Brain Block

So yeah....I was going to write this really awesome something today. It was gonna kick ass! I hadn't decided whether I'd write a shaman healing guide, a heroic instance guide, a "how not to raid" guide or a "how to kill gnome mages in battlegrounds" guide. But seriously....take my word for it, any one of those would have been awesome! Anybody reading them would have been totally amazed and enlightened! But....I couldn't think of anything. I had nowhere near enough knowledge to create any sort of useful post. Nor did I have the organizational or writing skills to put such knowledge to good use. I have no graphs, links or pictures.

So instead, I've decided to make a noob guide to WoW. This would be good for someone who has no WoW experience, no video game experience, no fantasy/sci-fi movie or book experience, comic books or anything remotely imaginitive.

1. Okay, so its The Alliance vs The Horde- They're 2 teams who fight each other. Why? Because if they didn't the game would suck...now shut it and hold your questions till the end. The Alliance are the gay looking guys and the midgets, oh and the blue guys. They suck. They're the weaker team. The Horde are the cool looking guys with horns and tusks and sharp teeth and stuff. What? Those gay looking guys? Yeah...those are blood elves. They are gay but for some reason they got put on our team. I think to even things out. Only pre-teen boys and chicks play them, so don't worry. And I said to hold your questions till the end.

2. Choosing your guy.
If you suck and are a weakling and you chose Alliance, it doesn't really matter what race you chose. Humans, dwarves, gnomes, night elves and the blue guys. Doesn't matter which you choose, they all suck. Now they are going to get these cool werewolf guys pretty soon, so even though they're Alliance, they are pretty cool and I can accept you making one of them. What? Are we getting a new race? Ah...I don't want to talk about that right now.

Now for Horde:
You can be the green guys...orcs...who are awesome.
You can be the blue guys....trolls, who are also awesome.
You can be one of the big hairy bull guys....who are awesome.
You can be one of these cool flesh munching zombie guys too...they are awesome.
What? That pretty blond guy? No....you can't be one of them. I told you, those are blood elves. They're not even full members of the Horde. They're like conditional members. They're on probation. Why? Because! Look at them! You ought to see them dance! It's awful...awful! Just never mind. On to classes.

3. Choosing your class.

Warrior-you get to run up and smash stuff.
Rogue-you get to sneak around behind stuff and then smash it.
Shaman-you can smash stuff, heal stuff and shoot stuff with lightning bolts out of your fingers. Yeah I know...cool.
Mage-you wear a dress.
Priest-you also wear a dress but later on you get to turn into a dark, shadow guy and melt stuff. In a dress.
Druid-Sorta like shaman. You can smash stuff from the front, the back, heal stuff and shoot stars and leaves and nature crap outta your hands. Yeah...pretty cool. And, you get to turn into animals....like a mutant sea lion.
Hunter-You have a big mean animal pet that does all the work for you while you shoot stuff from a safe distance.
Paladin-no, these suck...these are what the gay guys are. If you chose alliance, you can go ahead and make one of these guys.
Death Knight-You get to run up and smash stuff and have everyone tell you that you're overpowered and retarded.
Warlocks-Also wear a dress, but you're evil and get to curse alot.

4. Now to start.
Use the keyboard or the mouse to move around. Find guys with yellow exclamation points floating above them. Do what they tell you to do. When you're done, go back. They should have a big floating question mark now. Talk to them. When you see things with names in red, kill them. You can smash them or pew pew them with your laser/lightning/gun/bow/explosive nature crap. Keep doing this for hours a day.

5. End game.
Now you can join raids and dungeon groups and get lots of cool stuff and pretend to be super cool riding around on your gay sparkle pony and have people tell you that you suck and should learn to play. Enjoy!

Disclaimer-this is tongue in cheek. In no way do I actually believe that all alliance members, paladins and/or sparkle ponies are gay (although I'm pretty sure blood elves are). And even if they were, there wouldn't be anything wrong with that.

Fishing

So I've never leveled fishing on a toon. In fact I've never even learned it. Apparently I would have been at the gold cap on all of my toons by now had I been a fisherman....orc...cow....troll....elf.....you know what I mean. Anywho, as I logged into WoW last night to try and level my hunter, I realized I wasn't going to get much done. It's very difficult to focus on quests while I'm trying to pretend to listen to my wife. You see, the trick is that you have to listen enough to know when to say "mhmmm" or "yeah" or something timely like that. Feigning interest can be very difficult. Many times I've been caught by the "are you listening to me?"...."yes"...."what did I just say?" thing. Even after 18 years together I still get caught every now and then. I'm good, but everyone gets caught every now and then...everyone!

