Archive for April, 2012

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What’s in a Name and Free Pets!

Posted in General WoW with tags , , , on April 30, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

One of the things I love about WoW is even early in the morning when I insist on playing without being able to see, there’s always something to do. Children’s Week! Free pets! Aside from getting the pets I’m pretty much done. I’ll go kick King Ymiron’s butt once my contacts are in but that’s it for me. I am not doing School of Hard Knocks regardless of what I’m offered. There will be no Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake for me.

Cat has the four BC pets, and the two Northrend pets but she must have really been distracted by something as I found that she didn’t have even one of the vanilla pets, what a slacker! I’ll have to remember to have the alts get the other three this week so that when Mists of Pandaria releases she’ll have them all.

I was looking at some of the screen shots I took at JD’s going away party. It really was like a fancy masquerade party. We all have so many WoW related names. (Look at that darn chicken, hey, you’re with me, get over here!) Some people I recognized right away, like the famous fashion queen Navimie, some I didn’t. It was kind of fun guessing who might be who.

For example, I have a real name that if you use, I will cast a look that will turn you to stone. Yeah, don’t like it much. Then there’s the WoW me list.

I answer to Tome or Ancient because of the blog. Tome of the Ancient is long and I’m lazy so I type TotA and will answer to that too.

On twitter I’m Ancient8 because someone had the audacity to have already taken Ancient, I’ll answer to that too.

I’m Cat, Sasche, Ironsally, Shamimi, Lessismora, Zor, the list goes on. Soon I’ll be a battletag too.

So you might know someone from Twitter, but not their blog, or the other way around. Or you only know their Horde character, geez, get’s confusing.

I don’t know, are we going to have to start coming up with callsigns like fighter pilots that display under our character’s name. In a cross-server group you’ll see something like Gloria the Kingslayer and then under that it’ll say “Wombat” and then we’ll know who they are. Be great if it could be used across all the games you play, kind of a universal gaming identifier!

Yeah, I know probably not going to happen but I can dream. Poor Bolvar, sorry man. Well I know it’s never going to happen but I’m going to go browse callsigns. It looks like you don’t get to pick your own irl, but this is Azeroth so I’m going to have a really cool one ready just in case.

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One Transcendent Moment

Posted in WoW Community with tags , , , on April 29, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

Yeah, I’m not talking about sex, not yet at least. Not even talking about being, yes, Kingslayers. Talking about something else entirely but I’m getting ahead of myself here, let me back up.

JD’s sendoff party started in Kara. All Sasche was worried about here was her clothing, as everyone looked just marvelous, and the only thing she’d transmogged was her hideous belt. And what is up with those Tauren minion whisperers?

Look at my minion! Navimie had my Felhunter entranced, he wouldn’t come when I called, he just ignored me, geez. And then I noticed that my Ancona Chicken decided that they preferred Kamalia to me! Well I never! Euphyley and I were left petless. It must be Navimie and Kamalia’s calming presence. Or something about us Undead makes them uncomfortable, nah, that’s silly. I don’t know why being together with everyone in pixel form was almost as good as actually meeting in person, but it was. Kara was great fun, I love that place. But now the second half of the sendoff was soon to start and I was kind of hoping a meteor would land in the backyard or some other acceptable excuse to … um … bail.

Oh dear … oh dear. Yeah, it doesn’t help that I’m a shy introvert either. Back when I started playing, WoW was my first MMO. I stupidly thought people would come together in groups and play, have fun. Not so much. By the time BC was drawing to a close I had enough of nerdraging and unpleasantness. And this was before LFD when it was moderately better, because by the time you got a group together you got to know people a little. I usually knew the names of their rl pets by the time the group was complete. Less anonymity, less likelihood of jackassery, but I still couldn’t take it. Druid went completely feral and pretty much stayed away from humanity.

Imagine you’re really gullible and someone tells you sex is sticking SOME part of you into a electrical socket. That’s how you do it. So you do it. Wow, not much fun. Ouch. Figure you did it wrong. Try it again. Crap. You really, more than likely, won’t try it too many times. You feel bad, you heard people talk about how they enjoy it but hey, that isn’t your experience so you quit trying. So yeah. I quit sticking things into the electrical socket of groups. I never raided, ever. I stopped doing anything other than a quick holiday boss.

So yeah. Arthas. Don’t know squat about Icecrown Citadel. I did view videos of the Arthas fight beforehand, but all that stuck was to be terrified of defiles and if you’re lucky enough to be killed by Arthas toward the end, DON’T RELEASE. Imagine my surprise to find there were like a gazillion other bosses in that place. Who knew!

