Everyday Adventures of the Journeyman Technician

shadowstepping out through patching chaos

2010-10-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-15T08:19:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-03-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-01-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-25T03:50:00.000-08:00

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.

hunting, going to work, then hunting some more

2009-11-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

I have had a testing week at work, with my rigging skills put under scrutiny, and a large, very blue set to make look as spiffing as possible. In some of my quiet moments, when the talk hasn't been the usual stage mix of taxes, the many times people have hurt themselves, or how big a thing can you lift, I have been thinking a bit about my hunter.
Levelling Fearwings is really good fun after almost 2 solid years as a paladin, with a bag full of paladin tricks, which often feels like the same tricks as anyone else in PVP, cos we're all here aren't we Terry? (and very soon Tauren are going to nail us all to the walls in their holy plate) I’ve rolled Fear to do battle with the Horde, in all of its forms, and in order to see some more of the old world before Cataclysm comes out. I will be levelling a dwarf shaman at some point, post expansion, and It will be nice to compare and contrast, and soak up the lore, of which we can all agree, there is ridiculous amounts.
For some reason, Fear seems to attract vast amounts of attention in the BGs though. Maybe it’s because I tend to jump in and return the flags. I also like to use my hunter bag of tricks to find people to target, and send the pet after them. Flagdragon kills dudes on his own, defending the roof of the base in the Gulch. How galling must that be, not even managing to beat the pet on his own? The excitement of that is worth every 2shot rogue death going. Interestingly, there are rogues who can 2 shot you in every bracket. (Mine has just got to 18, so one of them is going to be me very soon). I prefer “2shot” to “globalled” which is a term people think is interchangeable in blogs at the minute. “Globalled” refers to being killed in the space of one global cooldown, you actually don’t get this problem much outside the top end pvp, I happily get to watch plenty of cooldowns go by whilst I am stunned by targets 3 and 4, unable to do anything in my levelling gear, and my pet away on target 1.

I am now at 63, so deep in the doldrums of not being hard enough to do BG’s, and facing the world of Outland quests. There is an unbelievable amount of things to do in Outland, and I still haven’t managed to get through one of the “Do 90 quests” there yet, and this is my third time through. I seem to be a few levels above a quest chain by the time I complete it, partly because it is easier to just quest out of one hub, not follow the chains from place to place in exclusivity.

My main cause for concern is that I have been in a queue for AV every time I log on, for the whole of my playtime since 55, but not once has a match started. I am looking forward to AV, and getting some badges, and capping a few towers and running about, but apparently this isn’t for people in their 50’s and 60’s. I guess people want to run WSG for the quicker return on their investment. An HK is an HK, and sentinel’s medallions and swift runner’s weapons are a thing of joy. Who wants to be stood in a draughty tower in some snowbound valley when they can be tucked up nice and warm in a cosy flagroom with your mates?

On tanking and hunting and the march to Cataclysm

2009-10-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

Huge relief to do okay last night, tanking on my main, and kill Archavon the Stone Watcher, by far my favourite "lore" character in the game.
I really enjoy the archavon fight, and its the only raid fight I've tanked before (so that's handy), and we killed him, even with our comedy DPS totals. My threat with Noah is massive compared to Lohengrin, and their gear is of a similar standard, so I think I will pursue tanking with both characters for the time being.
As my partner has found a good chunk of work on a show for the next 12 weeks, I will hopefully have quite a few more evenings to sort out dungeon runs on. With the plethora of stuff I am enjoying in game at the moment, I am quite looking forward to the autumn! Apart from getting stuck into more 5mans, Noah is now very comprehensively geared for pvp, having finally replaced my spiked titanium helm with the 213pvp version, so Battleground achievements are "on notice". Lohengrin is slowly finishing off Northrend quest achievements and running Wintergrasp for his pvp starter kit, and tanking bits and pieces for fun. Fear is barreling up to 40 and a fast mount, and really enjoying low levels Arathi Basin. Hunters completely rule in BGs, and it is easy to take charge of situations in the brackets before multiple pvp trinkets, with a fast Raptor and traps on every cooldown.
I think I might shell out to change fear's name. It was kind of funny at the time to have a silly pvp name. Going into BGs everyday, you get used to seeing names that are supposed to be dramatic sounding and slightly related to the mechanics of the game, things like painhammer or tremorkill, and I thought I would just go with the flow of that. I was also trying to think of something a little native american in etymological terms, but now it just looks a bit silly, and eventually I will probably spend a lot of time with this character, trying to nail casters in Eye of the Storm and Warsong, so I might change it now. I was tempted to name her after something theatrical again (I'm still absurdly pleased with Loh after all). On another realm I've rolled a pala called Chekhov, which could be contrived as a bit silly too, but is more ordinary sounding on a european battlegroup and maybe not as childish. It seemd perfect, when faced with the prospect of levelling pala again to be named after someone who wrote tedious one trick plays, as judgement and autoattack is easily as boring as the post imperial malaise of the russian hinterlands.
Another notable thing about Fearwings is that the plan was to have a flying pet for pvp in endgame (a big red bat from the plaguelands) and the Wings bit referred to that for me, but levelling with a raptor this part is lost...
On the subject of shelling out, Our tedious friends in Orange chat are now all about rerolling Horde, as paid faction change has gone live. It was interesting to discover that a few of our top Arena guys on Nord have gone Horde to make getting 2200 ratings far easier, but it all seems a bit silly to me. If you faction change on Nordrassil, you're going to be facing alliance BG teams from different servers, most of which, the armory will tell you, are doing quite well on the horde killing front, and have arena teams doing much better than us, which indicates guilds and premades who are going to kick your ass. As rated Battlegrounds are going to make a serious impact on who and where you fight next year, It seems daft to swap your pala to Blood Elf now.
Currently, I have it very vaguely in mind to switch Fear to another faction or server post Cataclysm. Partly for the experience, and partly because the last thing my guild really needs is another Hunter. Come Cataclysm, I hope to have my tanking house in order, in important ways that I really didn't when Wrath came out (and don't now, particularly where my control surface is concerned). Everyone will be taking a back seat to Noah for a few months at least, as we've got some speedy levelling to get done and hopefully some new pools to fish:-)

rambling business (unedited)

