Okole asks a good question

Okole did ask a really good question- "Where's our BLARM?"

You see, I'm not really sure if my e-Crush is all that healthy. I look forward to Wankergirl's rambles and burping with way too much enthusiasm. Sort of like when you were in high school and had physics with that girl and she ended up as your lab partner but all you could talk about was physics because she was way too cool for you even though she didn't put that out there. You know, that girl who caused you to get those stupid butterflies in your stomach like three hours before 5th period, and physics suddenly became your favorite subject even though you couldn't measure a wave to save your life?

Ok, so no, there's no butterflies. Not really. But, I admit to my e-crush and can't help but think that the guy that she chooses to hang out with is one lucky butthole.

Anyway, Wankergirl, where's the new BLARM?

and yes, I've linked you again and I bet you look to see what's written out of some curiosity. "What are those WoW-nerds saying about me?" Right?

and yes, I've made a Wankergirl label :P

EDIT: Now I feel like an ass. She put up a VIDEOCAST!

"Fishin's fer sissies"

"If you ask me, the best part about fishing is its slow pace. It gives one time to think, to reflect on past events and to plan for future ones. Oh, and it's also a great excuse to drink. Heavily."
-Nat Pagle

So, I need to justify my powerleveling Cooking and Fishing; at least to myself.

You see, I really dislike fishing. Its such an obvious ploy to get people to spend hours (hours that they pay for, mind you) doing nothing but staring at their screen and clicking their mouse. Nothing get's accomplished except an inventory full of fish to cook (and, if you do what I did, you get no benefit in the moment for spending the hours doing this).

So, why? Just why?

• The Magical Crawdad and baby crockolisks. I'm a sucker for non-combat pets
• Food Buffs
• Dailies

Is it worth it? I have no idea. I just didn't feel like doing anything all that constructive in WoW today.

Updates

Well, I got bored of writing "x% through level y" posts, so I stopped. (I'm 33% through 66 now).

So, Inscription will let you customize your characters to a certain extent. Great idea! I think that it will help people move away from the current cookie-cutter, min/max specs that you need to have to be "successful" in PvP and Raiding (though I don't think it will take that mindset away completely). Which inscriptions am I most excited about?

• Glyph of the Forest Lynx
• Glyph of the Polar Bear
• Glyph of the Black Bear

The ones changing the bear forms are ok but I've never had a problem with the Tauren bear model. But the cat form as it currently looks is just... stupid. Like, short-bus looking stupid. What does a forest lynx look like?

SO MUCH BETTER!

Hellfire is the new Barrens

Greatjohn hit 61 last night. That's 16 levels since August 31st and I'm pretty proud of that. Even more, I resisted the urge to buy a basic healing set that I would upgrade with quest rewards and drops. It might actually be a good idea to do this, but I don't want to get into the habit of spending money on stuff since I need the 5k for either Claz's or GJ's epic flight (probably GJ's since I'm 90% sure he'll be my main in the expansion).

But, man, I'm starting to hate Hellfire Peninsula. The zone is so ugly and filled with boring and annoying mobs (I especially hate the Gan'arg, those technician guys in the Forge camps; who came up with their audio?). I'm starting to see Hellfire in the same way I see The Barrens: a zone that is so annoying that you get through it as quickly as possible to get to the more interesting areas. At least Chuck Norris jokes are missing, right? (I love Chuck Norris jokes, but they get old after the 327 hours you need to spend in The Barrens).

Not much more to report. GJ is leveling nicely and is ready for the second phase of Hellfire quests that you get in Falcon Watch. With my work schedule, those will probably take me a couple days and then it's on to Zangarmarsh, Terrokar Forest at around 63 and then my favorite zone: Nagrand. And this time, no grinding for the Talbuk!

Well, a tauren on a talbuk... that's pretty amusing, isn't it...

The question has been answered

So, a few months ago I posed the question: Who is hotter, Kari Byron or Kat von D? Last night,Bumwaller and I finally answered. The answer to the question, "Who is hotter, Kari Byron or Kat von D?" is: Wankergirl.

That is all.

You can't always get what you want...

300 points short! A measly 300 more points and I would have had my Veteran's Chain Sabatons! I woke up this morning (insomnia...) at 0430 and logged in and couldn't believe my eyes. Ah well, I just ran the daily BG and that will put me over the top.