In preparation I did install DBM but I was afraid it might scare the crap out of me more than help. Matty told me about GTFO so I installed that too, and still didn’t GTFO all that often but it helped.

I can’t believe how luxurious it feels to have someone heal you. No wonder DPS get crazy. And yes, you should fear defiles. The entire platform was a swirly black mass, really. My only option would have been to jump off, but I’m afraid of heights. I was my usual uncommunicative self.

As I’ve written about before, my set-up is a little unusual, not conducive to, you know, communicating, which isn’t usually a problem. And I missed a lot of chat because I was busy taking a total of 62 screen shots. I just couldn’t stop.

So when this happened I knew we’d done it. I just lay there basking in the glory of death. We’d done it. And I only got lost once. And no one put up those stupid numbers so I didn’t have to know how bad I did, it was just … fun. And you whisperers, thank you, you know who you are. And thanks to our fearless leader, Effy, who led us to take down the only expansion bad guy I really did miss not getting to see.

This was what I thought it would be like when I started playing WoW. This was what I had been looking for. It has taken almost six years to find it. So thank you JD. I’m glad you’re staying, but I’m also glad you almost left. Without you almost leaving I would never have known what it’s supposed to be like. Thank you all, Horde and Alliance, for a most wonderful evening.

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The Lovely Black Dress Challenge and a Handsome Visitor

Posted in Lovely Black Dress Challenge with tags , , on April 27, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

It may sound like it, but The Lovely Black Dress Challenge has nothing to do with transmogrification. I generally like to think of myself as “eccentric” rather than just full on crazy but there are times, like now, when I’m not so sure. I have three level 85 Warlocks, and like a sailor with a girl in every port, I have various levels of Warlocks on most servers, yeah, Oceanic, I’ve got two there. EU, if you’d let me in they’d be there too.

I’m really enjoying PvP but I feel like something’s missing. I can’t put my finger on it, maybe I miss old Deathwing flying around. Maybe it’s all the reminiscing I’ve been doing lately, I don’t know. I do know I loved the Psyn/Vry Ironman Challenge and I love Warlocks so I decided to try to level one to 85 wearing only a Lovely Black Dress. I have no idea whether this will be too hard, too easy, or just right. There’ll be no way to tell if it’s too easy until higher levels so I imagine she’ll probably get to at least level 60.

So there is Ms. Lessismora. She likes to keep things uncomplicated. No worrys about gear, gems, or weapons. She’s armed with a Lovely Black Dress. She can train her talents, do whatever else she wants to do or not do. Just has to do it in that dress.

Oh grow up Brother Paxton. He took one look at her and kind of cast an involuntary spell. And really, after all these Warlocks I’m getting pretty tired of being told to go ’round to the side of the building. Don’t actually ENTER the Abbey, sheesh.

If nothing else it should help my Warlocks get out of the habit of just standing there casting because of an over reliance on minions, she’ll have to get some exercise trying to keep out of range as she’s squishier than Ironsally was. So we’ll see how that goes. She may die a lot but she’ll look simply marvelous while doing it, and THAT’S what counts don’t you think. Well SHE thinks it.

Yes, well. My Druid. She’s been up to her usual shenanigans. That girl, I don’t know what to do with her. Carrying on right there by the Abbey. With all those young, young, impressionable level ones hanging about. REALLY DRUID. Navi’s Rogue came to Fenris to visit her and now I think she’s totally forgotten about her crush on Jarel Moor, the Bartender at the Slaughtered Lamb. For shame Druid, fickle much? Although I can’t really blame her, he’s really attractive in a dark, dangerous sort of way. OMG! Oh hell no! Now she’s wearing off on me! STOP IT DRUID!

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The Ironforge Deathmarch

Posted in WoW Reminiscing with tags , , , on April 25, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

Matty posted some interesting ideas, in one she said:

I would like to know your favorite places of ‘former glory’ in the game, or a moment where you did something and it was a pivotal moment for you in game, something your character would tell his/her imaginary grandchildren if it could.

Yes! A wonderful excuse to fly aimlessly about the world of Azeroth taking screen shots which is something I love to do and I took many. I thought of my first epic. I got the Guile of Khoraazi working as a mercenary for that shady Consortium Faction. It’s a moment I remember well. But my first character said move on, that’s not it. I thought of the agonizing grind to get enough money for her first mount. I’m pretty sure she was about level 43 when she finally got it. Now I whine about having to wait until 20 for a mount so that moment should certainly count. No. Move on.

