Boring? Hellz no!

So even though Ogre thinks my job is boring…  I beg to differ.  Tonight, I get to take over 200 people to dinner.  Yes, it’s a bit expensive, but it’s fun.  Not to mention, I am one of ~5 people that have an open bar.  The rest have a cash bar.  J  The glass is free for them though, so that counts for something, right?

Of course, this does mean that I started work at 0800 and won’t be done until around 2100…  But considering it’s only the second day this week I’m working 12+ hrs in one day, that’s not bad…  I mean, the other 3 days were 8 hr days, so I mean that only puts me to like 48hrs.  Plus the 20hr MBA.  A 68hr work week isn’t too terrible, right?

A poem

Well, it’s probably more a chant, but whatever.  I just thought I’d share Calvin & Hobbes’ chant to bring more snow:

 

Snow snow, high and low

Wherever we go, let it blow

To and fro, hi de ho

Snow snow snow.

 

Yes, I know that we got like 18-20” yesterday, but I’m cool with more snow.  What can I say, I think it’s pretty.  It’s also fun to drive in (only when there’s so much that no one else is out – I don’t worry about my driving, just the other idiots).  And, it closes offices, schools, etc.  Well, not here, everything keeps operating as usual.  Though when I went home for lunch my boss told me to just take my comp & work from home rather than come back in, so that was cool.  Thus I was working on one comp and camping the spirit beast on the other, lol.  One of these days I will find one and tame it!!!

Ahh, being right...

I love being right…  Well, I’d much rather be happy than right any day, but that’s ok…  And no, that post wasn’t about being afraid of change…  It was an analysis of the changes from the patch, and a guess that Bliz was going to overdo the changes (aka hunter nerfs).

“So yes, lots and lots of changes for hunters.  Time to go relearn the class again, change shot rotations, and see where our DPS lies when all the dust settles.  Or, just wait until the next patch when they fix some of the mistakes/overbalances of above in typical Bliz fashion.” –Xanther

And what am I referencing here, about being right?  GC saying it aloud.  In case you don’t have time to link and read, GC says they probably over-nerfed BM Hunters, and will most likely fix it in the relative future.  So the mini-patch this week fixed the aspect bug that they created with 3.0.8, and soon they’ll buff hunters to undo some of what they did.  And then, being bliz, they’ll overdo it again and we’ll bounce back and forth, back and forth.  Ever changing.  My friend agrees w/ me though – don’t sweat it.  I mean, if they didn’t have patches and change the game periodically, we’d be lvl 60 instead of 80 and still running around old kingdom…  Or we’d have gotten bored and quit by now.

Why Post?

Why post on a blog multiple times a week, or in the case of some people multiple times in one day?

Because they’re bored and have nothing better to do with their time.  Ok, that’s obviously not the case for me, so there has to be a different reason…  I’m gonna go with ‘because it breaks up the day and gives you 5 minutes to completely sidetrack’.

I mean, there’s plenty to say, be it randomness, or a lack of sleep, but we could just say those things or not say them.  There’s nothing forcing us to (because we don’t have an achievement system yet, lol).  So it’s truly just for the fun of it, and to take a break from something else.  Well, that and if we didn’t post very often, people would most likely stop reading it.

Or then there’s the reason to post because you have a purely ulterior motive.  Like telling you that after well over 3,000 casts since 3.0 (aside from going for, and achieving, Accomplished Angler, I’ve only been fishing for this…), I finally found a Giant Sewer Rat last night!!!

Lolz

Only in WoW can you have a convo about beavers and everyone in the group dies of laughter.  Lol.

Holdaiz!

I know, WoW care-bear-content-junkie…

But I think they’re fun.  Granted, the Lunar Festival isn’t my fav of the holidays, but I still think it’s cool.  You know what I think the greatest thing about them is?  That they give you a reason to traipse around all of WoW, including old-world.  It’s similar to the World Explorer achievement, but better because you also get xp (or rep) for talking to the elders.  And even if you’re 80 with all factions at exalted…  You still get to run around and go “oh yeah, I remember when I was running through here as a lvl XX..”

