It’s A Lock

So, the Grumpy Mage has gotten really grumpy. Even more than usual. So RG messages me a week or so ago. It went something like this:

RG: hi!

me: Howdy

RG: I have a question for you

me: Okie. I probably have an answer.

RG: would you have any interest in the arena tourney?

me: I haven’t done much PvP in quite awhile, very little arena period. I’d get eaten alive in a tourney. lol

RG: we’re all going to get eaten alive. but you get a pet for playing 50 games … and we need a warlock

me: Hmmmm… but my lock is only level 48

RG: on the tourney realm, you get to create up to 3 toon, level 80 and with the best gear

me: ohhhhh

So, long story short, I’m now registered for the tourney. Liris, my now level-53 gnomie warlock is incarnated as a Lirith,  level 80 affliction warlock. Yes, the mage has turned to the Dark Side, reveling in the pain and misery of his – now her – enemies, cackling with glee as she sucks the life and very soul from them.

Er, well… sometimes. I’ve never played a level 80 lock before. Most of the time, I’m concentrating on keeping moving, and remembering all the things I’m supposed to be doing as a lock. So far, I’ve just been doing practice 2s, and even won a couple. The problem is, I have no way of knowing a) if I screwed up, b) how I screwed up, or c) what I should have done. I simply don’t have any background to use as a reference. I’ve just come to the conclusion that I’m just going to have to keep butting my head against it until I get better.

I’ve taken Liris into to the BGs, and done fairly well; I’ve usually wound up in the top two in killing blows. One thing I have determined I need to work on is situational awareness, and survivability, and hopefully, that will carry over to arena. Getting used to the higher level spells is a challenge, but it’s coming slowly.

I’d love to see a really good PvP guide for warlocks. I’m reading all over the internet, but too many times, the writer starts using PvP slang, and I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. I’ve tried looking at videos, but typically, I have no idea what’s going on in the video beyond some guy jumping around the screen, and most videos aren’t really created for educating n00bs, they’re for showing off the player’s talent. Guys, it’s great that you’ve got a good soundtrack, but that doesn’t tell me what you did, or why you did it, or why I should do it. Most of the time, I can’t tell what spell your casting from looking at the screen, either because  it’s lo-res, or because it’s happening so fast.

Right now, I would pay money for a small series of well-done videos from a rated affliction warlock, with no music, but good commentary. (and I only specify rated because to give some insurance that the author would know what he was talking about).  Here’s an example of the kind of videos I would love: Paladin Tanking from WowWiki. The author did vids, then did a nice, clear commentary on what he was doing, how it works, why you do it, etc.

“Oh… You Play Farmville…”

We find inspiration in the oddest places.

Euripedes over at CriticalQQ posted this a couple months ago, and it inspired a ton of debate.  How many of us have had someone we know hear that we play WoW, and gotten a looking-down-the-nose response from them?

Ok, confession time. I was one of those. I cut my teeth on D&D, and when Neverwinter Nights came out, I was in heaven. WoW was for the masses. Blah blah blah. So many people liked it, I obviously wouldn’t. Whatever. Now… no looking back. I have things I miss about NWN, and things I’d like to see done in WoW, but let’s just say, my eyes have been opened to what an incredible job Blizzard has done. Now? WoW is my primary source of recreation.

For a long time, I felt the same way about Farmville, and all the other games one finds on Facebook. Almost precisely the same feeling. A mindless waste of time, so many people like it, it’s obviously not going to interest me, blah blah blah.

But, in watching the messages scroll past, I got interested… and then I tried it.

I saw an article on it, not long ago, that explains it best. Remember the little mini bonsai trees? Trimming and torturing this little tree, to mold it into what you wanted it to look like was what all the “enlightened” types were into. It went hand in hand with martial arts, Eastern philosophy, etc.

That’s Farmville. It’s your own little plot of “land”, to do with what you will. You can plant stuff, you can decorate it… you can add animals. Your own mini little bit of self-expression. The fact that it’s not sitting in a pot on your desk changes nothing. It simply makes it easier to take it with you. If you don’t want to get bigger, you don’t have to. If you don’t want more stuff, you don’t have to. If I want, I can simply plow the fields, and walk away for a week, and it will be just fine when I get back. It’s the walk-away factor that really works for me. If I don’t have time to play, I simply plant long term crops. The worst that can happen is a crop withers.

Most importantly, the basics are mindless. To do it really well requires a lot of persistence and “game smarts”, but at the basics, it’s easy. And that’s why I like it. For those times when you’re involved in something, but have down time, it’s perfect.

Son of Manic Monday

So, I’ve been seriously delinquent in posting the last couple weeks. Manic Monday has mutated to “Manic Days Ending in Y”. And truth be told, there hasn’t been a lot going on in my WoW world that I consider that noteworthy.

Noblegarden came. Last year, I was like “Meh… eggs? Are they deviled? Can I throw them at a boss for a stun? No? Blah.” and moved on. I was leveling. This year, tho’, I’ve got “the Pilgrim” and “the Elder” knocked out, so “the Noble” was just another one to check off the list. So, climbing out of bed, jumping on WoW, with a quick glance at WoW.com’s Noblegarden writeups, I got on it. Found a hotspot for eggs, and commenced to scarfing down chocolate. When the dust cleared, I hadn’t purchased a single item, except the Tome of Polymorph: Rabbit. Everything else dropped, along with a metric buttload of chocolate eggs.