This is where she stopped me. This deceptively tranquil, beautiful view in the Wetlands. To her it’s an awful reminder of the carnage that was the Ironforge Deathmarch, and that’s the story she’ll relate to her grandchildren one day.

It all started when she learned she could be trained to shoot a gun, but to learn it, she’d have to travel to Ironforge. She didn’t know where to get the boat to Menethil Harbor or the path to Ironforge but she HAD to learn to shoot a gun. I don’t remember what level she was but do remember those crocolisks aggroing from quite a distance.

The journey down that path seemed endless. Making headway and then dying, losing ground, back to the graveyard. Remembering it, it seems like the entire trip took a whole Saturday but I doubt it did. I know I will never forget it. The Deathmarch was like a WoW rite of passage, I’m glad I never have to do it again and yet I’m sad it’s gone.

So there’s her spot. The place she really became one with Azeroth. It may look peaceful and safe now but that road is covered in the blood of heroes, lots of it her own.

Note: On learning to shoot and acquiring a gun, one shot was enough to know she’d stick to bows, nevertheless she says it was worth the journey.

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Tol Barad from a Beginner’s Perspective

Posted in WoW PvP with tags , , , on April 24, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

It’s funny, way, way, back in Vanilla I did my first BG. It was Arathi Basin, and my Hunter loved it. I was awful, this was back in the period where I hadn’t found the AH yet and I was completely decked out in gear like the Cuirboulli Set, yes, nothing but the best gear a vendor had to offer for me! Yeah, I was clueless. So you can just imagine how long I stayed alive in Arathi, but damn, it was fun. I stopped PvPing when I noticed my fellow combatants were filling up the chat panel with hate messages at me. Not because I played poorly, but because I was level 44. So big chicken me just quit and kinda forgot about PvP.

Then came BC and everyone talking about ENDGAME. WTF is that. Oh, okay, I get it. Then I spent the rest of that expansion trying to play as Blizzard intended. It didn’t work out and it’s taken me this long to get back to PvP. The realization that I should try it again came slowly. Navi of the Daily Frostwolf helped a lot. I read all her posts about their raids and one day realized, hey, all that planning and fine tuning and repetition until you get something just perfect doesn’t sound like you at all. I am a spontaneous and somewhat (lying, really a lot) disorganized person who is a jack of all trades and master of none irl. Why? I don’t know, I think I’m always looking for a different experience, and PvP fits perfectly. Same BG, different day, different people, whole new game. So I’m having a great deal of fun.

I’m still not good, but so far it doesn’t seem to matter. I’m guessing I’ve done Tol Barad about seven or eight times now and we’ve only won once. I’m not that egotistical that I think it’s my fault, nope, we’ve all been bad so I don’t stand out. Communication, other than blame, seems to be lacking and I think that’s most of the problem. So when I get excited and somehow hit some strange key combination that immediately dumps me to my desktop, no one notices. Have no idea how I do this. I’ve tried to recreate it but still haven’t figured out how I’m doing it.

So anyway, first thing. I’ve never played with nameplates turned on. It just didn’t seem fair to get a heads up when a creature was behind the next bush. Seemed like cheating to me, should give them a fair shot at me. NOT NOW. I’ve turned those babies on now. And I got Healers-Have-To-Die. Sorry, healer friends, I need all the help I can get. I have yet to figure out how to tell who is the raid leader but it doesn’t seem to matter. In only two battles was there a voice of authority to be heard. Both times they seemed to know what they were talking about. One was ignored and finally quit the raid and we lost. One was listened to, we won.

The same scenario each loss. All but one of these we’ve been defending, we’ve done well, but in the last few minutes players disperse, running around looking for someone to kill outside of the bases. So we’re all spread thin throughout the three bases and the roads and we lose. I now understand what the famous killing machines are talking about. Communication seems to be the key, the most important part of winning. And aside from insults, we’re not doing it. That’s okay for now. I’m still trying to work out how not to end up at the desktop.

And that delicate flower who can’t stand unpleasantness and trash talk in groups? Gone in PvP, there I am over there, the new me. I have absolutely no idea why trash talk in PvP doesn’t bother me, so all’s good. And my little Undead Warlock NEVER wants to leave now that someone /flirted with her. Do you know how long she’s been waiting for that! 85 levels and change. A /flirt is hard to come by if you’re an Undead lady. An Undead lady wannabe killing machine with 169 honorable kills! She’s so pleased.