Then I spent the night doing the daily cooking (more manaberries) and then farming leathers and Nether Dragonscales. I now have all the heavy knothide that I'll need and am 41% of the way through the Dragonscales. After that, it's mining time (I think).

The thing is, leveling skinning isn't that difficult; just invest the time and effort and you can go from 1 - 375 in two days, three at the most. So, if I decide that mining is stupid, I'll be able to get back in no time. Well, after leveling mining, which is a pain.

And we have Kara tomorrow!

Again with the druid

So, I played a new druid alt that I started on the Vashj server. He's only level 13 but still a lot of fun to play. I decided that if I wanted to play a druid bad enough with Limited Warranty, I'd level the alt up instead of paying the extra money to transfer the level 45.

I took some advice from Big Bear Butt's WI articles about how to level a low-level druid. Like, don't just run up to something while in bear form and start whacking, do: wrath, moonfire, switch to bear, enrage, THEN start hammering away.

Yep, I'm a noob with druids, too. :P

All-in-all, I had fun leveling a couple times with Grendirk (or whatever his name is...) and may keep leveling him now and then.

For Claz, I did get a bunch of the food I wanted to grind and I even did the Thrallmar PvP daily. Too bad the Alliance on Vashj rarely take the fortifications away from us. Not that I'm a big PvPer, but I did enjoy wiping the floor with a 64 gnome rogue.

Balancing WoW and RL

Another post idea from Blog Azeroth.

---

WARNING: I'm going to get into some personal stuff here, so if that bores you (not that anything here will be that interesting to anyone else but me), just stop reading. Also, if you're going to be an asshat, well, I'll give you a preemptive "STFU" and "FOAD".

---

Three years ago I was diagnosed with dysthymia with protracted periods of clinical depression. What this basically means is this: take a graph of a "normal" person's mood and then shift it all down into the "sad" part of their graph (this is the dysthymia), so basically my highs are about where a normal person feels depressed; add a bout of "regular" depression and I enter into what is known as "double depression".

Yeah, I'm the life of the party, let me tell you.

So, my life consists of going to work at a job I despise but it pays the bills, Warcraft and hanging out with my friends once or twice a week (though in the last month I've actually started dating a couple people here and there). But, because this post is about balancing WoW and Real Life, how do I balance them if, in fact, I really do?

According to my shrink, I should play WoW as much as I want or feel I need to as long as I don't sacrifice my RL relationships. When I expressed to her that I was concerned that my weekends were becoming hours-long grinding sessions, she replied, "Well, you got out of bed, right?" Point taken.

As a very depressed person, one of the major things I try to overcome is the sense that nothing I want can be accomplished, that every goal is always out of my reach, that anything I plan for is in vain because life, people, god, whatever will come along and stomp over my plans. My life is a constant struggle against fighting the nameless void that I feel sucking at me all the time.

Enter Warcraft.

I first started playing Warcraft after a major breakup with a woman I had been with for five years. This breakup sent me into a spiral that threatened my sanity. I don't say that lightly. I was going crazy. I would spend days at my friend's house just sitting on his couch, eating shitty food and drinking about a case of coke a day (I also smoked two packs a day, which is why I didn't gain any weight and I'm actually still underweight).

He suggested that we play an online game together for something to do other than argue who is hotter: Kari Byron or Kat Von D (Kat is by far hotter, but Kari is someone you'd want to meet your mother, by the way). I was open to anything at the time, just to give me something to think about other than my trainwreck of a life. And, since the only computer I had at the time was an iBook, it had to be Warcraft.

Warcraft worked for me. This is a game where I have almost absolute control over my toon (well, until I rolled on a PvP server... which I think might have been a mistake in the long run). The goals are easily achievable if you put in the time (I mean, c'mon, who doesn't feel like you accomplished something when you ding?) and with all of the resources out there, it is easy to plan where and what you want to do.

Leveling Amantara to 60 (the level cap at the time) was a therapy that affected me almost as much as the talk therapy. The shrink would monitor how much I was playing and would make sure that I wasn't missing plans with family or friends to play the game. When this did happen, our session would almost all be about why I ditched out on plans to play the game and a few times she showed me how that was unhealthy and how it really set back my mood (and one time, I had a dangerous set-back when I realized that the date I ditched to raid MC wasn't just going out with my because she pitied me, but because she liked me... insecurities suck).

