-that spell isnt' ready- Temper on cooldown

Ok, so...Had a chance to play a little of Draenor, and so far its a resounding, eh. Its not bad, its not great, but then again, I'm not all the way through it just yet. In fact most of my 90's are still around or near the starting area, mostly just due to lack of time.

The landscapes are pretty nice!

I'm hoping things will get better, but in all honesty, so far I think I liked Mists better. This opinion may change as I play more through. Its a weird feeling really. Lore has always been kind of my thing, ever since Warcraft II and being able to see all it in action, in its heyday, should just tickle me pink...but it doesn't and I'm not sure why.  Maybe its the strange story flow, maybe its the wonky enemy power near the beginning to make it easier for new  90s not to get completely creamed, maybe its the vast player/level gap (new 90s vs veteran raiders in the same area), maybe I'm expecting too much, maybe I just haven't given it enough time..Whatever the reason it has generated a rather tasteless opinion.

Garrisons are nice, but their sheer convenience feels like its taken something away from the game...but again, not a whole lot of time in it. And I hope this isn't a distraction method like Isle of Time was..."Here go play with this for awhile since we didn't put in enough content..."...


Yes, its a whole entry of eehhh..

so...yeah, my awesomely unhelpful, bland opinion on Draeno so far.

Couldn't resist a quick 'HI' with my gun-powder

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!! (SERIOUSLY)

Lok'tar friends...

First off, I'm not even going to apologize for my absence becase 1) I don't have enough followers to upset and 2) Nothing's been going on in Warcraft to warrent my attention...


..until now..

(rant warning!)


Recent patch "6.0.2" brought with it the classic 'pre-expansion' quest line that is "supposed" to lead into the main content....And it is the absolutely WORST pre-x experience I have EVER had.

("""""Spoiler alert"""""" if you REALLY want to call it that.)

Logging on to a main character at max level gets an automatic invite to the pre-e quests. I was eager to jump in at this oppertunity wondering if was going to be another fun/interesting situation like pre-cata or something painfully grinding heavy like pre-Mists...came to find out it was neither. In fact, it was lame. Lame, lame, lame.  You go to this place, talk to a few people, kill things and report to warcheif. That it! That's all that you do! It took me a whole whopping 30 minutes...30 FUCKING MINUTES on my shaman.. MY RECENTLY REVAMPED RESTO SHAMAN to clear all of the quests! Yes, granted he's in LFR gear, but that was WAAAAYYY TOO EASY!

Anyone remember pre-cata? Where you had to go into your home city, disable time bombs and dress up in that awful, hideous purple hooded outfit to infiltrate the cultists?  That was not something you did on an every day basis in Warcraft and it was fun/amusing (though not very challenging still memorable.) Or how about Pre-Mists? When you had to gather all that Kor'kron shit. Man you grind at that fucker for a month and play your points right, got gear, a pet AND a title. Was it needlessly monotonous? Hell yes, but FUCK at least you felt like you EARNED it!

This time? Do this, kill that, oh and here, have a title and a pet. THAT'S IT.

oh well, then it was for story telling purposes....

You wanna know what these quests told about the story? NOTHING. Absoufuckenlouetly NOTHING.   It doesn't say what happened to Garrosh, or even how he was able to be smart enough to GET to the past, or WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THRALL?! And what's his deal anyway?! Is he Horde? Is he Earthing Ring? Did he get stoned off his ass and someone attacked his head with a razor? (That's all im getting from the information at hand!)I'm very confused...

((And sidenote: keeping open-ended questions like this around will have throngs of fanfic writers tearing this apart!))

I almost hit the roof the first time I saw 'warchief Vol'jin' until I realized, wait, that was part of the game, in the raids. (Yes, that's how long it's been.)

And you wanna know where all this information is located?

IN A GODDAMN FUCKING (but well written so I understand) BOOK!

I am paying 15.00 a month for an MMORPG! R.P.G. ROLE PLAYING GAME. Which means I should have all access to whatever I need to play/understand what is going on in the MAIN PLOTLINE. I'm not asking for the entire book, but at least GIVE me an OPTION when I talk to Thrall to have a brief recount, from his point of view, to WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!
I have a hard enough time supporting the $15 sub, and now they want me to spend another10-15 on a BOOK?! FUCK THAT. No where in my Terms of Agreement does it say 'main storyline heavily based on external material that may require additional reading'. If Blizzard is going to rely so heavily on these 'books' then they damn well better make it part of my subscription! They sit there and praise themselves as awesome storytellers, then pull this kind of shit, FUCK THAT.