I can tell you though, I fully plan to run some of my alts around for the rep, xp and fp’s.  It helps that Lady X & I can run 4 chars at once, so we can always take around an 80 to clear the way, lol, but it’s still fun.  And since Nyl & Datouv hit 70 last weekend, they get their flying mounts this weekend (haven’t had time to get them yet, lol) and will be able to join in the hunt around Outlands for elders too! (easier & faster than on ground mount, like Kurandel & Rorii will have to do, lol)  I doubt we have time for them to hit 75 before the end of the festival, so I don’t think they’ll earn the title, but you can bet they’ll have all the other achievements for it!

//EDIT:  /snif... No Outlands elders.  Guess they're all young'ns there.  Oh well, no need to spend the G on flying mounts yet, lol (though we probably will anyway).

/cheer & /cry

Yes’m, /cheer & /cry in the same heartbeat.  (this is a /rant, so quit reading if you don’t want to read a /rant, lol).  Haven’t tossed in much RL here, and this just blows my mind, so I figured I’d share.

So yes, the office that is responsible for a set of records during a certain span of the record’s life…  I need to have them pull a list of a specific group within their records, and give it to me to utilize for something productive.  So it’s cool, I send down the request, expecting to receive it in like 2 weeks (about 1.5 weeks longer than it should take) and lo & behold….   I get it back within the hour!!!

/cheer!!!!!

I open it.

/cry….

Yes, each record has a unique identifier.  As in, I don’t even need anything else in that report, so long as I have that identifier.  Like, I can literally get the rest of the info from 5 other sources, including my own records.  But do they have that ONE FRIGGIN PIECE of info in there?

Nope.

ARGH!!!!!

So of course it takes hours of work to pair this list back up with the ID’s.  So I’m a week ahead of expected schedule, right?  I should be happy, right?  Except now it has taken hours to do an unexpected task, delaying everything else.

Could I have asked them for a proper file?  Yes.  Would it have done any good?  No – they don’t bother with the ID’s on any of their reports.  They just sort alphabetically.

Dude, did you know that there’s more than one John Smith in the world?  And that there might be 1 of them in the file you just gave me?  How the hell am I supposed to figure out if it’s John L. Smith or John L. Smith…  Whoops, guess the middle name is the same.  Addresses?  Oh, that’s right, you didn’t have one listed for him.  Anything else in the file?  Not really.  So 1 of them is in your list and 2 or more are in the full database.  Great, that was about as useful as me asking you for a report in the first place obviously….

Ugh.  If you’re responsible for something, you should be responsible for it.  We’ve tried fixing this problem with them for years, but nothing works.  We just have to wait until the records become ours (in that lifecycle) so we can correct everything.

Sooo, now to doing productive things with said list.  It involves free food at the end of the tunnel for everyone on the list, and even free gifts.  So I guess I can’t be too upset (since I get them too).  But just think of how much farther my alts would be if I didn’t have to waste time correcting other people’s mistakes!

9 months later...

Yes, I actually am talking about a baby!!!

 

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\./

 

Zomg…  Not an incoming child of mine & Lady X’s.  Geeze, why does everyone think that just because you’re married you have to have kids?  Well, I did kinda set you up for this one, lol.  Yet we do get asked about it once every week or so, so it’s a legit complaint!  Maybe I’ll do a /rant on it later just for fun, lol.

 

Anyway.  Yes, after 9 months of trying, I finally managed to fish up Snarly's Bucket.  He is my new baby crockalisk.  Hard to believe that we’ve checked the fishing daily, well, daily for ~9-10 months.  We’ve probably missed ~3-4 of the ones that give a chance for the crock’s in all that time, but that’s it.  We’ve even researched to make sure he was still dropping and it wasn’t something like patch 3.0 that made a glitch that he wasn’t dropping anymore.  Apparently, my luck really was that bad.  But we already know this between the spirit beast (I’ve searched well over 24 hrs) & the raven lord (I think try #21 was last night?).

 

My theory?  It was glitched for some people the entire time.  Thus when 3.0.8 fixed the fishing glitch (including the 1-cast-wonder), they also fixed the drop rate for those of us who had a 0%, lol.  I mean, I have the Salty title – how can I not have caught at least one bucket!

 

So anyway, 3 cheers to my new minipet!  And just think, I only have to keep trying for another 3-4 years at this rate to get the rest of them!

 

 

 

PS. Yes, I fully expect Ogre to complain about my complaining, lol.  But that’s ok, I gots Snarly!  Curious about the rest of my minipet collection now???  Boo yah!!!

