Queue times too long, do dailies

Last night finally got back in,  worked out well.   I did some Archeology while waiting for a LFD queue to pop.  It never popped,  The queue was 24 minutes, and it was 9:30 and the dungeon run would most likely be 45 minutes...this isn't going to work.

I did Fireland dailies again.  I'm working on the second quest for 125 marks,  right now I'm at 49.  If I keep up with it I should have them all finished by 4.3...ugh

I will say though, as a casual player I do like the Firelands.   Sure it's red, and you can't fly,  but overall it's a unique experience.   I get to do some skinning there on the spiders,  the quests are easy to accomplish nearby to each other.   Part of the fun I have is to see if I can get them all done around the same time.  Kill 6 of this, heal 8 of them,  plant 5 of those...how close can I get them done to each other?  Multitasking. In this respect it's a fun minigame to me.

The one I don't care much for is the one where you have to destroy the 5 blue runes in the cave with those smoke elementals coming at you.  They hit for 5-6K,  unless you are standing on the rune, then it's 50-60 points total.  2 orders of magnitude difference.  But you have to  navigate through them,  ride currents.  sometimes I can do it quick,  sometimes I die 2 or 3 times.   But once you do it, you can do the other cave quest pretty easily,  the "Find the Fire Druids gear".  Nothing chases you after you destroy the runes.

I do think I was able to get most of the non-raiding Firelands achievements too;

• Fireside Chat
• Flawless Victory
• Have...Have We Met?
• King of Spider Hill
• And the Meek Shall Inherit Kalimdor 

I still have couple left to go.  But they're were cool to go after.  Broke up the monotony of the daily quests.

Time to go...I hope I gave you some insights into Firelands...even if you're already finished with it. 

Things getting back on track.

The damage to my man-cave, from a dead sump pump,  has been fixed.   Dang those guys worked quick.

2 guys, 5 days.  They busted ass, and it's nice. Better than before.

My PC isn't quite yet hooked back up.  Had a birthday to go through yesterday,  I am now father to a vibrant 5 year old. Same attitude the day before, nothing magical changed overnight.  But WAY better than the attitude of when she was 3.


Tonight,  if all goes well,  my bride is at ZUMBA, and the 5 year old and I will be in the basement getting things settled.  My hunter is board out of his mind right now,  he's stuck right outside the new in in Stormwind,  hasn't moved since last Thursday morning.  

As far as WoW news,  Guild services are available now on all realms.  Guild rename, moves, faction changes; they're all available for the right price.

Everything is kind of calming down now,  MoP is settling in, the haters are slowly hating less.   The build up to patch 4.3 is starting,  as well as Diablo 3's release.

I start getting together all the 4.3 data, and let you, the crickets, know what's changing.   Your chirp is deafening.

Lunch time posts are kind of restrictive...don't have time to post everything.

Got in an argument on WoWinsider....hehhee

Wow, some people get themselves all in a tizzy.

I simply stated that if Blizz wanted to they could make Pandaren Death Knights in the game.   The fact that they aren't allowing it for "lore" reasons is a cop-out.   Whew...that set off some people.  

Rehashing it here is kind of a waste,  so I won't.  People sure do get huffy though.

I post on WoWInsider under a different ID.  just FYI....

Not much happening on the WoW front,  waiting for 4.3 to drop.   I am currently stuck using my old laptop to play.   My man-cave was getting fixed up this weekend,  (dang those guys work fast, they did in 3 days what it took me 3 months.)  My main PC is offline until tonight hopefully.  

It's kind of odd, my main toon,  Meecham,  I can't log into via the laptop.  He's currently residing in Stormwind. Everytime I log in to him, the laptop freezes.    I can log into other characters fine.   I guess Stormwind is a little to processor heavy for the old laptop.

 I've been playing a undead mage,  that's an experience.  Yes I went Arcane.  I'm used to having a pet do my tanking,  with the mage I'm kind of a glass cannon.   I try to slow them with a frost bolt at about 40 yards then arcane something or other till they're dead.  There's like 4 arcane spells; missles, blast, etc etc ....  I'm a hunter....the only Arcane I'm really familiar with is Arcane shot. 

