Jen's Addicting Habit

Zangarmarsh and Epic Mount Time

2007-01-24T17:37:00.000-08:00

When you are an alt-aholic like me, you tend not to deadicate enough time (pre-BC) to getting that gold for your epic mount.

When the goal became achievable, I spend some time with Kiriel farming, in addition saving up money. Last night, I finally got my epic mount! I rode around like a noob lvl 40 with her first mount in Org aimlessly.

I am also happy to have spent the little extra cash in getting this mount rather than the countless black war mounts that were achievable in PVP.

Last couple of days; I've been spending my time in Zangarmarsh. Great area for leatherworkers and herbalist, not so great an area for Tailors. This area is absolutely environmentaly stunning. Take a look. Quite surreal.

New Race Impressions

2007-01-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

As an Alt-aholic, of course I have created a toon on each of the new races!

I have at this posting Blood Elf (BE or Belf) Palladin (lvl 11), one of very many, and a Draeni Warrior (lvl 10).

Blizzard pulled out all the stops on the Belfs. Very different, thin, almost fantasicly evil looking/acting. Their cities are lovely, I love the beginning areas. The autumn colors, beasts, with a touch of the Scourge. The Belf pallys are supposed to get the Black Chargers. Ohhhhhh, sweet. That's, of course, the whole reason I made one.

I current have retired a lvl 46 human paladin. I am now in a quandry, because I don't think I'm having as much fun as I should be with my Belf pally. I've forgotten how, slow they kill. Look at the toons I actively play, Mage, Warlock & Shadow Priest. All Dps classes, now with a pally, I'm really having issues. I'm committed to trying for a little while longer though before I make the choice on what to do.

The Draeni have landed in an area that reminds me of a cross between the Undead and Night Elf area. Very flowery, muted greens & purples with hints of corruption. An honorable race that reminds me a lot of the Tauren. I will say that this place isn't as visually poping eye candy as the Belf area...but then again, look at what the races represent. Belfs are all about the outside representation. LOL

I am playing my warrior with my hubby who's a paladin. He loves his Paladin, he's had one before. I'm really enjoying playing my warrior, I do love the idea of charging in there, pulling the monster off my fellow and taking the damage. It's different for me, but in a fun way. I do see why it's so very gear dependant.

What do you think? Keep trying on the pally or can it?

HFC - Blood Furnace

2007-01-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

Instance - 5 Man
Recommended Lvl? 62 - 63
Who went in? 60- 62
Crew: Warrior, Shaman, Rogue, 2 Mages

This instance is "easier" to pull then HFR, providing eveyone understands the pulls. Having two sheepers in this instance was very nice. Things to watch for, spell casters with major shadowbolt damange, Rogues that can one shot your clothies, and engineers that set bombs and throw grenades. The bombs silence and well, caused me 1300 damage..ouch.

1st Boss - Robotic mind controler. This the Baroness UDstrat's twin brother. In this run, we had a mind control several times, and this appears to cause our other mage's damage to increase significantly. His blizzard took me out in no time. Standard bliz, about 200 a tick, he said it was doing 500 a tick.

2nd Boss - This one is tricky. You kills the mobs in the room, then open the "prison door"..(s). This opens the side prisons letting out mobs that increase in difficulty and number. Two sheepers help control the elites. Conserve your mana, cause when last one is down the other room opens. There are four rooms, last guy down..opens bubble headed bosses room. At this point, we were too close to him and he came for us. I was out of mana, quick mana ruby and pot and away we go. He's sqooshy, but serious nature damage and spell damage. Take him out and move on.

Move your way through the casters and felguard elites down down to the last boss.

3rd Boss - Fun encounter. There are 5 or 6 casters around this boss. They contain the raid boss down below. Look down, that's a big fella you'll see later in the game. Keep the last mob sheeped. They cast a magic buff that causes an extra 1100 shadow damage...ouch. Take these guys down, and the last boss awakes. He causes some pretty damage, but keep your tank healed and watch for his "come closer" emote....this is a hint...get away! He also casts the magic buff, but since there is only one, it's not on the entire group - whew!

Run time: 2.5 hours No Wipes.

Thanks guys for the run!

My First Screenshot!

2007-01-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hubby may have an on and off relationship with WoW (he's a bitter one) but he's taught me how to upload screenshots!

Here's a shot of my lvl 61 character, Kiriel, shown here in Hellfire Peninsula. The new land in the expansion pack is amazing! I hope to do more screenshots and update more as I play, so stay tuned!

Hellfire Ramparts

2007-01-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

HFR - 5 Man Dungeon Outland

Our group. 2 Warriors both Dps, Mage, Lock, Shaman

Short wing dungeon, but some interesting pulls. Watch the pats carefully as they will influence your pulls. After the 3rd pull, careful, the groups are in 5 or 6. Dogs are non-elite, but will gnaw on your healer.

Green drops were decent, nothing real exciting, nice to see a traveler's pack drop. :)

1st Boss. Be sure to clear all the groups first, watch for him and there's one guy that wanders. Clear everything first. Boss Fight. He charges clothies and punts them. I got hit for the first time with 1300, ouch. This mage only has 1700 health, we were really seeing the benefit of Stam gear. His side kicks, heal him. Take them down fast, while the tank controls the boss. Over all, not too bad. Fabulous blue drop though.

Work your way upstairs with some intersting pulls. Watch the spell casters, they fear, frequently. They are locks, without pets, they fear, rain of fire and shadowbolt you. The big guys with axes, cleave. Suggest taking them down first.

