Don't Whisper me then!

You know those people who are always busy chatting to a hundred different people ingame? They are easily spotted as they often start whispering you with some sort of question but when you respond you don't ever hear something back. "hello?" "anyone still there?"
It seems like this guy seems to go AFK all of the time or perhaps has alot of disconnects and misses most of your returning whispers... now the most likely (as far as i can imagen) is that he/she can't handle all the simultanious whispers and chats going on, but then again: Don't whisper me if you know you won't be able to keep up the conversation!

These is this one guy in the guild who does this alot, he asks me something or just starts making small talk... so i whisper back.
Often i swing a few more chatlines into this persons direction before i figure he's too busy to answer me again or has left the keyboard. When i'm lucky i get a sort of appology long after my final chatmessage, rarely containing a response to what i actually said/asked.
Annoying? yes... but it just makes me invest less time in this person which is actually a shame, but no one enjoys talking to a brick wall. (or is there something as a brick wall fettish?)

However when you get the feeling you are missing out on things because that other person doesn't respond to your whisper things are getting a bit more frustrating for me. Perhaps you have whispered before for an invite into a raid, either from the guild or a pick up, and you don't get an answer or an invite... how long will you wait before you give up on the idea of raiding? You might even skip on other invites as you expect to join that first group.
When i ask someone "Hey, wanna join Heroic MrT?" and that person answers "I'm afraid i'll have to run it on regular first, i guess i'll find a pug for that later", should i just stop the communication there? I think it's polite to at least let that person know that we are really looking for someone who can do it on heroic... or at least some sort of confirmation that you get the message, a simple :( would already be enough.
Without a reaction he might think there are other options available, perhaps a run on regular first or a different Heroic. If shortly after i would spam guildchat if i see someone online to fill that last spot that could have been hís/hers, that might not be appreciated.

Was this a rant? Perhaps it was, but it was either this or start a rant about getting ganked by level 70 players when happily questing.
What is so damn funny on landing besides a lower level and showing how your epics can (nearly) one shot me? And then fly circles in and out of my view reach, hoping to kill me a second time.
But wait, i said i wasn't gonna start about this.. not just yet anyway.

Free Raiding!

I managed to clear up some time to raid on my Hunter for a change so i took a few hours in advance grinding mats for flasks.
The droprate of Fel Lotus wasn't as high as i hoped it would be (as it has been upped according to 2.4 patch notes) but i still got at least one, i bought a second one for 30g at the AH so that makes 15g for 2 nights of raiding. (no flask proc boohoo)

We had Mount Hyjal planned and a few hours later we had downed 3 bosses (i traded places when they were about to start boss nr. 4) and what did it get me? Some DKP (although i don't raid for that stuff.. loot doesn't interest me much on my Hunter for some reason which is actually a bad thing as i'm slightly undergeared), one death and.... (drumroll) 6 Heroic Badges and 30 gold! Well, i probably got some cash from trash aswell but the bosses drop 10g each which is quite an improvement. On a good raidnight you can easily walk away with some profit, worse case scenario have most of your pots and repairs refunded.

Yep, i'm quite happy with it and i doubt many people won't.
A negative side effect might be that people get richer in general so that prices will go up again as people can afford more and are willing to pay more for it aswell. This might not be so good for the little man but if you have something to offer or play the market with something, you might not notice much of it.
You will gain more money but also things will cost more, for now the balance between raiding and preparing for it seems to be alot more healthy so less time is needed to grind for raidmoney.
More time for alting, yay!

No two point four for me

Yep, you've read it correctly.. patch 2.4 hit us yesterday and i had aaaall night to check stuff out but i simply didn't. Another faction to grind rep with and another instance to do with my Hunter of which i'm a bit bored at the moment.
More dailies which i will get sick off after doing them 2 or 3 times anyway, quests which i need to do to unlock something i have no interest in at the moment anyway or for the cash to raid on that Hunter again.
Maybe it's because it's so hectic at work at the moment that i'm too burned to spend my night raiding and have no choice then to stick around till the end of it which is often later then i would like. At least on an alt i can take a qwerty nap when i want to.