Getting back to balancing real life and Warcraft. Real life can be such a horrible and huge black wave threatening to drown me that I need to indulge more in something that can balance my moods. At work, I know that if I just get through the day I'll be able to hop on Claz for a couple hours and farm gold or run something or just BG. When my life seems to be completely out of focus, this game can focus me and not just when I'm playing. It has helped me see that I can plan stuff out and achieve those plans. I know that I can do something new and not have to be perfect the first time I do it (my first hunter has +strength axes...) but if I apply myself and learn and be patient and keep my perspective, I improve.

I think this post explains some of the low-key hysteria that underlies many of my other posts. You now know why I'm constantly making lists of gear, why I'm constantly worried about raiding progression, and why I hate BGs and PvP (loss of control in this very controlled environment drives me crazy).

What you love/hate most about your class

From Blog Azeroth.
Loves

1. Pets. The first main draw I had to the hunter was that we get these cool pets that follow us around. And I like how we can customize them to a certain extent with their resistances and other abilities. It "helps" my OCD tendencies.


2. Relatively safe DPS. I had a rogue up to level 60 (yeah, I deleted her) and I loved the raw DPS that I could put out. But I hated how often I died when I was soloing. With the hunter you can put out a lot of damage and as long as you watch your threat meter, you're not going to get touched. Just keep Mend Pet going.


3. Utility. I love Misdirection pulls onto the tank (and, I admit, the threat of Misdirecting bosses onto asshats). I love tracking humanoids in BGs. Hunters are a great utility class without the jack-of-all-trades unfocusness (not a word) of druids.

Hates

1. Trapping. I don't hate trapping so much as I hate how much I suck at it. I know, I know- practice makes perfect.


2. Being called a "Huntard". Ok- I suck at PvP; I suck at trapping; I sometimes forget the debuffs that Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot give an enemy... oh. Wait....


3. Tanks who don't believe I can dump a ton of aggro on them if they would just let me pull.


4. Tanks who mark and pull without giving me time to set a trap down at all much less giving the cooldown on the traps time to expire.

Things I want (and sometimes get)

1. Leggings of Beast Mastery. Currently on the AH for 400gold. I have 100.


2. Recipe: Kibler's Bits. Just got from the cooking daily. YES!


3. Thrallmar reputation. I want: This and This.


4. Some new boots. I'm 3k honor away. I should just run Eye of the Storm over and over since I can stand that BG and it's the holiday weekend.


5. Sigh. Just... *sigh*


6. *DROOL*. But not a priority, I guess. And I need money for the riding skill.

Alt-itis, or the danger of getting frustrated

So, I found myself wanting to play on alts, and this is not a good thing. I started a Troll Shaman, an undead Rogue, a Blood Elf priest and played on Hirnek for about the time it took me to go from Orgimmar to Swamp of Sorrows before I logged off in boredom. This is exactly the same thing that I did when I was getting frustrated with Amantara, my old Nelf Druid. The results with Amantara were, well... not good, and I've fought the urges to do the same with Claz. (Don't worry Limited Warranty, I don't think I'm going to just disappear with only a few mailings of gold to let you know I'm gone).

Not only have I been playing alts, I've been toying with the idea of changing my professions. On Amantara I was famous for people having to ask what my professions were that week.

All in all, these are bad signs. So, instead of just acting out, let's see what is bothering me and maybe someone (if there's anyone reading this) can suggest something.

1. PvE progression. Or really, the lack of it. Limited Warranty seems to be in a slump. Sure, six more people in the guild got keyed for Karasahn, but in all honesty, the guild needs some of the others to be keyed who don't seem to be that interested in it. We have a lot of Mages and Warlocks keyed but only one tank and one healer. The priests in the guild seem only interested in PvPing and seem to think that if they're specced shadow they can't heal. Personally, I think they don't want to heal and aren't interested in PvE progression, which is their prerogative, of course. But the lack of healing is going to put such a damper on raiding that I'm not even sure if we should bother.


