Poor thing

This poor, neglected blog. What to say. Real life takes a lot of time and almost nothing is left to keep up my WoW life. Too bad.

Right now the guild events I try to participate in every week are ICC25 on Thursdays and ICC10 on Sundays. One could call our Icecrown Citadel advances slow as in a pace a snail wouldn't have problems to keep up with but we do move forward and most often do six bosses every week on 10 man. But six bosses is about what we have time for in one run and since we haven't yet exended our 10 man raids now I begin to feel we are stuck in an endless loop beginning with Marrowgar and ending with either Festegut or Rotface.

Speaking about Festegut and Rotface, what's with mad scientists and their preferences for family members built of spare parts of some sort? We have Mirmion in Ulduar with his X2 Deconstructor and in Icecrown Professor Putricide has assembled the twins (did he build one first of random body parts and then cloned it since they look exactly the same?). I can understand both the professor's and Mirmion's difficulties in finding a partner to start a family with but to think about thier parental instincts being so strong they literally build their families themselves (mad scientists and single parents!). It's quite endearing in a way (and Festegut and Rotface even have thir own pets).

We don't talk about me being senile and don't go half naked

I definitely have to post more. This morning when I was about to log in I had completey forgot my blogger login for this blog!

But this post is not about me being senile (let's forget about that very quickly...hmmm) but about gems and enchants. I have to say I really don't understand players who don't put gems and enchants on their current gear because they think what they are wearing is just transit to something better. What kind of logic is that? If you feel your gear is not top of the line even more reason to gem or enchant to boost it a bit. I'm not a gear fascist in the way that I think everyone in a group should be geared to the teeth but I do find it a bit sloppy to go into a place like ICC with empty gem slots. Maybe you can't have the best items in game but you can certainly do the best you can with the stuff you do have. You don't even have to go for the top gems or enchants if you find it too expensive. Blue gems (as in rare not necessarily in colour) can do nicely and sometimes the extra gold required for some 10 more of a stat on a weapon that the top enchant might not be worth it but then go for second best. Don't be afraid to sparkle. Shinies are good for you!

Random update

I'm sorry for the not very frequent posting. Since we had the flu in November the whole family has taken turns coughing and having colds. I also have a new assignment at work that need my attention so less WoW at the moment. '

But: we have finally progressed beyond Lady Deathwisper in ICC (don't ask why we have had such difficulties with her because I really can't explain) which meant I have got to do the gunship battle. Oh, what fun it was! I loved jumping between the ships. And Muradin Bronzebeard sounding like a true sailor.

I also couldn't help but laugh at our bear tank. In bear form it doesn't look as if the rocket jet pack is attached to your back, it looks as if it's sticking out from your butt! I don't know if bear farts but if he did he would probably gone out in orbit around Azeroth...

Pug ToC10 pissing contest

We raid two nights a week now in guild which is quite enough really but yesterday I felt a bit bored after having done the compulsory daily random hc so I put myself in queue for ToC10. (By the way, with the pimped new lfg-system (sorry, dungeon finder system) how come the looking for raid interface got stashed away in what is the WoW equivalent to the basement with a sign on the door "Tigers, do not enter"? )

Quite soon a group formed, we entered the now very familiar room that is the boring setting for the raid and I had barely crossed the threshold when I realised this was not going to be a raid as much as it was going to be a pissing contest. Recount was spammed contantly, people bragged about their achievements, how easy the game is nowdays ("Pre nerf C'thun, that was the times") and people would probably had tossed their gear to measure the size of privat parts if it hadn't affected their dps unfavourably.

The run left me wondering: are there players who join groups with the sole purpose to get the chance to tell other people how awsome they are? And could maybe Blizzard include a box you could tick in the looking for group system so that those players can come together whithout having to endure people like me who just keep quiet and heal and don't show them the admiration and worship the deserve.

Leeroy Astrantia

Last night in ToC25 i completely lost my mind. We had just wiped on the Twin Valkyrs for the second time. I was standing to the left with people with supposing to have white buffs and I thought maybe I should change colours to black so we could better control the black orbs on that side. Raid leader said ok and I head for the black essence. But the wrong one. The one just next to Eydis Darkbane...She was not pleased I tell you. I just heard the raid leader gasp "Oh no!" before I went splat.

Since everything happened so quickly and I think everyone else was busy with sorting out their own colours I was the only one to get aggro and then the whole encounter reset and the twins disappeared.