2009-09-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

I just got paid. I went to see District 9, we had sushi for lunch, I bought not one but two new drills, and the latest Clutch album. Not a bad days work! This evening, whilst waiting for the show to finish, I've been reading Zardoz' WOW datamining blog, which has all sorts of interesting statistics culled from the WoW armoury, including which professions Blood Elves find most popular, and exactly which hunter pets are the most popular. I've learned that at patch 3.1, death knights were the most popular character, followed by paladins, while warlocks were least popular, followed by rogues. this is a bit mental really, and I'm sure that this balance changes all the time, and is probably changing as we speak. I guess I find it mental because when I first rolled pala, there wasn't that many of us around, and it seemd like everyone was a rogue. I gather that when WoW first came out, everyone rolled hunters, because they were prevalent in the advertising, and warriors, because, hell, warriors kick ass in every other game.
On Nordrassil, it seems like there is plenty of everything. If someone had asked me to hazard a guess at the least popular class, I would have said Warlock, but mostly because I think they are a bit of a pain to level, and its rare that a good one will show up in an alliance BG. A few Horde ones show up, but It feels like they're in a minority, and their channeling spells are very annoying, but not all that common a killing blow for me.
This week, I am starting to level the Hunter in some earnest, and enjoying it enormously. mid twenties and going strong, but you can get to the mid 20s blindfold these days. I hope to invest some time in running AB at the 29 bracket, it will be a good exercise in panic and CC rotations, and be something of a break from the fedexing around azeroth that I am currently doing. I have a wolf and a crab in the stable, and both are ace. I am trying to complete ach's as I go, fishing, cooking, exploring and pvp, so that I don't have to wander about when he is an 80 to get a respectable ach total. It is also adding another dimension to experience gain, and I hope to establish a kind of ach level for myself every few xp levels. For example, if you can have 200 points at 18-20, is it reasonable to double that by 30? (probably doable in exploration alone) or treble it? if you then treble it, then does that expansion curve continue? as more battlegrounds open up to you, more prof and dungeon ach's appear too.
Further questions arise from this thought process. Does keeping up with these give you an efficient framework for levelling too? by having to explore an area as soon as you are feasibly able too, do you find all the quests more efficiently, or are you likely to cover the ground more needlessly than just going about your business? If you're rolling BGs throughout the levelling process, does rolling enough of them to gain the easy ach's mean you have rolled enough to get the useful honor gear too? maybe. I suspect my answer to the last question is going to be keep the honor for 50 to 59 bracket, which is probably going to be the most boring, and I may have to get stuck into AV at 56,57 in order to avoid a lot of eastern plaguelands chaos. I spent far too much time there on Noah, and i just don't like it now, unless there's a scourge invasion going on:-)
In other news, we went into Trial of the Crusader the other day and after abandoning heroic mode, we did alright. It felt like my damage output sucked, being inconsistent beyond belief. (I still don't subscribe to recount, as I don't think I need any more excuses for changing my setups every few days) for the first fifteen minutes of attempts I was just trying to get back into PVE rotations, and trying to get my omen off my bars ( I recently moved all my bars up into centre of the screen, and kind of forgot about Omen in the BG focussed rejig). I can churn out damage alright, and my CDs were going well, but my positioning was shit, and therefore when i was connecting I was stealing threat or on the front of the boss, and when I wasn't connecting, I was of no real use. It panned out a bit after a short while, but then we were more or less done, as its such a short instance. I did really enjoy dpsing in an instance, and would kill to do more of it, particularly with friends, but I should spend a bit of time at the dummy getting my twitches in order, and not automatically flicking to anti cc spells, pointlessly self healing, or watching my buddies for shields and cleanses:-)

On Spec

2009-09-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

I will not mention fishing or levelling a warrior for no purpose in this post. I seem to mention it in all of them:-) I will mention Achievements, but then I like using them as yardsticks, in moderation.
Its time for my fortnightly experiment with talent specs. This weeks challenge, to get some burst going on with a survival based Protection spec in the BGs (for the express purpose of disarming bombs and gate fighting in IOC) and to build an arena, general purpose pvp spec for Lohengrin. Now I've got the Deadly Shoulders for it, its time to get some CC going on, some ghoul Stun maybe, and some general survival in the mix.

With Lohengrin, He's a blood presence kind of guy. It's like you're always judging Light in Blood presence, with regular green numbers appearing alongside the purple ones, and for me, this is working well in the tank setting. Heal per second for free, alongside the Damage per second is equalling useful threat per second. However, For PVP we need Damage over time, and a slack handful of suppression skills. I need to slow you down and keep constant damage going, not just hit you hard enough every ten seconds to keep your attention, I need to stop you, kill you, silence your mate, kill your other mate and distract his mate with my pet. Then do it again with very litle downtime, preferably stoping only to /flex.
In my blood spec, which is tank orientated, but will suffice for PVE damage output, I can hit you hard once or twice quite quick, stop you only once and If I'm lucky, get a disease up on you before I am silenced or stunned with semi-permanence. As a Death Knight with very few debuff removal tools, I am not going to win the melee game that a Paladin or a warrior might win (the first with the array of shield utility and proper self-healing, the second with berserker stance and multiple stuns and interrupts) so I need to slow you down and only come in to hit you with the situation in my favour; you moving slower, preferably with a pet on you, and my diseases, not only applied by means other than direct strike, but hitting harder for each tick (everyone's ressed up to the eyeballs these days aren't they?)
This all sounds good, and without going into individual talents, it seems Unholy is going to strengthen my pets and diseases quite a bit, and frost is going to make everyone move a lot slower for me.
I am not overly fond of having a ghoul to worry about (or at least I wasn't when levelling), but this is where I hope to make some use of macros in order to get the slime ball doing his work more efficiently. Having ghoul Leap and stun macro-ed together has got to be good for a laugh at the very least, “You, yes you over there! Stop casting and have some Leftoversgobbler for your trouble!”
We will see how this all works out. I like to mix things up a bit to see what we learn, and having never spent any time specced Unholy, it will at least be interesting to be move and cast quicker.

For Noah’s protection spec, it gets back to the idea of the PVP tank. There is a mistaken hope that survivability will actually triumph over all, partly based on how well Druids keep themselves up (and shamans too in my own travels). I believe this is mistaken because while its all very well to keep yourself up, while you're doing so, you're not keeping as many of your buddies up, and you're not really putting out a lot of damage. the odd Wrath in between heals is not much of a contribution in BGs, and half the time you may have been more useful chucking out damage and walking back from the graveyard same as the rest of us. Now, I appreciate having an opponent you just can't kill is a frustrating and demoralising experience, and being that tree or undead priest is a fun way to spend your afternoon, but unless you're a very good player, who can mix it up a bit and move very well, it feels very limited. The first mistake or series of spell misses you make, you're dead.
So, I am not going to be tank shaped for a theoretical survivability against players. I am mostly going to be tank for the very frequent Hammer of Justice stun, the ranged punch of Avengers Frisbee (or whatever it’s called) and to soak up the AOE vehicle damage floating around. The noisy cleave is going to be fairly useful too, and the overall "effective health" is going to of be benefit where there are healers for the inevitable end sequence castle defence. I will still have Hand of Freedom, and pursuit of Justice, but the downside of this spec will be losing Ret's Repentance, which is truly excellent when you can get it off where they actually aren't expecting it, but then this is a spec with a purpose, and I could always go back to the Hybrid BG spec for regular fun and games. On the whole, I don't really ever do exactly the same thing in any Battleground twice in a row. Depending on raid composition, Its nice to be able to heal when there's lots of melee on side, and melee when there are healers. On days where I'm spectacularly ham-fisted, it's nice to sit in a turret gun and lead Tauren:)
Having dual specs is excellent, as I was changing specs every few days before. To be able to experiment with different stuff in PVP, but still have a go-to Spec for Ret, should someone need me to, is ace. I have a very respectable Ret set in both raid stuff and horde beating stuff, and I spend enough time in a Divine Storm for things to be straightforward to switch to.

As I'm an achievements fan, I may also use having a tank spec for going back and completing a few BC dungeons. I haven't really had time enough spare for this type of thing recently, and completism isn't something I worry about, but I do feel that having come so far on Noah, and being quite a high achiever as it is, with all the profs, cooking and event ach's, maybe he should complete explorer and the old dungeonmasters and push for 4k. I'm in the top 10 of Lord's acheivers, why not consolidate that? Without any serious dungeon ach's under my belt, that’s not bad. My current favourite achievement? Isle of Conquest All Star. Far easier than any of the other "All Stars" but hell, it counts, and I got it in the BG I set out to get it in. For The Alliance!