Mages are weird.   It's fun though, nice change of pace.  Plus I finally saw the new undead story line.   Arthas being dead,  you're raised by Vy'krul,   kind of these undead viking angels.  You end up joining the assault on the worgen area of Gilneas.   The worgen get screwed.    Hillsbrad area is new as well.   South Shore is toast.  And there's a BIG yeti king wandering around, he's an Elite lvl 25 or so.   my little mage couldn't take him alone. 

I did sign up for the year-pass with Blizz,  I was going to get Diablo anyway.   Plus play wow.   I will now get the new sparkle pony.  ooh yay.

No other news on the world today.   Just know...Pandas cannot be deathknights.  don't ask about it.  it's just the way it is.

Time Management

Ok, so you're a casual player.   What does that mean? Casual?

You play:

1 night a week?
1 hour a day?
You don't raid?
Only raid 1 night a week?

What does "casual" mean in an MMO like WoW?  Everybody has their own definition, I believe.  So for this bog I'm going to define it as this:  You like the game would love to play more,  but are restricted to 5 to 15 hours a week, maybe you PUG-raid on the occasional weekend,  but mostly you do 5-man instances, and solo content. 

This is me.  Plain and simple.  It's what I know. 

I get about 1-2 hours a night,  after the little chitlin goes to bed,  and my bride is relaxing with a book.  So that leaves me with little time to waste. 


It comes down to this schedule:

Log in.
Check mail for previous days auction results.
If there's a holiday event (like now) I do those first.
Then it's off to Hyjal and the Molten Front to do Daily quests.
If I'm still awake enough after those, I may do a 5-man Dungeon, Troll Heroics...But dang their long...
Or I may work on secondary professions...right now my main,  only has First Aid done,  need the others.

The Holliday events and Molten Front dailies can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a hour.  right there it at least half of the evening done. 

Raiding on a week night? Ha! you must be kidding.  I need to get up in the morning for work,  not at Taco Bell either.   Career level work.   

I remember trying to play till 1 or 2 in the morning...that ain't happening. 

So I'm a casual player.  Real Life > Game .   Family > Work > Game. 

If anybody read this,  don't be afraid to post questions.   I like discussing it.

Mists of Pandaria

Yeah, haven't been here in a while.  been busy.   

So BlizzCon 2011 has come and gone.   Mists of Pandaria is official.  

Both sides get a Pandarean,  and the Monk class.   Pokemon-style non-combat pet battles, (oxymoron, no?),  new talent/perk system,  a new continent,  and 5 more levels to grind. 


So the haters are going to hate....some think adding panda's is a downright affront to the game lore.  Somehow, talking cows, walruses, panther/centaur people, etc etc is ok,  but pandas aren't?

That group seems to bed calming down, some, I hope they do.   It's a silly argument.  The world of Azeroth is a silly place.  anything really is possible.

Also Blizz announced the 12 month commitment contract,  with it you get Diablo 3 (standard) for free.   If you happen to acquire a copy of the Collector's edition,  you can add that to your account and get 3 months free game time. 

There is speculation that Blizz may actually throw other games into the the "free for contract" category.   It does seem that Blizzard is a company, that is really competing with themselves.  They need subscribers number to stay up,  plus they want people to play Diablo (and possibly SC2 -HotS).   And there's a strong possibility that they would start cannibalizing their WoW base as soon as Diablo is released in Q1 2012.   By locking players into a 12 month contract, subscriber numbers will be less likely to drop before Mists of Pandaria is released.  Then once it is released,  numbers will probably grow again.   It's actually a pretty brilliant plan.   Another added bonus for WoW mount collectors is if you do the contract, you get a Ty'real's Charger, a luminescent pegasus.  And, almost forgot this, by signing up, you get an auto-beta invite for MoP (Mists of Pandaria).  I am really on the fence about signing up.  Is there content in WoW for the next year?  Maybe.... but Diablo 3!  and the beta....but that's a whole year obligation.  It's a contract, you can't back out....  Damn you Blizz! 