Something more cheerful but perhaps just as uninteresting for you: i had an overpowered encounter recently which i'm gonna share with you unless you actually have a better place to be,... no? Bwahahaha.. ehm, anyway... here's the story:
I was with my level 63 lock in Zangermarsch with the intention to lure out some Alliance, kill them and score a few Mark's of Thrallmar. A level 70 Rogue friend of me was helping me so we started capturing one of the towers which would likely make some alliance crawl out of underneath a rock. (notice that my Alliance hate has grown? That's what being ganked on pvp servers does to you)
It didn't take long before 3 level 70's in Epic gear came knocking at my door, could have expected that i guess. The warrior of the bunch charged me and i quickly dotted and feared him... the Rogue came close as well but the Hunter wasn't too bothered and seemed like he didn't expect to get a shot anyway.
Sure enough i died just after my Rogue m8 ganked the other Rogue. I used my soulstone and started dotting the Rogue and refreshed those on the warrior, followed by a mass fear to get the Warrior, Rogue and the Hunter's pet off my m8.
The Rogue went down and the Warrior took a run for it with just 10-15% health left... i ran after him and dotted him once more which was enough to kill him before he got out of range.
In meanwhile my m8 was on the Hunter and running low on health, i instant fear the Hunter and after that the pet. I throw a few dots up on the Hunter and then start bolting him... soon after that he goes down.
Within moments we, a level 63 lock and a level 70 rogue, manage to down 3 level 70's! Sure i got killed in the progress and we had the element of surprise (although they strook first) but still... these guys got handed their own asses! Haha!
I expected them to come back but they were either too afraid or too embarrassed.
Those guys gave me 3 Marks and a great story to tell my grandchildren... or due to lack of those: to my readers.
Now say "Sure grandpa" and get me my medicine!

Restock instead of Lag

My plan for tonight: (first night of having the new Sunwell content in Europe)
Go farm herbs in an abondoned Outlands :D
With the increased Fel Lotus droprate i might actually have a nice dose of mats for a few raids without having to pay through the nose for one on the Auction House.
So you just go enjoy the new content ;)

Luckidy Clop

My Warlock had reached level 60 and ofcourse i dropped everything to start on the quests for the Epic mount. A friend boosted me through Scholomance so i was soon ready for the final quest in Diremaul west.
I had found me a Warlock earlier who was willing to take me along (for a price) but i still needed to get a party to clear out most of the instance, as i hadn't had a succesfull pickup group in a looong time this did worry me quite a bit... Diremaul instance runs were scarse as it is.
When i found out that lock didn't have the Crescent Key needed to enter Diremail West things started to look even more grim as i needed someone with that key ór a rogue with high enough skill.

One of my level 70 Rogue mates on that server seemed bored last weekend tho and i asked if he would be up for helping me and he was. The lock was also willing to go so i just needed a random healing type which i might have been able to arrange.
The Warlock logged before i could make further arrangements and i didn't see him back online anymore that night.... if i wouldn't had spend over 200g on this quest already i might have just bought the ridingtraining and one of those ostriches.

It was getting pretty late in meantime and as i didn't feel like questing i decided to farm some Runecloth to skill up my tailoring, the mobs outside Diremaul seemed like a good option. After 30mins of grinding i came across a level 58 accomponied by a level 70 going towards Diremaul East.
I decided to give them a whisper, i'd figured if i could get the key at least it would open up some options for later on... they were a couple of nice guys and they let me tag along. Some time later i actually had the key.

For some reason i decided to do a /who Dire Maul only to find out there was a level 62 lock (i was 62 aswell by that time) ánd a level 70 lock aswell as some others. OMG! I quickly whispered the 62 lock if they were going to do the mount quest by chance and they did. For a small fee i could tag along, in my enthousiasm i offered 50g which was half the other lock would have gotten and they accepted it.
I abondoned my current party (did explain them and thanked them for the boost) and moved to West as fast as i could. Luckily i had the key as they were far inside and wouldn't have been able to open the door for me.
Halfway the instance (i knew my way luckily, aswell as how to avoid patrols) the other Warlock greeted me and we ran towards the summoning circle where the stuff was already set up.
Within seconds after my arrival a Dreadsteed showed which we had to nuke down, i was given the task of enslaving the 3rd Felguard that would show but dps was so high not a single one had time to spawn. After that it's owner showed (as you are actually stealing a horse out a Dreadlord from another dimension) which we killed aswell. A big golden questionmark appeared above the spirit of the Dreadsteed and after a quick chat i got myself a new mount!