new experiences and pointless Loquacity

2009-09-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

Bang! Back to tanking with a vengeance last night. A slightly mental run round Utgarde Pinnacle on heroic, with about 8 wipes in total, and a half an hour exploration of the Eagle's Eye harpoon fight. I say run, it took 2 and a half hours. I am determined to press on with Death Knight tanking, as the numbers make sense more than paladin tanking for me, but I am not getting my rotation right consistently yet, and Death and Decay is the most annoying spell to cast, ever (the last thing I want to do whilst doing everything else is have to mouse click on the ground).
There are some glimmers of light here, as when it comes off, its fine, and single target stuff is easy enough. I think of single target threat maintenance as Tanking 101, and I'm about ready to qualify there. I also have made some headway with macros for the first time, and I kind of understand how all the spells work together, which I still scratch my head a little over with Pala tanking. Getting gear without doing Pugs has been fine (although I don’t excuse this antisocial behaviour), and I enjoy running around doing dailies with Loh, looking at quests with fresh eyes, and not feeling the "Paladin envy" I do with Noah. Practise will definitely make perfect here, and I hope to be able to tank more often as my reactions improve. onwards and upwards.
Inevitably, I am starting to build a PVP set with Loh, and have the start of the Gladiator gear. I got quite gripped with the notion of being "Lohengrin of the alliance" before the Cataclysm Expanson comes out, but this seems a bit far fetched really and I won't be pursuing it. I am absurdly pleased with 10K honor kills on the paladin, and doing that whole thing another 9 times, even with it getting easier through repetition, feels like a marathon that isn't worth running for its own sake. I will press for further PVP achievements, as nothing feels quite as good as getting those ones, but I will not be grinding HKs purely for the sake of it. I got “Capture the Flag” on my mage 2 days ago, and I did a victory lap of the flat it was such an unlikely thing to happen.
I leave that to guys like Xfolif. Nordrassil has its celebrity idiots, as well as its heroes, particularly where PVP is concerned. This guy is a paladin, playing mostly in protection spec, who has the "of the Alliance" title. He also has the worst case of verbal diarrhoea I have ever seen. It seemed particularly bad when Isle of Conquest was in its Honeymoon fortnight, with this guy giving it large in nearly every fight, at all times of day, on why the Alliance were so bad, why no one would ever do well, and why they should be listening to him. Now, I don’t really mind the Armchair generals, and guys who get frustrated because they think someone ought to be giving orders, and Hey, it might as well be them don’t strictly bother me. But Xfo would give it large on a premade, and always from the comfort of a stage left turret gun. He had a favourite armchair, even for his avatar. I have been in all the Battlegrounds with this guy now, and it always seems the same. Now, he must have worked a bit to get the 100,000 Kills, and had his fair share of BG blues, listening to others moaning on, but enough is enough really. I would quite like to interview him outside a BG setting, to see if I can get any sense out of the guy, to explain his contradictory motivations. He obviously wants to do well in BGs, but he undermines the slender starting confidence of every side he is ever in. Maybe I’ll try to talk to him.
I had another good example of pointless loquacity last night. Its about 1am server time, and I went into WSG on my 19 hunter, mostly for a bit of variety (we’re in hunter levelling central presently, with Heirloom shoulders full of win). Now, as traditional in the small hours, 19 bracket WSG is going on for lots of people, but not here, alliance side in the Raserai/Frenzy Battlegroup. There’s 4 of us versus 10 of them. Ah well, jump in, get some kills, run about for less than 10 minutes while they pull flags, no one’s really hurt, and the experience is still worthwhile. Unfortunately, this isn’t good enough for Hellscream warrior of the month, who bemoans that we are all rubbish, we aren’t working together, and because he hasn’t played his twink in 6 months he cannot singlehandedly win this. This guy is probably under the age of 15, but it still seems excessive, particularly as his last comment is along the lines of “your silence tells all” as no one else has bothered to respond to his meaningless diatribe. Honestly mate, move on, if you don’t wish to take your 15 minutes down time, then don’t type, just Kill. Experiment, go play hide and seek, try and play healer with bandages, anything. But please stop typing.
I am venting spleen myself now, but I would rather it was here where no one really minds (sat at work with nothing to do), than in orange or beige chat. On the flipside of doing a lot of BGs, you do get to meet some real heroes, and witness a few really great players in action. Topping the Nordrassil Arena rankings last season were guys from Gauntlet and NVM CLEAVE, and dudes like Bodymaster are really good to watch in Wintergrasp, if you can keep up next to them for a bit before you get drilled by people looking for an easier target! Early this week, we won a Wintergrasp in the afternoon in fairly organised style (northwest corner with tanks from west works every damn time, if you ask me) and one of the cleave teams who got Frost Wyrms for their efforts were sitting them on the steps of the fort, whilst the VOA Yukon goldrush was going on. “Respect to you!” As big hearted Caribbean sauce entrepreneur Levi Roots might say, were he in the position to comment on Warcraft arena ability, and particularly if he understood the paucity of talent apparently available on Nordrassil. That last sentiment is unfortunately backed up by the stats. Nord’s Arena rankings at the end of the last season showed only 3 or four alliance teams in every bracket. I take heart however, that those teams are in the top 10 of the rankings. Hope and high fives all round.
I seem a bit preoccupied with numbers today. Ninety percent of the time, I just really enjoy the scenery, and revel in each new bit of gear, and punch the air with every killing blow (particularly, if your Blood Elf, or a warlock, or any fight where it’s completely one on one!) I have the 1000 fish caught Ach on three characters (one of whom, my warrior has reached the late forties, but won’t ever get serious playtime now – “with all these melee dps you are truly spoiling us, ambassador”), but, having given this charming sub game time-filler a bit a bit of a break, have enjoyed fishing pools with my hunter this week (still hoping they make Scavenger a title…).
To close this post, I would like to give a few shout outs (in the style of Suggs looky likey hard man Tim Westwood, perhaps) to the Nordrassil guys who got the Celestial Defender “Realm first” this week. I really like the realmwide announcement when these things happen; the best one of which was first to 80 in that mental week after Wrath came out. Here’s to more of these before Cataclysm, and obviously when that gets here. My other shout out is to any guild mates who have to put up with me being a learner tank, or the “you are currently in spectator mode” paladin in any group setting. Many thanks, with love from the bottom of my pond.

From the "Loggia" At S+4...