Anyway,  Blizz does have other competition besides themselves to a degree.  Bioware,  a game company of great reputation,  is releasing Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWToR) on December 20th, 2011.   It's another MMORPG much like WoW set in the Star Wars universe, about 3000 years before the movies.  It's going to be a great game,  played it in a beta weekend.   It has a lot going for it,  could possibly give Blizz a run for their money.  I'm wondering now,  how Bioware will compete with this 12 month contract from Blizz,  Most people, I imagine, are like me,  1 MMO at  time.   I barely have time for WoW with Real-Life(tm) taking 23 hours a day.   I may get an hour or two a night to play.   What am I going to do? 

So people may scoff and say, "bah video games!, grow up."  But you really have to change your thinking and go,  "Hmm there's a story I want to be a part of;  is it WoW,   finding a continent, starting a new character?  Or is it SWToR,   Being a bounty hunter out for himself in the world?   It's a novel,  a interactive novel,  in which you can take part in the story.   Whether it's taking down the Lich King or fighting a war in the orbit of Alderaan, it's a story.  It's one that takes time and money to invest in.  Just like any good book. 


 

Happy "Talk like a Pirate Day"! arggg...or something

Well Friday night was able to start getting gear again.   And matched my stats up pretty well with Mr. Robot.

Meecham ... if your interested.   Got the 8% hit on the nose. 

I do have a instance story though.

Friday afternoon, after work and before the wifey got home,  I decided to work on my Fireland Dailies and get some instances done for the week.  For some reason,  Blackrock Caverns is the bane of my existence.

The story goes like this,  The Dungeon Finder kept putting me in there for the last week, no matter how many times I queued.   I can't get the timing down for the second boss fight, on heroic, where the 3 beams shoot out and you have to block them.    Last week I caused about 3 wipes, this week, do to great healing, we didn't wipe but I didn't help,  my timing was again off, my guy enraged.   So I spent the next 5 minutes with Cringer, fighting the add myself,  trying to keep him off the tank.  

After we downed the boss, the Tank tells me "You need to get yourself together."   I'm more or less like, whatever, it's a game.  5 minutes later,   we are trying to jump down some flight of steps,  I don't know if it was Cringer, or the Boomkin,  but some more adds followed us down.  Again, jump on the hunter day.   I said  "f* you." and bailed.   Not my most shining moment,  but meh.   I really didn't care for their tone anyway.    Frustrated and bothered by anonymous people on the internet,  returning to my dailies didn't appeal to me.   So I went and took a nap.  

After my wife and daughter came home  I was up and about again.  Had a great evening.

9:30 pm, child in bed,  (not sleeping of course, she doesn't like to),  wife reading her latest book.  I go back to finishing my dailies.   I activate the Dungeon Finder again,  a few minutes later it pops,  Blackrock....again.

Ugh,  I thought, please don't let me screw up, please don't let me screw up.  Anyway, this group was already past the 3 beam boss,  and on to another, spank and tank boss.  Great, I can do this with no issues.   a minute or 2 later, boss down.   Healer says wait, tank went,   we almost survived, thanks to Cringer...  But we were overcome my a couple gnolls at the last moment.    Rez..run back.

The next couple of pulls were fine, no issues.   We then reached the final boss,  "We need the adds kited".   With my recent history,  I tried to warn them,  I might not be the best.   They were cool though about it,  told me to try any.   Not knowing the fight, I was skeptical, but I went with it.   Freezing trap, Concussive Shot,  Distracting shot.... kept repeating.   just tried to keep the adds on me walking slow.  And I ran in circles.

It was enough for the other DPS and tank to take the boss down uninterrupted .   Ahh,   finally got through this dang place.  Even got some kudos for the kiting.    Then I was able to finish my dailies,  and focus on other things.   Ran Throne of Tides after that....we got the Old Faithful Achievement to boot.

The rest of the weekend was for naught,  PC's torn apart again while the basement floor gets gutted.

I need to get back to my articles...freaking real life...

Meech

Real Life...ugh i hate sump pumps

I was planning on a vibrant weekend in Azeroth,  finishing the first 150 marks of the world tree.   

My sump pump had other plans.  Friday night,  I go down into my man-cave....it's flooded..."Damn you, Lee!"

I thought I was safe, apparently not.  Over-worked and burnt out, my sump pump gave into the water table.  