Sometimes you just have to have an unhealthy dose of luck to get something Epic.

Gonna go public with my Nerdness

I feel like a trekky now, or at least how i suppose they would feel.. but still in an embarresed sort of way.
Why? I am going to a World of Warcraft convention or whatever you want to call it: World Wide Invitational 2008 is what Blizzard is calling it themselves, has a much more fancier ring to it surely... think i'm going to use that when people who don't understand WoW ask what i'm going to do there. My GF keeps calling it Blizzcon, i guess thats sort of what it is, perhaps a bit smaller though.

So end of June i'm off to Paris (Europe) which is about a 7 hours drive from where i live in the Netherlands, not that bad a trip. (Altho in about 2 hours you can cross whole of Holland) I've booked a room just across the Expo so i can step out of bed, get some breakfast quickly and stand in front of the lines (think there will be lines at the entrance aswell?). Together with my GF, one of my best mates (both who play Wow since the beginning as i do) and my mate's GF (which he got hooked recently). I think she even is planning to copy an ingame dress to wear, i really hope she doesn't too be honest. (some people simply don't have the figure for that.. just like a short kid walking around in a Neo Matrix kind of jacket, just looks stupid)
Perhaps i'm gonna wear a T-shirt i made/ordered 1,5 year ago or so.. heavily outdated with my toons picture on it, still dressed in a mix between Giant- and Dragonstalker. (Molten Core and BWL set) Or perhaps that other shirt "Mechanical squirrels are watching", funny how that t-shirt doesn't have a gamer-vibe unless you actually play Wow.

Anyway, i'm gonna be loaded with camera's and i'm hoping i'll have some unique material to use on the blog in a couple of months.
Either way i'm sure i'm gonna have alot of fun there... can't wait to get my hands on playing the WotlK beta, ow i might even get a key for its beta or perhaps the other MMORPG Blizz is making at the moment.
The GF is already exited about the goody bag, mostly because of the code for a unique pet in it. :)

The path to being filthy Rich

It might be wishfull thinking but i'm actually am trying to raise my goldlevel a bit. Not just for the fun of it but because i've set myself an expensive goal: an Epic mount. Now training an epic mount would cost me about 510g with a mount itsself being about 85g with me being revered with my own faction. which makes a total of 595g (Holy Mathicus Batman!).
The option i'm going for is the Warlock Dreadsteed which is only obtainable by doing a serious of quests and handing over an ammount of gold and materials.
I have to pay 156g to an NPC for starters... later on in the chain i have to hand over another 250g which makes a quick total of 406g sofar.
Apart from that the materials cost about 70-90g on my server aswell. Seems i have to go through alot of trouble to save me 100g but at least i got a typical Warlock mount and a feeling of accomplishment.
I found myself a Warlock who is willing to come along and use his items which will save me an extra 150g which makes it more worthwile, that is if the Warlock isn't stoning out with the 50g i need to pay him in advance... still quite a risk.

How do i intend to get the money for this together? Well i've devised an ingenious method, two at least. (well maybe not thát ingenious)
The first one is simply picking herbs and sell them on AH, my skill is about 318 which is more then enough to pick any Azerothian flower i want... i'm scowering for Dreamfoil and Mountain Silversage which give me about 1g a piece (and often you get 2-3 when picking one plant). Ok, ok.. it's small stuff for a level 70 but with my highest character being 56 that is still pretty nice.