2009-06-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

Another evening sat in the catacombs at Butlins Covent Garden. Tonight, I've so far discovered that its now impossible to buy a coffee in this locale after 9pm, and that I should have brought my own (they took away our machine recently). I could buy a cold beer in any number of nearby locations, as my last ten years bank statements will testify, but this doesn't help in the staying awake, taking care of business stakes...
I have also discovered how to use the terribly clever electric flying system (tm) I spend half my life using in a more efficient way, and it doesnt surprise me in the slightest that I have been using it cackhandedly for the past 18 months. The control surface is the least intuitive thing ever invented, and would test the patience of Job. I have still been better at this gubbins than my colleagues through persistence, now I'm just going to make the flown scenery do magic tricks and pour the drinks. I go into large Fit Up mode the day after tomorrow, so we will see how this new knowledge pays off then.
Having settled for warm coca cola after a brief smoke on the terrace, all is well here. Covent Garden Piazza when there's nobody there is pretty special, and the clear sky is very good. the "heat wave" we have been experiencing is taking its bow, and hopefully it'll settle down to something pleasant for working in. Today we walked from Canary wharf all the way home, in order to look at some of the old river buildings from the industrial past. It took 3 hours, including stopping to admire the view a lot, and have chips outside the marine police headquarters in Wapping. I need to do more of this business I think, as this city seems to be changing all the time, and you never know what you're going to see.
Earlier this evening I was having a pretty good time in WSG where a few weeks patience is paying off in the 19 bracket, and minor celebrity status beckons (It would appear there aren't that many mages who bother to play regularly or tool up). Not quite the celebrity afforded hunters like Silks of Hellscream, who is truly incredible, and has WSG nailed, or in fact any of the other members of his guild The Borg, who I have seen in action. I feel a bit like Louis Theroux or Michael Palin on my travels through the world of Twinkcraft. Wandering through, bemused that there's all these long term guys, really avid about what they're doing; and hosts of wannabes, guys who go in at level ten to start getting honour, and are more at home in the battleground than anywhere else. I can't believe there are players levelling a character to nineteen, and then getting the Diplomat title on that character. I don't know how you do that, but I've now seen it (I guess you just buy all the repeat quest items, for weeks). I've seen quite a few Nobles too, which I thought was good going initially, but then it turns out its just a de rigeur title to have. The philosophy seems to be that if something is possible at nineteen, you should have achieved it, whether it has a bearing on your crit rating or not. It is not viewed as an exploit, nor a cheat, it is merely a wierd exploration of what the game has to offer, by people who like the cultish status this devotion to detail affords you. Its a substrata of the game mined out by nerds, for nerds, and as such, its very appealing!
in other news, Pvp with the paladin got a little stale at the weekend, although I was in a clumsy mood all day saturday, and the AV I got stuck into Sunday was a silver lining on the cloud. 2 wins in quick succession, with me taking 2 graveyards, which was unusually proactive when there were so many melee to heal. Another slice of fried gold was winning my first duel. Then my second duel, then losing the third, then winning the fourth and losing duels five, six and seven in order to learn a bit about whats happening, and demonstrate how easy druids make it look! I almost manage to look good at Retribution, I do know the order of things, but I'm chronically slow with my reactions after certain spells, and frankly I deserve all the pastings I get. My thanks to Etharil for the lesson:-) Interestingly, I wasn't wearing any of my gladiator gear at the time, and it only furthered my disillusionment with wearing all pvp gear. My attack power is dangerously low in that stuff, and while the Crit is moderate, and the Resillience is obviously lovely, what's the point if you can't punch half as hard as your raiding set? As for the healer kit, I am happy with it, as the survivablility is crucial, and the Spell power and output is reasonable. There's also class specific set bonuses to improve things. Maybe repeating the dueling exercise in the other set would provide a useful illustration of the differences. Particularly if someone crafts me an anti-cyclone hat...
I have gained 2 levels on the mid 30s Warrior too over the weekend, but its softly softly there, as he is only really for fun and games. the "Charge" never gets old, and as a herbalist with an extra HoT and lots of healing potions, I just melee from one end of Arathi Highlands to the other, barely pausing for breath. He's also cooking and fishing king, supplying the mage, and finding interesting things to AH, like dumb recipes for completists, and odd mats. I levelled this guy to artisan fishing before I got there with Noah, so Fishing is just part of the character, in the unconscious Roleplayer state I tend to view them. Untrue to my own words, I havent done any instances with this guy, and I don't think I will get around to it either. my rotation is still very hit and miss, and I keep changing my mind about spec and rage management. I guess I should look up the cookie cutter levelling guide, like the one on Tankspot I remember reading ages ago, but I can't be bothered. He's still caining the raptors, so I don't mind if he's a bit slower than the average.

10/18 and all's clean...

2009-05-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

Setting off for Stranglethorn Vale over the next few weeks. Am working night shifts, so Ive got ample opportunity to plan a few things, like levelling my alts more efficiently (i.e, working out what levels I can get decent crafted gear at beforehand, what zones to stop and catch up on fishing, etc), and getting the fishing hat for the teenage (rampage) mage.

I do shed loads of fishing. I love it. Theres nothing like winding down with a bit of fishing. I like real life fishing, but as the Thames in central London is a tricky river to fish safely, Wow is a good second. Put the radio on, open the Red Stripe or get a coffee, and just fly from pool to pool. from Dal to Sholazar, then Harold Lanes pond in Borean, then Grizlly Hills. In an hour, youll have more fish feast than you could get through on a host of wipes. And plenty of Salmon for your healers is always nice.
I don't do shed loads of dailies. I can't bring myself to lately. I read plenty of gear about the average income and gains on doing 10 dailies, or doing the whole of the argent tournament fandango, but I just can't get into it. Ive only got exalted with the Oracles, and that was because I liked the business with the 7 day egg and killing hordes of bad racoons with Consecrate and Gemstones.

The new outfit option that Blizz has built is very good. Its pleasing to have one less thing to update. Its only Bartender 4 that's really game changing for me now. The AH is fairly obvious without auctioneer, and Omen is merely icing on Blizzards own cake. I should download the Boss mods, but my laptop is struggling with the improved graphics of Wrath, so I'll leave it to those with towers and big screens to call the routes and manouevres. on this front, I'm not PvE orientated by dint of my RL schedule, but it is good to get in the 10man team and hand out a little justice to a target that isnt trying to run around you in a circle.

Have just discovered a new blog about Retribution Paladins in PVP. Its by some guy called Hofflerand, and its awesome. Truly everything you ever wanted to know about why Rets do what they do, mostly in their smug Blood Elf way. I will link it here later. Its amazing, an arena junkie writing really well, from the very top of the table in season 6. This guy makes you want to hang up your hammer, even more than the other melee classes (apart from you, warriors) already do.

Old-school BattleGround fun and games

2009-05-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

Its time to put fingers to keyboard again as I've got Battle Grounds on my mind. I wrote about Strand of the Ancients when it was fresh and new, and I am a little sad that I havent really kept up with current thinking on that theatre of war, as I have been on something of an odyssey involving the other ones.
My favourite BG at the present time is Arathi Basin, and I have finally made it to friendly with the league of Arathor, which seems (bizarrely) like something of a milestone, even though it affects nothing at the moment. I have the easy achievements for all the BGs now, and am working on AB and WSG quite a bit, trying to get to the minutiae of the tactics involved. The Basin can be really awesome when you roll the opponent before you at the start of the match, which is technically quite easy if you've got some heavy hitters or fast movers, and the optimum situation is where you have forced them all into respawning at one end, and just contain them for the 2 minutes you need to win if you've got all 5 flags capped. In my first 15 games of last month, 10 games went more or less like this, which is heady stuff in our battlegroup. It has been more mixed recently, but AB provides the most interesting variety of situations to be in; Will the base you've chosen to guard or assault become the flag you spend the whole twenty minutes fighting for? Will the stealthy operative, who you are guarding the flag with, actually be looking at you when you get jumped? Is this Shaman any good at healing, and therefore nearly impossible to kill, or will he just die really easily, as it seems 70% of shamans do? can you respawn in time to defend the flag you died at? Or will the assaulted flag switch sides, and force you to quantum leap back to Stables, waking up dazed and confused, miles from the target... Questions, questions.
The battle for Warsong Gulch offers you none of these complexities. The question here is often; are we going to be beaten with big sticks, or do we get to do the beating? There is no subtlety to it really, but it is still a game worth playing. The main business, i.e, the business of getting the your flagcarrier on the roof and then chasing the enemy flag carrier is something that up until very recently I found really perplexing, but only because it is not carefully explained that in order to capture a flag, the enemy cannot be carrying yours. Its very simple, and it must seem so obvious to those who were around when the bgs were just kicking off, but for many who turn up in WSG looking for a punchup it is easy to assume that the business with the flags is just a cheeky footrace - who ever caps theirs first scores the goal. As I never carry flags, the primary evidence never presented itself to me otherwise.
Slowly, I am building a suit of gear (my Retribution pvp set, outfitter tag fans) with Krakenoah that is expressly for the purpose of carrying flags, and I intend to spend one sunday in WSG chasing the Ironman achievement. Three flags in a row in one quick, smash and grab game. I only pvp as Ret for this purpose, and find healing and fighting at range far more satisfying. Partly because I switch targets in a slightly clunky way, and don't do the jumpy dancing quite as well as most of Magtheridon do. My main interest in WSG currently lies in the 10 to 19 bracket where my mage is doing very nicely. As a fire mage with a 1000 hp at lvl 19, I am working on all the achievements, starting with the defender titles, as defence is a game I really enjoy, and a mage is the best equipped to deal with it in many ways. I wish I had a bit more speed perhaps, but crowd control and AoE are hilariously effective sometimes, particularly when I've got surprise (or a good rogue bodyguard) on my side.
I've never held an opinion on twinking before, however, the Horde are always well equipped, and the culture of twinking is alive and well on our battlegroup, so I feel the small amount of gold I've spent on this process is well spent. Were the players and the games not there, I'd sack it and probably level the mage. Also, the Gulch comes down to one-on-one so often that I think it is the easiest way to test yourself as a player, particularly in the 19 bracket when all you've got is 5 spells and no "nuclear" capability. I've indulged in a few of the classic protocols for twink characters too, by maxing his professions to 150, and enchanting the best blues I can find. I've even been for a wander round Shadowfang Keep looking for classic items, but that was more with an eye to recouping my costs than shopping. I have had so little time for the game in the last 2 months, compared to most of last year, that doing some of the generic fun stuff, like builidng a twink, or equipping your banker with a dinner suit, has actually been fun, and accessible with not much time on your hands.
I am still trying to picture how a WSG premade ought to go. You don't see many advertised these days, but I feel like I might try to kick one off soon, once I've worked out the class balance I'd like to see. I might have to build a premade for the Ironman run, and even then it would be better if is built from people I know. At 19, you wouldn't need as many healer types as you'd need at 80, where I think you want 3 melee dps (me, I like Cats, but Rogues or DKs would be the trad choice), 1 Hunter and 2 Priests as your attack group, and 2 Paladins, 2 Mages or Locks as your defence team. To be honest, at 80, you could probably have 8 locks and a couple of feral druids and do really well, and the druids would only be there for the occasional burst of speed and flavour. Some of the pundits are saying that Locks aren't as overpowering as they used to be, but they are still the ones for really putting you on the ropes. Multiple fears and DoTs will take out 90% of the regular BG crowd. The availability of the battlemasters trinkets in 3.1 could provide an answer to this, but then the Lock might well be wearing hers too.
I realise now that there wasn't much of a point to this article, other than as a counterpoint to the things I read which morosely describe the BGs as dead in the water, and a lot of the guff you get in the trade channel from kids so hyped up on cola they can't concentrate on doing anything else but dancing in Ironforge and bickering over the price of vanity pets. I think that the low level grounds are excellent, and given a proper chance, can demonstrate the variety of the game and let you practise a few new ideas. To get the same experience outside of WoW, you could probably go paintballing with strangers, but that's generally more expensive and will almost definitely involve leaving the house. Alterac Valley is more problematic to defend as a "good time", because whilst it is more of an interesting tactical war than all of the others, Its very hard to get the numbers in there to make it worthwhile, and it will be a 10 versus 40 whitewash nearly every time. When it is balanced, the way that the numbers go in reverse to the other BGs is fascinating, and the little mini quests and wing commander missions business is great for the feel of the thing. I hope we see some renewed interest in it in a future patch. I'm halfway through revered with the Stormpike, so I will almost certainly be returning at some point, if only to get my Exalted ticket, and get hailed in my home city. I may have to do it soon anyway, as that little quest and scene happens so little these days they'll probably remove it and no one will notice.