After a quick trip to Home Depot, (Lowe's was out of sump pumps),  The majority (80%) of the water was gone from my basement.  the other 20 was locked up in the carpet.  '

Right now,  my PC is spread to the 4 winds,  and I have to watch TV on smaller box upstairs. 

It could have been much worse.  I could have been a buffalo in Hershey.

Meech

"Good Enough" gear - Head

What is Good Enough Gear?

A question that usually causes me to pause and think,  what can I afford?  Hmm,  Top raid gear?  For me? hah!  Right now GE Gear is Tier 11 that I can buy with points.   It's Heroic dungeon drops.  It's Auction House bargains.  It's Reputation grinds.

 Will I, as a self-described casual player,  ever get into T-11 raids and be able to pick up the Lightning Charge Murloc Head of Death?  Ahhh..no.  So what are the options in that case? There are so many slots to fill,  and only a set amount of time a day to fill them.  And three day weekends don't happen everyday.  (though, Thanksgiving is coming up fast! Woot!)

So I'm going to breakdown what I think are the GE Gear as of patch 4.2.  Most is likely Item Level 359 gear,  though there are some exceptions.  I'm going to use Mr. Robot to help me with my decisions,  Right now,  he seems to have a good optimizer. 


Slot: Head

Whether you show it or not,  it's there.   and usually one of the hardest spots to fill.   Like I said above,  The Lightning-Charged Headgear can only be bought with raid tokens. So what's a hunter to do?  hmm...lets look at some options.

Renouncer's Cowl 
It's dropped by Corla, Herald of Twilight in Black Rock Caverns.   It's OK, but it's more Mastery based. The non-meta socket is blue and the +gem bonus is Mastery.  If you get it, great.  But others are better.   I'd say upgrade if one of the following would drop though.

Wildhammer Riding Helm
Dropped in Grim Batol, by General Umbriss. It's the Heroic version, so the stats are little higher than the regular one.   This one is might be my pick for the best pre-Zul dungeons.  It has a red socket, so you can gem Agility and get the socket bonus of +30 Haste. The primary stats are the same as the Renouncer's Cowl, the secondary focus on crit and haste,  which will tend to work out better for you as a casual player.  Mastery, from what I've read and heard, is good, but it seems to really shine at the raid level.  Heroic dungeons,  you can let it be.

Worgen Hunter's Helm
This comes from everybody's favorite pistol packing villian, Lord Godfrey in Heroic Shadowfang.   This helm is like the rock is the third piece of 346 gear.  It kind of completes the triumvirate.  It has haste and mastery as secondary stats, a yellow gem slot and +30 Agility bonus.  That +30 Agility is nice,  but you need a Yellow Gem to get it?  You could go with a Deft Amber Topaz,  get +20 Agi from that +20 haste.  hmm.  +50 Agi total, I rethinking my choices....this one is looking good.

Headdress of Sharpened Vision
This is one comes out of the redone Zul'Aman.   It's item level 353.  So it's a definite step up.   Kind of like the Worgen Hunter's Helm on steroids.   If you are geared enough for these, then go for it.  only stuff better is Engineering creations and Raid token drops.  

All in all there are some options for us.  Any of these would be great,  but in the end I'd go for the Worgen Hunter's Helm or the Headdress.   I like +Agility.  It's a primary stat,  and it's simple to understand. 

I was thinking of hitting all the slots in 1 post, but that would be a TLDR (too long, didn't read) post.  So I may have a series here for us casusals here at GP. Woot!

As with every post, comments and ideas are welcome.    Remember,  not all elitists are jerks and not all jerks are elitist.


Meech

Coming up with Ideas for GP...

Listened to Frostheim's podcast last night on the drive home.  One question hit very close to home. 

Starting a blog...  The question was about a beer blog, but in essence was relevant, especially to me right now.

The one thing that stuck out from the discussion was that you need idea, not just 1 or 2 or 3,   but many...and you need to keep coming up with them.

Currently I'm treading water here, looking to see which way to swim.   So I came up with about 10-12 ideas for articles I'll try to right.   I'm no English Lit major, so bear with me.  I went in to Comp Sci for a reason. 