2 Boss. You need to have a decurser in your group, be it Mage or Druid. This guy hurts. He casts a curse that one hurts the target, curses him for an AOE curse to his buddies causing 400 damage a tick, and summoning an add. IF you can control his curses, this boss is doable. Shadow resistance...suggested.

Now, work your way back to the Dragon. Yes, an armored nether drake and rider. UBRS anyone? Actually, this fight reminds me a lot of Bat Boss in ZG. Tank goes in takes the rider, everyone spreads out, and casts, move, casts move...stay OUT of the fire! This boss hurts, and fire resist is high recommended.

I'm sure I'm missing stuff....but this was a first run..I'm anxious to see more!

Great night...fun...wild...new stuff....and stayed up wayyyy too late. LOL

Burning Crusade Released!

2007-01-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

I got back from my business trip late yesterday and my copy of the collector's edition hadn't arrived yet. :(

Until an hour later.......

Woot for a DVD copy instead of CDs! Fast install, and away I went.

Created both my Draeni and Blood Elf toons, but never logged them in. Instead I logged on with Kiriel, my main. Outland here I come! I entered the portal, and was struck by the lovely graphics of the sky. There were 20 of us standing on the other side, and then this wave of bad guys came at us...all with skulls! What a new concept again, you were once a "high" level, now low again. We parted like the red sea to let them by....no way was I casting a single shot.

Grabbed the quests, FP and away I went to Thrallmar, "For the Horde!". First quest, I could see already I was going to replace my blue wand that I worked hard for. wow, in shock I stood there and pondered. Grabbed new training for tailoring and skinning, ouch!

It's laggy, but fabulous! All I can say is...NEW CONTENT! Then some fellow guildies and I decided that we just had to do a "run". LOL WILD...see above post.

Mods I Use for 2.0

2007-01-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

It's funny, people are saying that 2.0 busted so many mods for warcraft. What it did for me was discover what "new" mods were out there compatiable for 2.0.

I currently use:

Titan Bar - Titan XP - Recommend Zone
Titan is a nice quick glance, at how much gold I have, what coordinates I'm at, how much time I have until I level based on current XP intake, my DPS meter is clickable on the bar, and I keep this bar fairly simple. Just the info I need. The Recommend Zone is one of my favorites during leveling. There are just some times you run out of things to do in a zone, and don't know where else to go. I look at that and see what instances I can run, what zones I can go to. It's really nice.

Cosmos
Yup, I'm a cosmos user. I use Arcane bar, I disable the main casting bar at the bottom of the screen. I use bag space, to let me know how many slots I have left...very nice simple mod. Party quests, quest level, equip compare, and other small mods that I always forget but miss when we have a major patch. /sigh

Auctioneer
I'm currently using the Alpha version of this mod. I don't recommend it for those are not mod savvy. However, the newest version does seem fairly stable. Nice for knowing how to sell on the AH, and what not to buy. It also comes with Enchantrix...very nice for an enchanter, Kir's one. However, I picked up a nice enchanter mod that minimizes my need for this one.

CTmod
Wow, this is a big one. I've always used CTRaid up until recently, now I'm using the big guy. Don't really care for the bar part. I've been playing for 2 years using the current bars, that messing with them isn't really my need. I'm happy with them, so why miss em more whenever we go through a major patch. I DO love CTbuff mod. This is a new way of looking at your buff, curses, diseases, etc...timer. It lists them down in decending order. It's actually rather nice once you get used to it. I've customized it's looks a little, and shrunk it down some...dont' need it to take over my entire screen. CTCore currently doesn't seem to like Arcane bars, but only errors on the first use.

Healbot
New mod for me now that I'm actively playing my priest. It's really nice. It doesn't autotarget, however it allows you to customize difference functions i.e. decursing, disease removal, different types of healing spells to your mouse buttons. In addition, it utilizes cntl & alt buttons. It's fairly customizable, including the bar colors, and types of notifications i.e. raid, party, self...etc.

Other Small Mods I Use
Fishing Buddy - Fishing is a pain at first, but this mod keeps track of everything you've fished on all your toons. That way if you are looking for something specific, i.e. stonescale eels.
Fizzwidget Disenchant Predictor - the reason why I lke this mod is, pretty simple, if I'm looking for a particular essence, it tells me the level range of the item I need to go find. It also tells me that it's likely, unlikely, and rare to disenchant into....
GEM - Guild Event Manager. BTDOTM uses this to schedule event. Good for those that get it, bad for those that can't. It works pretty well over all though. It really helps a raid leader in inviting and seeing if the raid is full, and with what classes.

I'm sure I forgot some items. Oh, and for all these mods, I've increased my memory to about 75 from 48. I don't have any problems running these, but I do have 2 g of Ram. /yummy

Horde Betrayed Quest Line

2007-01-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

I've done this quest line three times now. On all three of my high(er) level toons. Those blood elf redeimers hurt.

They cast fireball and heal...it's so wrong!

On Kir last night, I started with the Sauccy. I am not a "blueberry" player, it's very rare for me to have the voidwalker out. It's a tank, not a damage dealer, I say, kill 'em quickly and use less mana. So the Succubus it is. However, after a few of those fireballs, I put her out and brought out the felhound. Perfect. The felhound at lvl 52 has 105 resistances to all schools of magic, and can spelllock a caster. This quest turned easy.