A strange night underground

2009-02-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

Situation: I need 3 elders in Northrend high-end 5mans to get my first real title for my main. Reality: I have to pug these dungeons to do this. Last night, I managed to invisibility pot my way into Halls of Stone to get that one. truly awesome but this option is not available in larger dungeons. I then get whispered by some dude who wants dps in gundrak normal. Wierd, but i say no, I'm a tank. later I try to get into Gundrak on my own to inspect the invis. option here, but then get more whispers form someone else in the first guy's team to come dps.
Oh, well if you insist. So in we go, and 40 minutes later I feel like I've cleared the dungeon for them (making the 78 warrior tank's job a nightmare in the process i think), doing the highest dps and off-healing to keep the shaman alive on boss fights.
Now I discover, in an empty GunDrak, that the elder only appears in the optional room on Heroic setting. Brilliant, an easter egg. So I find my brother on his 2k hunter main, my guild's top priest, an excellent mage, and Im ready to rock GD heroic. our preferred exguildy DPS druid is AFK, which is a shame, as a run might have cleared a little (imaginary) bad air here, but there we go. I get a stack of whispers from dps, as everyone loves heroics these days, but decide on a ret paladin, as I've yet to meet one that i like. He turns out to be sound as a pound, and is inch perfect at Ret dps. unfortunately, I don't think he's going to want me on his friends list now.
First trash pulls... perfect. First Boss, position good, wipe at 1%. oh, well, we'll take 2nd boss to make first boss easier. Trash pulls over the humps... perfect. Patrol picked up on second pull, no problem. Elementals... slightly chaotic doorway fight, no problem. Second Boss?
First attempt? Rubbish. More Acid pools than floor to stand in, can't stand still for a minute, can't seem to keep the elemental phase threat at all, hunter and mage getting one shotted in moments. hmm. Second attempt: same deal. Priest gets a bit more acidic attention if anything. Third attempt: same again, but less running about from us two paladins, and took maybe forty seconds longer to wipe. hmmm.
At this point, I hate tanking. I deeply loathe it. There's nothing on earth that can prevent me from feeling like its my fault, despite the fact that I've never been here before. In Wotlk, you aren't really allowed to learn on the job, and when you're on other people's time, in a dungeon where youre mostly there to get a non dungeon achievement, not managing to get a boss down is just dreadful. We acknowledge that fourth attempt is last attempt, and plunge into it. It takes about a minute longer, and I think I now know how this encounter is supposed to go. Unfortunately, I'm now too disappointed with my own performance, with GunDrak metamorphosis bosses, with being a tank, with getting a time-limited Meta-achievement and definitely with having a group repair bill of 200G to ever want to go back.
My thanks and apologies to the guys who were there, and here's to next years Lunar Festival, when I might even have a few pieces of tier 7 gear, and hopefully I get the blasted elder by doing DPS duties for some other tank.

Next post. more optimism:-)

Patch 3.08 and other shenanigans

2009-01-28T08:55:00.000-08:00

Paladins now have a single target taunt. Woohoo! It does one point of damage, and you can use it every eight seconds. I never used our original taunt spell, because I have real trouble switching targets, and "righteous defence" required you to target the friendly player you wanted to taunt off. Hell, I keep targeting the hunter pet enough as it is. Fortunately, my AOE covers a lot of this problem, and makes up for a lot of missing hit rating on most fights.

The main order of the day is Hybrid specs. I have been trying out a few ideas in pvp lately, In an attempt to improve my heal game, and I am currently running with a Holy defence spec (something like 41/30/0) I have holy shock for spam and good mana for holy light. My healer gear set is almost as useful as my tank set now, but I definitely need to practise in pve scenarios… Paladins are still only single target healers with a few group gimmicks, but I’m definitely up for some healing. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to stare at boss crotch any more. It also looks like February will include a few guild 10mans, and Healers are traditionally in short supply. It has also taken me a few weeks to tune my raid addon panels to show me everything I need, and I am fairly confident with it now.

Wintergrasp has also been on the agenda, partly out of fascination for a BG that is recruiting only from our server. There’s no Magtheridon premade here, and that is a balance bonus already. You see a lot of the same faces again and again, and different flavours of the same whining and complaining every time. I am desperate to work out a useful defensive strategy, as defence is where the alliance really falls down. You can’t defend something by letting everybody do their own thing - that is for certain. I think the answer lies in mass AOE, a team of mages by the central doors would take out the rush team and vehicles that horde always manage to convene. They win by moving in one big pack, and I think AOE on their unit would solve it.
The average player is always looking to reduce any fight in a battleground to single combat, as that is what the game is set up for, and focus fire does get most things killed faster, however, I think that more indiscriminate fallout damage is how Wintergrasp can be won. The vehicles do still die quickly, even after their recent patch buff, and if some one is huddled against a door, they might take at least two ticks of a consecrate or similar before they skip out of it. The other key thing is getting to the south towers. It’s very unpopular, but they do have a significant effect on the game, and should be taken out or defended as a matter of urgency. At the minute, I am getting stomped on in these territorities, but hey, a few minutes distraction for an Orc DK is one less of them in the fortress. I found two titanium veins whilst away from the fort this week, so I consider it profitable in one sense at least.

