We outnumber the Asshats and don’t you forget it!

I’ve already commented on BBB’s post about how the current wow-holiday is bringing out the worst in people but I thought I’d expand on it here.   Besides, I haven’t had the time to do a post in a while so why not.

From the dictionary:

Main Entry: pa·thet·ic

Pronunciation: \pə-ˈthe-tik\

Function: adjective

1 : having a capacity to move one to either compassionate or contemptuous pity
2 : marked by sorrow or melancholy : sad
3 : pitifully inferior or inadequate <the restaurant’s pathetic service>
4 : absurd, laughable <a pathetic costume>

5: This guy who parked his mammoth mount right on top of one of the Love Is In The Air’s chain questgiver.

Mammoth Asshattery

I’m not going to bother announcing his name to the world because I really do believe it would only make him proud to be recognized.   There was enough /yelling and insults flying at him and his only response was to /yell back “YOUR RAGE FUELS ME“.

Yup, he’s an Asshat alright but you have to wonder; why on earth would you bother to be such a jerk?  With that sort of response, I’m sure he was enjoying the angry riot and drama he had created.

As I mentioned in my comment over at BigBearButt’s, the only positive that came out of this was to see the helpful solutions offered by other players.  As per their advice, <CTRL-V> will reveal everyone’s nameplates and by targeting the nameplate, you will be able to interact with the quest-giver.  And I am sure that due to the advice of the Good Samaritans of Orgrimmar this day, eventually the Asshat got bored of his game and left.  

Yes, the good Samaritans still outnumber the Asshats. Keep his in mind when you come across these holiday fools and other jerks you might have to deal with in this game.  I know I will, if only to help me to ignore them and to ignore the drama they try to create.   Don’t give them the satisfaction of letting them get to you!

A Quick Shout-Out

Just wanted to put a quick shout-out to the “Chaotic Exiles” on Kael’thas.

One of their members, Jiina, had tagged along for some of our Naxx runs nearly a year ago. Every now and then we’d /wave to each other around Dalaran or in Wintergrasp.

Well, she was nice enough to invite Darth as the fifth DPS for an ICC run Tuesday night.  We got Marrowgar down to 112k when he enraged (fight time – 10:29!) and we were no more.  No other attempts were that close.

They were nice enough to take me along for a second attempt last night, even though they could have filled that spot with a guild mate.  Very kind to extend that courtesy, really.  Anyway, we never did get that four-headed jerkhole down, unfortunately.  But we did get to take out Toravon, the new boss in the Vault of Archavon.  WOOT!  (Those orbs are annnoooooying!)

So yeah, again, thanks for bringing me along, especially on the second night when you could have easily switched me out for a guild mate!

It was a lot of fun!
(And now I’ve got some ideers to try for when our guild goes for it!)

Arcane Focus…without the arcane…and focus.

This should have been a Monday post, but the day was far too busy.  And I lacked focus.  Because focus is for chumps.  And for people who know what they want to do.

But that’s where I was this past weekend, as well.  I completely lacked any focus about what I wanted to do with my characters.  Sure, I had a general idea, but I had no plans on how to go about it.

Darthregis - I’m pretty much “maxed” out with him in regards to gear, other than trying to farm EoFs.  I’m far too impatient to worry about that.  (Ie: I won’t spend 48 days straight doing a random just to get the iLevel-264 chest piece.)  But I was gradually gaining the materials to get the Bejewled Wizard’s Bracers to upgrade from some Naxx-25 bracers I’ve had forever.  Fortunately, I finally got all the mats put together and found someone to craft them for me (I don’t have the recipe myself).  Now that the Patch 3.3.2 is getting released today, hopefully I can score some T10 pants and gloves in VoA as I did with my current gloves and pants.

Naturalregis - My goal with him was to get away from stacking so much stamina and getting some more avoidance, primarily through more agility.  I’m not sure if it’s necessarily worth it from a survivability standpoint, but I think it should help overall (maintaining threat, etc.)  Anyway, this was achieved by saving up all my EoTs so I could buy four T9 pieces all at once.  I just couldn’t justify the gear swaps until I could get the set bonuses.  I was sitting at about 25 EoT’s away from that.  With some help from guildies and then some chain-heroics from Chawa, BBB’s horde toon, and a couple of his pals, I managed to get that done. 

Unholyregis - “Wait!  Who the hell is that?” you might ask.  Well, that’s my Death Knight.  I haven’t been doing much with him.  In fact, once he got out of the starter zone, he sat in HFP for a long, long time.  I’d hop on and maybe run some low BC stuff with guildies.  But I’ve dabbled a bit over the last couple of weekends.  Last weekend, I got him up barely to level 66 and got him some heirloom gear (finally).  This weekend I crunched away and got him to level 67 and level 68 (and Northrend) are in clear sight!  The new map/quest tracker system has made questing very efficient for me and with randoms tossed in there as I run through, leveling has been quick.  He now sits in Nagrand getting himself rested up for his next forray into the wilds.  XP bonuses are delicious!  (Much like bacon.)