That said,  I'll still want to pop up the occasional "Unrelated" post.   Even if nobody else reads this, I'll at least have something that maybe I can look back on and say "I did that!". 

Meech

Lunchtime Post

This weekend wasn't bad.    Last night after the youngin' was in bed,  and the Bride was happily reading her book, I was able to 'try' to run some dungeons.

It's amazing to me,  I started back up Saturday,  by last night,  running BM I was holding my own in Heroics. 

The main problem I had though was not knowing the fights.  D'oh on me.   I learn quick though.   

I tried to run Grim Batol,  I don't know what was up with the group,   seemed decent,  but we couldn't keep it together.   We downed General Umbriss with one wipe at first.   Got the Forgemaster down, though I think the tank rushed the issue.   Then skipped the next one, wiped 2x on the last.   I screwed up on the last boss though, know that for sure. Erudax,  His freaking storm he causes,  there's a safe zone I could never stick in for some reason.   Meh, live and learn. 

From that Failboat I leapt into Shadowfang Keep to a program already in progress.  They were on the last boss Lord Godfrey.   That dang pistol barrage did us in once.   The second time we got him.  So I got some Justice Points at least.

I picked up a few pieces of gear though:

Darkling Staff
Elementium Scale Bracers
Lightning-Charged Leggaurds  - Tier 11
Moccasins of Verdurous Glooms  - I think T11 off set

FemaleDwarf.com has my DPS at about 11K +/-  that's pretty close to what I was seeing.

Other than that,  I'm debating my rotation.    

I like to start off with a Explosive trap.  Is that actually something other hunters do?   I realize that Survival Hunters are pretty much the AOE spec,  with the serpent spread and such.   But for me it seems that the Expl Trap really was helping out in Heroics.  AOE is something that you can really test on the targeting dummies so I'm kind of at a loss as to what the impact is.  

The rotation then kind of follows a standard route,  I do kind of get mixed up though.   When I run out of focus I"m not sure whether to Cobra Shot my was back to full or weave Cobra's in around to get "enough" focus to do the Kill command/Arcane shot part. 

Any with a preference?

Meech

Ahh...kind of weird

Stepped in.   I had begun the 4.2 dailies a while back when I got the free week,   so I just took up where I left off with them. 


Doing the one where you have 4 helper NPCs...and you have to take out 4 fire somethings,   I get jumped by a Hordie.    Didn't realize it at first,  I was too busy fighting the fire guys.   Anyway,  after I reached about 50% health I'm like,  wait a second,  he's really trying to kill me.   duh...

So I took the fight to him.   finished him off,  he was like at 80% health when I started. 


Mind you I am BM...this is in my first 10 minutes of being back in the game.  I couldn't remember what my button combos were.   


The only downside,  the freakin' fire guy finished me off then.  8% durability hit. 

But was cool none the less.

Decided I needed a tank pet.   All I had was my cat, Cringer.    So I went looking for a turtle.   I guess luck was with me...I found Terropene.   Not a bad catch today.


So far so good. next up T5 pauldrons from TK...


Meech

Woot!

I guess things are looking up. 

We are cutting back in other places,  cable TV (have netflix streaming, which is more than enough)  and a bunch of other things,   WoW maybe my one vice I'm allowed right now.


Time to wake up the troops.


Meech

Real Life taking priority, it should.

Just when I think it's safe to jump back in the water, the RL great white shows it fin.  

So I won't be signing back up for a little while.   The costs from the new job is eating away at the increase I received.  So I'm stuck reading the boards and giving my own take on what other people are saying.  

Oh well, I guess I'll have to use my imagination then.  



Meech

Debating...

When should I sign back up for WoW....

If I start now, I'll have time to acquire some cool armor for mogging,   but hmmm...how to avoid wife aggro....

I have to figure out this Blogger software. I'd like to setup a dictionary of sorts.   I realize that a lot of terms I may use and take for granted. Newbies, lowbies, and the uninitiated  may be totally confused.  

Like, "What's 'mogging'?" 
Mogging,  v. slang - short for transmogrifying; to change from one object into another.  i.e. In WoW, changing the appearance of a item of armor to look like another. 

Another:
aggro, n. slang - short for aggravation; Aggressive violent behavior, typically seen by game enemy NPCs toward the player.  Sometimes seen in significant others when the player plays the game too much.