Kill all the mobs required. go to the gazebo and "discover" the camp. Don't turn away, you aren't done. Read the book at the gazebo. You are ready for the next stage...if you know your toon. You have to destroy the crystals, to summon the "boss". Hint: it's the one across from the book. Kill one BE, who calls for the lady mage. She's lvl 55, and packs a punch. Gotta admit, love seeing my felhunter spelllock her fireball. :)

If you are a lock, stick around. You should go north to the satyr camp there, and gather your first fel essence for the infernal quest line. Easy drop.

Now, after your Lady Mage kill, go to Org for an easy 7200 xp reward. Sweet! /dance

When a Priest Dps > a Lock Dps?

2007-01-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

It's highly possible that my damage meter isn't working right, but this weekend I was playing both Kir and Ayrie a lot. They are both the same level (51) so doing the same quests....snore.
I've monitored Kir's dps and she's doing about 185 dps (damage per second) at level 51 with about 22 dps crit. Ayrie on the otherhand is a shadow priest, and is doing about 202 dps. Wait, she's a priest. LOL

I think about the low 40s I noticed that my shadow priest started getting easier to play. It's hard about the mid-30s until shadowform. Now she pretty much can take on things 3 - 4 levels above her....Oh, and can shadowpriests heal? I seem to have no issues. Ran ZF (Zul Furrak) this weekend, and it was a breeze. I DO admit that what made it easy was Healbot. It's a great new mod that I've found that is helping me monitor what spells I use healing.

Don't think I'll pvp with her though. With Kir, I tended to go after the priests first, lol.

Time for an Update

2007-01-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, obviously I stopped posting on this blog some time ago. I'm still addicted to the game, and well, I was bloggin' around and saw my own blog on someone's WoW blog site.

I thought to myself...whoa, that's soooo cool! Time to get updated.

Kiriel 60 Troll Mage is still my main. She's currently spec'd Arcane/Ice. Lovin' the arcane! She's got some decent gear, and I'm happy with where she is, however I haven't been playing her much. Guess you could say I'm waiting for BC.

Duske 57 Resto/Feral Tauren Druid. She's semi-retired. I play her when my honey and I are on, but I think he's a lttle more interested in his lock.

Ayrie 51 Shadow/Dis Human Priest. I've been leveling her more lately, my honey said, "when are going to get an alliance toon up so we can play together?" I got the hint. LOL It's so much fun playing with your partner. :)

Kir 51 Afficition/Dem Orc Warlock. I love this toon a lot. She's been a challenge and a joy to play. She's an enchanter, and a fisher, both profs I have never done before. I'm really enjoying her in PvP which is rare for me.

These are the main toons I'm playing at the moment. I have a few that are stashed away, I dust them off every so often.

14 more days!

Recent Changes

2006-06-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

The horde guild I mainly play is definately growing. Lots of good people are joining up, and why am I not playing?
Part vacation, part work exhaustion, part feeling down. I'm taking it WAY too personally that I've had two instance schedules fall through because people that signed up never showed.
For one recent one, It's usually okay for 1 out of the 5, but for 3 out of the 5?
I waited around for an hour, grumbling to myself, and grinding....bah, I remember now how much I hate grinding as a lvl 60.

Played on my NE Hunter a bit this week, joined a growing guild (another server) and made my self not commit to anything. Just want to go out and level up. I'm this close to lvl 38 with this toon, and only have 2/3s the gold to purchase my mount, AUGH! Haven't played the priest lately, I do like her, but I just haven't wanted to put in the effort. Started a warlock on my horde server this week just to play around. I do like warlocks, not sure how much I'll play this, but I really wanted something undemanding.

That could be it, just demands.

Calling All Healers

2006-05-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

When the last patch came through for Priests - you would think that there would be more of them now that they actually have a decent survival rate. Having played one until now lvl 33, I do agree that they level slower due to the sheer amount of mana drain of the spells. They do however, rock.

I ran an instance last night with Kiriel - Scholomance. I ran it with two close guild mates, and two new people. It was ---- interesting. We definately need more healers in our guild, we have a strong support class, a few mages, lots of shamans, and some warriors that can tank or dps. We have no Locks, no priests, and I think one druid for lvl 60. This can make runs - interesting. It was a good learning experience, but one I would prefer to do with a healer class if done again.

Which brings me to Duske, she's lvl 38 Druid. She's currently a feral spec, which mean I dish out damage and can tank gold elites...however, we are close to running two larger instances SM and Uld. These instances need a good healer class - which we don't have currently. I am considering respecing to Resto so that I can heal, but that would change my play style. Part of me wants to do it to see what would happen, the other part of me likes dishing out damage.

What to do?

I WANNA PLAY - I WANNA PLAY!

2006-05-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Repeat after me - I wanna play!
Okay, I was gone all last week overseas where I did not bring my laptop. I could have, but I just didn't want to carry it around (I'm glad I didn't).
I did enter a moment where I entered a rent - a - internet shop, they had a sign up "play World of Warcraft here".....there was a biggggg pause before I shook my head and moved on.
Came back and played some of both the priest and the hunter. I have them both up to lvl 33 now. The hunter is still easier to play, but the priest is in such demand (it's nice to be wanted).
Honey and I started up our older toons this weekend and played them (him Mage, me Hunter), and that was fun. It's hard having all four toons about the same lvl, cows 38, Trolls 33/34, my NE hunter 33, and Human 33 -- most of the same quests over again.
Where's Kiriel in all this? - in bed sleeping.

