Krush Groove

Last night, CCC hit up Karazhan with a new schedule in mind. Given that we were clearing Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Opera, and Curator in about 2:35 consistently, leaving some awkward downtime where there wasn't really time to push thru to Shade, or learn a new fight like Nightbane, a few of us proposed a new itinerary. First night, Moroes, Opera, Curator, and Shade, for maximum trash clearage. On Monday, we'd hit up Prince and took him out for the first time, but after 2 1% attempts (the second of which was 9 manned, thanks to jacked-up aggro mechanic on Blizzard's part. Come on, now, is Inner Fire REALLY that big of a threat???), we knew that if we didn't get the crappiest Infernal placement in the world, Malchezzar was dying soon. What struck me as far more impressive was that we one-shot the Shade of Aran for the first time.

We were right on schedule thru Curator, last night, if not a few minutes behind, but that looooong trash clear wasn't nearly as egregious as it recently seemed, thanks to a metric ton of rogue and general DPS gear dropping a lot recently. In an effort to get Bytes' rogue the Emerald Ripper from Moroes, we were down to 2 healers during Moroes, and Squeak and I were duly skeered, but it looks like we held up just fine, pally and holy priestage. /cheer

Not only did we clear everything we were set up to do, we also got Illhoof down on our 3rd ever attempt, and might've on the 2nd had Yours Truly not discoed halfway through the fight. Once I got back in, X-perl was totally jacked, and healing was a disaster, because Clique didn't reload properly either. We've had a nice long run of useful stuff dropping from midway thru the instance. Other than the boots off Moroes, I don't think there's much of anything that i can really use from the frontside of KZ. (I'm discounting the healing mace from Maiden, because the one off Prince trumps it. If we can ever get it to drop, then one of us is going to be sitting pretty till the other finally comes on Malchezzar). Maiden is going to suck once they bump Blessing of Sacrifice to a 1min cooldown. Yuck.

All things considered, however, it looks like CCC is the real deal, thankfully. A month of running together and we've cleared the whole place, save Nightbane and Netherspite, I believe. Hoof's presence is still sorely missed. :( I can totally understand his need for sleep, though. He's probably the only person in a long time that I've raided with that knows the pain of a similar schedule to mine. Of course, Mrs. Hoof and Hoofling complicate his picture for obvious and far more responsible reasons, but still...

Vanity Plate

in the interest of disclosure, (but to keep the smoke down), I'm simply going to state that Chutes, Lucy, and Amp are no longer members of The Pod People. It was a difficult decision to make, but I arrived at the conclusion that my individual goals and the general direction I was heading wasn't one in the same with the guild.

That said, Echuta still hasn't settled into a guild and likely won't any time soon. Amp is right at home under the benevolent but strict reign of the Princess of Fire Mages in The Burn Clinic, and Lucy is mistress of her own domain. Before getting the tiger mount in ZG the other night, we've been joking that certain things we say on Vent just sound like they'd make perfect guild names. As a matter of fact, it's been a longstanding joke among all of us that we've had great guild names, but were always with TPP, so there was no interest in losing all of those benefits and community just for a clever guild name. All that said, though, you have to admit that there's some poetry and beauty to beating down somebody in the BGs and their friends tell everybody that dude got effed in the A by somebody from «Alcoholic Death Muppets»...

Circumstances are much different for many of us now, so given the chance to splurge on a boutique guild tag, I decided to go for it. Based on the unmitigated carnage that was handed out in that ZG run, the other night, I'd commented that Chad and Zach had pulled so many tigers that it was like "Siegfried and Roy's wet dream," when Thay looked at the broken tiger carcasses and asked, "What? Tiger porn snuff film?". That was a definite "Save That" name, but Ren astutely commented that there's little chance at getting away with "Porn" in your guild name. Dammit. The absence of numbers also means that you can't do «Tiger Pr0n Snuff Film» either, so we were thinking «Tiger Prawn Snuff Film». Only afterward did I think that that was a wonderful euphemism/reference to killing gnomes, too. But alas, it still didn't have that je ne sais oomph.