So no wipe. But one ashamed tree.

Forgive me my stupid look, it's in the name of the stats

Has Astrantia turned engineer and this is her home made effort of a weapon, pieced together perhaps from some scattered about parts from Flame Leviathan with a light bulb attached on it for more glamour? Oh, it's the Argent Resolve (which I guess is some spare parts from Flame Leviathan with a light bulb attached on it for more glamour, digested by Anub'arak). Now I just need a Shriveled Heart to go with it and I will look very stupid (cog wheel in one hand and something looking like a maracas in the other) but hopefully my healing will be so awsome people will not notice my appearence....hmm.

Hall of Reflections x 2

Last night I got annoyed at myself for not having done Hall of Reflections so I boldly pugged it on hc to get a chance to complete the "Wrath of the Lich King" quest. When we were done (with my very limited experience of the place I think HoR might be a place were a good tank makes all the difference in the first part with the spirits attacking and the paladin tank we had in the group was very good) I looked at my quest and it was completed and without thinking I left the instance and only afterwards I realised I should have turned it in to Jaina Proudmore when we had escaped the Lich King. I went back to the instance, sneaked past a lonely respawn in the corridor up to the Lich King's throne room and run the escape path again (minus the Lich King and the ghouls) but Jaina was already gone.

I felt very stupid but nothing in the quest said it had to be completed on heroic so I put myself in queue for the instance on normal and did the whole thing all over again but in easier mood. In the new group was a hunter who turned out to be a selfish idiot. Apparently he wanted a pair of boots from the first boss and when they dropped he promptly needed them and left. Which left the rest of us having to fight the rest of the spirits with only four people since the warlock that replaced him couldn't get inside the instance because we were in combat. Thanks a lot. Then I escaped the Lich King for the second time the same night but this time the group tagged along after him which made the whole escape thing feel more than a bit weird especially at the end when Jaina shouts about us having to prepare for our last fight and the boulders start to fall down to block the entrance and we had to run not to be trapped on the side with the Lich King. (If the entrance gets blocked and you still were on the inside would you be able to run though the boulders or would the Lich King turn and say "Oh there you are..."?)

I also realised how I could have missed to complete the quest the first time. The question mark above Jaina's head is obscured by her lengthy talking but this time I was staring at her until she was finished (as opposed to the first time when I ran up the stairs and portaled to quickly) and then was given my two emblems of Frost.

We are of course lucky that he doesn't seem to be in better shape but the Lich King is one slow pursuer that is for sure. Jaina is like "Hurry, hurry he is coming!" and you are tempted to reply "But I can hardly see him moving".

Whining makes the trick?

Yesterday I was complaining on how I'm out of favor vith the RNG deity and I think my whining was heard and to prove me wrong I did win not one but two items in yesterday night's ToTC25 raid: Ring of the Darkmender and Vestments of the Shattered Fellowship. Now I definately have to sacrifice a dice and a random number to show how grateful I am.

By the way, I don't know what it is with us and Anub'arak. We just can't get it right. In theory we know what to do and sometimes it goes really well for a while and every now and then we actually begin to think we might kill the bug this week but then something goes wrong and we all die.

Am I the only one in the WoW universe who has still not done Hall of Reflections? I have only been there once and then only got so far as to kill the first boss. I can't say I'm fond of instances that even slightly remind me of Black Morass (waves of mobs and if you fail you have to start all over again) so HoR will probably never be my favourite instance even though I imagine the running from the Lich King part should be interesting (maybe that is not the right word but fun seems even more wrong).

One more thing in this post that turn out to be rather random: why are there no Boots of Wintry Endurance for sale in the auction house anymore?

Bad luck

I don't know how but I must have offended the RNG god/godess/gods big time because it seems absolutely impossible for me to get drops from raids or instances anymore. I don't think I have won anything in a raid for....well it must be over two months now. Oh wait, I'm lying, I actually did win what I thought was new bracers in ToC10 one time but afterwards it turned out I must have been blind (or overexcited that some spell power leather dropped at all) and they were no bracers at all but a pair of shoulders that I had no use for.

I start to think I should just accept the fact that I will never roll any number higher than 20 anymore or maybe I should build a small altar in front of the pc dedicated to the RNG diety and burn some incence and sacrifice a dice every time rolls are on in raid. That might work. Or my laptop will be set on fire.