The other method is more risky i suppose, i plan to scout the Auction House for bargains and resell them. Now the tricky bit is i'm not sure what everything is worth so i installed an addon for that once again: Auctioneer. For those who are not aware of this addon, it can scan all the prices of items on the AH and store them for you. These prices will show up when you mouse over an item so you will also know the worth of it. It is however important you scan the AH often so abnormal prizes don't mess it up.
Auctioneer also gives quite a few handy AH functions like batch posting, scanning for bottom prices, suggestion prices when putting up an item for auction, etcetera... if you haven't used it before you will be baffled by the ammount of options and data you will get, just give yourself some time to get used to it as it will pay off in time.
I'm at the point where i'm trying to scan the AH at least once a day for a week before i start more seriously buying up stuff and reselling them.
Hopefully it will pay off as there is still a good chance an item you buy won't sell anymore.
A couple of friends played this little AH game for a while and they have more money then they are able to spend (altho they don't raid), just hope i can force myself in freeing up enough time to keep scanning and checking for bargains.

Spotting a bad pug

Now i'm starting to develop a sixth sense for spotting bad pugs... but sometimes i just want to go to an instance so badly that i just ignore the tingling of my spidey sense. So i go anyway and hope things wont be as bad as i fear. Sadly 8 of of 10 times my first impression was correct and i slap myself on the head for wasting that much time on something with such litte change of succes.

Yesterday i got asked for a Sunken Temple run, i join the party and it contains 2 Hunters, 2 Warlocks and a Rogue. Now that aint surely going to be a succes story. I wished them good luck and offered them the advice to get a tank and a healer and left the party.
Shortly after i got invited back as they had dropped the other (lower) warlock, the pets would be able to tank and the last spot would be for a healer.
Still had my doubts about a pet tank, sure i had done it in the past but it required a lot of attention of the Hunter. Apart from that the skills a pet has available is quite limited, it can't taunt and most pets don't have an area threat effect.
Most of us were pretty high level already so i guessed we had a good chance.

Shortly after a level 49 priest joined and thats when i realy got worried. The guy barely spoke English and didn't respond to any of our questions. Before we started he told us he went AFK for 2 minutes and as soon as he got back he needed 5 more minutes. By the time we started he didn't bother to buff us until after i asked in party chat 3 times and whispered him a couple of times, this was after we cleared a boss already.
There was no marking except for one of the Hunters marking an Undead mob which the Rogue needed to sap but for some mysterious reason it didn't work (/shock). I whipped out my Succubus and started to Seduce the casters then didn't attack (or Multi shot).
Soon it went bad though and we got 2 large groups. Without a tank everyone was running around like three headed monkeys and the healer was taking a serious beating.
I saw no other option then to start fearing a few mobs and soon one ran towards a 3rd group and i was just one second to late to cast Curse of Recklessnes on it to make it turn back. Long story short: we wiped.
Luckily i had soulstoned the priest just before someone ninja-pulled so at least he could rez us. But then he gave us a "got to go byebye", i told him i was hoping he was kidding and that he should use his Soulstone and rez us... but then he rezzed at the graveyard and HS'd. I couldn't refrain myself of whispering a subtle sign of my frustration to me (okay it wasn't thát subtle) and walked back to the instance.
Without any further notice the Rogue left aswell and this pug was officially over.

I had been in flight to this instance longer then i had been inside. Maybe one day i will learn to go on my instincts and save myself some valuable time.

Stoning out

No drug reference here.. i'm talking about Heartstoning out. Did you ever abandon your party this way just because you had reached your limit of what you could bare? Well i did and i must say the ammount of shit i can take is getting lower and lower.
This mostly happens in pick up groups ofcourse, from guildies you take alot more.. but less problems occur most of the time.

Yesterday i got asked to Blackrock Depths as dps on my warlock (FYI: i managed to level from 48,5 to 52 on sathurday and made it to 54 in a couple of hours before i ended my weekends wow-session) and while i did not have full confidence in every player i was happy to actually get into a instance for a change. Besides, it wasn't like i was the best warlock ever myself.
I soon found out that the guy who was leading us didn't realy know what he was doing, this protection pala did some great tanking but he didn't know the instance that well. This resulted in getting more then 1 group often or people going one way while the rest was the other way.
After a while i got most to follow me (as i knew the way) but some were still acting like kids in a toystore and i felt like the mom shouting "don't touch that!" and "get back here!".

