shadowstepping out through patching chaos

I think I can get Granby to 80 before Cata drops. This would be good news. Im levelling Subtlety spec at the minute, cos it regularly drops a mob in two blows, but you do generate positioning issues by just throwing yourselves into packs. I have only specced Noah Holy at the minute, but hes going to be taking a back seat to my rogues in the race to eightyfive. the more time one spends in stealth, the more one wants to stay in it, and Sublety is really appealing to the coward in me. as long as youre not getting flushed out by hunters, those killing blow credits come steadily your way.
We have six weeks til Cata really, and I think thats more than enough time. Fearwings is going to be fine running survival on Eonar, trapping hard to get the talents working for her, and managing to get enough time to compete in both Battlegroups could well be the only problem. I really don't think I'll get three chars up in the first season, but hey, work might go fallow, and I've always been a light sleeping opportunist...
To get any Honor title is going to take some concentration, and I think I would like the lowly peasant boy of the family to be the one who goes into that hot LZ first. Old man Noah has to at least make second or third rank by the end of the season, and if Fear could get somewhere ranked I would be happy as anything (and clearly have had a lot of time on my hands!).
PvE? well, it will be nice when the ground stops shaking and the dragon walks on stormwind, and obviously any elemental fighting we need to get done in the one off specials will be a blast. I was never happier than in the chain pulling hell of the Wrath events, and am looking forward to the next ones. Only Fear got the Gnome relief achievement, which is a shame, but then there was no challenge to it other than paying attention to Mekkatorque for the ten minute runaround bit - an almost direct copy of the battle for the Undercity, where chasing Varian and watching the heals roll in from Jaina was pretty straightforward if you could spend the twenty minutes required without any RL distractions.
It occurred to me that hitting eighty a week before the Cat drops will be pretty sweet. I have hit 80 four times, and gearing up has been a drawn out process, both enjoyable and frustrating in equal measure. As I've already done that mission with one rogue, Gran's missing nothing - Noah will bust out an 81 starter weapon for him, and we'll crack straight into the new content and quest armour. I do really like 5 mans, so a few dungeon blues could be along too, if I'm ever online to run something with at least one person I know. LFG feels like its not going to be very efficient "Experience per time" on the first of the team to 85. Everything I've read suggest they're making the new ones fiendish in a way we haven't seen for a while, so the faceless "I want everything now" AoE johnnies are going to be a poor show to work with.
So thats the future. Presently my head is still spinning from my first real time out on my new PC with the patch fully running (took me two days to sort out the patch, cos I had to mirror it at work. My bandwidth at home was saying four days download time!!). I did level 55 on Gran, shadowstepping and blowing my new array of short cooldowns thru the western plaguelands. Having done very badly in Wintergrasp with Noah's clownish lowspec healing gear, I faced up to mid fifties Warsong Gulch just hoping for a kill. Fortunately, I got some very sweet ones in before the opposing team decided to really hunt me, and I took out a Death knight in full twink ambush combo mode, like it was the ninieties and we're tearing off heads in Mortal Kombat. Not that I have twinked my rogue in any way, but a one-two crit kill felt like I should be filming it to get ZOMG kudos on youtoob. The rest of the session was pretty good fun, though gaining 0.01 honor per kill was an underwhelming sensation. I appreciate the reasoning behind the currency changes, but its much harder to do maths on the run at the moment. when I've got a better sense of averages it will be fine - a wsg win is worth 30, a loss is worth 10 et cetera - but the thrill of big numbers is definitely gone, and no longer will getting thousands of points in a losing AV seem such an individual triumph. my chat messages dont seem to be playing along either, but thats only a bit of post-patch admin i guess. Crucially I think it requires a less calculating outlook, to just accrue points in a less discriminating manner, and go spend when it seems like you've got a whole bunch, or at the honor cap.

Summertime

I moved house. Brand new gaff, just built in June. 2 weeks in, we discover its got damp problems, and the peace and quiet we moved there for is broken only the sounds of the noisiest fridge on the face of the planet. It didnt have a phoneline installed, so to get the internet we got a USB supermobile broadband thing, and god bless it I can run Warcraft on 2 bars of reception. We may not get a phone line for some time now, depending on what our beleaguered landlord does about the damp issue chewing into his property development dreams, but at least we can surf the usefulness of the internet.
Am at work this week effectively doing nothing. We are slowly working up to a massive exhibition week, but I am mainly manning the phones. I have one casual in, and they are overseeing some people hanging hair in a 17m high atrium void, effectively putting a wig on the box office in the name of art. Yesterday I assisted some glum video artists working out which colour voile they liked projecting tedious graphics through, prior to me spending a series of overnighters next week overseeing an external rigging company putting these voiles up above another foyer space, and then 3 nights of events where the dour woman with a macbook instead of artistry or charisma will project what amounts to "screensavers I have known and loved" in the name of contemporary visual art. They aren't really screensavers but then a few flashing shapes and lines is neither exciting nor dynamic, and thats what the poster describes it as.