Lolz

Upcoming Hunter Changes, Part III

First line of it?  Awesomness, pure awesomness:

Here is a thread where you can continue your discussion on the previously mentioned Feral druid changes. 

Now, I’m not that big a fan of GC because I don’t care for his delivery half the time, but I don’t have that many qualms with him.  Though at least I never offered to have his babies…  So when his first sentence starting a post about hunters is actually about druids…  I can’t help but laugh.  I mean, that’s just pure awesomness.

And here’s where you have to pretend I inserted a comment about being able to tame druids because if I actually made one I’d have a mad wife ;).  Well, I could probably get away with it once or twice, but considering she’s the one making dinner this week, I might go hungry, lol.

Patch 3.0.8

Patches?  We don’t need no stinkin’ patches…  Ok, joking aside, we’ve got some major changes for Hunters coming up with today’s patch.  I’m still confused by why 3.0.8, but oh well, lol.  So here are the changes, with some comments to further explain what they mean since patch days mean most bloggers post about the patch, lol.

 

• Hunter Aspects are now off the Global Cooldown again. They still have a shared 1 second cooldown.
• WoOt!  Aspects are just so different from spells and abilities on global cooldown, it makes sense they have their own cooldown.  This also enables us to switch aspects easier.  A few examples – tank dies and hunter needs to pop on Dragonhawk instead of Beast (only applies to those with the right glyph to kite) when the hunter is temporarily the tank before a druid battle-rez’s.  Hunter runs out of mana on a long fight and needs to pop Viper.  Hunter is doing mad DPS, outdoing the tank for threat, and pops Viper for threat mitigation.  So yeah, this one makes sense.
• All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
• Nice!  I’m sure this will have quite a few implications in regards to pet DPS.  Ironically it will probably increase it rather than decrease like Bliz was initially trying to do.
• Arcane Shot: Mana cost lowered to match the cost of Steady Shot.
• This is gonna screw with many people’s shot-rotations.  Not a timing thing, but a mana thing.  Personally, I use this in my rotation already, so it just means more mana for me, but for others it may mean including it in their rotation finally.
• Aspect of the Wild - This aspect is now raid-wide.
• Umm… does anyone use this?  I suppose that’s incentive, but it’s so rare it would be worth it.
• Call of the Wild: The benefit from this pet talent now applies to only the Hunter and their own pet.
• Hmm…  I guess they want to make sure hunters do more DPS than everyone else.  While I’m cool with that, I thought they were trying to drop our DPS because we’re OP’d…  Yeah, I don’t quite get this change.
• Deterrence: Design changed to grant 100% parry and 100% chance to "deflect" spells coming from the front, but prevents the Hunter from attacking. Lasts 5 seconds and has a 90 second cooldown.
• Hunter Bubble!!!!  Muahahaha…  Don’t tell anyone that rogues can still pwn us by hitting us in the back, but we have a bubble now!
• Explosive Shot: Damage increased substantially, and additional scaling added to compensate Survival Hunters for the decrease in power of Steady Shot. No longer deals damage to secondary targets.
• Awwe, no more quasi-AoE?  Hmm, Survival hunters get more DPS?  I’ve never seen a survival hunter… you?  No?  Maybe this is incentive?  Well, all classes have the lone ranger spec…
• Ferocious Inspiration: This talent now also increase the damage the Hunter does with Arcane Shot by 3/6/9%.
• WoOt!  Combined w/ the above, this means more DPS!!!  Really?  Did Bliz honestly give up on the idea of decreasing our DPS?
• Improved Tracking(Survival): This talent has been slightly re-designed. Now reads: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• And it gets a change again.  Well, not really, this is mostly just a wording change.  Still means you have to juggle tracking if you’ve spec’d the points.
• Kill Shot – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 35 sec.
• Hah, I hoped they’d do this.  Let’s put it this way, we kill mobs fast.  I understand the idea of only being able to use this once per mob, but I was def a the point of only being able to use it every other or every couple mobs because of the CD on it.    Interestingly enough though, this may mean we can use it multiple times on Boss fights.  I guess it’s a tradeoff, but either way it means more DPS!
• Kindred Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
• Aha!  Pet-nerf.  This literally means 5% less DPS from pets.  However, since pets do (roughly here for easy math) 50% of hunter DPS, this means hunters will drop 2-2.5% in DPS overall as a result.  When we’re talkin 2k+ DPS, that’s only ~50DPS we lose.  Nothing major.