I told the party the tactics of the first boss and the fight started. Altho i warned the healer it was a hard hitting boss the tank went down anyway, but we nuked it hard enough and it went down before he could reach the rest of the group. So what dropped? Sash of the Burning Heart, with me being the only clothie and rest of the party being a prot pala, enhancement shaman, resto druid (armory still showed him as feral) and a hunter i was happy with a hard needed upgrade... and then the druid rolled need aswell and won.
Ehm... what? Now i didn't wanna look like the whiny little bitch that left because she (or he ;) ) didn't get the loot... but this really pissed me off, people rolling on about everything just because it is blue! Add the other little frustrations and the sound of grinding teeth and i just had to heart out.

Straight away i got whispered by both the leader (the pala) and the druid who asked why i left. I told the druid it was because of him which surprised him quite a bit. I remembered him asking "can i roll need?" and before i could answer "well think it's more fit for a damage dealer" he had rolled need anyway.
When i scrolled back up i found out where the confussion started, i answered with a "yes" on the pala's question which hit the chat just straight after the druid asked the question... fuck. Miscommunication then. I was still in a bad mood but decided to come back anyway, at least the xp was nice.

More loot would drop: A tank trinket which the Enhancement Shaman won altho the Pala needed it aswell, a caster trinket which i won but the Enh. Shaman rolled need aswell, mail caster shoulders which the shaman rolled need on again and feral shoulders which the resto druid won.
I suppose this was a good example why i prefer using Masterlooter while in a pug.

The Lonely Lone Ranger

I'm on a server with my warlock alt where i know just 4 people of which 2 are below level 20. Now the other two are level 70 and i have had a couple of instance boosts which has been quite helpfull as i didn't manage to find a pug for any instance yet.
But still i feel alone (level 49 now), even with my first character i was part of a larger guild where there were often people available for some groupquesting or an instance run. Now it's just the 5 of us in this guild and it seems that all non-noobs are part of a guild and rather play with their guildmates then taking their chances on a pug, can't say i blame them as that is what i'd do on my Alliance alts aswell.

I'm worried about getting level 60 aswell because of this, as you might know Warlocks have a quests where they can earn their Epic mount (as do Paladins) which requires a couple of instance runs. With a bit of luck it will be cheaper then actually training the correct riding skill, which is nice as i only have 128gold... no where near the required ammount (of 540-480g, depending on your rep).
On the other hand getting a party together is going to be quite a pain and with my two level 70 friends playing rogues i would need at least a tank and a healer along aswell, that is.. if i want to bother them with my own little "problems" anyway.
The alternative is waiting till i'm 70 on which level i can do more solo but having an Epic mount when entering the Outlands is gonna be so very very helpfull so i'd rather not wait.

I do realise i'm not the only one with this problem by the way, there are plenty of people who are guildless and still enjoy this game. They miss out on most of the things i take for granted (like getting a good instance run) but are perhaps they don't miss it at all, ignorance is bliss aint it?
Playing more will get you more connections so for the casual player the quests which need a team effort are quite a bit more Epic.
I'm in this guild formed by two friends (called <A Pixel Too Far>, found it quite funny myself) but if i want to experience more of the game's content i might need to leave the nest and find a spot somewhere in the community.
Socializing ingame... as if doing so in RL aint bad enough.

Honorless Alliance

Yesterday evening i was playing my Horde lock (48 now) on a pvp server, i didn't choose this server myself but every now and then i get reminded how frustrating it can be playing on one. Now i myself don't find joy in pvp and that is likely why i'm not very good at playing my lock in a player versus player situation... besides killing the enemy is slowing down my leveling process, can't have that. ;-)
I passed a couple of lower Alliance toons and didn't bother with them, the one who decided to attack me (2 levels lower) didn't survive.. mostly because of the Tauren Druid who popped up out of nowhere. I also defended a Tauren Hunter who got attacked by someone but again the Alliance player was the first one who went hostile first, or at least so it seemed.