In Achievementsville, I am now only 5 elders off the title of Elder. These last few venerable holy men (and cows) are in five Northrend dungeons, having ridden my way to all the others (and soloed UK and The Nexus as far as necessary). I was also only 2k off the 300k healing in any BG achievement “damage control” in a WSG today, and I am gutted to have not got it. Bites at that particular cherry are few and far between in today’s very black and white affairs, you’re typically either in a Zerg team, or you’re waiting for resurrection it seems. Oh well. I have another 2 weeks to get the elders, so here’s to a new title for the spring.

I love Strand Of The Ancients...

2008-12-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

Me and my Stormpike Ram have been running around the Strand of The Ancients a lot lately (Rams feel like they go quicker if you name them, incidentally, so mine is called Kenny Wilkins) . I've run through a lot of Alterac Valley, but now I have easily outdone myself in terms of gametime spent in one area, chasing a certain goal. I have all the achievements you will get if you aren't chasing achievements, and I'm proud of my abilities with a turret cannon. I got the "artillery expert" (100 vehicles destroyed with a cannon) in less than 20 games, which I feel is right on the money.

To begin a match, you are dropped on a boat on the open sea, with a Paladin and a Death knight for company. then, invariably a shaman will arrive, and it is brought home to you how much PVP relies on the awkward classes to make up the numbers. I thrive in PVP because of things that don't matter in PVE. A Holy paladin who's got more armour than the other healers, and a big Hammer of Justice shaped interrupt I'd never otherwise use.
my regular (or dayjob) spec of protection paladin is probably the most useless class in the battlegrounds, because our high end PVE game relies on a certain rotation heavy finger style, and a lot of static fighting, moving the camera and shuffling to find the inch perfect position in any given room, temple, glacier field, et cetera. Having a gazillion HP doesnt really help either, because people focus fire upon you any way, and theres no Resillience on anything you might choose to wear, (there used to be an odd prot pvp selection at 70, but now there really isn't one).

I'd like to digress here and say that the best class for the battlegrounds hands down is Druid, and I don't think that will ever change. I love it when we get a good alliance druid on the side, spamming moonfire, or doing that shapeshifting, healing-running-away thing. They make fantastic lynchpins in any protracted melee. I often have to remind myself that druids are all one class. Having defended a mine (for what felt like days) in Arathi with a stealthed, impossibly fast cat, and rolled in open combat with boomkins who only shapeshift in desperation, and been killed by a Tauren High Warlord who shifted through everything while he tore massive chunks out of me at a leisurely pace(I have a lot of respect for Mukharn, who defines a Horde Druid with too much time on his hands for me). Also, a lot of people don't like Tauren catform for the way it looks, but I personally feel that is the best graphics for feeling humiliated, like you're just a squeaky toy played with a bored animal, Its something about the dull facial expression.

So, you're on the boat. and it gets into dock, and if youve got a DK on board, you're off across the water with Path of Frost (wheee!), and into a tank and off up the slope. The Horde, if they are organised at this point, will destroy your vehicle before you've even started driving (I didnt even know this was possible for my first 30 games). If they are not organised, or have all gone to one side of the map, then there is no reason not to get through the first wall, and probably through the second, in that first tank. I feel, personally, if youre a DPS, you shouldn't be driving. You almost definitely shouldn't take a cannon when you're on defence. the dps output of the gun, and the offensive throughput of the vehicle, is much lower than what you should be capable of as a dps character. The exception being one of the mediocre Death Knights rolling Strand these days. You guys need to have more than Death Grip hotkeyed, and you're probably better off in the designated driver seat. Better yet finish levelling you're Hunter main, and go back to that.

Getting through the walls is easy. Provided you make it past the bends after walls 2 and 3, and across the long stretch of open ground that is the Courtyard of the Ancients, getting the walls down is straightforward. It should also be noted that once the final door is down, you have won, as the click on the titan relic is not like Wintergrasp, where you have to channel it, and any cooldown you've got - even if your vehicle is taken out - will get your hands on the prize.
The trick to getting round the bends is to keep driving, and if you aren't in the first vehicle straight off the beach, to roll through with a buddy vehicle as two targets will split their focus. If you're feeling chatty, or like handing out orders to the anonymous fourteen helpers you theoretically have, people defending the tank are worth their weight in S5 gear, getting in the way of any arcane Mages for example, or slowing down any BE Paladins chasing the tank. The tanks dont really stand up to a lot of punishment, but they will brazen through the cannon fire, if its only the cannons they have to worry about. Personally, I think this is one of the best planned bits of "balance" that Blizzard came up with in Northrend. Tanks are easily beaten if you work as a team, but not so if you take the more familiar path of solo engagement, merely hoping that the rest of your team joins in the same melee as you.

The most successful thing to do, research is telling me, is to drive through one side of the map with all the vehicles. This can feel a bit dull for anyone who disembarks on the side thats being ignored, but it is guaranteed to get the first gate down, and make good time on the second gate. If the Horde have split their forces, then their time will be lost regrouping, and your tanks with the longest journey can defend the first two tanks, and keep the demolition going as the first two fall apart like clown cars.
Typically, once the first gate is down in this manner, you then have a large melee in front of gate two, and people become despondent and go and take the first level gate that was deliberately ignored, as if this might somehow help. It doesnt help, and it is not economical to do this. there may be a small honor gain (unsure whether gates destroyed count towards anything so far) but you are far better off taking graveyards on level 2, and keeping up the pressure on the second gate. If you had halfway decent drivers in the first 4 cars, then gate 2 should go down very quickly. A decent driver is one who doesnt stop, and doesn't weave about trying to fire at pedestrians. I had a go at this, because I think my aim and timing are quite good, but have grown out of it now. Tanks are for walls, and are useless if not driving straight at the wall. Also note that the siege weapon has no effect on pedestrians, even the ones stood right in front of you. This again differs from Wintergrasp, where the siege weapon on the big Humvee will thump people and cause a knockback (although even this has strict criteria for enemy position in order to make contact).

You can have two passengers in each vehicle, and these guys need to be ranged DPS, because they can fire from the vehicle and usefully clear a path. I've only managed to get a mage in the chair for this once or twice, but it was utterly brilliant, and we cained it through 3 walls and took the relic like we were popping to the shops. If its developed into a big, slow moving melee in front of gate two, I like to jump into a passenger seat sometimes, and heal DPS from that temporarily secure position. If I'm in a passenger seat, I also like to be carrying a seaforium charge, as occasionally I will get to the drop off point even if the vehicle does not. Even more occasionally, you get 15 horde players who don't know that the seaforium exists, and don't bother to defuse it. On the whole, seaforium is one of those things that 90% of the player base can ignore, like the mines in Alterac Valley, and it will really have no effect on play. In abstract, for instance when they were developing the ideas before release, they could be game changing. I find it interesting that there are 3 achievements relating to extensive use of seaforium, but I don't think anyone apart from anally retentive rogues are going to get anywhere near achieving them. Unless nobody sees you dropping it until the last second, that seaforium isn't going off, and you probably arent going to get close enough on foot to do the dirty any way...

"I say Trevor, whats that guy still on his bear doing?... why, he must be lost, or indulging in some horseplay! hahaha get him someone!... no, wait, hes dropped off a small item, I wonder what that is?" is not how its going to go. Nope, the guy in the turret leading you with the scope is actively looking for you, and he or his mate will take you down, or simply jump out and hit defuse in the leisurely 10 seconds they have to do it in. I like to think that the Horde are all on the CB going "Charlie charlie delta, we have a breaker on a welfare bear at gate two, proceeeding to the hard deck to put him in neutral" as calm as you like.