A few days later, we were discussing an upcoming Kara run for Team Fire Engine, and I was telling Zach that I wasn't sure if there was a conflict between running that evening between that and the CCC run for KZ where Lucy heals. "Don't make me take back the tiger...," he joked on vent. My response was "zomg, jungle cat repo!"

And so «Jungle Cat Repo» was born. Orange tabard. White kitty on it. Life is good. Some people leave their folks to start a raiding guild. I left mine to make a riding guild.

You've Got Mail!

While I'd rarely kept many secrets about decrying the paladin class, in general, throughout my WoW career, it had always fascinated me to see to what "depths" Holy pallies would "descend" just to get +Healing gear. Pallies in cloth and leather weren't uncommon, and since they were unavailable to the Alliance, shaman weren't ever a factor, so when there'd be a random piece of +Heal chain mail dropped, it was as good as the paladin's that wanted it. But for someone that could wear all four armor classes, if they weren't wearing the highest, then that cloth or leather piece was obviously ill-gotten. Made me want to grab them by the metaphorical lapels and slam them up against a locker. You know, get all Jack Bauer on them: "Who was the poor druid or priest that was gypped out of their healing gear, just so you could feel adequate, Warrior of Light???" As I leveled Echuta through The Burning Crusade, I remember a litany of swear words whenever I'd go to turn in a long quest chain that culminated in a group quest where the reward was hidden from sight- (tucked neatly away into 3 more steps of the chain which were rarely more than standing right where you were and talking to the same guy again and again)- and finding that the reward for plate wearers was +dmg/healing, rather than strength, stamina, or defense. Once I began to level Lucy, and Outland became more and more of a realistic destination, I vowed never to become THAT pally- the one in the back with all the scavenged gear. I knew for a fact that there was more than enough +dmg plate out there that there'd never be a need to downrank my armor class.

And I was right. From a certain point of view.

It looks like Blizzard overcompensated for the fact that you don't really find any +spell dmg/healing plate until lvl 60 in WoW 1.0. What they neglected to do, however, is supplement that with straight +healing plate at level 70. I mention all of this because Lucy got her first two epics in Karazhan, the other night. They were both Restoration shaman drops- chain mail. I had to make the decision of whether or not I was going to violate my stern paladin principles (LOLZ) and become THAT paladin. We had 4 priests, so they certainly couldn't use them, and they were clear and present upgrades over the green "of Healing" pieces that I had. Maulgar, the other night, proved to me that AC hardly matters in the healing world, because I was still getting Pyroblast one-shot by one of the ogres, plate-be damned. Might as well take the upgrades any way I can get them, at that point.

It dawned on me, though, that while it was easy to hate on the pallies in a general, prejudicial sense, I never stopped to think about what you do when you're forced with the realization that just because you might love healing with this class, that doesn't mean that Blizzard is going to play nice with drops for your particular class. The more I've looked into it, the more I realize that the only specs that got shafted more than the Holy paladins in the pre-expansion world were the Retribution and Protection ones. All of the +dmg plate you see once you arrive in Outland is Blizz making amends to not giving the players of the class the tools they needed to succeed.

Put a tiger in your tank

So we're working on some quests the other night, and I say to Zach, "You know, there's no reason why we don't go into Zul'Gurub every few days and farm the hell out of Tiger and G'hazranka to get the mount and the turtle book." He decides that that's precisely what we ought to do, so we take 16 people (all but 2 70s) in and raze the place. Bat goes down in a minute and a half, Snake's adds get AoE'd down while Thay tanks him in the corner. Spider's webs are resisted by most everyone, and we tear her a new one. Bloodlord was interestingly tough (comparably) but he got clobbered, too. Panther got the luxury of vanishing once, and then it was lights out. Ghaz'ranka had no turtle book, but he knows no pain, now.

Jin'do needed a second attempt, but everyone was cool with the fight once they saw the mechanic behind it all. It would've been nice to have done that back, before TBC, but the thumb-sucking set wouldn't hear of preparing for the fight and working up a targeting macro to hit the Shades, totems, and then Jin'do. (Granted, we didn't do that this time, either- but then again, superior firepower cures a multitude of sins). Even Hakkar only got through 2 life drains, and then that was all she wrote for ZG.

Oh.

Wait.

What about Tiger?