So what about the honorless bit? The first time i got killed i was about to engage some mobs when i got feared and dotted by a skull-level Priest, i didn't last long ofcourse. The second time i saw a Dwarf Hunter getting chased by a spider so i grabbed it off him, what did the bastard do? He dismounted 20meters away, bandaged himself and then popped a Mark on me... with both the mob on me as the Hunter i didn't stand a chance.
The 3rd time i went to turn in some quests when another Hunter dismounted as i passed him and started shooting and chasing me. At the questhub he caught up with me (was trying to turn in the quest myself, wasn't to bothered with him.. which was my mistake) and he killed me, fair enough.
But then he started corps camping, as i didn't want to give him another free kill i decided not to use the Soulstone just yet and waiting. So 8 minutes later he finally decided it wasn't worth the wait (even went for a drink halfway to kill time) and i could quest on. (had no use spawning near him with half health, no pet and unbuffed.. he would have spotted me in a second using humanoid tracking. I simply didn't want to risk death as i just didn't want to reward him for camping.

This behaviour did kind of match with what i've always hear people say about Alliance: most of them are kids or at least behaving as such. When i'm on my Alliance toons i do meet alot of great people aswell but i've met my share of assholes on Hordeside aswell, i wouldn't be able to say which side is worse too be honest.
On the pvp server i'm on i can tell you i'm starting to develop a strong hate for the Alliance tho, cheap low life gankers! (not all of them ofcourse)
But i guess i would have thought the same of Horde if my Alliance toons were on a PvP server aswell.

Having a level plan

I don't like questing very much... there are some beauties out there which are fun to do but there are plenty of quests which make you farm eyes of blind bats, painfull long grinds waiting for a drop which never seems to come.
As i have brought 3 toons up to level 70 and one to level 64 you can imagen i've run through the lower levels quite a few times, this does help alot with getting the most benefit out of the time spend in the lower levels.
When going to a new zone i bring along as many quests as possible and complete them in each area before going back and turning them in, that is unless there is a followup i know of which i can combine with other quests in that area.
This way i often get enough xp for at least half a bar while completing the quests and get another half for turning them in.. for example on my level 46 toon i filled 4/5th of the xp-bar yesterday in 1,5 hour by doing 5 quests (including a bad droprate quest) and turning them in, which dinged me 47 as i already had some blocks into 46 filled.

But there is a bigger plan aswell. I try to have an idea of which zones i can do best for maximum leveling speed (and minimal frustration) while as a plan B to do pre-quests for instances so that i'm ready for those should i get into a group for one unexpected.
My "zone-plan" has been as followed for the last few levels of my Bloodelf Lock (girly ofc) and upcomming ones:
34-40: Dustwellow March
40-44: Tanaris
44-47: Felwood
47-48: Tanaris
48-50: Searing Gorge
50-52: Felwood
52-53: Un'goro Crater
54-55: Burning Steppes
55-58: Plague lands

I would be able to do Searing Gorge a bit earlier but i have often done this area when i was a bit higher then required but this helps in completing the quests in record time (while most mobs are still yellow tho) which can often get me two levels on an evening. Also i expect many Alliance players to be in this zone and as i am on a PvP server with my lock being a few levels higher might help scaring them off.
Altho i'd rather step through the Dark Portal into the Outlands at level 60, the upgrades there will be very helpfull so i won't go doing damned Silithus quests just to get to 60... if i happen to be a few levels short i can always get an extra level in Winterspring.

So lets link the above plan with a timeline, it all depends on how much time i can spend on it ofcourse and if i get sidetracked for a nice instancerun.
I'm at the 3rd step going back to Tanaris to complete some quests there which should take me about 2 hours tops, filling the evening i would be able to complete the SG bit in a morning (if i manage to get up early) and a small bit of the afternoon this weekend
If i don't go braindead of questing i expect to be able to get the lock around level 52 at the end of this week, the next 6-8 levels might take me a bit more time (as i need to attend some raids aswell on my main) but within 2 weeks i surely will set foot into the Outlands, ready to be ganked by level 70 Alliance swooping in on their Netherdrakes... great fun.
Well at least you can tell the plan is there, now lets see how the execution of it will go.

Work > Wow (sadly enough)

Very very busy at work at the moment.. and not been able to play Wow either last few days either, i wonder if i'm going to live through this.
Doing a proper post soon, wish me luck till then.