In game, apart from getting hella excited about the new expansion, and slowly creeping thru to 50 on my Rogue. I used up my rest bonus to get from 42 to 45 the other day, which was very satisfying, and I have been sloowly levelling an Orc hunter on Eonar and a paladin on Mazrigos. I picked these two servers because I have RL mates there, but I havent seen either of them, so its back to the eternal mission of finding decent PVP and fighting a few epics at 19 bracket. The Orc hunter has got to be where the smart money is for that, but both will be entertaining. Having three or four characters at low level across different servers is quite interesting - they arent competing with each other for resources, as I can't send them gold or heirlooms, and the lowby chatter and density is quite different too. Herbalism has become the go to skill now, as the free heals are just priceless in every scenario. pity I cant bring myself to get a draenai past 30, as then I could have two free heals on the go, and my CD management has improved tenfold across the last 6 months. Noah is even starting to use his wings aggressively in a way he never has before.
The only downside with the dongle is the lag my side is fairly unpredictable, the signal being unconstant. So far I have avoided server side lag zones, but I am still getting major lag in some fights when the bars drop out for a few seconds - not enough to DC, just enough to lose half a fight, or get my button presses stacking up during a fight. The next evening I get some consistency, Im going back to the BGs with Meerschaum and Fear. Creeping around waiting for a kill is so much fun, and I need to balance my questing with something else. random dungeons aren't very appealing in the school holidays, with Halmeplzz the paladin rolling need on everything blah.

Chiefly today I feel like I haven't done any decent work for ages. I have gone a bit stir crazy at home with everything in flux and now I can't get into anything here much because its downtime, and all my rigging and gubbins are pretty much in order. Maybe I'll go find some gizmos I dont understand and do some learning, while there's nobody here to see I've been bluffing some of it... Or maybe I'll drink coffee and read my 40K novel, because its about titans and they are every kind of awesome.

returning from the yukon trail

Tremendous place, America. I've been there for a week, driving hard around the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen in my life, eating the good food, meeting the good people, and generally having an amazing time. I've been back here for a busy few days - doing a big Getout jetlagged, getting trained as a Pyrotechnician, Vegging out over a few beers - and I'm still in the US in my head.
If you're ever in Seattle, go to the Zoo at Point Defiance, because they've got three walrus. Being close to these beasts is amazing, and they respond very well to cameras. Similarly, go to the Aquarium down on the bay, because they've got two big octopus, who don't respond very well to cameras, but they do move around a lot, and look back at you with their very human eyes, thinking their Cthulu thoughts.
If you're ever in Oregon, spend some time at the Coast, but then drive through the cascades in the southern half of the state, and go see the high desert places. I guarantee that in three hours driving you will see the most stunning range of scenery ever, from fifty metre waterfalls, to giant snowbanks and volcanic lakes to endless logging forests. You will then be in the rain shadow of the mountains, dry and warm and very relaxed, eating ribs in an RV park restaurant and wandering what it might take for the Government to let you move here with no particular ambitions other than to come eat the ribs every thursday evening.
What a fortnight its been. It turns out you don't need a license to call yourself a pyrotechnician. "I did not know that!" I've been calling myself a flyman for years, and its largely similar, If youve fired and rigged a lot of pyrotechnic articles, and can prove your experience in the field, you can sell yourself as a pyro firing geek, same as you can call yourself a Flyman if youve bounced a lot of tabs and know more knots than the guys on the deck. Now, Having had a full days instruction on the finer points and fired a lot of minor effects in the past, I'm not about to go changing up my CV to "Tom Tache: Fire in the Hole!" - but it does make you wonder. particularly about the assumptions I feel a broad section of the industry trades under. You ask the majority of technicians about pyro licensing, and I think most would hedge their bets and say yes, Pyro should be rigged and fired by someone with a certificate, particularly once its beyond a certain scale (e.g Disneyland). This is the cautious answer of a technician aware that the governing issue is one of insurance, and also of the technician who doesnt much fancy rigging Pyro above a certain scale and would rather get a specialist company in to do it. This is a fair standpoint, but its good to know that the guys from the companies are no more badge carrying than the rest of us, its merely a question of the practise they have had.