So anyway, how to I play WoW and pay fake attention to my wife? Can't quest. Instances are definitely out. Fishing! I'll learn fishing! I'm sitting here at Shadowprey Village anyway. I'll learn fishing! I can level while I listen (sort of) and I'll be at the gold cap by the weekend. Anyway, by the time I got the 25 fish achievement, I hadn't caught a single fish. Not one. Some weeds, and string, and driftwood and cloth. Not one fish. But I got the achieve anyway. Then on to 50. Got that achieve too. I think by that time I may have caught one sickly fish, but literally that's it. Funny. Bought the next level training and pretty soon hit 100 fish. Got the achieve again, but most certainly had not caught 100 fish. People talk about welfare epics and handing badges out like crazy. You should try fishing. I caught a bunch of crap. Maybe about 20 fish total. Leveled to 130. Got 6 total achieves I think.

So I suppose I need to move to another more advanced body of water to continue leveling, as around 120, I stopped gaining a level with every piece of crap I snagged. We shall see. And before everyone starts griping, I'm mostly kidding. I don't mix WoW and family. Not only is it virtually impossible, but it's not fair to my toons. They deserve my complete attention. So, once I've fed my children uncooked pasta with ketchup packets over it, I'll get back to it.

Nothing specific

I'm not sure if Wednesday has a theme. Wasn't there a whiny Wednesday? Anyway, guess I'll do a rambling Wednesday post. Do you say "wed-nes-day" as you spell it out or is it just me?

I got a random oculus the other day. Somebody wanted to do the achievement (think you kill final boss without red or green drakes???). The all-powerful dungeon guide/tank said "No, our dps isn't geared enough". Does the bronze dragon's power scale with the players gear? I thought not. Nobody else said "wtf" so I just continued on. I was on bronze anyway and have the achieve on that toon already.

Do you think the Horde has immigration laws? Doubt it. Alliance, for sure. They're conservative republicans. That little human kid king guy is their version of "W".
I can see the human soldiers walking around Stormwind asking gnomes and draenei for the proof of citizenship. "Oh crap officer! I left it on my nether ray!". "A likely story you blue space goat bastard! Now turn around and put your hands on the wall!".

I got an anonymous response on my racism rant. Someone wondered how my irl views related to my shoddy treatment of gnomes in the game. An interesting thought. We could certainly draw parallels between irl and the basic WoW storyline. But, can we actually be racist (or gnomist) by mistreating an imaginary being. Does my gnome-munching suggest that I may be equally evil to beings that inhabit planet Earth? I don't think so. Mistreating imaginary critters in game has no relevance to real life. I shoot snakes and squirrels and rabbits in the game all the time. But I can't stand hunting (now go out and hunt bears and such with just a knife or spear and we'll talk). Discuss.

We have several examples of cross species mating in WoW. Ogres and orcs come to mind.
What pairings would you like to see? Draenei and gnome? Tauren and troll? Hunter and pet? Ewwww. (Reminds me of the joke where the guy moves to a deserted island. The resident hermit who he is trading places with for a year tells him to fulfill his urges with one of the many sheep on the island. The man is disgusted. As the year wears on and his loneliness increases, he finally can't hold back. Just as he is putting the moves on a sheep, the old hermit comes walking over a hill to let him know his year is up. "Oh disgusting!" exclaims the hermit. "What?!?!" says the man. "You told me to do this!!!" "I know!" says the hermit, "but you picked the ugliest frickin sheep on the island!")

And with that...I bid you adieu.

Murloc cooking

I've decided that I'd continue the murloc theme that I started this week by offering a delicious gnome recipe that is very popular among rural murlocs. A little known fact is that Murlocs have a very sensitive palate. In fact they prefer to taste the meat as opposed to covering it's flavor with spices and sauces. Their use of additional flavors is very limited and only when it enhances the flavors on the plate. So, on to the recipe.

Urgglllurglll Gnome (translated: yummy gnome)

1. As much gnome as you got. Preferably thighs or flank.
2. Gnome meat may then be cut into thin fillets (sashimi style) or minced (tartar style).
3. Place artfully on a bed of shredded cabbage.
4. Sprinkle with mrrgshburggl (a relatively hard to find murloc spice that brings out the delicate
flavor of gnome)
5. If you don't have mrrgshburggl, don't worry. Eat as is.