• Lock and Load: Now has a 30 second cooldown.
• Survival hunter talent.  And it’s a nerf by adding a cooldown.  Ok…?
• Readiness: No longer resets the cooldown on Bestial Wrath.
• Awwe man!!!  Well that drops our DPS a bit…  So much for using it multiple times in a battle.  There goes our best skill in PvP.  At least we can still use it once I guess.
• Steady Shot: Now gains 10% of attack power as damage instead of 20%.
• Straight up nerf to the hunter’s bread and butter.  Half of hunters call it a “steady shot rotation”…  I suppose that’s one way to directly nerf hunters.  But the big thing about it is, that means other attacks do more dmg and are more beneficial.  I have a feeling this means a change in shot rotations to max our DPS.  I’m sure I’ll follow up on this one later.
• Serpent's Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet. The hunter attack speed bonus is unchanged.
• Again, a BM hunter pet nerf.  But it’s attack speed anyway, which is only a portion of a pet’s DPS.  So I’d say this is similar to the above, where we’ll only see ~ 50DPS less on a 2k DPS hunter.  Not a big deal, but the numbers are starting to add…
• Tranquilizing Shot (Hunter): Cooldown increased to 8 sec, up from 6. Mana cost reduced to 8%, down from 12%.
• Cool.  Not used too often, and rarely in succession, so the CD increase won’t matter.  The mana cost is awesome though.
• Unleashed Fury: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
• Dangit!  Another -50DPS to pets…
• Viper Sting: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
• Yay, this is now effective!  I mean, will draining 3k mana over 8 sec really do anything?  I’ll be curious to see what the % is though, as it could be better or worse, lol.  But at least it scales with the levels/characters, etc.  Interesting what it may do on boss fights though…
• Volley: The damage has been reduced on all ranks by approximately 30% (including attack power scaling).
• Well, it was cool while it lasted.  I know hunters aren’t an AoE class, but it was nice to be able to do some AoE for a bit there.  Guess it’s not so much anymore.  Granted, Bliz stated at one point (sry, don’t have a link here) that many hunters were using Volley more than their main skills, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s OP.  It could mean they’re just plain huntards.  Or it could mean that hunters need an AoE too.  Or, it could mean it’s OP, lol.
• Pets
• All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
• Hmm, already stated this one.
• The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Poison (Scorpid) has been lowered.
• Yep, another pet nerf.  Again, not much by itself, but dang…
• Rake: This hunter pet ability has had its damage adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
• Well if it’s unreasonable then fine.  We can still /cry anyway, lol.  Guess there’s a double-nerf on this particular skill.  My prediction?  Bliz will give part of it back in the next patch.
• Scorpid Poison: No longer stacks. The damage has been adjusted to prevent unreasonable scaling with attack power.
• Hmm, anyone else think the two are the same skill just for different pets..?
• Spirit Strike (hunter pet ability) now has an initial attack (which can crit) and then a single dot. Damage overall is higher.
• /snif… this only matters to those with Spirit Beasts.  Some of us are just very unlucky.  Yes, I’m still trying, but I just don’t have 20 hrs straight to circle Sholazar and have my friends do the same.  I’ll get it eventually.  But anyway, this is cool because those with the epic pet do more DPS.

 

So yes, lots and lots of changes for hunters.  Time to go relearn the class again, change shot rotations, and see where our DPS lies when all the dust settles.  Or, just wait until the next patch when they fix some of the mistakes/overbalances of above in typical Bliz fashion.  (fyi, bliz makes changes.  Then over-counter-balances.  Then corrects.  They prefer this method over minor changes in the right direction until they hit it.  There’s + & - to both methods, but that’s the way they choose).

 

Fun fun...

One thing that makes dungeons like Maraudon fun is certainly the people you run with.  Whether or not a PuG will be fun I think is generally dependent upon the group you’re with.  I’ve certainly been in PuG’s with bad groups.  Why were they bad?  Never that we weren’t geared or experienced enough to get through.  That can be frustrating, but still fun with the right people.  Similarly, a group that’s geared & skilled well but isn’t a fun group of people is a pain in the neck.  But something like Maraudon… Well it’s just plain long.  And that’s if you do it right the first time!