My momentum was too much, as it turned out, because I missed the fact that the rabbit disguise inflicted by the Blossoming Branch allows one to lay the eggs that you need for the Hard Boiled achievement. When I hear the word “Achievement”, I assume that it’s going to involve some time and effort, so I didn’t bother to dig deeper. End result was me and Edelestar waiting to be polymorphed by opening eggs, then hopping out to Un ‘Goro to lay our eggs. We hearthed, to take the Cavern’s of Time portal in Dalaran… except my hearth is set to Wyrmrest. (Reason being is, I can normally teleport to Dalaran, and the Wyrmrest drakes are an express flight, centrally located. Method, madness, all that stuff.)

So, after hopping my way up from Wyrmrest to the portal up to Dalaran, I hopped to the CoT portal, then made my way across the desert to Un ‘Goro, down the hill, and through the ravasaurs, to get to the hotsprings, and hear someone asking if someone could use a branch on them.  Good thing I was a pink bunny, or the embarrassed blush would have shown. Meh, I meant to do it. Anyone can ride out to Un ‘Goro. My 45 warlock did it. Takes a real stud, secure in his masculinity, to hop out there as a pink bunny! The rest of the Noble title was a piece of cake. Perseverance, patience, all that stuff. Only the Main Four online, so when Innarra came on, we grabbed her to tank, and we ran a random. /sigh. Pinnacle again. Innarra was gulping, but I followed my usual script, and assured her that once you had the encounter down, it was a piece of cake. Same formula…  give the tank time to grab aggro, keep the adds in hand, and get plenty of harpoons, then warn everyone Skadi is coming down in one pass. Slam dunk.

The following evening, Crits’ Classic Raid was AQ-40. Got Ron and Joyce in on it this time, then they had to pack for a spring trip, so we continued the Noblegarden merriment with lowbies. Ran a few Outland heroics. From Tuesday on, it was pretty much Sue and I holding down the fort. Lots of lowby action going on.

This weekend, I was just hanging out, chatting with Innarra, and it occurred to me that I need more pets. Hmmm…. I’ve got a few Sanguine Hibiscus in my bank. I hear Sporeggar is nice this time of year. Gee… can I solo Underbog? Quick step back here. When the last patch came out, I took my off-spec to Frost. Tried it out in AQ-40, and Black Temple the week before, receiving a scathing “Traitor!” from RG. Such an arcane snob. I’ve pretty much decided that it’s going to take some work before I’m ready to try it in a heroic or a raid. With my group, we need me at max DPS, and if I’m invited to a raid, I’m typically with mages geared a bit heavier than I am, so I need to stretch. But for soloing an instance, it looked to be advantageous.

Worked like a champ. After one run, I ripped out the Frostbolt and perma-squirtle glyphs tho’. I miss having the Frost control. In fact, I forgot how much I missed it. Yesterday, I went out to Tanaris to farm mageweave, and it was like a second childhood.

Speaking of mageweave, that leads me to my little gnomie-girl warlock. You can see on the banner the results of a hiccup in my Dimensional Ripper: Area 52. I fell in love. I was seriously considering doing a race/gender change with Lajos, but it just didn’t feel right. After a couple weeks debate, it dawned on me that what I loved best about that particular toon-model was the slight hint of a frown on an otherwise adorable face… the hint of evil… the suggestion of “Don’t #!@$ with me!” In other words… a warlock.

As the Fates would have it, I already had a gnome warlock, Leareth. It was Destiny! Last weekend, Leareth became Liris. Wheee!!!!

This weekend was dead. Did OS3D with Apathy, fun as always, but other than that… just me, chatting with Innarra… finally lo and behold, after a week absence, on  Booters appeared, and we scrambled to get her the bunny pet before the event ended. In doing so, I found another use for the wonderful Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth: sitting on eggs. It wasn’t 20 minutes, and Booter’s had her eggs and her pet, at which point, late nights caught up with me, as well as the imprints of keyboard keys on my forehead from face planting, and I called it a night.

Sunday, after a quick trip to the grocery store, it was more of the same… lots of dead time. Nick came on, and announced he had the urge to try a mage again. We talked about the pros and cons between human and gnome, and he finally decided on a gnome. I finally I decided to get back to work on Liris’ professions, namely tailoring and enchanting. Hmmm… got tons of runecloth, but she’s still on mageweave. Hence, Lajos’ trip out to Tanaris to farm mageweave.

About 4 stacks into that, Edelestar logged in. Shortly thereafter, Booters came on, as did Nickolas, and with only four of us, and it being a rather late start, we decided to just lowby it. Hmm…. my warlock is a gnome. Sue’s mage, Mydge, is a gnome. Nick’s mage, Goodo (to low for Armory) is a gnome. That left only one choice, so after porting my warlock to Dalaran to set my hearth, Nana logged off on Booters, and created a gnome rogue, and it was a gnome party. We helped her cruise through starting area, then headed to Northshire Abby to get some Stormwind rep. Nick has been playing Godfather II his console, and donned a full tux, complete with battered jungle hat, and proclaimed himself Don Goodo, (complete with Brando voice).

As an aside, this seems to be destiny. Nana has always had a soft spot for Gnomeregan, and with the Reclaiming of Gnomeregan coming up in Cataclysm, what more appropriate way to do it than with a squad of gnomes?