Noblegarden: Bunnylicious

If you haven’t been able to notice, I’ve been on a non-combat pet kick lately.  Because of this new obsession I’ve been doing all the World Events that have a non-combat pet associated with it. 

I spent a good two hours clicking away on colored eggs to get the 100 chocolates necessary for the non-combat pet Spring Bunny.  After the said 100 chocolates and my elated purchase of my bunny, who reproduces with any other rabbit that comes along the little slut, I go back to clicking colored eggs.  It was late and I had no real desire to start quests or anything. 

Egg 133 comes around and guess what I get as random loot?  A FRICKEN SPRING BUNNY!$#!%!@!#$&#@$!  Are you kidding me?!  No a radom loot bunny drops about 5 mins after I bought one.  😦   I unhappily discover, although I sort of knew unconsciously, that I could not mail the sucker to another toon on my account. 

Word to the wise….collect enought to finish everything that you want to do, i.e. achievements, and stop once you have enough for the pet.  If you’re anything like me the elation I felt after committing to saving up for it was doused by my chagrin that if I had held out a little longer I could have gotten one as random loot and eaten the chocolates for a different achievement.   🙂

P.S. – I swear everytime I turn around my bunny is making goo goo eyes at some dude and poppin out babies left and right.

Armory Linking? No way, Jose!

This week’s Shared Topic over at Blog Azeroth is about adding blog links to the Armory suggested by Anea.

 

The question is “If you were given the option, would you post a link to your blog on your main’s armory profile?  Why/why not?”

My answer to this is yes and no, and a little maybe thrown in.  I like the anonymity of the virtual world.  You go online and raid with strangers and guildies alike.  You create mental images of them in your mind using bits of their performance, conversations, etc.  You have an imagining of what and who they are and when you come face to face with that you have your delusion dashed and are left with either a good or bad taste in your mouth.  I like reading other peoples blogs, hearing their frustrations, victories, and general opinions.  But putting my blog link on my armory page would feel similar to creating a toon on the realm of your favorite blogger and then ‘accidentally’ running into them.  That conversation would be full of um’s and oh’s.  I would again feel naked and try to make my hasty retreat without losing a reader because those blog hits are like drug, they are so addicting.

Just thinking about putting my link out there gives me the cold shakes.  I’m having horrormares happening right now.

Also, I don’t have a main toon.  That is because, like Windsoar and Zan and many others, I have many other characters that I play regularly and love/hate to varying degrees that change with the wind.  Also, all my toons are unfinished.  I’m an artist, at least I like to think so, and it would be akin to having a critic come look at the half-finished drawing or sculpture.

Now, if you’ve looked at my alt section on my blog you know that I have no qualms about telling you who they are once you get here, but there is a complete audience difference in having random blog readers come my way via BA or from someone’s blogroll then waving the orange landing flags to direct them my way from the Armory.

I also like to vent on my blog, usually general frustrations, and I don’t normally point out to idiots using their names but I might.  It could happen.  I like to know that even though I’m not talking to anyone in particular, besides myself, that maybe someone saw and commiserated on one post or another.  I don’t want my in-game characters and play time to be judged by my out game venting and opinions.  I don’t let my thoughts and ideas interfere in the joy of playing.  So regardless of how you or I feel about the fairness of this nerf or of that buff I am here to play and have fun and I really don’t want to talk or be judged about it while in-game.

New PLUSHIES!!!

So, over the weekend – or was it someday this week?…ah, whenever, I logged on and got the update screen.  After the uneventful update was finished I see in a big bilboard that the Blizzard Pet Store has two news pets.  I’m a sucker for pets.  If my husband weren’t allergic to cats I would be the crazy cat lady.  And if the breeder from whom we got our puppy had more avail I would scoop everyone one of them up without a second thought.  That said I jumped on the chance to buy the non-combat pets Panderan Monk and Lil’ K.T. (now renamed to something I can’t spell) when they came out.  And a bonus  with one of the pets was the opportunity for some good karma with a donation to Make-A-Wish.

As soon as I saw these two new plushies I wanted them.  Not sure if I want them for 25.00 each but I think I’m going to get them anyway.  I do hope that Blizzard will not be going the way of micro-transactions but I do like the non-combat pets.  And with the addon Guppet I never have to worry about summoning one as I can turn on auto-call and prove to my hubby that I did not just waste money on something that I won’t even remember I have.  😛

Shared Topic: Positive Random Dungeon Story

Blog Azeroth Shared Topic for 3/1/2010, suggestd by Zan of Altoholic Anonymous

Since the Random Dungeon Finder came out I had actually not tried it once.  I finally broke through my uncertainties and tried it when I saw the Shared Topic.  I can say that all the good and bad things about the Finder were shown to be mostly true.