So there you go. Urgglllurglll gnome. Certainly an acquired taste, as the murloc palate is quite different from the usual Hordie. But, with an open mind, you may find that you quite like the taste of raw gnome. Delicate, tender.....delicious.

Haiku Monday

In recent posts I have introduced you to the poignant poetry of a lesser gnown gnome gnamed Gnomoichi Gnakamura. I have decided to introduce you to some other equally brilliant minds. Today, for your pleasure....I would like to introduce you to a rare talent, Mrrglburlgl the Murloc. Of course I am sharing the piece in Nerglish. Translated to our tongue, the meter will be lost, as well as some of the feeling, but in it's native tongue, it is a thing of beauty.

Nurglburgllnrgggg
Murglshburrgglllshhnrgggburglllle
Burgllmrrrgnurgllle

*Translation
Fish good
Me like eat fishy eyes
gnomes tasty too

As I said, there is something lost in the translation other than the mechanics of the poetry form.
That being said, one still feels the longing this Murloc feels. The depth of his desires are apparent for all to see and share. A rare talent and a beautiful piece. Don't you agree?

Finally Friday!

The weekend is upon us once again. It's funny because I look forward to the weekend thinking I'm going to get some rest and relaxation or something totally crazy like that. But, the truth is, weekends are busier than work! You homeowners know this. There's always something to do from lawns to cleaning to broken appliances or little fixer-upper kinds of things. You parents also know this. Particularly as children reach school age. Driving them all over for various sports and lessons is a full time job! So yes, I face every weekend with a relieved smile, convinced I'll get to sit back with the tv and a beer or something totally unrealistic like that. Well, I do get a couple hours of WoW in anyway. One before they wake up and one after they all go to bed!
On to WoW. Got my hunter up to 30. I put +15 agility on her weps. I got her dual AP daggers (the heirloom ones). Not sure if this was the thing to do, but as I understand it I need AP. Either way, things die fast. I'd love to hit 40 this weekend, but we'll see. I'm going to put stats on the heirloom chest. If I remember correctly, the shoulder inscription isn't available for lowbies, but I'll have to see. Is there anything I can add to the ranged weapon? I think there's a scope or something. I'm using the mark of the hunter glyph, but that's only because I didn't see something that sounded better in the AH. I'll have to look into that. I'm not all that worried about min/maxing everything while leveling, but anything that makes killing go faster, in turn makes leveling faster so.....
Why do I always get VH as my random heroic on my shammy and HoR as the heroic for my spriest? Seriously. It's very odd. I feel like I get VH almost every other day(or more!) and recently for the spriest I've gotten HoR 4 out of 5 times. I like HoR. I just cringe when I get it because I know others will be dropping at the first sign of a wipe. Nobody wants to do HoR because they don't want to work. Maybe Blizz can just mail 3-5 triumph badges and 2 frost badges to us daily and we don't have to do anything else. The HoR run was fun though. Tank dropped as soon as we zoned in. Replacement was a DK who did a fine job. Everyone had a good time. We wiped once when the healer and one dps ran too far during the gauntlet and got separated from the rest of us by the wall. It was mildy funny, and it was only one wipe, so big deal. Nobody bitched. We laughed and finished the run. Good times.
So that's about it for me. Looking forward to continuing on the hunter. Any input is welcome. Have a good (and safe!) weekend!

So when is haiku day?

So the vast throngs of insatiable readers who devour my blog on a daily basis....Okay....okay....the three people who read my ridiculous thoughts are clamoring...well, maybe not clamoring, but could have mildly suggested.....okay, the truth is nobody cares damnit. Fine then!
Zelmaru noticed yesterday that three bloggers posted a haiku yesterday. Was yesterday haiku day? Not that I know of. I propose that we make "Haiku Monday". Mondays require a certain amount of zen-like presence, so a haiku seems to fit well there. So from now on I'll be trying to post my haiku on Monday. If anybody else sees fit to join me on this useless scheduling of haiku that would make the masters barf, please feel free.
On to some actual fun. I got some nice heirloom pieces for my little belf hunter. She's wearing the heirloom chest, shoulders, daggers and gun. PvE is quite easy. I send the pet in and then fire away. It's really nice being able to handle 3-4 mobs without much problem. She's as 29 and a half right now. I think I'm going to level the rest of the way in battlegrounds. It's an odd feeling being at the top for damage. One WSG I was having so much fun I did what that little gnome mage hates! I fought midfield for 20 minutes and ignored the flag! *slaps own wrist
I still have a hell of alot to learn about PvP with a hunter, but for the most part it's been pretty fun! I think for 30-40 I'll start using the LFG tool. Anyway, that's it for now. Have a great Earth Day, eat some processed cheese, some farm raised beef and use some spray deodorant!

