Brewmaster

After disturbing the peace in Dalaran with my dancing in brewfest regalia and joining the brew of the moth club I'm now Brewmaster Astrantia!

And while I'm very proud to be brewmaster, I also feel compelled to tell readers that it is purely a coincidence that that the first world event title I earn is the one that is all about drinking and doing crazy things when drunk. Really it is. It's true, I swear. I would never dance in silly clothing in a public place irl (oh wait, I did just that when I was a student)....well I would never....I wouldn't jump drunk (or sober) from the top of a temple. That I wouldn't do.

Hic...!

Oh...and btw...

...I got the Drunken Stupor achievement tonight by throwing myself, smashing drunk, in cat form into the middle of Wyrmrest Temple in front of the surprised eyes of Lord Afrasastrasz.

I don't think he approved.

Tomorrow I will hopefully dance drunk in full brewfest regalia in Dalaran.

Note to all children playing WoW (and adults too come to think of it): do not try these things in everyday life!

Semi blind in Howling Fjord

Tamarind's post over at Righteous Orbs where he praises his new laptop made me think when I did a quest in Howling Fjord on my way to ding 80. The mission of the quest was to harpoon three different buildings on the other side of the water (I guess it was the other side of a fjord ) and set them on fire.

I tried several times to hit the buildings but failed because I couldn't really make out where the hell the buildings were located. Then a nice soul pointed out that I might need to adjust my video settings a bit. This was in the days when I had my stoneage laptop so I had every setting as low as possible as not to lag and I had really forgot there was other options than my see-as-far-as-my-outsteched-arm-goes settings. And when I did change the settings for distance, my god - it was like "Oh I'm not blind anymore! I can see! I can see!" The fog lifted and I could see the buildings I was too harpoon on the other side of the fjord. I could see a lot of other things too, like the not so very small Utgarde Keep. I set the buildings on fire in no time. So easy!

I really would have liked to keep my hawkeye sight but the downside of it made the game lag so I could hardly move around. So when having the choice between being half blind or semi-paralyzed I chose being very nearsighted again.

These days though I too have a new laptop and my WoW world is so bright I almost have to wear shades.

From here to eternity (and yes it's a mighty long way)

I have been to Eye of Eterity four or five times now and Malygos is still flying in the sky laughing at us. The first two phases aren't that complicated from a healer perspective: in phase 1 just heal away (use only instant casts when vortex) and in phase 2 just heal away and run and stand inside the pink shields that pops up here and there on the platform. But phase 3 is where things go, well...not very good.

Sometimes I manage to put myself on follow to a person claiming to know how to move around Malygos but those times it seems everyone else is scattered about and out of reach to healing. Sometimes I fail att putting myself on follow and that is where the real problems start. This may sound very, very stupid but when I drop down on the dragon I seem to loose all sense of direction. There is just starry sky everywhere and I don't know what is up or down or back or forth. I know I can locate everyone else on the minimap but even if they are nicely grouped up (which they mostly are not by the way) I too often seem not to be in line with them vertically and I don't know if they are above or below me. Sometimes I feel I might be flying upside down for all I know, that is how lost I am.

The thing is I need some landmark to be able to navigate. I'm like that in real life too. I have absolutely no sense of "oh, this way must be north". When in new places I very likely take the wrong turn to where I'm going, making the way to my destination ridiculously longer than it has to be but when I have been somewhere once I remember the surroundings and find my way.

To me one one pixelated star in the sky looks exactly the same as any other and then I'm lost. And Malygos is laughing another week at our group who most likely resemble headless chickens when flapping around him.

What do you expect, just kill and loot?

I don't get it when people complain about repair bills when raiding. I mean, raiding is volontary isn't it? If you are not prepared for some dying, don't go and you will save those 40 or 50 gold.

Very simple really.

(And if the perceptive reader note a certain irritation with people going "What-we-wiped-now-you-can-pay-my-repair-bill-since-I'm-so-great-it-can't-have-been-my-fault-in-any-way", yes you are perfectly right. )

WoW quiz for parents

WoW is not a game just for teenagers. I know there are many parents roaming Azeroth. And since you have always wondered, now you can test: What kind of WoW race is your child?

1. You are on the beach with the family. What does your child do?

A) Goes "Mrrrggglll....gllllrrggll..", collect sea shells and takes a bite of a fish that has been stranded near you.

B) Starts digging for possible hidden treasures on the beach. Manage to sell beach sticks, stones and seaweed to other visitors as souvenirs.

C) Goes "Yey, this is the best place! And the sea is so BIG! Can I please take one of these beutiful sea shells with me home to show my friends?"

D) Kicks sand in the eyes of other children and says "The sea, what about it? It's only water. It ain't that big either."

2. You ask your child to tidy up his/her room. The response from your child is:

A) "Grrrgggglll...murrrgggglll". Your child runs around in his/her room a bit randomly,

moves things about, at times stopping to chew on an interesting toy.

B) "How much do you pay me if I clean my room right now?

C) "Yey, cleaning! I'll make all my things really shiny, just you wait and see!"