Trappyregis - “Wait!  Who the hell is that?” you might ask, again.  Well, that’s my baby Hunter.  I quested with him for a good while, early on.  I gave him a break to tinker with a Shaman but that didn’t last because I’ve been in the Barrens too many times.  But I’ve got the heirloom chest and shoulders for both the hunter and shammy (yay enhancement!), but priority is on the hunter.  So I got him from level 40 to level 43 and did some questing with some lowbies in the guild.  We also ventured into Mara Orange and made it pretty far in, but we couldn’t keep up with the bosses being four to six levels higher than people in our group.

Spookyregis - He sat idle.  Poor Warlock.  But he’s reserved for any questing with Chawa’s priest, and as you may have read, she didn’t get much attention either due to Chawa’s other conquests.

The crazy bit is that I managed to get all that done while still doing some errands with Chawa AND getting some PS3 action in there.  Getting close to the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum and got a couple of games in “Be a Pro” mode of NHL ‘09 (I’d like NHL ‘10, but I got ‘09 off a buddy at work).  Yeah, it was a fairly eclectic weekend.  They usually don’t feel so productive.

Now that I’m done all that rambling, I’ve got a few questions for you:

Do you play the game just going with the flow, doing whatever feels right at the time?  Or do you go into the game with specific goals?  Or both?

Okay, I’ll admit it:

I’m dappling with the Loremaster Achievement.

With wowhead’s completion tracker, I can find which zone had the most incomplete quests for Chawa.  If I was in a rush for the achievement, I would have headed straight to Silithus, a zone that I had completely skipped, which has over 100 incomplete quests for me.  That would have been too easy and I’m in no rush.  Besides, I’m sure I’ll end up there at some point…   /sigh of resignation.

I decided to do the incomplete quests that I had left in the zones that will change the most when Cataclysm hits.  This is really the last opportunity to experience these zones in their current state so I might as well take advantage.

For those curious:  Here’s the list of zones that will be forever changed by Cataclysm:

My first stop:  Azshara.  With Wowhead’s list, I randomly picked 3 quests and identified the 3 different quest givers.

The first one bugged out on me.  Reading the comments of the quest to see if I had done something wrong lead me to discover that this particular quest doesn’t even count towards Loremaster.

The second one wanted to send me to the exact place I was trying to avoid, Silithus.

And the third one didn’t give me a quest.  Turns out he’s part of a long quest chain that starts in the Swamp of Sorrows, on the other side of the world.

Lovely….

Well, at least I have a definite starting point.

So long for now Azshara – the most difficult zone to travel through in all of Azeroth!

Cursing Warlocks

I am an amateur at PVP.  I don’t die as much as I used to thanks to the resilience I have gained from my pvp armour set (might as well spend the honour points if you’ve got them) but lets face it, a set of Deadly Gladiator gear does not necessarily make you deadly.

I’m a keyboard turner.  I have pvp trinkets that are supposed to free you from stuns but they never seem to work when I smash them.  I’ve seen many an enemy melee player dance literal circles around me!  And I haven’t bothered to dual spec just to make a pvp spec.  I’m all amateur baby!

Thankfully, Wintergrasp is very friendly to noob-pvpers like myself, who might not know how to survive a one-on-one battle but who do at least know their roles.  On defense, you’ll probably find me in a turret.  On offense, I’ll be shooting them down the guns from below or from atop the tower.  I know that if I see a tree, I should target it.  I really should be improving my playing by going south to help take down the towers or keep them up …..

Anyway, I’m rambling away from my original idea for this post… What I’d like to know is which class is your greatest enemy in the battlegrounds? 

Lately, the one that has given me the most grief is the Warlock class.  In the span of a few seconds, I’ll be cursed and debuffed in 3 to 4 different ways.  Usually, these warlocks are targeting you from above so when you fight back, all they do is scurry back into the fortress for safety, wearing a smug smile on their faces.  Meanwhile, with nothing to target, you’re left watching your health bar fall steadily.  If you’re equipped, and quick enough to remember, you’ll down a health potion that might save you.  If not, you’ll be standing next to a spirit rezer wondering what happened.  Either way, you’ll be cursing warlocks.

I was cursing them bad enough to be motivated to dig up a Hunter PVP class-orientated tactic guide that I know I had seen in one of the many blogs I read.  Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long to find it on Out DPS’s website:  Tricks of the Hunter Trade. 

Unfortunately, I now know that I’m not alone:

3 – Don’t get mad when locks kill you. They counter us harder than anything except paladins.