2. Farming. I need to farm rep. I need to farm money. I need to farm mats for the epics I can now craft. I need to farm to level my boar to 70 and my Ravager to "Best Friend". But I'm getting so sick of wandering in circles killing everything that I found myself more interested in watch Family Guy DvDs that I've seen 24 times before than concentrating on what I'm doing. Throw into that the fact that I need to farm the same places everyone else farms that I'm lucky to get one kill in before I'm called a chinese farmer that I need to log off before I start swearing at the person and get banned. Also, the farming spots lead to...


3. Ganking. I was ganked twice today. I know, I know, that doesn't seem like a lot, but Vashj is a very low-population server and the Alliance seems to be very outnumbered that this is a really high number of ganks. I have no idea just why I rolled a toon on another PvP server. I HATE ganking with such a passion that when it happens to me, I want to punch my monitor. And, since I'm so horrible at PvP, I'm nothing but free honor and cheap thrills for the moron on the other side.


4. PvPing. I HATE PvPing in the Battlegrounds. It is the most boring, stupid annoying thing that Blizzard is putting time and energy into. I understand how easy it is: there's no trying to get a group together, the time investment in play is very small, the gear rewards are huge for the amount of effort you need to put into getting them, etc. I seriously think PvP is ruining WoW. Even BRK is PvPing. When we ran ZG a couple weeks ago, the druid who was main tanking quit after the bat boss because he wanted his next epic.

So, all-in-all, WoW is starting to annoy me. Any suggestions on how to break this bad mood?

O RLY?

Gnome Warlock

Gnomes are strange little things. Fascinated with gadgets and shiny things, gnomes are often plotting and planning - but are pretty smart, despite all the explosions. You're a creepy, creepy warlock. You delight in the darker things in life - such as setting people on fire, and delight in the macabre. You'd probably fake your own death just to freak people out by getting up from the casket at your funeral.

Find out your real-life WoW race and class at QuizGalaxy.com

L2Forums

Whenever I got frustrated with Amantara I used to read the forums just to see what I was doing wrong. You see, at first I was convinced that I just sucked playing WoW and went there to get pointers. And then I started reading everything and started to buy into the "Druids are underpowered!" posts by frustrated mid-level druids and the "lol! L2Heal! Innervate me, mana-battery!" posts by... well, just about everyone else. I started to develop a chip on my shoulder and the more I read this stuff, the bigger the chip would get.

Then Burning Crusades came out. Well, then the patch before BC came out and I saw what druids could become. We were suddenly the kings of the jungle! People saw us racing by in cheetah form and would cower in fear, hoping that we wouldn't deign to notice them. Yes, we got stuck up, horribly stuck up. Then the nerf bat came and that was enough. See my introduction post to read about the stupid tantrum I threw. No, I'm not proud of it.

So, learn from me, O young cublings, learn from the mistakes of Papa Hirnek.

Mistake #1: if everyone says something, it is true.
No. Just... no. In this case, everyone was saying that druids suck, that they should just heal, that they're ok for solo boss hunting but if you're with a group, just heal. People have a tendency to post with feelings and not with thoughts, especially when they are frustrated with whatever they're trying to accomplish. You need to take that into consideration.

Mistake #2: everyone's opinion is equal
Why on Earth did I listen to the opinions on my class given by people who didn't play druids? Sure, people have druid alts, but until a person concentrates on something and learns about what they're doing, their opinions aren't as valuable as a more experienced person.

Mistake #3: everyone is helpful
Tying in with #2, I would read posts by people and think that they were trying to be helpful. When a priest would post "Druids should back-up heal and innervate, it's for the good of the raid", I would think they were thinking of the good of the raid. No. Priests don't want their mana-batteries to shred faces- that means they'd have to spend money on more mana pots and work harder keeping the raid healed.

Mistake #4: everyone posts
When I read the forums, I thought that they were a good representation of the players in WoW. No. They are a good representation of the people that post on the forums. The really good druids, they're not posting on the forums nearly as much as the mediocre and bad players- they're busy learning more about their class, researching boss fights and playing their toon!. All of the forums are in desperate need of guidance from the best players. They all need someone to come in and say, "STFU stoopid priest! Druids can tank!" or "STFU lvl 26 druid! L2Play!" We need more of these players to answer questions, point us in the right direction and just be there so that we all can know that the druid is more than viable and that the real thing that separates good druids from bad druids is the exact same thing that separates good players from bad players.