A Bird's Palate

2006-05-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Last night was my instance night. I logged in with Kiriel to see what was up with the guild.
We ran into some issues lately with another alliance that we no longer have.

I ran Strath with a trial new alliance, and we ran using Vent. Vent is great when you can hear all the voices, twangs of southern style, and the fact that I'm the only female!

At one point of the instance we hear, "uh....do any of you have any roasted quail for my bird?" (he's a hunter with an owl pet). You can hear *crickets chirping* - then - "Dude, you feed quail to your bird. Isn't that like....canabalism?" We all laughed. He said that was the highest meat he could get at that time. Still laughed, and we moved on.

We did great - killed 4 bosses, until the Gauntlet. Wiped and with respawn, we left the game. Great night!

Wake Up Call

2006-05-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Here I was logging onto Kiriel - it has been pretty quiet recently on my server. Lots of people quiting or having finals - who knows.

Anyway, our guild was given a wake up call for our 60s. I'm glad we have Vent (voice over internet) - there was a guild that was seeing if we were interested in joining them. The conversation was: there isn't much motivation for our 60s to stay. It's a great guild, helping, and really fun to be with - but once you hit 60 it seems like everything stops. We didn't actively go on raids or be in groups together. I have a lvl 30 in this guild that's more active then my 60.
So, the conversation was that we will get together and plan out activities. Limiting factor? No healers. We have no healers at 60 in our guild.
So four of us got onto our healers are started working with them - that was funny. Instead of doing something for an hour with our 60s - we worked with our lower lvl dudes.

I think we all want to try, and some of us want to be more active instead of putting our long accomplished 60s on a shelf. Here's to hoping this guild survives the next stage.

A Weekend of Firsts

2006-04-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday Hubby was out of the house, so I had an opportunity to be involved in my first 40 man Raid - MC or Molten Core.
The first thing I did was respec my Mang to Arcane/Ice. Interesting combo - it's taking me a bit to get used to it. When you play 60 levels one way, and then have to shift. BUT - it helped, MC is a fire instance, and let's just say we didn't get to the first boss, not enough healers. Very interesting situation though - good group of people over all.
Sunday, I was able to pull hubby and I out of one guild over to By the Dark of the Moon, the guild I'm in with the Mage. Right away we went into an instance I've not seen before. Acutally kind boring instance, but it could have been build we all so kicked.....I was the main healer with my druid, really told me that when you aren't healer spec'd you can't really heal worth....good group of people, good drops, we all left happy.
It was a great weekend!

CREEPY!

2006-04-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

I played the other night with Kiriel - seems like every since I joined this guild I've only playing the mage. LOL
I was invited to an instance - Strathoholme (sp?). Creepy! the first section is an undead area, flames going up the buildling to a blood red sky. Skeltons, zombies, other critters wandering around. We had a rough start, but managed to get to "live" strath, where it was easier.
We wiped twice and ran out of time before the healer had to go. Which was fine, I got an upgrade blue item, and blue item to sell, and had a good time.
I learned something though - 5 man raids are a little more difficult than a 20. You really have to pay attention or you die.

Speak of the.....

2006-04-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

I ran an instance last night to get me "attuned" to run a major 40 man this weekend. It also made me think to respec my Mage from fire to ice. It was a fire instance, and well - fire spells don't help much against the fire immune.
It was fun last night because I ran the instance with two wise-cracking guys who have done this run several times. They were great to run with, using a headset with a mic, it was the three of us passing wise cracks as we ran through the instance. We blew through it with a priest falling asleep and a rogue that keeping pulling the wrong dudes.
I just know now that using a headset is a great asset in an instance - you call out instructions, pulls, yell "mine" on a drop, and do all the gasps of cool drops, or the cusses of bad pulls. It was great.

Old Friends Renewed

2006-04-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

I had a good time this weekend playing Kiriel. Finally reached 60! At first my thoughts were, now what? I was in a guild that was pretty quiet and seemed to stall. Then an old friend from my previous fun guild poped up on my chat: "KIR!". "AMA!" So, from there the rest is history. I joined his guild and since then having a blast. They are chatty, help each other, and have recently started an guild alliance with a heavy hitter guild to do large raids.
In fact, I joined on Sunday night. 20 Man Raid and had a good time until we got to the bat boss. Too many wipes, and dinner was looking much better by the minute. I needed to stop and eat, but enjoyed the raid still the same.
Glad to be back with Friends.

It's Been Awhile

2006-04-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

So - It's been awhile since I posted. What can I say, I've been rather distracted by busy work, business travel and a kitchen remodel.
Now, that doesn't prevent me from playing. It did prevent me from getting too involved in my Main though. She's still a level 59.5 almost 60. Just don't have the energy to do the high level stuff.
I've been playing two of my other toons, my now level 21 Priest - just went through an easy instance. Did great, healed great, no one died until the end including me. /sigh
I've also been playing my level 31 NE Hunter. I was pretty dis-enheartened by my lack of money with her until last night. Sold a enchanting recipe for lots of Gold! YEA! Happy joy - now I'm more on my way to save money for a tiger mount.
I'm just glad that I still enjoy playing, still enjoy seeing the old areas, and exploring the new. Enjoying the silly weather system, and seeing dragons kick my......

I Hate Being Sick

2006-03-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

So - I've been sick since Sat. Night. I hate being sick, so sick that when you stare at the screen you want to run screaming.
It's a sinus cold, keeping me and hubby up at night. Fun stuff all the way around.
Haven't played much - wished to play more. To the point that I'm dreaming that I'm playing - this is bad.

