorgeous. I did notice a lack of fun there though. I remember my first time into ZG or AQ20. ZG was a blast, even if it was hard it was still a blast. AQ20 was a lot harder and we had to be on our toes, but it was still fun. Kara seems a lot like work, maybe that’s what it was supposed to be. I don’t know. I am obviously not a “Raider” in the smallest of definition. I go, if I go, for the content. I don’t see me getting much loot out of the place. Yeah there’s stuff I could use, but they drop so little or when I chose to not go. The only way to upgrade I see is to grind rep and get me some ok gear form KOT or Consortium. I really see little use in going to Kara except to see stuff I haven’t seen. I still have never seen all of MC and just recently went through a full Strat run. We even did the 45 min Baron run in like 30 minutes. I would rather see a full ZG run then a full Kara. Pretty sad I know. Never seen Naxx and prolly never will. Very depressed about my rogue. He seems to have reached a plateau and I see no reason to push him farther. I got him an epic drake mount, so what. He has one epic piece, helmet/crafted, and a long road for any replacement daggers.

So enough depressing stuff. I started a paladin awhile ago mainly as a bank character. I had so much fun that I decided to go back to him and level him up. After a few weeks I have gotten him up to 50. With some monetary backing from Mindkiller; Gawdsicon (God’s Icon) has become Retribution pally with, more often the not, an epic weapon. Which reminds me: I need to make some time to do dailies on Mind.

The last few levels went by real fast. I was in Searing Gorge when a bored 70 guildy and friend decided to help me smash through several quest…ok 14 of them. They gave me a full level, so that pushed me from 48 ½ to 49 ½. That rocked ass let me tell you. I did a bit of questing on my own then got invited back into ZF for a mostly guild run. 3 Guild 2 PUG. 1 of the pugs was a friend of the guildy who put together the run. This guy tuned out to be a dickhead.

Group make up was as follows:
Gawdsicon, 49 Ret Pally wearing all plate.
Guildy 51 Holy Pally wearing a lot of cloth.
Guildy ~44Enhancement Shaman decent gear if a lower level then me or the other guildy.
Pug 47 Prot Pally, Shaman’s “friend”
Pug 45 Pally, no idea what spec.

Now we started ok, summons for me as I was all the way in WPL just about to lay the smack down on some undead. We go through the first 5 pulls when the Prot pally makes a comment about the Guildy Pally wearing cloth instead of plate. He spouts some shit about how HIS brother is the BESTEST PALLY IN THE WHOLE WORLD and he only wears plate. Well that’s just fanfuckingtastic and shit. Cept plate at the lower levels, pre-BC, has very little if any + to spell, healing or what ever. Cloth, however, can be found in plenty with those bonuses that make a 1.2 crit heal into a 3k crit heal, and makes them come out more often. Now the Shaman new this guy had his head up his ass and says so after this comment was tossed off. She even said to him in /pchat to just drop it or “Oh here we go again.” Some shit like that. Now I am new to playing a pally, it true I know it hard to believe an all, but I know that pallys are played by all types and with desires that we can only fathom. I started one be cause some of the best players I know play them and dish out some mad DPS, sure they have some bad ass weapons and equip but they also know how to play the class. These are my teachers. Some are even straight holy and kick some major ass on the healing charts. These are the guys that don't give a damn what you are wearing as long as you do you chosen job. No compulsory respects here dude. Play your shit the way you want to, end of story good bye and fuck all you haters.

Now back to the story, this asshole pops off with this comment and I just can’t seem to let it go so I lay into his ass with my best ‘defending a Guildy self righteousness’ and I laid into him hard. Talking about how no one gives a fuck if his bro is anything other then his fucking imagination and shit, despite the fact that he was commenting on a guildy that happens to be one of those players that can take a class and master it out the ass. This holy pally guildy was enough to later help us 4 man ZF with just him healing…so yeah cloth is ok. If the tank is doing his job the healer won’t get hit. After I give this ass the “come to jesus burn down of his illusions” he starts saying he will not protect any one but his friend (the Shaman), and how he will let us all die……..now I’m more then pissed so we (myself, the healadin, and the other pugged pally) decide to sit the next battle out and let the assholdin take on 3-4 44 elite mobs all by hissself. The shaman was healing…so he managed to pull of the fight. The shaman gets the hint and says good bye an rolls, with the protassdin in tow. Just before he leaves the party I make sure he has no misconceptions of how I feel about his brain case. I call him a dick head just before he leaves party. So yeah that better be the last I see of that idiot.

The shaman apologized to both of us guildys in /gchat for the moron’s offences. Seems this guy may have once considered applying to our guild, small favors and gods grace kept that asshat out of our hair.