Ok- short little lesson that I had to learn the hard way. I suppose that I was lucky that I made these mistakes on the druid forums where the problems aren't as pronounced and good druids do post and are helpful.

Last bit of advice: if someone says that a druid can't do something, try to prove them wrong! Experience outweighs opinion every time.

Hirnek 29 - 43

I blew through the 30s and I got Hirnek to 43 today. Leveling with all the changes in experience requirements makes leveling easy! Especially when you use Jame's updated leveling guide. Of course, because he cut out all of the grinding sessions, Hirnek still doesn't have a mount (but I have travel form, so... so what?).

What am I finding? I'm re-discovering my deep love for druids in general. I'm finding that I'm having more fun with Hirnek than with Claz (don't be sad, Claz, you'll get to 70. I promise!). I think my play style fits with the shapeshifting better than with the ranged DPS. I seriously was grinding Claz today while eating: attack mob, pop trinket, let autoshoot fire while fixing my PB&J. I came back, set down the sandwich, attacked another mob while going back to the kitchen for a coke.

No, I'm not saying that Hunters are easysauce. Well, I used to tease a hunter I was guilded with back when I had Amantara about how easy hunters were, but I never really meant it. At the time I had a lot of angst about the state of the druid class and all the love that the hunters seemed to be getting. Yes, I'm still a little raw about how ferals got a huge amount of love when BC came out and then we got nerfed. And, when I really think about it, a level 68 druid with quest reward gear really shouldn't be able to take out a level 64 shaman, 62 warrior and 62 mage. Well, I shouldn't have been able to do it, since I'm so horrible at PvP. But it was still tough to take. I mean, I stuck with Amantara through a lot of teasing because of how terrible ferals were at one point and then when the love pillow (as opposed to the nerf stick) was gently pushed up to our furry little faces...

Anyway. No, I'm not saying that hunters are easy. They're not. They take a lot of skill to properly equip, spec and learn the tactics for. Playing a hunter means a lot of backend preparation and learning before you even go into the instance.

*Cough* Not that I'm saying druids are easy. They're not. Druids take less backend preparation (because there's less itemization? Hmmm...) than hunters, but they're such that you have to be more on your toes and adjust your tactics a bit more. In my opinion!. Hunters seem to have a lot more options to recover if things aren't going the way they plan: the mob comes after you, feign death or intimidate or trap. The mob comes at your druid? Run away!

You see, I think I have a touch of ADD. I'm not a person that can sit back and zone out while I grind, which you can do with a hunter. I need to be jumping around, popping out of kitty, warstomping, moonfiring, casting a HoT, switching to bear, enraging and then pounding the living crap out of whatever dared to raise its fist/claw/tentacle against my nature-fueled fury. Can you tell I used to play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons?

Anyway, there's a lot of camaraderie in the druid community. Just look through the official forums (don't bother with the "nerf druid!!!111!1!" QQ Posts) and you'll see that, for the most part, druids help each other out. Sure, we'll tear into each other in the BGs, but if you play a druid, you're more likely than not to get a /wave and /salute from a passing highbie druid than you would if you played a rogue and another rogue happened by. This is especially true with the old school druids. Those of us that grew up through the "you need to innervate if you want to see MC" period of WoW are more likely to help each other out or at least ignore each other. I mean, go to Moonglade and you'll see a lot of silly bears, kitties, trees and hawt nelf ladies (*cough*) dancing together, lions and panthers all together in a big hippie love fest.

And I get all caught up in that. Amantara would sit and fish in Moonglade for hours. If I noticed a cow druid trying to do his Aquatic form quest, I would lead him to the right spot. I've ganked groups of lowibies but left the druid alone (and even maby do a /lick and /hug while he tried to stick up for his friends). I just get off a bit on the druid.

Ugh. I'm such a WoWNerd.

Why a druid, prt 2

Big Bear Butt Blogger is now a writer for Wow Insider and his first column is about the fun of being a druid.

OMG! He's gotten me so fired up that I might level my 30ish druid on a different server than Claz is on and then do a character transfer to Vashj (as much as I dislike that server, I really like the guild I'm in.

Go. If you're thinking about rolling a druid, go read the post and you'll see why I'm doing it again.