The only thing to remember is that the quicker we get to the relic, the less time the opposition have to get to the relic. As Alliance always go first, we have the natural advantage here, as we will always have twelve minutes, and the Horde will have whatever time we give them. This is great news!
In the first round, they are fighting to give themselves time, and we are fighting for the relic. If we get to the relic with seven minutes on the clock, they have only five minutes to do it in. It takes five minutes without any opposition whatsoever, and if you can take out their first two vehicles, then they aren't getting to the relic. I really like this maths. These, as a proud alliance player, are good odds. If you do restrict them to five minutes, it is merely a duckshoot, and we all go home with another 1000 honour. 38 like this and I've got my Hateful Gladiators faux crystal tumblers, or bathtowel set.

I would recommend Strand of The Ancients to anyone, Its quick, there are explosions, and I rarely walk away with less than 600 honor for my twenty minutes. Furthermore, come Patch 3.08 I think we are going to get things to spend the marks on, and there will be even more seaforium available to get through the last two gates. Jump right in and kill a Death Knight today.

The Top of the World

2008-12-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

Things have changed for the better since I wrote the bulk of the articles that started this blog. We now have Wrath of the Lich King, and the continent of Northrend, where everything is dealt with on a massive scale, my armour has been better quality right from the word go (I have mainly blues and an epic tank shield, only a month after release), and every action feels like it will have an impact on events. This last feeling is down to "phasing" where parts of the world change for you after the completion of certain quests. Its truly awesome to be swept along by a story, and quest chains don't feel like such a drag any more.

Being a paladin is still a huge draw for me, and I still haven't managed to spend more than a week with an alt or achieve an alt higher than level 29. I have also taken on the challenges of mass PVP in the battlegrounds, and for such activities I have respecced to healer. I am now regularly changing specs to either be a Tank or a PVP Healer, and I have built a wardrobe which has a full outfit for both occasions.
Northrend has assisted me greatly in this. Not only did I keep everything which might have been of use as I went along, so I could study it in leisure at 80, but the Blacksmith craftable gear is wonderfully diverse compared to how it used to be. you can now make a decent starter Tank set, a plate PVE Healer set and a resillience heavy plate healer set. Hurrah! I can now craft myself 200 resillience? excellent. this means I might survive the first ten seconds of a rogue or warlock encounter and therefore live to bubble, cleanse or otherwise find assistance.

On the PVE front, I have had some success tanking in Northrend, and hope to get stuck into Heroics and Naxx as the time allows. I have the gear, and I think that on a good day, I have the fingers and awareness for it too. This aspect of the game i would most like to enjoy with friends and associates from my guild, and as many are still in the late 70s, and have rep grinds and levelling to preoccupy them, I am happy to go heal strangers and fish up Dragonfin in the mean time. I am less keen to tank pugs, as my gear is going to take more damage, and it is harder to analyse what may be going wrong when you're knee deep in mobs or keeping a boss turning.

Professional...

2008-06-01T03:38:00.000-07:00

I have had to slow my levelling rate quite dramatically lately. I am halfway through 64, but that its been two months since I turned 58.
I have had a lot of work to do, which is really nice, and has made me up my RL game considerably, after the lazy start to the year. I have also been trying to level my professions - chiefly cooking and fishing. This seems to involve flying round and round Kalimdor, and running out of bagspace all the time. My Fishing is now over 300, and my cooking has plateaued at 285, critically short of the 300 required to cook the ton of meat I have discovered in Outland.
I have tried to be efficient during this process. El's angling has all the info you need to achieve 375 fishing and cooking, so I have returned to it to discover that yet again I have to portal back to Darnassus, Fly to Feralas, Buy two recipes at Feathermoon stronghold, Fly up to Azshara, ride for half an hour, Fish for at least half an hour, Gaining Lobster and Salmon, which I can cook to achieve the next 15 points.
Cool. So, my next evening's session I'll have this nailed.
The relief, and sense of satisfaction will be immense.
And I can empty my meat bank.

Truths and Hammers

2008-05-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

There are some strange truths in WoW. There are distinct architectural truths for example. My Favourite is that Trolls just love stairs, and will make you run up and down stairs like John Cleese in Faulty Towers for absolutely no reason. I defy anyone not to thrash a mini in depair trying to heal in Sunken Temple, which demonstrates Troll staircase madness much better than Zul Farrak and is more like trying to heal your way round screwball scramble. Although, I am finding that keeping my heal game on in unbalanced Pickups, every instance is starting to look like this. "please don't chain pull, neither me nor the mage have the mana" "OMG wtf" etc. Yes. Quite, and it was me who told the comedy hunter it was fine to not bring any bullets too...

Another truth is that very rarely do you meet people carrying large hammers who will give you a large hammer, even if they are seeking to reward you. This is frustrating if you're from the large hammer carrying classes - Take this example of me meeting Arthas in the Plaguelands for example, or any number of Ogre fights. I loved this bit in the whole 50something Argent Dawn fandango, Arthas is so terribly gratreful to you for hitting the same bunch of undead over and over again that its like you'll always be best mates. However, 2 levels later and youre in Outland, and he's really not returning your calls, and your wondering why you wanted to hang out with the Argent Dawn anyway. "Really Abandon Tedious global circumnavigation for 1badge reward Quest"? Yes, I'm tripping over Quartermasters everywhere more interesting than you now.

Digression aside, The exception that proved the Hammer rule for me is the Deadwood Sledge, which dropped for me from a Crushridge Ogre right on cue, not 4 levels too late. This beauty did me til I puffed right to the top of that Troll city in the Hinterlands, waved goodbye to a Griffon and then got my Griffon Startling Hammer, which Procc'ed Nature Damage just occasionally enough to make me jump and wonder that noise was. Like when you are fishing and somebody fights murlocs/ nagas/ wolves behind you. ZZZaapp! FsshWang! Oh. You're fish got away. Cheers, Lolferal or whatever your name probably is.

I am the Tank

2008-04-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I tanked Deadmines. First time out as a warrior tank, First time out with my new buddies on a new (to me) seriously high-population server. Although I have left Krakenoah languishing in hellfire peninsula, newly 60 but awestruck and lost in the vast harshness of outland, I have jumped to EU-Eonar to start out as a tank.

And Deadmines went pretty well, from my perspective. I tanked the boss fights really well, and we worked as a team on these, and most of the trash fights went okay, with me trying to keep aggro off some particularly feisty individuals, and some very out of control pets. I had been building up to this run for weeks, since my new WoW (and RL) buddy Si started his first gnome. But unfortunately, because of RL commitments, Si and his mate Alf were lvl 27 by the time we got in there to run it. So I'm a 20 tank, 1 lvl under being truly effective, and they’re a 27 warlock and a 27 priest, 2 or 3 levels above finding this a real challenge.
It balanced out quite well though, as we brought a comedy hunter, who didn’t bring any bullets, and liked running about getting in the way.

It was serious fun.

NOT Out and About in Azeroth

2008-02-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Stuck at work for days. Its not overly complicated being a technical supervisor on an opera for children, but it is draining. A 65 hour week, with no prep beforehand, and where most of the creative protagonists haven't met each other.
One of the things that keeps my mind working is the machinations of Wow insider. I love it, I like its very positive american tone, and its happily universal approach, from theorycrafting about their high end 70 raiders, respeccing for Karathons every night, or high fiving the the uber guilds with their multiple 10 and 25man raid teams; to talking people through the newbie levels, from every angle, for every season.
And because of this, I really want to get back online. I really want to get my Paladin through to 50 and beyond. Krakenoah is my solo champion, with whom I'll go everywhere first, but his brother, Krakenspawn, will be a raid demon, A social animal who will get his experience almost always through instances. He's going to do the DPS thing, unless the world suddenly needs more tanks. But my brother is going to be the tank, with his newly 70'ed Arms warrior, Trailor.
I need to get online to celebrate Trai's 70 in guild, and see how my dysfunctional family are doing. See who's got Kara attuned now, because I know there's been a flurry recently. Maybe the Lords have got a second team together? I can't wait to find out now.

part one: the Kraken awoke...