Example: I dreamed last night that I was playing and got a rare engineering item. Hubby emailed me that if I can't use that then to mail it to Tupercent as he can use it. I emailed back - that would mean actually playing. I dreamt all this!

Being sick means, you log onto your main and go - ech, I don't feel up to this and log into a minor toon. Played my Priest last night instead.

So much to do - so little time

2006-03-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

Hitting level 59 was a neat experience. To know that you only have 1 more level before you've hit the top, and also so you are able to attend all those major instances that only level 60s dare to go.
Today is Friday, what a long week. I feel the need to sleep, vegitate, and play. Two items pull strongly, first hubby and I should be starting the major part of the kitchen remodel this weekend - whew! Two, I really rather play our toons rather than mine. I have so much fun playing my druid with his hunter, we make quite the team demolishing sub-bosses many levels above us. Not only that - we both only have a smiggen until our next level up! What are we thinking not playing these guys?
MOOOOOOO! - dare I mention that they are Tauren, or cows - (don't ask)

The Voice Comes Through

2006-03-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a first time experience. I logged on trying to achieve level 59 with Kiriel and found myself invited to a large 20 man raid on AQ, new instance.
Our guild and a few other mobbed together and proptly got wiped by two very large hard hitting bugs. LOL I died twice, little 'ol clothie me.
We decided that we are too new of a group so our raid leader suggested we head over to Zul Gurrub , a tropical instance. Meanwhile, I set up Ventrilo for the first time. I was hearing everyone talk. I learned very quickly to mute my mic to use a hot key whenever I want to speak.
We ran into ZG, and we worked together very efficently to destroy mobs and patrols. Our raid leader is experience and good at communciating. We were working our way to see the first big boss when blip......server down. AUGHHHHHH!!!!! You could hear the echos of "NOOOO!" because we were really doing well. I even got a peek at HAKKAR the final boss - wow, he's scary looking.
We were not able to log back on - disappointment around.
Now after that - I wanna play! I didn't get one bit of loot, but I had fun. Didn't level up, had fun anyway.

How many Toons?

2006-03-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

Kiriel has 1.5 bars until level 59! Woot! It's been a struggle because I just don't play enough at one time to justify instances. Those are typically about an average of 4 hours of play in one sitting. By the time I get home, get settled, would like to eat, I have about 3 if I want to actually sleep well. I'm now at the point, however, that I need to run instances - get experience running them and get the good stuff.

When I get to where I don't want to play hardcore with her. I have the following active toons.
Kael'thas, Moonshot lvl 24 NE Hunter - in a slow spot with her. Lyrah, level 9 undead warrior - I want to beat stuff up up close.
Vel(something something), Nightchill level 19 Human Mage ice spec - I have paused playing her because I might need to respec Kiriel to arcane/ice instead of arcane/fire. I hear the big instances so many bosses are immune to Fire - not good. Ayrie level 19 Human Priest - every so often I feel the need to be in demand.

Priests are the most asked for class, I thought it might be nice to have patience and level one up. The hard thing is that they don't really become powerful until late 20s or early 30s - until then they are weak! With the new patch, I will have the ability to rethink holy versus shadow. I like shadow, but shadow doesn't heal effectively.

Drop Out

2006-02-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

Monday was a wonderful day off to celebrate, well offically President's Day, but really a not a work day celebration! I got invited to do a quick run through Dire Maul, a high level instance on Tuesday night.

I hopped on with my Mage and while waiting for the rest of group I grinded to lvl 57! The leader came on to try to get the last person on board, and then left. My guild sponser pst'd me (whispered to me) that the instance was not likely happening because the other guy left. This guy was who we were doing the run for. How Rude! Why leave and not take a moment to say, hey guys not a lot of people on tonight, can't do the run. Dumb ass.

That was a grumpy moment, I was looking forward to doing something new and exciting with my guild members. hmph. I logged off, watched some TV, and made it back to play my other 3 alts until their resting bonus wore off. Slow night - boring.

Dropping out unannounced is really not cool. Grow up and get some manners people. (another grumpy moment.....)

Three Day Weekend!

2006-02-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's FRIDAY! YEAH - /jumps up and down.

So now honey has a new box as well. Time to crack down and play.

Meanwhile, I got a two different headsets, I'm trying to see what fits and broadcasts better. Course, that would involve downloading Ventrilo.

Did I mention it's Friday?

A New Graphic Feeling

2006-02-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

So I got a sweet Valentine's Day/Early Birthday Gift. My honey got me a new box, yea! It's a lovely light laptop, Turion 64 2.0mhz, 2mg ram, 128mg ATI graphics Card - WOOT! It's light, lovely, and sweet.

So - I spend all day at work yesterday multitasking and installing everything. Shesh, I forgot how long it takes to load up WoW. Installing all the patches and then my UIs. I powered it up, disabled a few stupid things like land glow, and death effect. Those are just strange. BUT - now I can see far and see underwater cool! Too bad I was so damn tired last night that I only played WSG for an hour (good fight too) and logged out.