Gnomoichi

I run from the orc

Who is also with a troll

Run fast, they are large

One can almost see the large hungry horde-mates chasing down the frightened little gnome. It brings to mind images of the wolf chasing the frightened rabbit. The rabbit leaps, dodges and changes direction in hopes of shaking his pursuer. It must be difficult to be a pink or green haired gnome and try to hide when you live in the snowy terrain around Ironforge.
It's quite remarkeable such frail creatures have been able to scrape out an existance, miserable as it is, in such a tough world. Now, I'm hungry....fried gnome cakes anyone?

Happy Birthday Robert Nesta...and other thoughts.

Happy Birthday to Mr. Robert Nesta Marley. A truly amazing individual.

On to WoW. I have been feeling a little burned out on my toons. I have 4 80's and they are all basically as geared as I can get them (except for alt specs) without raiding. I have essentially avoided raiding intentionally. I don't want to deal with the drama. People complain about behavior in pugs, but sorry, that behavior is amplified in raids. Even guild raids are full of drama. People yelling at each other over vent? No thanks. I don't need somebody being a douchebag because I didn't pew pew at the right time/right rotation, or didn't heal an in-the-fire-standing mage in time. I would really love the challenge, and would love to see the content. But I'd leave group/guild at the first sign of douchiness.

Solution? I've been fooling around with some of my alts. I have a hunter, lock and mage in the 20's. I was having some fun yesterday on the hunter. She's been sitting idle for almost a year now and it's amazing how much better I can play her now that I have a better understanding of game/fight mechanics, damage, stats, cc, etc.

I also have a druid in the upper 40's. He's currently my bank alt due to his incredible foot speed from mailbox to auctioneer! I am thinking about playing him again. I had him specced moonkin, and then switched to resto with some crazy idea of leveling him through lfg. Not sure now.

I was also thinking I wasn't going to level anymore till cataclysm, but truth is I could probably get one more to 80 easily before it drops. What to do......

If I choose one more to level, who should it be? I actually enjoy them all, but would like to have one pure dps class. Mage, lock or hunter? I would like to get whichever toon I choose set up with some heirloom pieces though so I may need to lfg on my current 80's a little more. But having those heirloom pieces would be nice. For speed and ease of leveling, I'm thinking lock or hunter. Suggestions? Oh yeah! My little girlie hunter ate a gnome yesterday...well, her cat did anyway! Poor gnome :(

Celestial steed and other thoughts

I don't like the celestial steed and not because it's so sissy looking (which it is). I just think it's ugly. Apparently I am the only one. Zone in to Dalaran and the things are all over the frickin place. It's kind of funny actually. "Hey everyone! I had 25 bucks!". I can see the mounts earned through a certain accomplishment, but it's just sorta funny to see everyone parading around on their rare mount that they earned through.....payment.

I got almost nothing done in the WoW world this weekend. Kids really get in the way! It's hard to get into a group when you have to run off to ballet lessons in 20 minutes and then back home to take the other to tennis. "Honey can you drive the girls to their appointments so I can play Warcraft?" Yeah...that's gonna happen.

I'm working on leveling leatherworking on my shammy and jewelcrafting on my DK. I'm a cheap bastard, so I try to farm as much as I can to keep costs down. Of course that results in a much slower ascent! I have gotten up to the final level however, so at least I can make a little money on the crafted items.

On a side note....why is it when someone says "Looking for JC" in trade chat I still can't resist a wiseass comment? "Try a church". "He's everywhere." or something equally dumb. Damn godless bastard.

Maybe gnomes aren't that bad.

Had fun in battlegrounds as ele shammy this weekend. I didn't respec as pvp elemental though so I don't have the knockback (thunderstrike or thunderstorm?) spell. That makes it a little tougher. It's tough enough as a shammy in pvp. But if I can get you hexed, then an insta lava burst....adios (unless you're a filthy pally).