It was hard as hell to get into a group when I was DPS.  Then when I finally got into the group the healer dropped and they asked me if I could heal.  Lol, so I spent the rest of my night in my healing off spec.  Bonus: Since I was already in my gear and had my weapons and stuff changed out I decided to go the RDF route of healer and wow how fast it was to get a group.  I spent three hours and did 4-1/2 dungeons. 

I say ½ because my very last run of the night was with a bunch of selfish assholes and I left mid-dungeon.  One would pull right after we ended combat.  Here I am trying to regen mana through drinking or whatever and they are already pulling the next mob.  At that point I’m locked out of drinking and…have NO MANA.  Really?!  I swear I played about 3/4 of the time with them under 25% mana and still had no wipes.  I worked my butt off.  After many shouts and requests I finally told them if they keep going the way they were they wouldn’t have a healer to keep them alive.  The last straw was when one such incident occurred and we all wiped.  I have absolutely no sense of in-game direction, and IMO the map is not very helpful to someone like me who has trouble seeing 3-D images represented in 2-D on paper.  So I asked for someone to stay back at the entrance so I could follow.  The answering comment was “follow your map.”  This by itself wouldn’t be bad except that I mentioned the poor direction and asked again for someone to wait.  I mean c’mon…we ALL wiped…you are dead too and also have to enter the instance to enter your body so why would it be so hard to wait for me.  I was again told to look at my map and then someone commented, “Use the map, or are you blind,” followed by lots of LOL’s.  Well, FU and I rezzed back at the graveyard.  I’m really happy none of them were from my realm.  And I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t think of anything witty and scathing to say.  Bummer.

However, My VERY FIRST RDF was awesome.  The group was great, the instance was fast, and loot was fair.  They waited and we moved along quickly and efficiently.  There was not a whole lot of talking, but it really wasn’t needed.  We all pretty much knew our roles and even though I hadn’t done that particular dungeon before I was given a brief overview and some pointers.  There was NO WIPES.  That was very exciting considering I was playing my off-spec healing that I don’t really get the opportunity to work on, by choice not circumstance.  I can say that because of the fast queue times for healer I have been doing at least one RDF sometimes two a night.  And I get to practice healing on my paladin.  All in all, bravo Blizzard.

Cataclysm and You…

This is a shared topic on Blog Azeroth proposed by Rilandune of  Heroically Random!

 

So the question for the Feb 22^nd shared topic over at BA has got me thinking.  “How will Cataclysm change your game?” is the question that is circulating and I find myself feeling excited by all the changes to come and upset that I won’t be able to see much more of the WoW world before these big changes take effect.  I have been playing WoW on and off for about a year and a half now.  I haven’t done any BC dungeons and am only halfway through the WotLK content.

I’m really excited to see the two new races come out, but in all honestly I don’t need any more alts.  <- Mostly because I’m maxed out on two realms now.  And I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not sure if I want to play goblin because they are new or because I want to try the race.

I look on the coming Cataclysm with some sadness because all of you other true WoW players have been 80 probably since after the first month WotLK came out.  You are ready for new content, a change in scenery, while I will be sad to be left behind not to enjoy that first rush to 85 (?) and will be behind on LK content as well as BC and Cat.

Well, enough with the maudlin thoughts, I will be really excited to see the two new professions.  My husband hates watching me play games because I’m a clepto and loot lord in-game and I love my inventory.  I can sit at my computer for hours rearranging bags, selling things at the AH, and working on my professions.  I loot anything and everything that crosses my path.  Now don’t get me wrong, I have a strong sense of fairness; I don’t gank loot and I make sure everyone gets what they deserve, but when I solo I loot EVERYTHING.  I have selected to have the option to loot everything on and I pick up stuff others don’t want.  When starting a new toon the first thing I save up to buy or have my tailor make is bags.  I spend an extravagant amount of time in Inventory Management, and the pencil pusher in me can’t wait to see what these new professions are all about.

All in all I am happy to see a new expansion for WoW.  It keeps the game fresh and gamers interested.  I hate seeing a game that was fun to play die or be finished so quickly.  (The new AVP is a good example of this.  The gameplay was fun but it was way too short for $70.  Definitely not worth it.  Wait for the GotY edition and spend $25.)

What does Cataclysm hold for you?

Guilds

I think this is why I play the lonely solo game of WoW.  I’ve tried my fair share of guilds…and this is what I’ve found.