2008-02-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

Krakenoah has been out in the fields slapping things for about six weeks in total. I love this character, and I love this game. I have always enjoyed RPG's (Might and Magic Five, anyone?) and the amount of quality time I have wasted playing every one I could get my hands on is difficult to comprehend now. WoW is such a ridiculously addictive game it is tough to know where to start, but I'll write a little today to try and summarise the joy of the internet world of Warcraft, or "how geeks will beat you, and why you have to hand it to them".

I mostly stopped myself from reading about it. I downloaded the trial version of the game and just went for it. from Setup Wizard to the human/alliance starting zones, I just followed the onscreen instructions and (certainly for the first half an hour) ran into things, tapping my keyboard frantically and deselecting/opening panes at random. It's just great, starting on a new game. controversially, I never played more than an hour of Baldurs Gate. I kind of enjoyed the opening bit, then the layout and the way NPCs spoke just got on my nerves. Contrarily, I still have the copy that my ex-girlfriend's brother lent me. He's probably never going to get it back.

I didn't sleep so well over the next few days. Computer games seem to step right into my frontal lobe and grab me. I can still picture every last pixel of the Hangar level on Tony Hawk's 2. Now there is a game more arresting than a speedball of heroin and Ben and Jerry Fish Food, and easily as arresting as the priceless classic Speedball 2, which is where the trouble all started on my first atari (somewhere between that and Sabre Team). More on this another time.

Over those first few halting days, interspersed around the lazy christmas family visits and the girlfriend time, I leveled through 1-10 in what seems now like a particularly grueling way. Running backwards and forwards across lots of the same targets, fiddling endlessly with rather pointless things and generally riding the learning transition. I then paid to transfer my character to my brothers server, or realm, not fully understanding that i could just start a new character on his realm, and do the 1-10 fandango all over again (in probably two thirds the time). I think it is this rather naieve move that has made Krakenoah important to me. He has jumped the inter server hyperspace, and therefore is the most kickass hybrid Paladin to ever smelt ore.

And thats what he does best. Aside from the regular run of questing (chiefly solo) and badguy smacking; Mining is my true love. You can tell he's a welsh paladin, because he's down holes, finding the ore. And in that, Warcraft has done it for me, because of the intense variety of sideshow activity, your characters gain an erzatz personality. And Krakenoah is me:- Welsh, a poor team player who doesn't like to cook for himself, armed with a hammer and a meticulously researched sartorial look. This last point is more of a metaphorical translation of Real Life. Buying plate armour isn't really the same as knowing the diamonds from the rough in a TK Maxx skateshoe department.

Work calls at this point. To be continued.

0245 GMT

2008-02-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

This morning, at around 1am, I messed up a handshake. There are several reasons this is a problem. The main reason that this is a problem is that I have virtually nothing else of a work nature to occupy my mind.
If this were any other well paid technical gig of the regular small-hours kind: taking a set down, loading a truck, putting truss together or driving across country; I'd have plenty to occupy my mind. And everybody else here has got plenty of that. Tonight, I am a unique indivual. Tonight Matthew, I am the House Technician.

I am here to make sure nobody hurts themselves, and that people can find their way into the building. I am here to make sure the nice electricians can find the plugs, and that the plugs are full of sparkly goodness when their powerful modern looking items are turned on. I am here to talk to our inhouse security team in a codified language, to make sure some large doors stay open for short periods of time, and a few small doors stay open for long periods of time. Mostly I am here to be the face of the venue at two in the morning, say hello and shake hands in a cheeky, cockney way by way of welcome.

And thats where messing up a handshake becomes a problem. It was easily done, The uber-carpenter I was greeting, and am on friendly terms with from previous occasions, was sat in a van, and thus higher up than me. For this reason I thought I'd give him the "Bro" upward handshake, the foundation of technical handshakes throughout the western world. However, in the darkness, my intentions were a little less than obvious, and we almost did a kind of wristgrip, The kind of things Warriors in romanticed medieval films do. I did manage to swerve out of this, and we blustered the right (Bro) handshake quickly, but the situation was lost and he thinks I'm a loser for that very brief second before his mind returned to the job.

And this is where its all good. Because he won't think about it again, as he's got a high-profile fashion showfloor to lay, and as I haven't, it gave me something to think about while on my sustenance and caffeine break.

Five to Three. A good "venue staff visibility" walkabout time, with high likelihood of cheeky comments on the slowness of their progress.

A Tull Interlude

2008-02-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

A note. The next paragraph is one I wrote a while back, but what goes around, comes around, and as I am presently sat recuperating from a heavy-lifting night shift, awaiting the next one (which should be 'light duties only', but could become very dull) I thought I would post it to add context to my journal in these early days.

I like it here. I like it here in my flat, with my girlfriend. On my street. I like it when I've had a few days to get it together, and put my thoughts in good order, and have fresh thoughts. I like not thinking about work so much, even if I am still thinking about work 15 to 20% of the time, its not the 75% of the time which occurs at work, just before or just after work. I also don't think about drinking, "the stupid choices I have made" or any of the other notions that muddy the water on my lesser days.

"And it was a new day yesterday, but its an old day now".

The words below are the words I found to a Jethro Tull song I've never heard.

Tearing down in double quick time to get the "A" truck shifted 'bout midnight.
The locker rooms are empty but the strobo tuners still spin with their pitching lights.
And Someone with a yellow pass gives out precise directions as to where and when.
And earmarked with a drumstick, young girls set to rendezvous, and be recognized again.
Tomorrow is an off-day, be in Baltimore by Thursday is the only law.
There's a suite down at the hotel reserved for making merry with connecting doors.
The lighting man's already improvised a bar and printed invitations to the ball.
Off-duty cops line corridors wearing tour T-shirts proudly and the band may even call.

Crew nights, no flashlights or folding knives,
Best boots and road suits and nine lives.

Feeling that it might be wrong to temporarily belong to the P.A. man.
Some angel from the midwest is regretting being undressed with no suntan.
His polaroid a-snapping, the head carpenter is rapping on the gates of dawn.
Sitting lonely with a warm beer the girl with dental braces wishes that she hadn't gone.

Crew nights, no bar fights or 'Reader's Wives',
Thin walls and late calls and nine lives.
Crew nights, no flashlights or folding knives,
Best boots and road suits and nine lives.

And that does it for me. These are great lyrics, and I've done enough Rock and Roll to smile at this, from the comfort of my drug free, pasta-eating corner sofa. I can hear Ian Anderson's laughter in his voice. I found these words by accident on a Tull website. I really must track the actual song down.

A Note on the Name

2008-02-12T06:40:00.001-08:00

I am a stagehand and scenic carpenter with a fascination for the Internet. I like the popular social networking sites, and have made use of them. I like things like Deviantart, because the world is full of surprises, and seeing what ridiculously enthusiatic Americans have spent their evenings drawing is curiously life affirming.
My name is Tom Arnold, and I have come a long way in the last decade in terms of my career progression. I used to earn £100 p/w here, and now Gasquillions p/w here for more or less the same thing. I have my health, and I have a nice place to live.
The name krakenoah is the name of another internet engendered Avatar, another useful means of killing my spare time and meeting people, and strangely the best thing to have brought me closer to my family in the last year. It is the name of my main character in World ofWarcraft, the phenomenally successly and french owned online RPG.
I started playing at the end of 2007, mainly on the recommendation of my brother. He had been playing for years and we share an enthusiasm for complex PC supported computer games. However, I rarely speak to my brother, and this new frequency of interaction has been an added boon over the last few months.

This Journal will cover both my experiences in World of Warcraft and in the world at large. It is not intended for any particular audience, it is merely a product of my combined desires to use Html, and talk about myself when nobody is listening, liks some in-Starbucks-on-my-power book-playlisting-electro social casualty, but with instant coffee and NWOBHM.