That's right. That one went a little sketchy, thanks to the fact that we let Lor'Khan get off a heal just as we were bringing everyone together to be dropped at once. Somehow we got her back down from 50%+ within the time limit, but Thekal got rocked, and when the smoke cleared, the Swift Zulian Tiger was left in the rubble. I've seen 2 on our server. The first was the one stolen from Cicle by Paradoxmage, and I just saw a gnome on one, not long ago. As with all drops, we passed then rolled. Alusara started the rolls with a 96. Hell yeah, Blood Elf on a tiger.

/bask

I am now the John Madden of Outland. I'm not flying anywhere I don't have to, and even then, you've gotta spike my milkshake like they did Mr. T on The A-Team. I'm going everywhere I can at sea level, now.

Think Pink

Well, after quite a bit of a break from blogging, (and even a short one from the game), it's time to come back with another WoW update. Two and half weeks into TBC, Echuta hit 70. After that, the Trolls and I worked on getting our Karazhan keys, and thanks to what many in the game have dubbed "The Karazhan Effect," after fits and starts at getting a competent group together, many of us promptly stalled out in our interest in the game. Not totally, mind you. No, rather it was more of a misplacing of the drive that has been pushing to play Warcraft to the exclusion of every other game out there. In the interim, those of us in the Troll Patrol rolled alts. Blood Elves, specifically, and although I have no idea what possessed me to do it, in addition to Ysalamiri (warlock), and Sacrosanque (priest), I also decided I was going to force myself to find out what the fracking big deal was about playing a paladin. Thusly, Alusara was born.

The reason I say "force myself" is because if you are anything like me, you know how absolutely infuriating it can be to face a paladin in PvP. (This is assuming, of course, that you have the sense that God gave a goose, and play Horde. By now, even if you are one of those filthy heathens on the other side, you have run into a Blood Elf or two wearing plate, and know exactly how it feels to get hit with that goddamned hammer of justice. Suck it, Trebek). As I began to level Lucy, I came to the conclusion that it was not the class that I despised, but rather the way that people played it that made them the focus of my wrath. Dwarf paladins, specifically, I found are the most brazen cowards in the game. That's not to say that I haven't shielded myself when low on health in a BG, then healed myself up to full, but I've spent enough time as a warrior and a mage in the battlegrounds to know that dying is an inevitability, and it only means you get all your mana back. My expectations for myself were extremely low, given the fact that heretofore I'd never leveled a healing class higher than 23. (RIP Islero).

The intention in the back of my mind all this time has been to spec Lucy for healing. This is sort of a gimme, since Echuta is my tank and Amp is my DPS/PvP character. That said, though, I've always wondered what a paladin could do when they were spec'd for tanking and placed in the hands of a capable tank. I realized that I could sit around and play theorycraft all day, but wasn't ever going to get an answer to my liking until I did it myself. It's the very same question I've always had about a feral druid, but even I'm not masochistic enough to go through that massive suck-fest to try. Nexu lived to see bear form and level 11, but that 10 minute flight from Moonglade to TB has got to go!

Flash forward two months from the start of the characters, and Alusara, Lilsqueak, Icindra and Kroln are now 70. (The cow is an honorary Blood Elf, and Lollipopman is quickly en route to the level cap, athough Ythia is there now. Overachiever). Lucy's /played to 70 was 14 days, 16 hours on the nose, pretty much. I don't know Echuta and Amp's times exactly, but I do believe that that was about 2 days less than 'Chutes' ding 60 and only slightly longer than Amp's. But to 70. I know that it was just over 9 days to 60 with her. That was a new personal record. At any rate, we cruised straight to the top with them, only pausing briefly for a few instances and some of the must-have gear pieces, but other than that, never darkened an instance door after Zul'Farrak till Hellfire Ramparts. Knowing how unbelievable the gear was in Outland, it was in our best interest just to quest grind to 58, and hit the Portal running as soon as we dinged.