Friendly? Not.

Now, to be fair, I was in one guild that was great.  But since I don’t have an 80 I couldn’t really participate in anything the group did.  But I did like to listen on vent.  Why did leave?  Because of that reason, I couldn’t really do anything with them.  During my ongoing search for the right group I came across this guild.  My thought when reading this comment was, “What’s wrong with a person trying to level PvP?  And why would you harass them?  A level 58 against a level 2…of course you ‘killed’ him you idiot, you probably took one shot before he know what hit him.”  The answer would be..because you’re an ass.  Granted it’s a little odd that you would try and level PvP on a normal server, and there are PvP quests out there (not at that level though), but really, do you feel the need gank that poor little level 2.  And how do you know that its a noob.  You don’t.  I level and play all kinds of alts but I’m not a noob.  I think the majority of the characters I have are 12 and under.  I didn’t post the picture but after that comment I whispered the GM, who invited me after a dungeon run, apologized, and then left.

Static 3.0

Where do I login?

When this is your login what do you do?  I’m not sure what happened or what is causing this but here it is.  Now, the good thing is that it only lasts a few seconds…I’m talking maybe 5 sec. overall.  I’ve removed and reloaded the game, uninstalled addons and re-downloaded them then tried starting the game up after each one.  No dice.  So until I figure out what is going on I’m going to chronicle these nice snow white pictures.  Enjoy.

Static 2

Static 3

Well, I have figured out that if I play in windowed mode I do not get the static.  Guess that is what I will do until I’m feeling a little less lazy and try and figure it out.  That will probably come after the custom header and more posting.

Warcraft Year in Review Meme

This is a Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth.   

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?    Hmmm…This is a tuffie.  There are things that I had never done before but they don’t seem at all interesting because I came so late to the game.  Here’s a good one.  I had never been in a raid/group of more than 5 people.  I finally went into Kara with a full group of ten and downed about 1/2 the bosses before everyone had to leave.  It was lots of fun to be with a random group of strangers in a 10-man using vent.  And if I didn’t love vent before then I am devoted now.  Now I know what is so annoying about trying to raid and /raid type to people not on vent.  Grrr. 

What was your favorite new place that you visited?  Favorite place would have to be Dalaran.  Oh wait…I’ve not been there.  I forgot, I was looking for Dalaran and couldn’t find it on my map, come to hear from another weary traveler that you have to be a certain level to get to Dalaran.  Drats.  So I guess my favorite place would have to be anywhere Tour Guide took me that helped me level faster.  I don’t really care for Northrend yet, although I suspect my lack of love is due to my sluggish pace and frustration with constant leveling. 

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?   I would like to have a level 80 finally.  And that’s the truth. 

What was your biggest achievement of the year?   My biggest achievement of the year would be….one that I got during PvP…I can’t remember the name but when I look it up (at work and work bans WoW.  What? Do they think all we do during the day is look up WoW?) I will add it HERE. 

What was your biggest failure?   Not reaching 80 after playing for over a year.  😦  I’m going the slow and lonely route. 
What did you get really, really, really excited about?  FLYING MOUNTS… 

**ADD**  What did you get really, really, really, bummed about?  Not being able to use said FLYING MOUNTS in Northrend.  LOL 

What do you wish you’d done less of?  I wish I had spent less time leveling alts.  But then again if I didn’t have so many alts I wouldn’t have found the perfect class fit for me and I would have bored my self straight out of playing WoW and I don’t want that. 

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?  As I only know of one podcast I’m going to say Twisted Nether.  And I’ve found so many blogs that I read and look into it would not be nice to name only one.  So if you want to see what I read check out my super long Blogroll.  Also, if you are looking for stuff to read a good place to start is with the Shared Topics over at Blog Azeroth then to the Bloggrolls of those who comment.  That’s how I usually find other blogs. 

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.  I learned that even though WoW is a social game there are a lot of areas that can be empty and to find friends where you can.  I also learned not to fret about anything because if you need something in WoW you can usually find it on the AH, even if at a ridiculous price.  🙂 

 TAG!!!  YOUR IT!  Now as for tagging others to play the meme game…I don’t know if anyone reads my blog so if you do I tag you.

Funny

 For some reason my interest in WoW has lagged this past month.  Not to say that I’m bored with it or don’t enjoy it anymore…but I go through periods of obsessiveness.  I have embraced my altoholic needs and actually created 2 new toons on a new server.  <- After my brand new druid hit 35 I had to sit back and laugh at myself.  Sometimes I feel ridiculous.  I have an army of low-level alts…but pushing the last 8 levels to 80 seems an impossible feat.