Smashy smashy Orc

So yesterday i logged my Lock and was about to get out of Orgrimmar for some questing when the following suddenly unraffled:

Yozshura points at you. (orange)
Omina eye's Yozshura up and down.
[Yozhura]: How Rude!
[Me]: Hey.. you started it! impolite to point.
[Yozhura]: nun uh i was pointing over your shoulder!
[Me]: well you missed then ;)
[Yozhura]: *evils*
[Yozhura]: Your getting the evils next time
[Me]: lol.. i'm a lock.. i AM evil ;)
[Yozhura]: :o
[Yozhura]: i am smashy smashy orc
[Me]: :) /comfort
[Yozhura]: Why comfort me when i am a smashy smashy orc :S
[Me]: ow sorry.. didnt want to interrupt your ignorance.. carry on
[Yozhura]: It's quite orite i will continue
[Yozhura]: Look at me shamsy smashy :D
[Me]: hehe.. and ur so goood at it /applaud
[Yozhura]: /bow /bow You are a good audience thank you thank you
[Me]: *throws 3 copper in the hat*
[Yozhura]: only 3 copper?
[Yozhura]: i am worth 1 silver
[Me]: hey im only level 41...
[Me]: thats like 2% of my entire fortune
[Yozhura]: *Cries*
[Me]: can toss in some extra [Bloodthistle] ?
[Yozhura]: SOLD!!
[Me]: you're easily pleased... i like that in a man ;)
[Yozhura]: Excellent!!

So what this this useless little chat gain me you might wanna know? (or not but i'm gonna tell anyway) Besides the fun of the chat itsself (conversation is a lost art) it netted me a boost through Zul'Farrak!
He told me he was gonna boost someone and asked if i wanted to tag along, how could i refuse such an offer? I didn't get a reasonable instance run on this toon as in like forever. After a succesfull run (1,8 xp bar after handing in the quests) i even walked home with some loot.

Shows the unexpected things which can happen in an online game, even some pleasant ones ;) And the second morale of this story: it's nice to have friends in high places...

/Tap

Anyone who has ever teamed up with someone in Wow (which is quite likely everyone in a online game like this) must have dealed with a period of waiting... brb!




Ok back, sorry for that.. cat just threw up all over the floor! Sounds somewhat familiar?
Now the more people you are teamed up, the bigger the chance an untimely AFK break happens. The reason for this break can be a computer/internet failure but it can also be caused by GF or mom aggro (which are the most used "excuses"). Some people are more creative then tho though, the first one that comes to my mind i had someone use on me was "a car just drove through my wall!"
Now in most cases i do my very best to believe people and just wait till they are back, in some situations that's harder to believe ofcourse.

A while back we had a guildy who would go AFK just when we had sorted the raid, often just outside the instance. Normally you disconnect after 15 minutes or so but this guy managed to stay online for hours while being "away". Imho he was just grinding dkp (as we reward backup dkp).
But he also did this halfway during raids inside the instance and we were left a man short all of the sudden with no chance of replacing him.
In case of an essentiall class (mostly tank or healer) this will result in 9 or 24 other people waiting for this guy to come back ór to DC so he can be replaced, if any replacement is even available.
The mentioned guildy had excuses i personally found hard to believe, or he has a very stupid friend who manages to get himself into a hospital every few weeks... and too be honest, would you've been called up straight away if a friend of you ended up in a hospital with a non-fatal accident?
This was another failed trial candidate by the way.

Another irritating thing about unplanned AFK's is the chain reaction... person A. DC's or runs off to the toilet with immenent diarea and after a few minutes person B. decides to go get himself a drink while he's waiting anyway and stays away long enough to brew his own beer. If you're unlucky person C. makes a break for it aswell, etcetera. Ofcourse there are people who can stretch out a run endlessly just on their own.
Perhaps this little post can kill some time while you're waiting for your tank to catch the rabid squirrel bouncing around i his living room.

For the Horde!

Yep... thats me! Or at least one of my many alts.. but as my highest Horde alt has been level 12 so far this is quite unique. So yesterday i dinged level 40 and i got my little lock a nice flaming horsey.
I was so happy i rode to Badlands and Swamp of Sorrows which made me realise how much harder it is for Horde to get to other zones, they have to ride through Alliance zones to get there.. not fair at all! (/comfort low level horde)

What is weird to me aswell: i'm practically alone on this server. A few friends have some low level toons but they don't play them, not even my GF is actively playing an alt there. The only two people i know are guys i met ingame who moved server two years ago but they are level 70 and spend their time in Arena's and Battlegrounds (not done any Outlands instance... can barely imagen that).
It's pretty hard getting an instance party together when you know no one, which is kind of a shame (tried the LFG tool with little succes) as it is one of the more amusing bits in this game.