So last night, it wasn’t a PuG, it was a guild run.  I had my 46 holy priest, Sthis took her 49 bear tank and we had our guildies with their (mains) 50-54 pally, mage & shaman.  Yes, it took forever.  But it was just plain fun.  We only wiped once the whole time, I think.  We certainly had some bad pulls, some hairy moments, etc.  But since we were smokin’ & jokin’ the whole time, it was a blast.  Not to mention, since my priest was so under geared (the only downside to the recruit-a-friend, lol.  I haven’t played him since the 90 day triple xp bonus ran out essentially) that I picked up like 3 gear upgrades.  I think I needed them pretty bad though, since the run definitely got easier the farther we got.  Well, that and I know we all improved skill-wise along the way.

So now, sadly, their triple xp bonus means they’re out-distancing our priest & druid, but that’s ok – we have some in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and we have 80’s.    So now we can make runs like those with our chars through all the rest of the levels with them.  Though hopefully it won’t take as long for the other dungeons, but at least it was a blast!

Nostalgia

Every once in a while I want to say “Stop messin w/ my game!”  Just read about the Arcanite Ripper and how it will soon have a model change.  Granted, I agree that it’s a cooler looking model, but that’s hardly the point.  They introduced something cool to the game and now, a few months later, they’re just changing it.  Now just adjusting the model isn’t really that big of a deal, especially since they’re making it more unique and obvious.  But what I wonder is how often Bliz crosses the line of messing with WoW.

Most of the changes they try for, are to balance the game so that everyone is on an, essentially, equal footing.  And new content such as the Ripper are great for those of us who don’t want to spend 20hrs a week raiding (4 is cool, 20 is a bit much).  But other times, the changes seem pointless and even annoying.  I don’t have any real specific ones in mind of what I mean, but one that does come up for me is the Swift Brewfest Ram.  A year ago, Sthis and I worked hard to earn it.  We actually got up extra early before work so that we could get an extra run in so we’d have enough Brewfest Prize Tickets to get them.  We didn’t even have epic riding at that point!  But we knew it was rare, and so we put in the wrench time and earned it.

Fast forward to this past fall…  Now as long as you ran it often enough, you had a pretty decent shot at getting one – no tickets/tokens necessary.  So since it obviously still took work (or a hell of a lot of luck…), I am still kinda cool with it.  No longer as unique, but still something special.  But the thing that really kicks you?  The Yellow and Blue Brewfest Steins…  So why couldn’t they just make a new mount or something?  Of course, reason drops in and points out that all they had to do was repaint the stein, not build an entire new mount, but still.  Oh well, I guess.  At least the Brewfest Ram is only for those that earned it back then.  That kinda shows we earned it in a different way.  And we got the Great Brewfest Kodo too, lol.  Can you tell we like the Brewfest Holiday?

Point being though, is does Bliz cross the line?  When should something be a ‘Feat of Strength’ because you were there at that point in time and earned it, and when should they just give it to the next person?  Overall, I think they did it right with Brewfest.  Sure, it’s a little frustrating it’s not as unique, but still – we have the feat of strength from the different steins to show we were there, back in the day.  And in all honesty, it’s more a personal ‘dude, we did that!’.  Besides, how many Brewfest Mounts do they really need to haul the beer…  As long as they have enough of one, that’s good enough.  If they were short and the beer disappeared?  Yeah, I think we’d be mad then.

Hoping for no delays...

Well, the delay in getting the Reins of the Raven Lord is because they just won’t drop…  Ran it 16 times now and we only saw it twice (thus Ogre & Sthis won the rolls the first 2 times, on the 1^st & 6^th try and we haven’t seen it since).  But that’s ok.  It’s been fun running it.  We’ve learned rather well all the pulls, not to mention where lvl 80’s can sneak by to save time.  We’ve run w/ some guildies as well, so that’s always fun.  And Mypally enjoys tanking it…

But the delay I’m talking about is plane delays…  Last week I ended up stuck in DC because the airlines told us I could make my connection when it was, in fact, cancelled.  Rather frustrating.  And by the time I had tickets for the next day and all, it was already 2230.  And my flight was leaving the next morning at 0600.  See a point in checking into a hotel for a few hours?  I definitely didn’t.  And then the USO was closed.  This is about the 3^rd time I could’ve really used it and it was closed.  Rather mad about that…  But oh well.  So the next morning, I fly to Philly before my hop and guess what?  Yeah, same thing that happens to me every time I fly in/out of Philly…  The President decided to take a little trip on Air Force One.  Yep, delayed again.  But I did make it home eventually, and slept the rest of the day.  Made for a really long week, so cross your fingers that doesn’t happen to me again this week!