First issue: UIs, loading UIs are awesome, but loading all of them at once bad idea. Tonight I'll weed out some of the ones I want to get rid of - Cosmos loaded everything. Here's the UIs I have currently:
*Cosmos - very cool, BUT - there are a LOT of mini UIs - far far too many.
*Titan (just basic info thats cool to have out of the main screen and on bars), Titan rest (tells you which characters you play are fully rested) - did you know that you can get a maximum of 150% rested bonus and that's it?, Titan Stone (for the locks out there).
*Regent compare (for professions you have)..
*GEM - Guild event manager - this is a new one, pretty cool actually, sees the events immediately that your guild is planning so you can come along if you want. Mind boggling, huh?

Still to load? - CTraid, now that i'm a badass 56, I will be going on large raid instaces and CTraid is good for communciating to the healers your health and such, and Ventrilo. I have to try out my new headphones and mic first. I hope it fits well without hurting my ears.

So - here I am at work and....I wanna play. However, more than anything I wanna play my toon with my honey. Where's my honey?

Instances - good or bad

2006-02-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

So played my Mage (now 56) this weekend. Sat. was fine, kind of boring. All I did was run around trying to figure out where to be until my level up to 56.

Sunday, I was able to go in with a goal in mind. Get to Winterspring, move forward on getting rid of some quests. I got pinged to go to an instance. Well, I was certainly willing to go since it was an instance with quests I had.
The Group was great, good healer, good tank gathering aggro (helped he was the lowest lvl). Everyone did a great job...even had good considerate rolls. Except......

Why is it when the Leader decides that he/she is done, they portal out, even if not everyone is done with the instance. Her pal must have agreed because the last dragon died (toughie) he (the healer) and I died, I went back, he didn't.

Wait - who decided we were done? It was one of those time where I felt that I joined this group for them (the two that left), not for the group.
Instances are a toughie. You get great loot (usually, I know I did), but the dynamics are tough. If they work, it's a great time. If they don't, then it sucks.

I know of someone who ran an instance and had to "pay" for the pleasure of the drops. Pay for drops? Wait, does that mean they paid to enter this instance when they were invited? What kind of logic is that?

This is why as I look for a new guild, I'm being very, very picky. I do not want to "pay" for my time in an instance. This is a game, and I want to have a good time. I don't mind dkp systems, I don't know quiet how they work, other than a point system. I mean, solid gold pay.

Who would be happy about that?

Yet another....

2006-02-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I played some last night with my lvl 55 (cheer) Mage. I'm wandering all over the place trying to complete some quests..attempting to make some room. It's amazing how much you can do at this lvl. After going through EPL (eastern plaguelands), Swamp of sorrows, and Buring Steppes (i think or was it blasted lands). I teleported back to Undercity. After mulling over for a bit, I realized that I'm too tired for this tonight and quit out. Two things:

One, the active members of my guild have recently decided to move on to another server, this one pvp. I am not interested in going with. So, we'll see how soon I move on myself.

Two, I really just wanted to have a brainless session. No, I didn't go to my NE hunter. I'm playing an Orc hunter with hubby at the moment. I stared at my screen, disinterested in playing yet another Horde toon that I have. So, I did it again. I created another mage named Nightchill. My idea was to try Ice as a talent.
I enjoy the sheer dps as a mage, and I can deal with the clothie (gonna die at any time) aspect.

One Problem After Another

2006-02-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a WoW bust. First, the big Seattle wind storm occurred knocking out power on Sat. all day. It was a cold, cold day without heat.
Once the power was on, we dicovered that the phone was out. No phone, no DSL, no internet, no WoW!
I made the "repair" call. The lovely sounding computer stated that someone would be out by 7pm that day. With the Super Bowl looming in a few hours, I doubted that. It was true, by 7pm we still had no service. Another lovely voice credited my account for lost service, stated that someone should be out at some point Monday.

Why am I still feeling doubt....

Re-Inventing the Online Family (guild)

2006-02-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

Last night the majority of the active players on the guild broke away from it's original roots and re-invented itself. Most of us active players have been frustrated with two of the three GM's (guild masters). They wanted to merge this guild into a uber guild to do end game quests, instances, and etc. There was massive resistance from most of us, because we liked the atmosphere of the guild, but found that these GM's where not invovled int the guild - they were involved in themselves.
I've been in a uber guild before, and I gotta be honest...although it's nice being able to do instances knowing the people in your guild (you hope)...it's a pain in the next. There are usually disagreements, arguements over character builds, how to play, etc etc etc.
I realized this morning that my guild doesn't do this. We chat often about silly things, life (not seriously), help in quests, cool stuff. We even send each other things to help each other along. It's a small guild, but these wild crazy guys make me laugh, enjoy my time, and the support is totally cool.....even if I'm still the only girl.

Them Weather Effects

2006-02-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

So, there's an annoucement of weather effects in the next patch. Imagine, wind storms, rain, thunder, snow..the works. Imagine the computer's video card go....ACK!

Although Blizzard states that the weather effects will take very little resources and can be turned off. I don't want to turn them off! Although wet rain drops getting in my way on the screen just might make me.

Maybe it's time to convince my family that I need a new laptop with a snazzy 128mg video card. Yeah, that's it.

Remembering the Noob Days

2006-01-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Last night I couldn't get on my main server. Loooonnngggg wait time to obtain the character list. So, I switched servers to play on my NE Hunter. I forget how the alliance quest lists lags around levels 17 -19. You have to find something to do until you reach a point to take on the higher quests....boring. Did I mention that I don't like "grinding"?