It was at approximately 68 that the doldrums hit. The 2.1 patch noted had been out for several weeks and it seemed that much of the malaise that had hit the game from the onset of version 2.0 until the release of The Burning Crusade was back, in microcosm. The forgiveness curve seemed a bit too steep for the heroics, and the issue of a 7 day lockout on Karazhan threw all manner of logistical nightmares into the usually fluid group formation within TPP. (Many of those woes are still being expressed, mind you, but after a healthy dose of the officers urging the less proactive members of the guild to be the answer to their own, fervent prayers, it seems to have died down now that everyone sees that the KZ keying process isn't rocket surgery. The BC keying chart is daunting, to be sure, but once you've experienced much of it, it's not nearly as bad as it looks).

Spurred on somewhat by my ravenous consumption of 1UP.com's stable of podcasts, (Legendary Thread, 1UP Yours, GamesThe Sc for Windows, and The Retronauts), I took on the challenge laid out between Luke (The Scarab Lord) Smith and one of the other casters and tossed in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to see how quickly I could defeat the first boss. Luke's time to beat was somewhere along the lines of 21 mins. 19:31 bitches. That scant 20 minutes was enough to whet my appetite for SotN once again, though, and by the time I had to pick up Luke from work, 7 hours later, I had cleared the first castle. The next few days saw me defeat the evil wizard Shaft and the reverse castle, and all was right with the world.

Still not quite ready to deal with the more morose part of endgame (HAHAHAHA), I decided that it was time to go back and check out San Andreas, given the fact that I hadn't ever played it much longer than about two hours. I realize that that admission is the geek equivalent of never having seen Star Wars, but it's hardly like I care. Here's the quick rundown: Halo 2 comes out, and Mel pitches a fit that I'm going to be home to play it the first day. Having a GameFly subscription, I go ahead and make sure that I get San Andreas and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal for the PS2, in the meantime. UYA is such a phenomenal game that I don't really want to play Halo that much, after all. The XBL interface was still buggy as hell, and there wasn't a lot of multiplayer going on. By the time I finished R&C, we were in the midst of buying the house, moving, etc, the holidays, ad nauseum. Mercenaries and Halo 2 were next on the list of stuff to play. Shortly after that, Jason introduced me to WoW, and there you have it.

Long story longer, two and a half years of consistent Warcraft is enough for much of anyone to reach their breaking point and need to come up for air. Now that Memorial Day is finished, and folks' schedules are going to be opening up more, it's easier for us to get a full run in KZ together. Over the holiday weekend, I made +1700g on the AH, and was able to get Echuta's Swift Red Windrider and lvl 300 riding skill. It took burning through every crafting mat I had stockpiled, but at least I'm done with it. So far, it's been worth every red cent. (280% mount speed is screaming). Now to get the money for Lucy's. I have no idea what I'm going to do with Amp for his mount, as his money will go towards her epic training. I'd love to think that the Netherwing mount is reasonably attainable, but these quests are a massive pain in the ass. Daily quests for the block, Chuck. At least it keeps the retards from just grinding it out. It's not a case of Turtle Wax, but as consolation prizes go, it's a nice one.

Hammer and Cycle

Non-WoW Alert!!!

Cycling tip #314

When setting out to ride, turn around BEFORE you get tired. If you wait until you are ALREADY tired, then you are no more than halfway back.

Slash frown.

Victory!

First video card RMAed and received back from eVGA. Here's the beauty- I sent them a 256 Mb GeForce 7900 GT CO (factory overclocked). They don't make that card any longer, so they send me the straight up 7900 GT, but in the 512 Mb variety. Hotness. One down, one to go. It'll just be nice playing WoW without having constantly to go into the Video Options menu and cycle thru turning Triple Buffering and Vertical Sync on and off like some disjointed superstitious ritual. The memory on those 7XXX cards were crap (an eVGA first, I might add), and they eventually would reach a point of total disrepair. Constant tearing, artifacting, crazy background pixelization on your desktop, etc. This new card hadn't come at a better time. It was bad last night, but when I got home this afternoon to start questing in Shadowmoon Valley, I launched WoW.

And the whole damned computer restarted.

I found this to be quite odd. So I launched WoW again. And it black screen restarted. Again. UPS dude got here at 7pm tonight with the new card. Put it in, fired up 3DMark06, ran it a few times to stress test the card, and proceeded to log into Carbonite and clear my mailbox. Warrior needs sleep, badly.