PvE v PvP

Hmm, just heard that those of us that primarily play PvE RULE THE WORLD!  Ok, well maybe not, but it is interesting to see that Blizzard’s ploy of catering to the casual player (also the majority of players) has become successful.  Sadly, over the last few months I have started to see the queue more and more often.  It helps that I usually log on before or after primetime, not during, but still…  So then I start questioning what will really work to fix the problem they’ve been trying to create…

1.      A new PvE server.  Well, this somewhat helps.  You’ll get transfers from overpops and you’ll get ‘local’ newbs on it.  But how many transfers are you going to get?  You’ll get the ones and twos that are tired of their guild or the players on the server, you’ll get some randoms, but I doubt you’re going to get a large guild to transfer over all of their mains.  It’s not going to be a mass exodus.  Not to mention, the server will fill up soon anyway and we’ll again have this problem.  But since this does somewhat work, Bliz is goin with it.  More power to ya!



2.      PvE to PvP transfers.  Well, Bliz has started this already and I think it helps work.  I mean, many people want to play on a PvP server, but they don’t want to put up with the hassle of leveling on a PvP server – they just want to play.  So this one helps too.  Again, good on Bliz!



3.      New Server-Side mechanics.  Find a way to make the servers work in parallel and increase the capacity for bandwidth and processing.  This would work, if it were possible.  You can only really make the pipe so big.  Not to mention the coding necessary…



4.      Increase the number of mini-servers within a cluster.  (Quickly scan to the bottom if you aren’t sure how Bliz’s servers operate and what I’m referencing).  In other words, add a few zones to each zone.  For example, if Dalaran sits on one server right now, add 3 and turn it into 4… 1 for the sewers, one for the horde section, one for the middle/neutral and one for the alliance.  Would that mean we have a lag-pause when moving from section to section?  Yes.  Would it mean people like me who get 0-20 fraps can actually move in Dalaran?  Yes.  Of course, I don’t expect Bliz to do this because I can’t even begin to imagine the cost of adding that many servers!  Not to mention the coding that goes with it…



5.      Build the next expansion properly (and continually add PvE servers).  They need to continually add servers because the playerbase continually grows.  This one is obvious.  But they really need to learn their lesson on adding expansions.  Yes, Shattrath was a mistake.  They didn’t realize the influx of players from the expansion, how everyone would hop into Hellfire Peninsula together, and how everyone would hit Shatt together.  And then that Shatt was going to be the major hub of the game.  Lots of players forced into 1 area = mass lag.  D’uh.

   So with WotLK they somewhat learned their lesson.  2 starting areas!  Now when they opened the flood gates, everyone split and took 2 different paths.  Half the lag!!!  Until everyone found a friend in Dalaran (such as a mage, or through the battlefield trick) or hit 74 themselves.  Hmm, sounds like Shattrath and how Dalaran is the major hub now…  Too bad they didn’t learn from their mistakes last time.

   
   So next time, make a better city.  I know we’re in a weak, temporary, quasi-alliance with the horde, but do we have to bunk with them?  Let’s see…  Make it almost 3 cities.  Alliance on one side, Horde on the other, and neutral vendors in the middle.  Give us each our own inns, give us each our own specialty vendors (come on, not all are going to be neutral!), and let the vendors out there to make a profit from both sides sit in the middle.  Then, put it on 3 servers instead of 1.  Also, give us back our auction houses and put portals in all the major cities to all the major cities.  Come on, if we can make a portal to one place, we can make one back, can’t we?