Anyway, I forget occassionally that there are a lot of new people playing since Christmas. I got whispered by a NE druid about questing. I passed, saying that I was in the middle of another quest. We just started chatting about druid builds, which she stated that she wished she had picked up alchemy as a skill rather than herblism and cooking. (silence) I whispered back, that she still could. I didn't want to get into the fact that you can drop professions whenever you want. I just wanted to deal with the fact that cooking isn't a profession it's a optional add-on. It doesn't count, same as First-Aid. You can take two professions, have cooking and first aid, all at the same time. You won't be able to carry anything, your packs would be full.

She was surprised and said - well, that's what I get for not reading the manual. Have you SEEN the WoW manual? It's a book. It's stuffed with history, stories other than just facts. I didn't read the manual, and that's rare.

Then my GM (guild master) piped in talking about guild stuff. He sounded like he's been around the block in WoW. I stated some information regarding my other "toon". He asked what's a Toon? (silence) I replied, WoW speech for other character. I later found out that he has a level 50 Hunter.....

Well, I'm sure the same silence will hit me when I enter the next instance. I don't do instances because I just don't have that much time to spare (tyically), but that's another blog topic. Point is, I'm a Noob with instaces, and with a level 54 Mage - that will seem....odd.

The Things That Make You Shiver

2006-01-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago I made my way through Ungoro Crater, swampy, full of dinosaurs. This area for some reason is boring to me. Perhaps it because I'm a tailor, I want good drops or cloth. This area is full of creatures that you can skin for leather and don't really drop a lot. AND there are these huge T-Rex's that I swear purposefully search you out.

I made it to Level 54 (yea!). I log in to find out that my guild may break up this weekend, and join a guild that no one but the leader wants to go to. Makes you wonder why the guild is breaking up, huh?

I also make a point to go to a new area, Silithus. I know that I'm a little lowbie for this area, but I'm curious about what all the current fuss is about. I enter a land filled with spiders, scorpions, and worms. You see these floating crystals - and tornados. YIKES!

As you come over a rise, you see faintly motion in the sky. Go closer, and this tower of....insects appear. Bugs swirling around, limbs wrapped around the tower twitching....really makes you shiver.

I sat there watching the movement, and the elite wasps. I just went....brrrrrrr. I'm not real big on bugs. This area is really creepy - with twitching limbs, flying wasps, skittering spiders. A little clothie in the area doesn't have a lot of defense against the poison they share.

I'll be back to this, but for now - Maybe the Scourge has something to offer?

Where oh Where to go -

2006-01-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

I had a good time playing last night. I decided that I wanted to go somewhere new, so I took my mage and went to Felwood.

That was fun - except.......one quest. The jadefire moonwell. I thought hmmm, I see the Jadefire glen. Jadefire = moonwell, I'll go there. I fought my way through satyrs up and down that area....let's just say, I'm glad I had my guild to entertain me through my "where is it?!"

I found a safe spot - went to Thotbot.com. I was in the wrong area, apparently there is a Jadefire moonwell near the Ruins of Constellas. Sure, makes sense to me!

It's amazing though that I looked at my watch last night, sure 930pm. Okay, I can play a little more...my hubby is playing his lock at UBRS (I'm listening to the havoc feeling a little jealous - he's the one that's two bars away from 59). The next thing I know - it's 1030pm! YAWN.

I did get a lot done though - 1/2 a level later. I'm almost 53!

Woot~

(I still haven't figured out that acroynm).

Hump Day - Busy Day

2006-01-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

So - I'm back from traveling, and I always find it interesting. When you travel, it doesn't matter how busy you are where you went, the travel itself is always tiring.

I got back to work to find phone calls from people that ignore your "away from office" or such. Why do they do that? Do they hope that you will check in although you put - "I won't have access to email while out of the office"? What's with that?

So, yes yes, I haven't played much this past week. It's been busy work-wise and busy home-wise. My hubby and I have been laying down some wood floor and such. Check it out on his Blog...http://cardboardpeople.blogspot.com/ The floor is going down so well so far - we are a little leary once we get into the kitchen area - but that's to come.

Guess you could say I'm a little distracted from WoW at the moment (atm) with real life (RL) - amazing how acroynms move into language, huh?

cya!

Playing during Travel....

2006-01-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

I travel on business about once a month. I enjoy traveling, and I figure while I do - I should get as much in as I can.

When I travel, I try to get online connection, this allows me to stay in touch with people back home, at work, so forth. But also, so I can play alittle...well, that doesn't always work so well.

At this current hotel, they have something that really boggs down my computer. Ties it up so it won't shut down, has difficulty connecting...all that fun stuff. Also the connection is 10bps. Not so great. Think I'll chance my Mage on that connection - NOPE! Haven't played since Friday...WHAAAAA.

I did play a little on a NE (night elf) Hunter, currently lvl 14...(whoooooooooo). Very common race and class, I know. I like playing a hunter - I have so many Horde toons, that I wanted to try playing the Alliance side again for a change. I didn't play a dwarf because I find it odd using guns in a fantasy game.

Let me say, that's its a little better now that they have AH's (auction houses) in every capital city. Darnassus (NE home) isn't quite a lonely anymore.

Against All Odds

2006-01-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

I wanted to mention that if you noticed, that the header for this blog is Jen's Addicting Habit. Yes, I'm a girl and I play computer games, AND I play a tall ugly troll as my main character.

To top it off, I'm old. LOL I'm in my mid-30's and I've played computer games since I was 13 back in the day of Wizardry and Rogue. (very old games, some of you might not remember).

I am a statistic that goes against the norms. - I'm good with that.