D) Slamming the door to his/her room shouting "Cleaning is stupid! "

3. How is your child doing in school?

A) The pre school teacher says your child is very enthusiastic but he/she needs to improve his/her speech a bit and also it is a problem that your child chews up all the pencils in sight.

B) Since you agreed to pay your child to get good grades school is going very well. The teacher says your child have a real talent for maths.

C) "Yey school! I get to see my friends every day and the teachers are nice too!"

D) "School is stupid. Noone need to teach me nothing. You want to tell me differently I'm gonna punch you in the face!"

4. When your child grows up he/she wants to

A) live on the beach in a tiny hut and study marine life.

B) become very rich.

C) become a jeweller. To get to work with shiny things every day: yey!

D) take revenge on everyone who wronged him/her when he/she was a child. Let them see who is the biggest one now!

Result:

Note that your child's WoW-race is not static and might be subject to change over the years.

Mostly anwer A

Your child is a murloc. Your child might be tiny, run around at random, speak a language that is mostly unintelligible and sometimes be annoying but you can't help to find her/him very cute and lovable anyway.

Mostly answer B
Your child is a goblin. With his/her knack for business your child will find business opportunities around every corner and the odds are that he/she will have made his/her first heap of gold before hitting 15. As a parent you might worry your child misses out on the more non materialistic aspects of life but don't worry: in this case money can buy happiness.

Mostly answer C

Your child is an oracle: full of joy for all the wondrous things life has to offer and always prepared to see the bright side of life. With his/her sunny personality your child is sure to make you feel like the best parent ever. Yey!

Mostly answer D

Your child is a wolvar. The outside might be cuddly but hides a fierce personality. Your child will never forget a wrongdoing but will also be very loyal to those he/she loves. Your child will always go her/his own way in life no matter what.

Rofl of the day

Maybe I'm a complete noob and you all know this site but if you don't, go to http://www.wowbash.com/ and have the laugh of the day.

And btw, you also have to read this post over at Righteous Orbs. It might be the funniest post of all times in a wow-blog.

Brewfest

Time for drinking, eating sausages and bashing Coren Direbrew in Blackrock Depts!
I drank all the beers for the drinking achievement so fast that my screen blurred and then I tasted all the brewfest food for the food achievement. I felt a bit dizzy and sick afterwards.

No luck on the Coren Direbrew daily. I didn't get a single drop.

This year I will try to get the Pint-Sized pink Elekk and a membership in the Brew of the Month Club.

Moonkin in Naxx

Yesterday the Naxx25 run from Monday was continued and this time I joined. As dps! Yes, I got to be the raid's furry (feathery) friend of the night. So much fun and in a way very relaxing not to be the one to have to worry abouth the health of other people and instead just have to think "kill, kill, kill!".

Spider Wind and Plague quarter was down when we started and so was Patchwerk. The Grobbulus fight was less than perfect with people dropping off mutating injections randomly around the room instead of at the walls which made it really difficult not to stand in poison since poison was almost everywhere. Still Grobbulus was killed on first try.

Gluth on the other hand was a different matter. At first the dual specced dps that were supposed to tank the zombie adds didn't realise that they needed to switch into tank gear for the kiting. Then the healer that were assigned to heal the zombie kiters felt the overwhelming urge to go bear form instead of tree with the result that the kiters died of lack of healing. When some sense had been talked into the healer I dc'd in such a major way I had to reboot my pc to get back on and of course Gluth was killed while I was staring at my log in screen.

We had one and half try on Thaddius but I think everyone was getting tired and an accidental pull on Stalagg and Feugen made everyone feel that it was time to go to bed.

Beaten by beasts

Yesterday we had a go at Trial of the Crusader 10 man normal. I had put the raid time to 21.00 and the other day our guild master scheduled Naxx25 at 22.00 which gave us a whole hour to take on the Northrend beast and the Twin Valkyrs. I'm not entirely sure if he was extreamly confident in our awsomeness and expected us just to go in and blast the bosses or if the thought we'd just totally fail and in that case one hour would be quite enough time for that, thank you very much.

As it was we didn't do too well but that was expected. Learning always take time. As it was, first time we tried one of the tanks died on Gromok the Impaler and I battle rezzed him, but then the other one died too and facing the two jormungars with only one tank is not the way to go. Second try one of the healers (not me) died after about 3 seconds because he got roasted in one of the fire spots. Gromok died but two healers on the jormungars was not enough. Third try my mind hit a lag spike and I totally forgot to move anywhere so I died of fire. Fourth try actually went well until one of the tanks dc'd just before Gromok died and we again only had one tank to face the jormungars. On the fifth try Gromok went down fine and everyone was alive but we didn't manage to get very far on the two worms. After that there was no time for more wiping since Naxx25 was on, which might have been just as well since I was dead tired.

I didn't join for Naxx (and as always I felt a tiny bit bad for skipping a raid) but instead did the daily hc (DTK and not HoS thankfully) with (a nice) PUG and then went to bed.