   
   Yes, adding an auction house to the new hub means we don’t need to visit the old-world cities to use an AH.  Thus killing bliz’ idea of spreading out the players that way.  But we all set our hearth to the major hub because that’s the fastest way of getting anywhere we want to go.  So if I could set my hearth in Darnassus because I had all the same portals and amenities as in Dalaran…  You bet I would!  Much less lag, rather pretty, and I can still get where I’m going.  I mean, sure, keep specific things in certain places (such as certain trainers – the best Mage traners would go to Dalaran, best Druid trainers to Darnassus, etc.).  That only makes sense.  But give us freedom to roam the world (that’s the reason for mounts not moving faster, but I won’t get into that now).  I have the explorer title – I’ve seen most of the (WoW) world, now let me get where I’m going faster!

So no, I don’t consider this 61734 (pager code) or complaint, rather just noticing that lag and queues suck, but Bliz is doing what they can.  I mean, even if they had the $Billions it’d take to re-do the server networks, it’d still take months to do.  Months which would be better spent on a new (more well thought out) expansion for us!  Now I just need to find a way to get them to pay me $100k per year to play WoW and make suggestions on how to improve it or tell them how to do their jobs…  Muahahaha!!!!

 

 

**WoW Servers…  Yes, you pick a “server” to start a character.  For example, Nazgrel.  But it’s really a Cluster of Servers that you are picking.  Within Nazgrel, there are servers for each zone, city, instance, etc.  There’s even a server dedicated to things such as inventory, cash, achievements, etc.  This is why you experience some lag (or even a loading screen) when moving between zones.  Moving from Stormwind to the forest you won’t even notice a pause.  But going into Kara you’ll see a loading screen.  In both cases you’re actually jumping onto a different server essentially.

Patches

Patches?  We don’t need no stinking patches…..

Whoops, wrong topic.  Well, movie.  Well, anyway…  Did anyone else wonder what happened to Patch 3.0.4?  3.0.5?  3.0.6?  3.0.7?

I mean, I’m all for updates to keep the game operating properly (even if they make changes we aren’t necessarily happy with).  But what happened to those other patches?  I mean, I’m no psychic well, most of the time I’m not.  But here’s my guess on what happened with all the patches:

0                     This updated the platform to be compatible with Wrath

1                     They obviously made errors in 0, so this was to fix that

2                     Well, 1 didn’t go like we planned, so this fixes 1

3                     Finaly!  A (mostly) stable platform.  Let’s keep the players on this one for a little while

4                     Dangit, they’re grumbling.  Let’s buff everyone and nerf the bosses

5                     Oops, guess that wasn’t gonna work.  Don’t tell the players, let’s just work on 6

6                     Ahhh, now we’re getting there.  Now let’s work on our general theory – overdo it  first, then reign it back in.

7                     Ok, reigning in now.

8                     Whoops, too far.  Pendulum time!  Got it!  Ok, let’s put this one on the PTR and give it a go.   Sure, gonna make some people mad, some happy, but that’s ok.  It’s normal, lol.  Crap, we’re running out of numbers!  We better start on a content patch…  Oh yeah, we can do 3.0.10… hahaha, that gives us another like 90 versions to work on until then.  Everyone good?  K, great.  Lunch break!

Ok, probably didn’t quite happen like that, but it’s fun to speculate.

OMG WOW!

Yeah, just wow…

Uhh, this is a not-really-politically correct post, so if you prefer the phrase “Gravitationally Abundant” to “Fat”, don’t read on.  I’m normally really nice, but yeah… this is just too crazy to share.

So airplanes.  They only fit certain sized people.  If you are large enough to occupy 2 seats, you should pay for 2 seats and take up those 2 seats.  Here’s some reasons you know something is wrong about the size of your body:

1.     The flight attendants don’t bring the drink cart down the aisle because they can’t fit it past you.

2.     6” of you is sitting in the aisle, you take up the entire seat, and another 6” of the seat next to you.  At the same time…

3.     While you are sitting in the chair, your 6 month old is laying down on your stomach.

4.     That 6 month old is laying horizontal…

5.     That 6 month old is eye level with you…

6.     They need an oversized shoe-horn to get you out of the seat.  Well, ok, just joking about this one…

But I mean seriously!  If my checked bag weighed over 100 pounds, they’d charge me extra.  So how come she gets charged the same as me?  It’s honestly a weight thing, because the heavier the plane is, the extra fuel it takes to get from point A to B.  I really would not be opposed to having to step on a scale (with my bags) and the cost to fly is $X.XX per pound.  It would be a lot more fair!  That’s why, in a sense, I don’t mind so much that they charge extra for even just 1 checked bag…  I mean, it is extra weight, and they have to pay extra for the baggage handlers, so charging per checked bag does make sense.  But here’s a complaint…  $400+ per ticket and they still want to charge me $2 for a soda or water…  Or $1 for tea…  WTF?  Good thing it’s a business trip and another company (not mine) is paying for it, lol.