No....no.....gnomes are awful. But they taste delicious.

Last rant of the week...probably.

Ahhhh…the rant. The lovely, spirit cleansing (unless you’re a shaman in which case you can no longer cleanse that) rant. Get it all out. Feel better.

What the hell is with birthers? The next person I meet who claims that Obama is not a natural US citizen is gonna get a throat punch. First stages of healthcare reform are through. Economists say things are on the upswing. The Dow is at it’s highest since 2008. What can we grief Obama for now? Oh yeah! Let’s go back to the birth certificate. Why is this such an issue? Racism. No president in my lifetime has had their birth so scrutinized. Why? Because he’s not white and he doesn’t have a white name. Racism. The Hawaii State Department of Health (Dr. Fujino, a woman I know personally) has verified that Obama was born here in Hawaii. ‘Nuff said? Hardly. Birthers continue to go after this ridiculous accusation. We even have a marine who is refusing orders because he claims said orders are illegal due to the fact that our President is not a natural US citizen. Just admit that you can’t stand a black man in a position of power. Quit hiding behind your bullshit excuses.

A recent NYT poll states that, oh revelation, most tea partiers are white, older men with above average income and above average education (NOT intelligence….education). So we have a bunch of white guys who were lucky to be raised in upper middle class families and blessed with an education most Americans don’t get. What? They don’t want to pay taxes? They don’t want to contribute? Yeah, screw the have nots. Don’t use my money to help them. WIC, healthcare, welfare. Screw ‘em. I got mine and you can get your stinkin’ hands off it.

Somebody at my clinic is stealing money from people’s purses/wallets. Unbelievable. Someone I work with is actually going into people’s desks/purses and stealing money. This truly baffles me. There are only 10 people in my office. Holy crap! In a way I want to know, but in a way I don’t.

Now, if I can get all the birthers, tea partiers and office thieves together in a really big room…..

Spicy garlic gnome....yum!

Greetings fellow gnomemunchers! I have a special treat for you today. A recipe from a fantastic troll chef. I met Nesta Longtusk on a trip to Sen’Jin Village. While relatively unknown outside the troll community, his skills with spices and spatula are sure to make him a culinary star! I give you this recipe with his blessing. Please enjoy!

Spicy garlic gnome steak
· 2 (10-ounce) boneless gnome top loin steaks, 1 inch thick, trimmed of fat
· 1 cup(s) (loosely packed) fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
· 2 tablespoon(s) olive oil
· 1 tablespoon(s) red wine vinegar
· 1/2 teaspoon(s) dried oregano
· 1/4 teaspoon(s) crushed red pepper
· 1 clove(s) garlic, crushed with press
· 3/4 teaspoon(s) salt
Directions
Heat grill pan on a medium fire until hot. Evenly season gnome steaks, on both sides, with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sautee a tablespoon of minced garlic in 1 tablespoon of butter. Place gnome steaks in grill pan and cook 16 to 18 minutes for medium-rare, or until desired doneness, turning steaks over once.

While steaks are cooking, prepare sauce: In small bowl, with fork, mix parsley, oil, vinegar, oregano, crushed red pepper, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon salt until blended.

Drizzle sauce over thinly sliced gnome steaks. Serve over beans and rice prepared as you like.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free to play with the spice mixture. Gnome is delicious in so many ways! Make this recipe your own! Good luck and good eating!

What's worse than a mage? A gnome mage.

Ha ha...just kidding. I have nothing against mages. Just with all the bitching going around I figured I should write something inflammatory. And boy was that title inflammatory...whew!
I keep seeing mage blogs going off about shaman complaining. Mages yelling here, mages swearing here...damn shaman, quit crying about your loss! One time we were underpowered too!
But I haven't seen all that much complaining on the shaman blogs. So....I'm wondering where this "suck it up and quit complaining" attitude is coming from? Is there endless complaining on forums or something? I don't read the wow forums, so I wouldn't know. The shaman blogs I do read have briefly lamented the fact that shaman will be losing utility. Losing utility kinda sucks for a class that sacrifices dps for utility. I think a little bitching is expected and deserved. I mean, we still have bloodlust, we haven't lost it, but we have lost our unique ability to provide it.

The argument that this group sucked before so now it's another groups turn is lame. People shouldn't complain, because one time, other people sucked too. I was beaten as a child, therefore I should beat my children. Makes sense. One time, people lived in frickin caves and had to fight cave bears with wooden spears and died in their 40's. Guess nobody gets to complain.