I can only hope I'm wrong. I hope that this is just a painful, unfinished, rushed, and stupidly put together mistake of a pre-x, and that whatever comes next will be so epically mind blowing I will forget this disaster even happened...

....sadly unlikely though, but hope springs eternal.

Dungeon Appriciation

yes, I know. I've been gone awhile....that seems like a thing for me, the more I'm dedicated to it the more I slack off. I apologize , and on to the post!

Vortex Pinnacle

I wanted to make a simple post about dungeon and raid appreciation. Not so much in the sense of the people who run them, or the fact that 90% of the time when running through LFR at least 60% of your group will be switched out every fight, I'm talking about the dungeon itself.

Mogushan Palace

Many times the beauty and awe of a dungeon/raid/structure is often overlooked due to tearing through the place like your ass is on fire. But ever go back after said instance is done and take a look around?

Well of Eternity

 If you haven't noticed already I'm kind of an art inspired person and being artistic myself, nothing makes me feel better than someone else appreciating my art, so anytime I can, I will appreciate the art and craft of others.

Last Stand of the Zandalari

Instance and structure creation is an art all by itself and should be appreciated, but it's so often overlooked due to the neck breaking speed people tend to tear through it. But ever wander back through the dungeon afterwards?

Ulduar

You should, if you like art and can appreciate all the work it took to create such an immerse environment. Take a look upwards, wander over to the sides, peer around corners and you might be quite surprised what you find.

Halls of Origination

Most don't give it a second thought, but I remind you that someone had to first do layouts, someone had to build it all in wire frame and rend-able 3D  graphics w/shading and detail informatin, another took those notes into Photoshop and colored and detailed these objects, giving them texture, pattern and depth, then another comes through, adds details builds the structures, mazes and deathtraps while trying to maintain the feel of the area its situated in.

Steamvault (i think XD)

Look at the dungeons and raids carefully, very few are similar in pattern and design. Yes sets of raids (such as ICC and Pandaria) will all echo the same design, but each instance has its own feel, its own tweak, its own version of the environment.

Ulduar

 So with this post, I put up some of my favorite dungeon/raid pics as a thank you to all those who have worked so hard to please the eye but are too far often over looked, and also to make others aware that even though you may dying, you're party griping about bad tank/healers/etc rest assure you will go down in a world full of artistic wonder and awe!

Rise of the Zandalari

Temple of the Jade Serpent

Scarlet Monastery

End Time

 :)

...

...chirp...chirp...

...chirp...chirp....

 ...chirp...chirp...

                                                                                                                                         ...chirp...chirp...

Just had to share

Came across this at random, LOLed enough to share!


http://thoughtcatalog.com/brianne-mcdonald/2014/04/28-very-random-thoughts-while-playing-a-mmorp-video-game-a-womans-journey/

Well crap...I got nominated...

Er. I mean, Thank You PlaidElf for your nomination for the

 

...Not sure what it all entails, but I do appreciate it :D  I would...pass the baton to my set of nominees but...um...I don't really know anyone else (yay newbie!).

Anyway, according to this LEIBSTER thing I am to answer questions given to me by the one who nominated me as well as 11 facts about me...so, lets get started!


Questions from PlaidElf:

1.What is your favorite thing about WoW?
   Playing with friends and being able to do an activity together regardless of where you live or how close/far apart you are. Playing and understanding Warcraft makes it feel like you're part of some elite club. You can chat for hours about warcraft things to other warcrafters, but try to say something to someone who doesn't and they look at you funny. Any WoWer can look at: ilvl 510 war LFG SoO PST and understand it...but show that to someone who doesn't play. I like that 'elite' feeling.


2. If you could add or change one thing about character customization what would it be and why?
  D: all of the above. Seriously. It is one of the greatest weaknesses in Warcraft is character customizations, but I am glad they did put in transmog, that helps for individuality...but still doesn't entirely prevent /emote a stranger that has the same hairstyle as your friend's toon... >.>


3. Why did you pick your preferred class (if you have one.)? Was it the first thing you rolled?
   I wish I had a 'preferred class'...The closest I can get to is warrior, but mostly because I know how to play them, they usually have good survival and its easy for me to power level.  I would have more fire mages, if they (and I ) DIDN'T SUCK SO DAMN BAD...
  My first toon was 'Dessah, F- War- Troll. aaa yeeeaahhh mon. 