Sometimes it is immensely glamorous and exciting to work for the Royal Opera or the Royal Ballet, or on events like the B a f tas, or the G Q awards, which occasionally happen here. Much of the time it is reasonably humdrum to work on these things, with no surprises and a pleasant level of busy activity, challenges to face down and good company to be enjoyed. today, unfortunately, it is a mixture of glamorous and very dull, watching the cream of britain's teenage ballet dancers rehearse over and over and over again.
I very much wish I was at home, killing bad guys with my hunter, who has been on a rampage this week whenever i have been at home. the idea of seven heroics in a row this time last year would have made my blood run a bit cold, but thats what i did the other night, and I have my tier nine chestpiece as a result (plus a large bag of achievements, which of course only offer you their warm glow of box ticking satisfaction). The thing which has gripped me is that my output of damage with Fear is enormous. The kind of thing that I only put out as a ret paladin when all the cooldowns are blown in my most recently acquired gear, I am putting out all the time with my bow and arrow. I spend more of the instance watching my threat and protecting the healer than I do beating on the bad guy. To have to reign it in much of the time seems counterintuitive to me now, but the only tank I found in all the pugs I ran who could comfortably handle wild threat was a paladin called Raindog. Apart from having a great name, this guy was obviously a bleeding edge 25man maintank who could quite happily have soloed Nexus let alone drag us through it. Most of the others need Misdirection, which is a shame, as I seem to be utterly rubbish at targetting for it! However, I didnt cause a wipe anywhere along the way, and if you have to reign in ferocious power for the sake of the established setup then thats what you do.
I discovered after all these heroics, thanks to a reminder from the lovely people who blog at Hutsmans Lodge, that my Hit rating was way above necessary levels, and therefore my damage could be even more substantial in the same gear! This seems to be the essence of the crazy world of hunters, the harder you look, the more insane damage you can do. I like it! 20,000 crit? no problem. I am very slightly annoyed with myself about this Hit rating problem, as I know perfectly well what my hitcap is, and what the statistic means, and therefore during my switch to SV upon dinging 80, I put talent points into "focused aim" to give me a head start of 3% hit without gear. now, 6 months later, Ive been aiming for 8% hit on gear alone, but had completely forgotten to take the talents out of focussed aim and put them in somewhere high up the SV tree for some more AP goodness. I guess thats the joy of WoW character development (not just on Hunters), the harder you look at anything or the more maths you do, the better you can be, the more you enjoy it, the more you can distinguish yourself and so on. My next challenge in this sense is learning to trap efficiently again. Its something I was very keen on whilst levelling, but this week I seem to have forgotten most of what I was doing and entirely neglected trapping in the PvP I ran. This is, of course, a cardinal sin, and when I return to the mother ship I shall be heading straight for AB with frost trap and snake trap written on the backs of my hands...
One of the main spurs for turning to the Hunter again was discovered during the rather daunting task of learning Druid PvP in the lower brackets. At 19, Druid is king. No question. From 20 to 55, Druid is varying degrees of weak, and hunters are King. I move alright, but it doesn't matter to the Hunters. Basically, I fancied some of that action myself, and was very quickly reminded that that was why I had rolled Fearwings in the first place. I will be persevering with Grimaldi, who is primarily levelling as a pug healer, in order to teach myself the finer points of healing. Things are very much moving in circles, as I levelled Noah as a healer, and did very well at it in Outland, but much of that I have forgotten, so here I am, learning again! It is also fairly clear that as everyone and their auntie has got a paladin on their roster, I fancied having the other all singing, all dancing Hybrid on my roster. Druids, the other white meat:-)

wrong place. wrong time

Totally failed to capitalise on the opening weekend of the new Arena season. Totally and utterly. Work got in the way, the missus got in the way, the massive enjoyment of levelling my horde rogue even got in the way a bit! I did manage to get into an Isle of Conquest with Fearwings, which is the first i've ever seen with the hunter, and it was rewarding because i got to hand in the BG marks quest for the first time:-) I like the look of the new gear, and it shouldn't take us too long to get a full offset at the new, more reasonable honor prices. Still need to do some more PVE with all my mains, as the gear curve has left me wanting, and it would be a shame not to see a bit more wrath content, even if pvp is still a fairly satisfying way to spend my game time. On the plus side, Fear has got her DMC greatness, I do feel moderately competitive in the DPS stakes at least.
On the subject of content, I've gone a bit mad for levelling with the random dungeon finder, definitely inspired by my brother having some marked success with it, and despite the frustration of non committed puggers to complete varying dungeons. I have got Meerschaum, my rogue to 40 in no time, with a rack of achievements and a shedload of gold in the bank. I also cannot believe how profitable herbalism is. I don't think I will level any more characters without herbalism, particularly if they need the readies.

The enjoyable grind...