I wanted to get familiar with Tol Barad before I moved on. I’ll have to figure out which one to try next, but in the meantime I have shopping to do. First it was sitting for hours playing with MogIt. Now it’s sitting for hours in the Hall of Legends picking out what I want. Who knew PvP would turn out to be such a sedentary pursuit!

Oh, oh! Just one more thing! Rogues! Rogues! They are just wrong. Wrong. I have spent so much time starring at my feet … my non-moving feet. Added incentive to level up mine. I want to be that horrible too.

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Torment a Warlock Time

Posted in Transmogrification with tags , , on April 23, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

I know it’s probably a reaction to seeing all the mog geniuses in action during Mog Madness but when I heard about Saga of Spellbound’s “worst dressed Warlock” competition I knew I wanted to torment the tormentor for a change. Saga says:

So let’s turn it around. Let’s find the worst possible Warlock outfit available in the game. Something that would make other Warlocks shun you and not let you near them. Something that would make your demon take one look at you and return back to the Twisting Nether laughing all the way.

To add insult to injury I made her pose for the screen shots in the lovely garden behind the Cathedral of Light, a place where she wouldn’t normally be caught hanging around.

There she is. Doesn’t she look lovely? All ready to get a little gardening done before she gets in the van and drives the kids to a soccer game. Isn’t she cute. Ouch! Quit it! I was just kidding, geez, so touchy aren’t we now. How does it feel for a change?

I tried to talk my Undead Warlock into this but she wasn’t having any of it. I won’t even go into what I had to promise the Human to get her to do it, it’s icky, I don’t even want to talk about it.

Garden Mom Outfit

I noticed all her minions sneaking off, they did NOT want to be part of the picture. There was nothing I could offer them to get them to stay. Oh, she’s going to have to get up to a lot of evil to live this down!

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And the Winner is …

Posted in Transmogrification with tags , , , on April 23, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

Yesterday I kept waiting for the results of the final round of Mog Madness to be posted. I hung out at the pet shop in Dalaran for a while and then did a tour of Stormwind, killing time. I had an idea of who the top three were, but wanted to find out the winner with everyone else, so I didn’t cheat and tally the scores. But that Simon Cowell of Azeroth out waited me, so I didn’t find out until this morning!

Congratulation to all the competitors. They did an incredible amount of hard work over the weeks, while we got to enjoy viewing their efforts every weekend. I have an idea how hard this was because over at the Harpy’s Nest Erinys has a post about Saga’s Worst Warlock Competition. I tried to while away the time waiting for the Mog Madness results by dressing my Warlock in hideous (to her) outfits and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be and all I ended up with was a Warlock that’s not speaking to me.

Big congratulations to the winner, your outfit really scared the bejeezus out of me! I feel a little sad this morning. I’ve opened all the packages and now all that’s left is the cleanup. I’ll get over it. I’m almost positive JD has something else up his sleeve, but while I wait to see what that might be I think I’ll go torment my Warlock some more.

Thank you JD, Effy, and all the competitors for a wonderful and exciting five weeks of mogging goodness!

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Hawt Nelf Problems

Posted in Silly with tags , , on April 21, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

Oh no, jealousy. Oh no, Druid, just stop. It had to happen I suppose, my Druid’s been reading blogs again and she’s just a little jealous. She found Navi’s page of poetry links AND THEN Matty’s limerick. I guess it was too much for her, she snapped. She stopped off on the way to her daily kill of Anzu to show me the new song she’s working on.

     Belfs call me stuck up; Orcs say I’m conceited

     On behalf of all Nelfs – those comments aren’t needed

     Nelfs we have problems, too.  

     We’re just like you, except we’re hawt.

She says it’s still a work in progress. I certainly hope so, I’d say she’s rhyme-challenged but don’t tell her I said that. She says it’s to be sung to this. I can only hope that the Reins of the Raven Lord will drop for her and distract her from this travesty.

Anyway, what am I really doing? I’m stalling. All entries are in for the final round of Mog Madness and after putting all the images into Photoshop, adjusting everything for optimal viewing and starring at them for a while, I’m completely stumped. I don’t know what to do. If I could, I would give them all 5.0.

So yeah … this is me, stalling. I think I’ll watch more stupid videos for a while and come back to it. Maybe eat something first. Kill Anzu. Do Tol Barad dailies. THIS IS HARD.

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A Farewell to Arms and Arthas

Posted in WoW Community with tags , , , on April 20, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

JD Kenada is leaving WoW. He has excellent reasons for his departure and I’m happy because he’ll still be blogging. But there is a PROBLEM. As a farewell to Azeroth he wants to storm Icecrown Citadel and kick Arthas’ butt. What a great idea JD, that’s excellent, good luck, I think … WHAT … me? Huh?