4. What is your favorite WoW race and why?
Hands down? Trolls. Kinda had a soft spot for them ever since Warcraft II (and the elven archers, but...they don't really exist in WoW). They can be laid back, but deadly all the same..lidd'l crazy, lidd'l wild, but dey all be on deh guud stuff mon!


5. What is the luckiest thing that's ever happened to you in game?
Hrm....I'd probably have to say, landing Rivendare's Deathcharger at a random Stratholm run at 3:00am. My friend wasn't happy about that.


6. What do you think is the nicest thing somebody has ever done for you in game?
-Taught me how to jump with space bar (long story) 
um, if we're referring to just random strangers in game and not actual friends helping, then I would have to say the five straight random dungeon crew I got into one night. We were doing level 80 dungeons (I on my Shammy healer Dust), and the five of us, total strangers, just clicked well and rocked. We randomed into 5 dungeons, all of which were different, and my heals on Occulus (even after falling off the dragon) got a 'like a boss' comment. That made me feel all warm and fuzzy. 


7. If you could play any race on either faction (Horde Draenei for example) would you still play what you do? If not, what would you play instead.
 I won't lie, if I could cross race/faction, I'd take a few of my Blood elves over to the Alliance. Night elves are great and all, but they're lacking in some bishi sexiness. 


8. What are your plans for Warlords?
I don't have any. That way everything is a surprise, for better or worse.


9. Did Mists of Pandaria meet with your expectations? Why or why not?
Yes, far exceeded my expectations, actually. But from what I understand, that wasn't too diffiuclt to do, considering I only had Cataclysm to compare it to. And yes, Cata had its moments, but I still have PTSD over some of those Fireland dailies....so...many...marks...world tree....word...tree...giggle..giiiiiiiiggle... 
Why? The storyline was involving, the characters were amazing ( <3 Lorewalker Cho ) and Pandaria itself was breathtakingly beautiful. Everything felt 'solid' and complete. Yes there were still dailies but it felt more like a choice than a demand, and some of the dailies (Krasarang wilds) were actually -gasp- peppered with an arching storyline! 


10. What is your favorite major city?
Oh man...this one is difficult. Probably Dalaran. I mean the idea behind a 'floating city' is a classic one, but Warcraft is the first game I've been in where you can run around (and run right off) the magical floating city. And its pretty to boot...(well...it USED to be anyway... *cough-spoiler-cough*)


11.Do you or will you play any other MMOs?
 I did have a rather 'DDO-curious' phase, but sadly that didn't last long. I did dip my fingers into the RIFT pot and took a lick, not bad, not bad, may be having more of that later. I'm trying not to go all droolly over the prospect of Elder Scrolls Online, but....After playing Skyrim and thinking that in full MMO standards....That's a pretty tempting line of crack there...I'll wait till the reviews come in...


 Ok! good questions there! Now the second part, 11 random facts about me...hrm. 


11: I have a cat.
10: I like to draw, but coloring is my forte. 
9: Zelda and Sonic are my OLDEST fan obsessions (though I have many more).
8: World of Warcraft was my very first MMORPG 
7: I use my nickname 'SprYte' more than I use my real name. 
6: Age is a number, not a maturity level. 
5: I'm a 'Jack of all trades' but master of none. I play games, but I can't claim I 'rock' at any of them. 
4: I can build a cosplay prop in 24hrs with only two guarantees: 1) it will look good in pictures and 2) it will ONLY last for the convention/event...then it will self-destruct.  
3: A friend and I constructed over 10 custom keyblades for a grand cosplay presentation (all wood).
2: I still play D&D. This has been a tradition for over 15 years.
1: I totally "ship" Wrathion and Anduin (though for a while I tried really hard not to...Its just so...OBVIOUS....XD)


So there you have it! :D Me in a MMO flavored nutshell. Thank you again Plaid, and I would re-nominate you, but I will spare your keyboard anymore abuse!

And to any new comers that may stray their way here, hello! I hope you enjoyed this and do hope you wander over here again! 