NPC, n. abbrv - Non-playable character, sometimes referred to as mob (pl. mobs).

Newbie, n. slang - New player to the game, usually unfamiliar with the gaming culture.

If I ever get any readers,  and you want to know what X means in the game, let me know.   I have a knack for finding stuff.

Meech

The Darkmoon Update

Darkmoon Faire has always been kind of a fringe activity to me.   I checked it out once or twice,  looked at the quests;   collect 100 cat's paws, 1000 sharpening stones...etc etc.   Seemed a little too grindy for me.  However with the upcoming changes in 4.3 it sounds like it could get a little less grindy and a bit more fun. 

The Darkmoon Field Guide sounds like it could help with the collecting, if it works like the rumors say it will.  Supposedly it "auto-loots" the necessary items for the Faire, if the Guide is in your immediate possession.   Hmmm,  this could be a nice quality-of-life upgrade.

I can see it now,  "Let's go farming!",  find the area where X item drops, X being the necessary Darkmoon item.  Have your pet go round up a bunch and bring them back, explosive trap, multishot, etc, etc.   Rinse, repeat.   Almost like the AOE looting that people been asking for since Warhammer came out 3 years ago.

Something else about this Darkmoon Faire change,  one week a month, the Faire will be on it's own island  somewhere on Azeroth.  You can't fly or swim there on your own, you can only get there during that one week when the carnival barkers and flight paths are open.   1 question I haven't seen answered yet,  is what about the other weeks?  Will the Faire still travel to Mulgore, Elwynn and Shattrath on the other weeks?

Besides the new mini-games introduced in the area,  there's also going to be a Death-Match/Gurubashi Arena type area.   Kind of a "There can be only One!" situation.   And this will officiated by a certain Pitmaster Pei.

Pei? Sounds a little Eastern in it's origin.  Panda perhaps? hmmm... We shall see.

The whole announcement can be found here....The All New Darkmoon Faire.

All in all I think it will be a nice upgrade to check out, something cool for the casual.

4.3 is really starting to look good.

Meech

Ah the good ol' days

A picture of me and Cairne....

I'm still sad he's gone.   Fought too the last by his side against the elementals.   He was just massive.

Trying to update

Trying to update the site.  

I created a simple Spanky icon.  Kind of looks like a monkey with a camera. 

Warcraft news:

As with everyone, transmogrification,  void storage and the Darkmoon Fair island.  

It's all been discussed to death.   

Raid-finder.   Hmm...could work if restricted to Current Tier - 1 (or 2) raid.   I can't see a pug raid doing Ragnoros.  Just ain't gonna happen. 

Patch 4.2.2 is apparently getting ready for release, according to MMO-Champion.  So that could  mean that patch 4.3 is soon going to be on the PTR.  

4.3 probably won't drop though till after BlizzCon,  after the announce the next X-pac. I wondering though how Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) release will figure into their plans.   You have to think it does.

At the moment it seems I'm talking to myself.   All in all,  that's normal.  I hear that when you start arguing with yourself, and losing the argument...then you're in trouble.


Meech

Here again...

Haven't played WoW in a while.   Kind of got sidetracked with Real Life (TM) getting in the way.  

Between the 4 year old,  basement renovations,  summer,  new job...there has been a lot going on.     Maybe now I can find some time to get on and come up with a good blog.  

Everyday advice for the everyday hunter.


Some rules first though. (I just thought of this.)

1. Hunters are hunters, not huntards.  I hate that term.
2. The Warcraft Hunters Union is the place for all great guides.  I suggest you check it out if you haven't already.
3. Beast Mastery is the best.  It's just the way it is.  I'm not saying how,  it just is. 
4. Survival and Marksman are tied for a close second. 
5. Other classes are support classes. I agree with Frost on this.
6. There is no rule 6.
7. Follow the Golden Rule.   Jesus says "Don't be a dick!".   I came to this conclusion separately from Penny-Arcade, however I still give them props for putting it on a shirt. 
8. Real Life (TM) must come first.  The order of importance:  Family, Work,  Health, WoW.

I'll be all over the place so give me time to get my groove.