I’m going to thank Jong and Megan over at Forbearance for making the last 30 minutes of my work day really enjoyable…not even the thought of many glasses full of some random alcoholic beverages could do that.  The reason you ask?  Continue below->

Watch this – I wish I were European, but it’s probably good that I’m not, because frankly, if I were in this persons guild I think I would agree with whatever he said.  I told my husband this and he laughed at me…for 10 minutes.  🙂

 I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year.  Don’t give up on me yet.  I started using Tour Guide when leveling got to be really slow going and can now safely say that it was the best thing I have ever found in WoW.  See you at 80.

Personal Note – We saved up for some months to purchase a new TV.  I’m totally excited and a little chagrined to say that the first thing we hooked up to this new 1080p TV was…our computer.  Not our game system, not a movie, or the cable box…but the computer.  LMAO.

Invite Me Not: A Lesson in Grouping

Just because my Author Info section says that I don’t consider myself a true veteran does not mean that I don’t have wisdom or enough game play experience to be helpful, but it does mean that I have yet to become similar to those Uber-Awesome Guild Masters, Group Leaders, and Raid Runners (You know who you are) to deal with rude idiocy in-game with patience .

Don’t get me wrong, I love idiocy and absurdities and all the hilarity they come with, but sometimes there are things that push my buttons and so I’ve developed some rules of engagement, if you will, specifically for grouping.  You are forewarned.  Disobey and yee shall walk the plank!  AARGHH!

1)       Inviting without a whisper or chat is rude and kinda weird. And I know this to be true because it says so on everyone’s computer at least once during a load screen.  I get that one a lot and it’s like a pointing finger saying “YOU, yes you there, do not be rude or you shall be cursed and friendless.”  But then again that’s just my conscience talking, being a closet people pleaser and all. But yes it’s also true because you know you feel it too.  I know you have.  You’re reading this now, shaking your head, maybe laughing (at all my idiocy too) but you know I’m right.

2)       If you want my help just so say. I am all for helping classes and races of all kinds.  Be it Noob or Vet, Elf or Orc, Druid or Death Knight.  Yes, I like to solo level and only group for group quests or dungeons and then go my way but this is explained in rule (4).  But just because I like to be solo doesn’t mean that I am not willing to help others out.  You need help with an elite, need to do a group quest, want to try a dungeon, or just wanna group and have some fun doing things together?  All you have to do is ask.  Yes, I or anyone else you ask might say No; we might be in the middle of something, or getting ready to log, or any number of things, but we could just as easily say Yes.

3)       If I decline your invite don’t harass me. No seriously, please don’t gripe and jump all over me and spam me whispers or throw your main chat channel angst my way.  It’s irritating and childish and I will definitely say no again and inform everyone I know of the great laugh I had that day.  If however you send a pst, aka whisper, with an apology or explain the invite I will consider it and if I’m having a good day I’ll say count me in to the fun randomness that is online game play.  But keep in mind the following:

4)       We are working at cross purposes. Chances are that when you randomly invited me to join your group while running by me you were running in the opposite direction.  That right there should point out one flaw in your invite.  Yes, we might have a common quest or dungeon but when I’m ready to do them I will join the LFG chat channel, I mean that is what it’s for and if that doesn’t work I will ask friends or put it off for another day or wait for that wonderful whisper asking me if I wanna do it or put a message in the general or trade chat in the area I’m in, not spamming away with my copy and paste shortcuts.

5)       Don’t expect me to follow mindlessly. If I do join your group, I will do it laughing and saying what the hell.  I’ve done that before, all in good spirits and ignoring the abruptness of your lasso.  But once I’m there don’t run off and expect me to follow.  Again, we were probably working at cross purposes and if you just run off I’m not likely to follow you just so that when we get to wherever you were going I find out I already did that quest or achievement or etc.  Can I help you?  Sure.  Then on the way to where I want to go you veer off again and then this game of tag dwindles away into a purely selfless act on my part.  Check out what 4Haelz has to say on being Selfless and Selfish and you’ll see what I mean.

6)       If you will not lead I will. It is that simple.  If you don’t care for the members of your group don’t get upset when someone, probably me, asks you to pass leadership or at least pretend to care about the current group members.  In all fairness I don’t like being rude either, usually, so this will come as a nicely put pst (most of the time).  If this does not work and the group continues to grumble along like rocks grinding against one another don’t be surprised when group members start to fall off the face of the earth only to magically appear…in the same spot but not in group anymore?  Low and behold, they formed their own group and are now moving along without you.  Cheers.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about Guild Invites.