A few laughs

So, since I haven't touched Warcraft in a week I don't really have anything new or interesting to report, and when that happens I look back to all the screenshots I have taken to inspire me to write something. Shifting back in those numerous pics, I came across a few of interesting gltiches, and just thought to combine a few. :D

Killed so fast it didn't have time to die on the ground! XD 

The classic 'naked' bug

Yes I'm actually on the zeppelin.

Seems that someone needs to clean up the Temple of the Two Moons, 

this crevice is full of Dust.

Thats enough for now, I'm sure with my wonderous luck more will follow! 

Until next post! :D Keep gaming.

...you dick...

SPOILER ALERT! THIS POST CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT HORDE STORYLINE IN PANDARIA DURING THE DOMINANT OFFENSIVE QUESTLINE. IF YOU DO NOT WANT ANYTHING SPOILED FOR YOU DURING THIS AWESOME QUEST LINE, PLEASE IGNORE THIS POST!










So Plaid was kind enough to leave at least one of her toons, Seish, to travel with Roz (as they have been since their creation) to do the Dominant Offensive daily quest chain with me, and I must say it was an intriging and welcoming method of dailies. To do a handful of dailies then to receive a quest that would move the storyline along was a great way to break up the monotony as well as give you that 'what happens next'?! feeling that fuels you to do more dailies. Thus makes it feel like you're actually doing something end-game ish rather than a painful and bland rep grinding.

Since it was Roz' first time through here and none of my other characters had gone through, I had to daily my way without commendations. Plaid, who has rocketed through there with a few of her toons, was flying past me, but didn't take any of the yellow story quests until I got them, and I thank her for her patience.

We trekked our way through the quests until the very last one, the ringing of the bell, when Warchief Garryouidiot thought it would be awesome idea to ring the creepy thing and unleash the darkness from it.  At the last minute, Anduin the Dragonslave rang the bell with some kind of holy stick to counteract it.  The Warchief Garrwhyyou destroyed the bell "killing" Anduin.

While this was going on, I noticed Garrosh was a skull marked gold-dragon level of pain while Anduin was a rather pathetic what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-in-pandaria (besides Wrathion) level 15.

Now mind you, Roz and Seish are on a PvP server, have been since their creation.

while I was /crying over Aunduin (for shits and giggles) mr pompus asshole paladin unleashed this little tidbit of wisdom.

 

Needless to say, as evident by my ROFLMOP I found it hilarious enough I couldn't type. 

Well played, Seish...well played.

Small Pleasures

I know there was another story I was going to type out but for the life of me I can't remember which tale I wanted to tell. So, I will simply state that the escort quest with Ranger lady useless in the Ghostlands within the Amani catacombs is probably the most awful escort quest in the game. After clearing the area twice and escorting all the way back to the enclave, I got  attacked by a bat and delayed, resulting in a failed mission. Fine. I left the tart to die at the hands of the trolls. And I don't even feel bad.

However, during her (failed) rescue, I did have the satisfaction of seeing one of the best deaths I've encountered yet:

It was a simple reminder to savor the little joys in (cyber)life.

This was with my baby ret-pally "Ven", who so far at lvl 21 is doing well.


Also, while on the subject of small pleasures, Trade chat. Yes, Trade channel can be annoying, crude and just downright abnoxious, but every once in awhile, you get little gems like this:

 I do hope I can find more trade conversations like these, and if I do, I shall post them! :D

Team Killing Tab-Targeter

    Years ago, back in the youthful age of Cataclysm, my main guild was over 25 actual people strong (all whom knew each other IRL) and we were able to do cool things like raids and dungeons...But by the end of Cata, our guild dwindled to a precious few who reminisced about the past and how good the guild used to be. So when the opportunity arises to get together with guildies once again and have AT LEAST enough people for a dungeon run, we do our best to jump at that chance. This tale was during one of those opportunists.
(( The nice thing about it is all five of us were in the same room IRL, so we didn't need vent when we can scream at each other across the table. ))
Most of us are in a scattering of gear, an odd mish-mash of mostly normal dungeon stuff, some justice/valor things and, for those who could raid, a few odds and ends of raid gear. All of us were comfortable with our classes and had a solid party: Paladin tank (Plaid's Rimmy), Shaman dps, Two mages (fire mage Kalli) and an arcane mage and a Holy pally healer. We decided to dare an at level Heroic Stonecore.
 Thankfully most of us had been through the normal dungeon a number of times that we knew the basic workings of boss rotation and tactics, prepared as best we could to deal with the whatever spice Heroic threw in there, which seemed like it was more ass-pounding trash pulls than ramped up bosses. Not sure if that's better or worse. We learned quickly to take it slow, one group at a time and be cautious with bosses. Any more than that and it was a wipe.