Koralon the Flame Watcher

What to say about the new boss in VoA, Koralon the Flame Watcher?
Don't stand in fire and heal like crazy when he throws fire on raid. That's about it. But I repeat: don't stand in fire on the ground. To add that extra dimension of trickiness to that one the floor itself is sort of glowing in the middle (think HoS escort event room) so if you stand there the fire might a bit hard to see.

Don't be too slow on the dps because Koralon has a stackable buff that increases his damage by 5% every 20 seconds. If you take too long killing him the buff will have stacked so high that the tanks can't take the damage.

Oh, and one more thing: Koralon must be Ignis the furnace Master's twin brother. They look exactly the same down to the slag pot worn around the waist.

20 minutes I tell you!

Ok, for all of those who don't know (and I do understand that not everyone knows everything about druids): Cooldown on druid battle rez is 20 minutes!

This means that however awsome player you are I cannot resurrect you during battle for quite awhile if another player has been resurrected recently. You can spam me all you want both in raid chat and in whispers but it will not happen. Sorry. But. It. Is. Beyond. My. Control.

And while I'm at it: why is it dps players that most frequently insist on being battle rezzed and then get miffed if they don't?

Nil skills as a knight

Tonight I sat on my borrowed Argent Tournament nightsaber contemplating my complete lack of skill in jousting. I'm clearly not knight material I thought. For the nth time one of the cities champion had told me I had to practice a bit more if I was to defeat him or her and you didn't have to be Einstein to hear that was just a gallant way to say I sucked.

Then came another player and she rapidly jousted three consceutive champions into submission in like one minute flat. Not very encouraging at first. But I watched how she did it (green with envy behind my keyboard) and then I tried again with a new, improved (and copied) tactic. And lo and behold I managed to defeat three champions in a row! Now I only need...eh ...22 more valiant's seals. Piece of cake really...

HoS today...again

Halls of Stone has been the daily hc every other day on our server lately. I'm sure my dislike for the escort quest in there increases the probability for it to be the daily with at least 50 percent. Or it's like a player in the guild said:
"All other Northrend instance bosses have bribed the guy in Dalaran not to be chosen for the daily hc, but poor Sjonnir the Ironshaper is locked into his room and can't get out and so his instance becomes the daily hc almost every day."

Yes, I could believe that too. I never really have trusted that daily hc quest guy...

Cry to Blizzard: The trees need some love too!

As of patch 3.2 cat and bear druid can style their appearence by changing hair colour. But us trees have no other option than too look as usual. Which is, if you are to be frank, quite ugly.

Tree of life is actually quite a misgiving description. We look more like we have had a hard night out (or more possibly several hard night out in a row and suffering heavy of sleep deprivation), with a gnarled look and withering leaves. Where is the greenery and life in tree of life form I wonder?

Isn't it time that all resto druid spam Blizzard with requests for more variation, fun and glamour for the trees? I won't go as far as to suggest that we should be able to change with the season (although it would be sort of nice to heal as a christmas tree in the holiday season) but even a tree want to look good. Please, please Blizzard?

Many wipes and one kill

One of our strengths when raiding I think is the patience guild members show when things doesn't go smoothly or according to plan. Last night we were in Ulduar and wiped repeatedly on Ignis. Although we are improving slowly we haven't really got the hang of how to manage the golem adds who tend to run off and kill the healers before they can be shattered. After several tries we gave up on Ignis (or rather told ourselves that he might weaken a bit if we left him to stew for another week) and moved on to Kologarn which we usually down quite easily. Not tonight though. I think it took us five tries to kill him and on at least three of the tries Kologarn was under 20% when things went bad and we died.

This much wiping in one night can really put a strain on a raid party. People can get irritated and start blaming each other, complain about repair costs or just quit group. But that didn't happen. Instead we managed to focus on that we at least lasted longer on Ignis than last time we tried him and that being close to down Kologarn on the failed tries meant that we would probably make it next time.

I think this attitude is a very valuable thing. I think one of the fun things with the game is to experience new places and new bosses and to do things that is a challenge. Then you can't give up too easily and you shouldn't be afraid of failure every now and again. Most boss fight is very much about learning what to do without having to think too much about it (run in the right direction, move to the right place, heal people extra at certain times, avoid fire/ice/flying objects) and that takes practice even if you are well geared. And if you look at it that way then wiping isn't just wasted time, it's learning that takes you closer to the kill.

Purple is the new blue

With patch 3.2 and getting emblems of conquest from heroics epics are truly the new blue, item wise. Before patch it was difficult to gear up via heroics because so many players didn't need any loot from there and didn't find it worth the effort to go there but now almost everyone want to do at least the daily heroic and many want to run any heroic to get emblems. I think it's a good change since now there really is no good excuse not to be at leat reasonably geared when you start raiding. I know there are people complaining it's too easy to get epics nowdays but I think the Blizzard tactic of trying to make as many players as possible to get to experience all end game content at least to some degree is quite the way to go. After all, I guess Blizzard has put a lot of effort in developing the game, then it would be a bit of a waste if only a selected few hard core raiders would be geared enough to see end game content. I mean don't we all want to face the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel one day and be able to have a chance to survive, even if only in 10 player normal mode?