Oh, and I'm one of the old school druids- I will only fight another druid if they throw the first "punch". Call me sentimental, but druids should stick together.

OMG I want a druid

Ok- so it's been a while since I've posted, but that's ok since I'm about the only person who reads my rambling (though I think some of the people from Limited Warranty have been here).

I started to read the warcraft forums and... well, I miss my druid! No, I'm not going to delete Claz or anything stupid like that. But I am going to start leveling a druid alt who (I need to be honest about this), will probably end up as my main. I still love the hunter, but I started to remember just how much fricken fun a druid can be. Yes, they can be frustrating. No, I won't top the DPS charts (I'm a feral druid snob [not that I have anything against Boomkins or trees, I think they're just dandy. I just love shredding faces]). No, I definitely won't be a healing powerhouse. But yes, I will be having a blast.

I'm so jealous of Bumwaller's flight form that I can taste it. On Amantara (my old druid) I used to spend hours just flying around, jumping off stuff, farming at top speed and just rushing to the next farming area. I'm getting an envious taste in my mouth just thinking about it. Wait, an "envious taste in my mouth"? WTF sort of metaphor is that? My writing professor would puke if she read that, and she was so beautiful that it would be a shame to make her puke. Hmm... I wonder if she's on myspace. I'll have to find her.

Anyway, back to the Druid love.

And, Claz, this doesn't mean I'll be abandoning you. Don't get worried. You're my first high level horde character!

This is truly becoming a pathetic post. I think I'll stop now.

Introduction

This is not a blog to learn how to be a hunter. If you're looking for tutorials or answers or how-to's please check the links, especially BRK, who has taught me a lot.

Well, Claz, what am I doing here?

Well, if you like stories about noob hunters who are taking until the mid-60s to actually really learn their class, well welcome.

My first level 70 was a Nelf druid named Amantara on the Detheroc realm. But let me tell you, druids are awesome but they're a little frustrating to play, especially when you're a feral druid and people get angry at you for not being able to keep them healed when they aggro the whole instance. I didn't mind healing at all, and I even gathered a pretty respectable set of healing gear (and, despite all of the feral pride I felt and my 100% support for players to play their toon however they want, druids have to be willing to heal when called upon). But, seriously, ferals can't heal that well and you need to be with a patient group who understand that and are willing to take it easy and really watch their aggro.

Yeah. You can see where the frustration comes from, eh?

So I took a few months off, came back to Amantara and realized that I was at a dead end with her. I wasn't willing to respec because resto druids are a pain to farm with and I just don't like the attitude most people have about healers. There's a very strong tendency for people to look at healer toons as their personal walking healing pots and get very angry when you decide to heal the tank instead of the rogue. Gah. I'm getting frustrated again.

One day I decided that I wanted to join the horde. And I'm not one to do things half-way (well, I am, but in this case I wasn't) so I sharded and sold everything, dotated 1000 gold to my guild, repaid a couple people for favors that they did me, sent all the enchanting mats I had to other players as a goodbye gift and deleted Amantara.

It was the most liberating experience that I've had connected to a video game.

I've always liked hunters. My very first toon was a Dwarf hunter who is still floating around in one of the realms. I got frustrated with him, though, and at first I thought that it was because of the class (Amantara soon followed), but it was really because I was a nooblet and had no idea what I was doing or how to level or "what the hell is ranged attack power" and "why isn't my bear tearing through the mobs like that hunter's cat?".

In my new realm of Vashj (more on my frustrations with the realm later) I thought, "Why not?" and rolled an orc hunter. I was going to roll a troll, but (and this is proof that I'm not a hardcore player) it boiled down to looks. I just think that the orc hunter looks more bad-ass than the other races. And I love the background story of the horde and their struggle to find a place in the universe despite all the other races' and creatures' attempt to put them in their place. Excuse the language, but I love the horde's "fuck you" attitude.

So, Claz was born and I looked for a leveling guide. I decided early that I wanted to be a raider on a PvP server (more on my masochism later) and you just can't raid until level 70. I power-leveled Claz to 60 in about seven days played and slowed down after I hit Outlands to enjoy it. Yes, I love Outlands. I love the setting, the effort Blizzard put into the looks, the storylines, everything.

And that's the background story of Claz, the toon that I'm in love with. In a very hetero way.