We picked up a rogue and a warrior, but the warrior dropped to help out guildys so we 4 manned most of the rest of ZF including the stairs, which was a blast. It usually is for me, always loved the absolute chaos of the stair event. We had this rogue that seemed to not know how to respond to simple commands like “roll for shards”, don’t need on BOE items without asking first, and shit like that. I was for kicking him the next time he need on a BOE, but he kept his rolls to the right things, even though I needed on shit just for the sharding as the plate shit wasn’t needed by any and a shard would be worth more then the item any way.

We demolish the stairs and Bly and have the little goblin break down the walls for us sos we can kill the chief. Here's where some shit happens:
I have been farming ZF since level 40 with the help of guildys, my wife, the occasional pug, and dual-boxing while the wife was at work. The whole purpose? Sul’Thraze. In all those levels and like 40 runs, I had never seen even one half of the blade. The haves being Jang’Thraze and Sang’Thraze. Guess what dropped off the chief? Jang’Thraze. I tell the group I’m gonna need on it. I tell them it was my purpose of coming besides helping a guildy. My Guildy has it already so its cool, the pug pally has no interest in it…they both pass and congratulate me.

The rogue…need’s on it.

…..
…..
…..

I need on it….the rogue wins the roll, leaves party and hearths.

The only thing keeping me from tracking this asshole down, murdering his family, and making him watch as I do it and as I delete what ever this asshole has for characters on WOW, before I feed him slowly into a chipper shredder: I had been scouring the AH for an alternative to Sul for a week before this dropped. I found the alternative I had been looking for and got it for a measly 250g, that morning. Destiny. Yeah, I can’t use it till 52, but its more juicy then Sul. If the proc on it is even slightly nice it will make some nice slice and dice Ret pally action. Plus I think crusader will go nice with it. Not sure if it will stack, but even if it don’t they may setup a chain reaction where one goes of and process the other and back and forth till a battle is over. I can’t wait to see if it will work that way. I got the mats for crusader a while back at a huge discount so I’m not out muck in the way of money.

After this idiot ninjad, what else would you call it?, he won’t even get the full benefit out of it. Couple that with him getting a hold of Widowmaker when it dropped. Dude went away with some gear he can’t even use, did I mention he was 43; yeah asshole won’t even be able to use the sword yet. Anyway after he left I was so pissed I just fucking left, after apologies to my guildy for leaving him hanging I just turned off the game and went to bed. Early. Very fucking early for me. I hope I can help him get his gahz kill later this weekend. Hell I’ll take my rogue and burn through the place in 30 minutes.

I logged on the day after and saw that I was less the 1000 exp away from 50 so I scoured the nearby area for green level mobs and kilt a few till I dinged…yeah 50 and I never got hold of Sul. Shitty.

I feel my climb to 70 has gone into overdrive. It is time for me to head to Ungoro and knock out a few quests there before I head to WPL and kick some undead ass there.

I was in fact in Un'goro for abit last night be fore a warrior guildy decided to round up keyed members and hit Kara again…there was a run there earlier so we picked up a few that went then and hauled ass over there for a few attempts on the prince. We did the chess event, I thing this was an after though on Blizz’s part i.e. keep um coming back for free epics and shit. We plowed through the trash like butter with only one wipe due to a bad pull on the tanks part. Well not a complete wipe as I and a mage friend survived with our asses intact. We get to prince and this is the first time I have even been in this fight. Seemed pretty straight forward to me and instructions were concise and to the point. I think we did well even though we didn’t manage to get him down after 4 tries. The first 3 times we had a bad infernal spawn right along our enfeeble route that kept us from getting back to prince. Also on those attempts our tanks got critted so fast and hard that even constant healing couldn’t keep him up. He was confused as to how that could happen. Pissed actually cuz it shouldn’t have happened that way and hadn’t before.

The forth attempt was prolly the closest we came to being perfect. We all kept our head and had some lucky infernal spawns till the 6th or 7th. We had to sit out a bit near the end of the fight as an infernal spawned right next to the prince and blocked us again at like 15%. So we held of and just did ranged. We got him below 10% when some one got the idea of all running in and going balls out to try and burn him down, my wife was watching the fight over my shoulder and counseled me to not do it. We just didn’t have the dps to burn him down in the few seconds it would take for the infernal to kill us all. I held my tongue as it was my first time in this fight. We all rush in and…die…wipe…at 8%...last attempt before respawns. Night over. There are plans to go back in there tonight and get him down…if I’m invited I’ll go. I can only hope I get me the dagger, it will make the whole hour and a half fight worth it. Plus I need an upgrade badly. I haven’t had any new gear worth shit for along time. If I’m not invited I’ll be spending a lot of time this weekend (4 DAYS BABY!!) leveling my pally to how ever high I can achieve. It’s too much to hope that I get him to 58 this weekend. That would be sick. Then the shit will really pick up, this time I’m gonna do it right. All instances before any of the quests, with guildys willing to help me blast though dungeons I can get me some decent gear and rep…but not yet of course. It will come…soon.