Hunting the Horde with Fear has got serious now. Its been a bit of a struggle to get the kills together for a month or so, as every other 80 in PvP is tooled up, but where there's a will there's a way, So the Druids are dropping for me now, and I have the resillience to cope with the Kidney Shots (If not the decent escape trinket yet).
The joy of it so far is learning when to move in a hunter manner, dancing and laying traps, getting things to Proc and when to stand still and really wail, with a PvE style rotation as close to microsecond perfect as I can manage. Whilst theres been enough to get stuck into, there's been very few epic battles over christmas, apart from some excellent AB where everyone is shouting for help, and every flag has changed hands about twenty times:) Eye of the Storm has also proven to be slightly interesting, because I can line-of-sight people by standing down the slopes away from the flag buildings, and just fire THROUGH the scenery at them.
Having gone Survival for the chance of a bit of Burst in my 187 blues, My burst is now approaching mental in the good gear, and hopefully will take off when I finally get a useful weapon, hopefully from the ICC 5man dungeons, which I have pugged a little already... Whether I stay SV is another matter, as a Big Chimera is looking tasty for holding down the plate classes, but either way I still have a lot of practising to do before we enter the arena. The goal now is a season 8 weapon in at least one slot, and I still have a way to go with the gladiators raiment:-)
I don't particularly mind how much resillience is required to survive pvp burst damge, as it stands presently. It means you practise a lot, and you have to commit to grinding the gear if PvP is your thing. I liked getting the odd solo kill having just turned 80, purely by moving faster, and making a few deent judgement calls, but I want to be able to run with the best of them and you're no use to a healer, if he's unloading his entire mana bar just to keep you at 50%.

scatterguns

Collect some thoughts, write them down.
Had a slight achievement revival and made Pilgrim in the first 3 days of the festival. Took a break from shooting at things, and slipped back into the paladin shoes. Krakenoah the pilgrim. Tank spec in my PVP gear am now at about 30K unbuffed health. Tiddly by high end standards but still rather thrilling here, and comforting too, when your being shot to bits in your 12k attack-power mail at 75. particularly enjoyed the first day of the festival when all the achievement geeks logged on to get their stuff together. I didnt realise how many people on Nordrassil had got the Insane title. Too many. We may not have any world beating raiders or arena types, but we do have achievement chasing down to a fine art!
Depending on how my time breaks down this weekend, I might have a burst of levelling with Fear, and get to the hallowed 78 mark (at which point I can put on my crafted Resillience outfit, and offer some serious threat in the brackets). Saturday night is the annual Motorhead gig, and next week is the christmas Fitup in my home venue, so the playing I do in the next few days will be my lot for a couple of weeks. I had 3 days fitting up panto in East london last week, so Christmas is here for us in theatreland. Am currently at work purely to provide a ladder for a florist decorating a christmas tree in a foyer. I love these calls. I don't even have to foot the ladder, as I have a Casual in for that. This may be the worst attack of 'Health and Safety' I've seen all year, but its a close call...
Making the switch to a Gaming pad from my regular rather shit keyboard is pretty much done now too. I am developing some decent "twitch" with Fear, although you do have to stand still occasionally on a hunter more than you do on a paladin, I am learning to dance about all over again and loving it. Beastmaster hunting has been excellent through from 10 to 70 in the Battlegrounds, but now I'm having my ass handed to me by survivors and marksmen, so I may have to go back to the drawing board. It is amusing watching people trying to kill my raptor though, and he seems to hold people's attention quite well. I may well get dual spec for Fear, just because I love respeccing so much, and being BM is always going to be attractive for the big pet, but we will see. I was in WSG yesterday, howling down everything I had onto a Paladin, but he wasn't getting even remotely scratched. Now, he was 79 to my 75, but thats just not cricket is it? He was Protection Spec, with two druids backing him up (one of whom I took down, before you ask) and he was actually just invincible. We had a paladin, but he played like a lemon, so it was game over once this Blood Elf took the first flag. Unfortunately, we still played all the way to 25 minutes! Thats how it is in the brackets, and it's been very interesting time spent in them with Fear. At 39 its rogues, at 59 its Death Knights, at 79 its Paladins. Feels like 19 and 29, where a lot of the twinking goes on, is actually quite well balanced (and my apologies go out into the twisting Nether for all those guys watching me be truly bad at being a 19 rogue. Its tougher than it looks!). However, as mentioned above, at 78, I'm going back for his head. Oh, and that blasted Tauren Hunter who was on his team as well.
Have been playing a lot of Magic: the Gathering lately which has been very cool. two of my colleagues here at the house have got into it, and we've uncovered a web of people in their thirties who own cards but never seem to have played the game and are interested now we are! I have a lot of time for sit-down-at-a-table games, I still play a lot of BloodBowl and Space Hulk, as well as Scrabble and Carcassone, so getting back into MTG has been a treat. Last night we sat drinking in the bar at the Royal Festival Hall and played, and if that isn't a good combination of the convivial and the geeky, then I'm not sure what is... We're thinking of starting a league, but running that sort of thing requires a bit more than enthusiasm, so we'll wait and see.