Anyway, just wondering why all the QQ. To complain about losses or changes that a class sees as negative is normal. I think the complaint of shaman is very understandable. If in fact mages sucked at one time, they should be understanding of changes that reduce another classes effectiveness. This is not a college fraternity or high school. I paid my dues, now life will suck for you!

Now I better get to leveling my overpowered mage so I can get into a raid group when cata hits.

The Orc (a haiku)

The orc carries me

In his mouth, sharp teeth bite me

Please sir, let me go

A haiku, by Gnomoichi Gnakamura

One can almost feel the orcs teeth poking the tender flesh of the helpless gnome.
The pain and fear is expressed so clearly. Being such a fragile and fearful race, normal
beings can truly empathize with the gnomish plight.
Not that I condone the release and non-consumption of gnomes, but the next time
your axe is bearing down upon a gnomish skull, or you prepare to fire a lava burst that
will burn gnomish skin to a crisp, just remember. Feel the pain. Take a moment to recognize this tiny, helpless creature. Exquisite.

My WoW weekend (well, WoWish anyway).

Okay, so I was looking forward to doing alot more than I actually did this weekend. I did do a little farming. profession leveling, daily heroics and even the weekly raid. Overall however, my grand plans gave way to real life. Leaking faucets, long grass, smelly dogs, tennis and ballet lessons....never ends.

So raiding...yeah. Finally did a raid. Ulduar 10. First time in a raid. I've been playing WoW for about 2 years no I believe and I've never been in a raid. I'm mostly a solo WoW player so the guild thing took some time to happen. When I finally did, it was a very casual guild. No serious raiding. A few members PUG every now and then, but no guild raids. I don't PUG raids because people just seem like such douchebags that I just can't bring myself to do it. Even in this raid, the PUG players were being jack-asses. Four of us were guildies. Two tanks, two heals and two dps were PUGS and they were bitchin' from flame leviathan (or whatever the first encounter is). And they continued through razorscale. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Learn to tank, learn to dps, learn to heal....awmahgahd!!!!! Shut your pieholes! One dps died, and we finished. Relax.

On a lighter note, I have no idea what happened in either encounter. I was late zoning in for flame leviathan, so no vehicles were left. I didn't think I could just run through the place where the dwarves and their helicopters are so I just cruised at the starting area. Of course nobody bothered to tell me what to do, so I don't care all that much. Then I found a teleporter, asked where I should teleport to. They had already started razorscale, the one dps died. I got there and started healing like crazy. I was just slightly below the priest and above the pally in performance so I was pleased. I must say I have no idea what happened during the encounter. Apparently there is a dragon there that eats you. I wouldn't know. There are also apparently some dwarves that come out of the ground and also try to eat you. I wouldn't know. I just looked at boxes and tried to keep them full. I also tried not to stand on or near anything that did not resemble the ground. I also tried to stay away from the dragon. In general that is good advice anyway.

So... there is my first raid experience. It was a little anti-climactic as I have no idea what really happened. It was also kind of what I expected as people bitched and moaned throughout. That is the primary reason I don't raid. I'd love to, seems fun, and challenging. I just can't stand assholes. Is it possible to find a group of non-assholes who play for fun and don't get all bent and serious about raiding? I'll let you know.

Anyhow....that's my WoW weekend in a nutshell. Exciting. and there was much rejoicing....yay..

Weekend is coming

Well, as I said before, for seveal reasons I've had very little WoW time lately. Lately I'm lucky to get 15 minutes on any given weekday. However, as my wife loves to sleep in on weekend mornings, I should be able to get in some quality WoW time very soon!

So anyway, after running around Dalaran on your mammoth, do you have to clean the gnome out of the mammoths toes?

Speaking of that, who cleans up after all those beasts?

They should have signs out. "Please clean up after your mammoth." That would suck.

When mobs "run away in fear", how come they never actually run. They sort of casually amble off. Then, for some reason they get their courage back and come back at you.

Okay, I saw Yoda fight with the lightsaber and all, but melee gnomes are just a little silly.

Hunters have to feed their pets but thank goodness we dont have to feed our mounts.

So I'm getting over the loss of my dispels and starting to feel excited for some of the changes in cataclysm.

Goblins? Really? Bite me Blizz.