Ok, done complaining.  Well, the first part wasn’t a complaint.  It was more just an OMGWTF!!! that I had to share because it was kinda funny.  But anyway…  Have a great night!  You 3 (or 4) readers rock!  Lolz.

Adult Woes

So I’ve realized it’s real hard to post about WoW when you don’t get much (if any) time to play it.  Between holidays and all the extra family time, now a new year, work, MBA, travel for work…  Yeah…  I most likely won’t have internet for the next two days, or for TUE/WED of next week either, so that makes me sad.  Not to mention the time I do have when I get back will be spent on the MBA, so that means even less WoW time!

But then I started thinking about why it makes me sad.  It’s not because WoW runs through my veins and I’ll die without it, but rather it’s about having a sense of accomplishment, working as a team, doing something with friends, being a mentor, having a challenge, meeting new people, escaping from stress, being a kid again, practicing, remembering quotes like “Priest Mele!!!”, and so on!

And that, I believe, is why there’s over 11.5 million people that play this game.

I haz one!

Yeah, it's awesome... And complete with a matching minipet...

Just look at the grin!

Wings are heavy, so he doesn't hold them up all the time.

Though he does pick them up to run.

Eeek! A mouse!!!


And yes, Lady X is a little annoyed. I'm now 3 for 3 on these eggs... 2 minipets (A & B) and a mount. She's gotten 2 minipets (same one both times) and an Aged Yolk.

Proof Bliz Hates Hunters

Kibler’s Bits used to be the best food around for a pet.  I mean, 30 strength and 30 stamina is pretty good!  Extra health and extra DPS!  And simple to make too!  Just pop SE of Shattrath, kill ~30 buzzards and you’ve got a full stack.  Some people, of course, went for the Buzzard Bites because they wanted spirit for their pets instead of strength and it didn’t bother them that they only had 20 stamina instead of strength.  But they’re called either Warlocks or Huntards.  (Warlock pets use mana, so MP5 is good for them.  Hunter pets use focus).

So Wrath comes out and I’m thinking “Cool, now I’ll have an even better little treat for my pets that’s even better!  I mean, they’re 10 levels higher just like me, so I can now use a higher level food!”.  So I go to the cooking trainer and look at Spiced Mammoth Treats thinking “Ohhhh, just they want, a nice, tasty piece of Mammoth!”.  But then I got confused when I looked at the buff…  30 strength and 30 stamina.  Hmm, déjà vu.  Maybe I’m going crazy…  I check back to the Kibler’s Bits…  Maybe I mixed them up – check back to the Spiced Mammoth Treats…  Nope, I’m not going crazy.  Blizzard actually hates Hunters!

I mean, I have no doubt that we’re going to have a lot of Huntards that think the Spiced Mammoth Treats are better.  So now they’re going to go to the guild cook asking them to make them.  And what cook is going to make pet buff food that uses Northern Spices?  Especially when Kibler’s Bits are the exact same thing as Spiced Mammoth Treats?  NONE!  You know what they’re going to do?  Make fun of the Huntard.  Well, it’s rightfully so, but it only helps add to the belief that all Hunters are idiots.

So until Blizzard realizes what they’ve done, I’ll stick to my Kibler’s Bits.  Cheaper and easier for the same buff.  And I’ll dream of the day that they actually complete the following equation:  Level 80 > Level 70…

Hours and Hours

If only there were some form of an announcement when Loque’nehak was killed/tamed.  Even if it were a special channel or something.  That way, I wouldn’t have to spend so much time waiting/searching for Loque.  I understand he’s supposed to be unique, special, etc.  But the amount of hours that you have to spend (or amount of luck) trying to find him is somewhat ridiculous.  I mean, I’m at something like 15 hours of searching, but I’ve seen some people have spent multiple days worth of time.

(AKA, I haven’t found him yet and I’m rather bored, lol)