After a successful take down of Slaghide we made our way to that terrible hallway of fiery, demonic pain leading up to Ozruk. With several deaths and runbacks already made in this godforsaken hall we were all getting a bit fed up with it, BUT, we were creeping closer to the crystallized giant.

Now as a fire mage, one of my main abilities is 'living bomb', usually an opening move to get living bomb on at least three targets before launching into my fireball - pyrobast throwing frenzy. To apply living bomb I use tab targeting (where you hit tab in game and it moves to the next target). So far, I haven't had a serious issue with this.

The tank had pulled the last little group off to the right just before the boss so we would have room to maneuver around without any surprises. Ozruk was standing there off to the far left edge of my screen waiting for us to 'break ourselves upon his body', while a massive group of imps and summoners were right in center screen. I launch of my opening gambit: tab: living bomb, tab: living bomb Tab: living bomb....

...and just as I hit that last living bomb, guess what we got to hear?

NONE SHALL ENTER THE WORLD'S HEART!!!! 

..and the next thing my party got to hear from me...?

                                  ".....................................oops."

....yup... I just living bombed the boss. We were barely holding our own against the trash mob and with no time to recover...well...it was over relatively quickly. Rimmy was bound and determined to make sure the trash was taken out before he was (success) so when we ALL ran back in, we were ready for a fresh start.

Regardless of the aggravation we were all feeling before, the party just had to laugh over the irony, since ALL of us knew how bad tab-targeting could be....

we did successfully clear the dungeon and no, I didn't pull any more bosses with a misdirected living bomb...

...and even to this day, I have yet to live it down, and I hope I never do. Its a wonderful memory and a reminder of just what Warcraft is all about; playing together and having fun.

CLEAR!! --KAZZAP!-

IT LIVES!!!

Yes, as exciting as all (one) of my followers are, I am coming back with a vengeance!...ok I'm coming back somehow, even if it is flying backwards on a very slow mount, its still getting somewhere...right?

Yes I need to work dedication to this, so dedication I will work into it. Warcraft in general is kind of in that odd -after the party meandering- kind of feeling with a whole lot of '...well now what do we do?'. As  I had discussed with friend Plaid it felt like they burned through the Pandaria material way too fast, even for a casual gamer like myself. And though Warlords is on the horizon, there's certainly a feeling of 'DPS dungen cueue-itis' about the whole thing, so the question remains, what do we do now?

I'm not keenly interested in mount/pet drops. I like it when they do drop and excited when I get them, but I'm not a 'dedicate a single toon to camp on the side of the mountain in storm peaks' kind of player...so mount/pet things are secondary at best.

Out of my four top toons, only one is actually useful in LFR, my healie shammy Dust. My firemage (Kalli) sucks chaos orbs, my warrior (Rozae) is fair at best, and my DK (Kouri) has yet to attempt LFR. Sadly, when it comes to DPS in LFR, unless you're at the top three...IIITTTSSTS BOOOOOOOORRRRRRING!. Its just an over sized dungeon group with more bitching, QQ, and a lot more rounds of 'the blame game'. Thank god for Ra'sha's Sacrifical Dagger to add a little spice to the 'another ten minutes waiting for a tank' game.

But enough psudo-forum ranting. I wanted to renew this blog for two reasons, to keep my end of the promise of stories, and ...I miss Tycertank's screenshot of the day contest. (sorry Tycer, I'll jump back in on March!). So in preparation of said revival I had asked Plaid what stories we had shared on our many, many adventures to which I should write about, and she had a good one... So, on with the story!

.

...I feel like I should say something but as a friend of mine pointed out 'all of my blog entries are about being late/saying hi'...well, sadly she's right. I promised stories but they're sparse at best. Screenshots aren't being done this month just to give me a break, but perhaps come Feb I'll be at it again. Not sure what happened in Dec, kinda just fell apart and sadly, for no particular reason.

My holidays were good and I hope everyone else had a good Christmas season, however you celebrate it.

So yeah, taking on an extension of promised stories and other oddities and perhaps actually posting, I donno, something interesting.

For now, enjoy this awesome glitch I came across!

laters!