Priest changes for Cataclysm....half yawn...

My initial thoughts on the priest changes? I’m still out. I don’t really heal much on my priest. I have a pretty decent set of mostly ilevel 232 gear, some 245. I just never really got into the groove. Healing with the shammy was different. I enjoyed it. Not so much with the priest. Most likely due primarily to comfort. Just didn’t spend enough time actually healing instances to get with the program. That being said, I love dps as a spriest. It’s fun!

Okay, so the proposed changes (focus on spriests here…). As many have noted, these aren’t written in stone. I’ll wait to really decide when it actually happens.

Heal-The new go-to spell for priest. More heal than lesser and less heal than greater. Yawn…okay.

Mind Spike-I’ve been dreaming of another spell that will give me some quick damage without having to get all my DoT’s and mind flays going. Half the time, mobs are dead before I can get anything done. Apparently this should do about the same damage as mind flay and provide a debuff which will increase damage of subsequent mind spikes.
Sounds good to me!

Inner Will- An option to Inner Fire. This will provide a movement speed increase as well as a mana cost reduction for instant spells. The priest will have to decide which self buff is most advantageous. I don’t foresee using this all that often, but okay.

Leap of Faith (life grip)- this can pull dumb people out of harms way. So now, I not only have to heal and dispel, but I would also have to grab people who can’t control their aggro or are not able to see where they are standing. No thanks. But, might be fun to screw with people (assuming you can use it on a friendly target whenever you like!).

Other Changes:

HoT’s and DoT’s will benefit from haste and crit innately. Sounds good to me.

Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit removed. Okay, one less thing to have to worry about.

Change to Shadow Word:Death…as long as it still kills things…okay by me.

Improve shadow for short fights. Amen!

Changes to passive damage boosters and hit modifiers.

Orbiting shadow balls of death. Yeah...okay.

Anyway, we’ll really have to wait to see how this all pans out. Nothing seems horrible here (like getting rid of cleanse spirit and cleansing totem!!!!!). Nothing seems awesome either, but I am excited to see Mind Spike. We shall see….yes we shall.

Shaman changes.

While nothing is written in stone, some of the potential changes for shaman sound very interesting. Others I am not so excited about.

Unleash Weapon sounds pretty cool. Some additional damage for flametongue, and healing for earthliving. The thought of some kind of "wind weapon" flying out of my weps for the windfury spell almost makes me want to switch to enhancement...almost.

Healing wave....jury is out on that one. I suppose having another healing spell in our small but awesome arsenal couldn't be a bad thing.

Healing rain- this sounds cool. An AoE HoT...sounds like fun. Can't wait to see how it works.

Spiritwalker's grace-Anything that allows a shaman to move and cast sounds great to me! I suppose a shorter cooldown would be too much to ask wouldn't it?

The totem changes...bad and good. Making ToW the goto fire totem for all is cool. Simplifying things is usually a good thing. Allowing ele shamans to get that SP bonus from any fire totem....awesome. SP boost plus a damage totem....nice. Getting rid of my cleansing totem? Sucks.

Losing my cleanse disease and poison and gaining the dispel magic? Not so great. Yes I'm crying about it because it sucks. Cleanse spirit is a great spell. I don't see dispel magic as an even trade. Of course who the hell said things needed to be even, right? It just seems stupid, lore-wise, that a shaman can't cure poisons or diseases....a shaman...a frickin witchdoctor....whatever.

I haven't had the chance to look at the warrior, DK and spriest changes yet. Hopefully there will be some nice additions. We'll see.

Tuesday thoughts-screwing shaman world-wide

Getting rid of my cleasing totem?!?! No way! I love my cleasing totem! Getting rid of my cure disease and poison?!?! What the hell kind of nature loving shaman can't cure a frickin disease or abolish poison? Anyway...whatever. That is stupid...and yucky...and junk. Make mana cost higher. Makes sense. No problem. But the other changes suck.

On a totally different not....Facebook. When I started my page I decided that if anyone that I "friended" were to post, or advocate, or condone anything I found offensive, I would "unfriend" them. I'm not unfriending them personally. I'm just removing them from my facebook. If I allow someone to remain on my friend list and they have nazi propaganda on their page, I am condoning and indirectly supporting their crap. Am I right? A very dear friend of mine, who has been a friend for most of my life is also a drama whore. She also loves to say offensive things. Inflammatory things. Racially divisive things. Things I don't agree with. By leaving her on my friends list, I am condoning those thoughts. I am leaving those negative, offensive things up for all my other friends to see. As if I'm saying "hey, take a look at this".