So late last night, I thought instead of doing a quick "capture the flag" battle with my NOW level 52! I thought I would try out what the hype is regarding Alrathi Valley an all out battle. The purpose is to capture areas of the playing field making your way to the opposing general and well, killing him.

What I didn't know was - I entered the battle....40 versus 40. I'm the lowest level toon. YIKES! It was total mayhem and I thought I would be useless. Not so, my toon is a mage - awesome damage from a distance - until I become noticed than I tend to get creamed pretty fast.

Well - let's just say 3 hours later, the battle is still going on - it's 1am...I definately want to go to bed. We've lost, but have not given up. I did, shesh. With a raging headache and bleary eyes I finally called it a night.

I learned something though...AV is not a "quick" battle. It needs to be strategicly planned (this one wasn't so well). It is viscious and brutal. And fun - though maybe I'll be back when I'm near 60.

FOR THE HORDE!

2006-01-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before, I have many toons (characters) on WoW. Most of them Horde.

The horde have orcs, trolls, taurens (cows), and undead.

There is one that I have focused on recently, I went back to my high lvl Troll Mage. She's currently 51....and then some.

She's only 3 1/2 bars from Lvl 52 - so close...must...get...there. I'm still fighting the flu so I had to go to bed at a decent time last night.

I love playing an Arcane/Fire mage. She does so much damage, although, when things get out of hand - it's time to run. I currently do about 200 - 250 dps (damage per second), pretty good considering I have about 1300hp of life (not much). So I have to kill 'em fast.
I play on a PvE server, that's player versus the environment. You don't PVP until you flag yourself or enter a battleground that is set up for pvp play.

I did a hard quest last night in Azshara (sp?). It was hard because if I didn't have things under control, I might die from the damage being done to me. I finished the quest - or so I thought. I hate those quests that don't tell you were you turn it in at. I wandered back to where I thought I turned it in...no yellow mark anywhere. Frustrating!
I had to log off and look it up on Thotbot.com, only to find out - I should have stayed where I was to read a book. Read a book! Course, that would have taken me to another battle. Guess it's better that I went "home" to rest.

So now it's Friday - TGIF! - and I wanna play (no surprise to those who know me)....I'm at work.

/cry

It's a new world ~ of Warcraft

2006-01-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have a habit. I have a very addicting habit, hobby, time consuming enjoyment. It's called World of Warcraft - or WoW to those who know.
I have played for a year on various servers - no I don't have a LvL 60 yet. Not for lack of trying, too many characters.
When I started, I knew very little about acronyms in the IM world. Getting used to chats using IM was one thing, but wait in WoW - you juggle 3 chats.
The General chat (world chat), where everyone is talking. This is in white. Tends to get a little odd sometimes.
The Party chat, if you are grouped with others. This is in blue, and is important for you to pay attention to.
The Guild chat, if you are in one. This is in green, and can be informative, fun or just chatty (or silent if you prefer).
Imagine the multitasking - all while you are fighting, flying, whatever.

so - quite the learning curve for someone new. It's no wonder it took me almost a month to figure out that I had to select my chat by /1 (for general) instead of just typing. Typing is like talking in person - not many hear you. LOL

On that note -

BRB

On the Lighter Side - WoW

2005-07-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever that those weekends where you INTENDED to get something productive done? When you get done with the weekend and look back at what you did for the weekend, and it was not exactly what you intended - do you feel guilty?

I have been attempting to get various house improvements done for some time now. I honestly felt that -it was going to be THIS weekend to charge in and do all those things you had in mind.

Of course, you wake up not feeling 100%, feeling tired, what a long week.....and decide on this day...it's play time!

I gotta admit, I'm a major World of Warcraft fan. Both my husband and I play both our characters together and we both have indepedant characters.

So - we played....and played...and admitedly had a great time. Looking back - what did we do all weekend? Well, we watched some movies we have been meaning to get around to, did a little shoping, and had a great time playing WoW!

Feeling guilty? yes - but i'm over it.... :)

On the Heavy Side - senses continued

2005-07-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

A little more about myself. I am a senior manager in a company that has quite a bit of interaction between both the customers and our suppliers. I have become quite adept in encouraging people to contact me via email versus the phone. I hate the phone. I know that "normal" people may dislike the phone for various reasons.

I hate the phone. In my retail years, I learned to listen (or attempt to). Imagine trying to understand people from all over the US, the many many accents, and uses of words. I know that most people have difficulties, but imagine having more than "typical". Imagine trying to understand, and knowing that you have to make a critical decision. Nerve racking, huh?

'Course, I understand also the poor way of communicating by email. As you read this, can you "hear" my inflections? Of course not, you can only assume or imagine....everyone knows that is the problem with emails - often times there are mis-understandings. The key is to know when to use what skills - phone and email.

Human beings are amazingly adaptive - aren't we?

And so it begins

2005-07-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

So here I sit trying to understand what all this is about. Why understand and just do....but that's me - I tend to over analyze everything. Is this why I have writer's block? What to say next so people will like me? What to say that's witty, cool, rad, and fantastic. How weird....

Perhaps to start just like that - to ponder. To wonder. To write.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live without sound? What about if you thought for a brief moment that you would not be able to see again? It's that fameous question - what would you choose to lose? Sight or Hearing?

I'm biased, because I've always lived without hearing "perfectly." To me, hearing is nothing without seeing things. What I enjoy, is listening to others as they give their answers and pondering....

So what is it? To lose sight or hearing? What would YOU choose?