I have never been in a raid, well, I have but only with me. I recently had an epiphany of sorts about me and raiding which made me happy, and I don’t know why it took me five and a half years to have it, but thanks to Navimie I now know my place in WoW. But that’s another story for another time.

I commented on JD’s post saying he really wouldn’t want me along as I’d be no help dead, and his response was:

We could wipe for an hour on the first pull and I wouldn’t care so long as you come with us.

Oh man. I mean IT IS prophetic, but so damn nice of him to say. So yeah. Druid doesn’t even really know where it is so she thought she’d ask Tirion Fordring. She’s not that good with directions. But I think she found it, there seemed to be lots of people rushing in with great urgency.

So anyway, I thought I should tell JD he could count on me but I must WARN him what he’d be getting into, really, it’s only fair.

My excuses are legion, but I’ll try to keep it brief, just hit the highlights.

1. My performance would be strictly bush league, if that. I have never raided and I’m easily distracted by pretty colors and effects. I’ve noticed when I watch videos of raids I rarely notice bosses or anything, I’m just kinda groovin’ on the light show and sounds and the pretty colored puddles on the floor. Just saying.

2. I fall off things … a lot. From viewing a video this looks like a potential problem in this fight.

3. I run off things a lot. Yes, there’s a theme emerging here, I’ll get to it.

4. I get lost ALL THE TIME. Don’t know if that’d be an issue here but if I die the likelihood of you ever seeing me again is pretty low cause I’ll never be able to find you.

5. I only kitty Druid moderately well. As I’m usually alone, I tend to forget I can heal or bring the dead back to life, you have to poke me and yell at me to remind me, and then I think I only have about 52 mana.

Okay, this could go on and on, crappy gear, yada, yada, but I’ll get to the big one that’s the cause of a lot of the above.

6. At some point in the evening I can no longer SEE. This is part of why I fall and run off things, that and being a nitwit. I have very bad allergies so certain times of the year my contacts become unbearably painful to keep in. This can happen anytime between 5:00 and 8:00pm eastern depending on pollen count. And then you’ll be stuck with a blind raid noob Druid probably running about willy nilly, bumping into everything in there shouting, “Yay! Am I helping guys, huh, am I, is this the waaaaaaayyyyy … oops.”

A little off topic but this is also why I have an aversion to talking in vent. I sound like a Worgen … sniff, sniff … sniff … excessive throat clearing if I need to speak, sigh … charming.

So yeah, I got your back JD, just wanted to let you know what a dangerous position that is for you. So email will be incoming but again, seriously, I don’t mind being the last kid on the playground picked. If you find you have to use me to fill the last spot … pray for rain on the east coast!

17 Comments »

Hospitality at the World’s End Tavern

Posted in Silly with tags , , , on April 18, 2012 by tomeoftheancient

Okay now doesn’t that just give you the creeps. What? Well yes, I did try to click on them, how could you not. Noblegarden flashbacks, will they never end. Anyway, I don’t have much to say which will soon become evident but since WordPress ate my blog for a few hours this morning I feel compelled to write SOMETHING just in gratitude for its reappearance.

My Druid really wants the Reins of the Raven Lord, I know it’s been three or four years. She’s been doing it since the room was crowded with bird people and she needed to summon him. She did it alone a few times and got feared around the room, not pretty. She takes a break once in a while but it’s so quick now she tries to keep her appointment with Anzu every day. I feel kinda bad for him but if he’d just drop the damn reins she wouldn’t bother him anymore. But it must be lonely in there, I think he withholds them just to guarantee company.

There he is, poor dead Anzu. He’ll be back, nostalgic for those better times when he had a whole room full of retainers to carry out his wishes. Sad really. One hundred and twenty secondth try. Nada. A Boomstick. I could have armed a whole freaking army by now … with Boomsticks.

Sigh … so anyway, She arrived in Shattrath a little early. Had to wait until 11:59 for it to unlock. What to do? Being a friendly sort she decided to visit the World’s End Tavern. It must be pretty quiet around there and she felt sure Shattrath Saul and the others would welcome the company. Boy, did she get a surprise.

Well I NEVER! That’s the thanks she got for trying to be sociable. Poor thing, no Reins of the Raven Lord and Albert Quarksprocket called her annoying. She hearthed back to Stormwind where the guards appreciate her conversation. Later Anzu.

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