Getting rid of my cleansing totem?!?!? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Okay, not ever...but it's pretty damn stupid.

Monday Haiku

Last week, I had mentioned that I'd discovered a little known, but brilliant gnome poet by the gname of Gnomoichi Gnakamura. Gnow, knoming how much I despise the little bastards, it pains me greatly to recognize his genius. It tears me...deep inside....my heart.....my very soul. However, I would be a small man if I couldn't get past my visceral hatred to at the very least mention the existence of such a gnome. So any way, here is a brief introduction to the inner working of Gnomo.

I am not dinner

And certainly not breakfast

Please do not eat me

Can't you just feel the pain and angst inside the soul of this little nugget of tasty flesh? I'd almost hesitate if he sat upon my plate and spoke these words. "Don't box me in" he seems to plead. "Are we not more that morsels of deliciousness?". The sentiment is so raw and honest I'd almost consider not eating the next little bugger I see.

Well anyway, I'll bring you some more of his hauntingly touching work another day. One perfect haiku is really all I can do in a day.....

Happy Easter

Well, to all you religious nutcases and godless heathens, enjoy this holiday for whatever reason you enjoy it. I personally enjoy watching my evil little minions (children) mill about the house in a mad dash for easter eggs. The older one collects out of duty and the desire for candy. The younger one still holds onto the hope that a six foot tall bunny has entered our house while we slept and hidden eggs about our property. I enjoy sit on the couch and wait for the monsters to give me the candy they don't want. Usually works out pretty well for me as the older monster doesn't like peanuts!
On the WoW front, things are going well. I've been tanking more with my warrior. Gear is improving. I forget who it was (sorry!) who wrote about not just powering thier way through 5 mans, because we can still die on Xevoz in H VH. Well guess what? Xevoz came out and before I could grab aggro, dps starts unloading. Now if you're dps and you notice you have aggro it is your responsibility to stop damage and move towards the tank....okay? Got it? We have to get Xevoz moving or we're all going to die. If the tank does not have aggro, please stop damage and allow him to get it. Okay? Xevoz bites the mages face off. As the dps did not move and I did not have aggro, we were still standing right there when the sphere thingies started forming. I got aggro, started trying to kite. Too late, healer wasn't able to keep me up. Deathtard and Boomkin die right after me. Goodbye healer. Of course, it's my fault. "tank sucks ass". Well thank you very much. How absolutely classy of you. By the way, I can't kite him if I don't have aggro and you guys with gearscores over 5k are opening up a can of whoop ass while standing still. "Oh so it's our fault?". Yes, I would say so. WHen you have aggro on a boss, stop damage. I'll get aggro, just give me a second. Then we can start moving this bastard so we don't wipe in heroic VH. And yes, it does happen. Whenever people think they can just open up on Xevoz without kiting him. I see it happen a couple times a month. Your GS doesn't stop that from happening. Thank goodness for short tank queues, later folks, enjoy your dungeon in progress.

Balancing act

Not sure why, but seems that lately I haven't been able to log onto WoW as often as I'd like. I haven't had much time to write either. It doesn't seem that things are a whole lot busier, it's just that my time is tight enough that small changes/additions result in lost time.

So how do people do it? I don't think I'm ahead of the curve in having 4 80's and a few other toons at various levels. It seems that is a pretty normal number from what I can tell. I have been having alot of trouble getting anything done though. It seems I had previously been able to get dailies done for everybody, a little AH time on the bank alt and done. But lately, not the case.

How do you juggle your WoW time? Are you an equal opportunity player? Do you play mostly one toon and get on the others when the mood strikes? I try to get dailies done for everybody. I feel like I'm losing badges if I don't!

My normal procedure is to log onto my shammy, queue as heals and run one heroic. Then log onto spriest and run one heroic as dps. Get on DK and run one heroic as dps and finish off on warrior and tank one random heroic. This usually can be finished in an hour. Assuming I remembered to mail all my phat lewts to my bank alt, I then log onto him and do my boring AH duties.

On weekends when there's a little more time, I'll generally choose one or two toons to focus on, farming, professions, instances, etc.

I think the potential solution is to quit my job and sell my wife and children to the gypsies...although I'm still looking into the legalities of that.

You?