Can't wait till the next non-raid day and continue leveling her, just 1/2 bar till Death coil. :P

Outgearing content

Yesterday i had an insanely easy heroic with some guildies (BM, which was the daily) which offered little challenge. We joked we might aswell 5-man Karazhan and afterwards we decided to actually give The Huntsman a shot.
So me (on my Hunter), a Feral Tank, a Resto Druid, a Warlock and a Mage stepped into Karazhan.

Too be honest the trash is what concerned me the most so the Mage got his Shadowpriest in for the trash so we had some extra crowdcontrol. Maybe it was because we were so focused but it turned out to be one of the smoothest trashclears i've ever had on that bit.
The huntsman didn't proof much of a challenge either, our Tank could easily take the beating.. our healer didn't even get close to running out of mana (even HoT'ed the lock so he could lifetap) and dps was more then sufficient to keep the fight relative short.

Our healer had to go so it stopped there but too be honest not all the bosses are doable with just 5 people, you simply will be short some people for certain events. Moroes needs 2 tanks for example and a lot of CC, Maiden would have been very doable if the Mage got his Priest again for cleansing, Oz in the Opera would have been tricky but again doable. Curator might be a bitch with lots of dps needed on the flares but i guess we would have had a good shot at him aswell.
At certain bosses we would have to try and deal with the boss in different ways, at Aran we'd have to just let him sheep us, kill the elementals and then continue on the boss himself. Illhoof might be a bitch if our only healer got sacrifced but swapping my hunter for my enhancement shaman so i could heal him at that point could have been a sollution to that. Prince himself would be very doable again i guess if one healer should proof sufficient, the biggest problem might be mana in this fight... perhaps bringing a mana battery would help in that case.

All and all an interesting idea which i wouldn't mind trying out soon, alot better then hanging around in Shattrah.
I guess players keep looking for new challenges, even better if it shows just how much you have "grown".

I'm Scawed!

You can't tell me that there isn't a bossevent you fear... i think there is this fight everyone dreads that he is going to fuck things up for his raid.
A fight you'd rather miss but often can't as your guild/raid needs you.

Mine was Leotheras the Blind for quite a while; This boss spawns inner demons on a few random people throughout the figth and you will have to kill yours (others can't help) before the time runs out.
If you can't kill it you will get mindcontrolled and the raid doesn't just lose a player, they gain an enemy. When we just started this boss the Hunters still had a pretty big deadzone and as pets didn't get the aggro you would need to kite this demon.
Kiting takes time and as a Beastmaster my Arcane shot wasn't as powerfull as of a Marksman hunter so often it was a close call. After some reading up i found out i could use the pet as extra damage dealer (and for one stun to keep it at range) without still getting MC'd (as was the deal before when the pet got the killing blow).
This made it alot easier.
When they removed most of our deadzone shortly after it became even more trivial, i had nothing to fear anymore. But when we just started Leo i'd would get a near heartattack when i saw this demon comming at me.

Depending on your class people seem to be afraid of different fights. At Leo it seemed to be Hunters (at first), Warriors and Locks (who needed the time for dots to tick, probably affliction locks mostly).
In the Black Temple loads of people fear Teron Gorefiend where random people get control over a spirit which needs to kill at least 4 adds before those wipe the raid. Some don't have too much problem with this but those who are a bit less focused or slower with their reactions do.

Overcomming this fear is your own little victory and is best done by actually beating that event you fear so much. Once you've managed to beat it you will be more confident next time, but when it beats you.. next time will be even harder.
State of mind is the key here i suppose.
I remember myself shouting "Take thát Bitch!!" when i kicked my demons butt for the first time, you might imagen how relieved i was after that.
There are probably more examples of certain classes clashing with certain events but i'll leave it to this for now (as i can't think of any at the moment anyway).
Good luck fighting your own fears out there, in virtual or real world ;)