Random Thoughts, and The New Arcane Shatter

So, it was a busy weekend. My wife was throwing a birthday party for her niece, and we had family in town as early as Thursday night. I had Friday off, as a result of holiday work schedules, and was expecting to get bogged down entertaining, but bless my wife’s heart, she arranged it so I had most of Friday to myself.

So, been fighting off the last dregs of a cold, and ended up waking at about 6:30 Friday morning, and after getting a pot of coffee going, jumped on WoW, and resumed my grind to finish off Hyjal, and then was off to Deepholm, where I eventually found myself in the good graces of the mother of the hottest babe ever to hit Wow. I think it says a lot for my determination, charm, suaveness, and the lack of sweating petty details by the WoW design team, that Therazane conveniently ignored the fact that Layjos has killed her lovely daughter at least twice. Oh, wait, that was when he was Lajos. Of course! It was the name change! Doh!!!

On a serious note, I repeat again, Blizzard does it right! I’ve taken a break from leveling alts now that Layjos is on the scene, but what I’ve seen of the revamping of the Old World quests has been very pleasing. The quest-lines make sense, they move along, with very few of the “kill endlessly until you get X number of items” type of quests. Even those tend to be fairly quick. The copious side quests don’t detract from the momentum of the main questline, and some of the questlines are downright entertaining. The John J. Keeshan lines in Redridge and Burning Steppes inspired me to grab First Blood for my son Nick to see, and he has declared it his current favorite movie.

When I finally decided to scratch the mage itch, and move Lajos/Layjos, I breezed through Hyjal, and Deepholm, with no real feeling of “grind”. About the only time I did a conscious “grind” was when I saw my experience bar close to the next level. I always make it a habit, if possible, to grind out those last few points on mobs, so the quest turn-ins launch me well into the next level. So, having gotten the Coming Down the Mountain and Deep into Deepholm achievements, I returned to Vash’jir to pick up there. Unfortunately, I’m not getting the big quest experience points, since I’m a bit above level, but the quests are still entertaining. Yesterday, after family left, I jumped back on, and decided to see how I fared in the battlegrounds.

Oh, incidentally, I gave Fire a try during all that. Not bad. The ability to cast Scorch while moving is interesting. Unfortunately, leveling the way I am, I haven’t been able to muster enough crit rating to really make it effective. I’ve been gradually replacing my Wrath epics, but even with abilities, I wasn’t finding Hot Streak proccing enough for my comfort in PvP, so I decided to return to Arcane.

Overall, battlegrounds went well. I killed more than I died, and even with very little resilience on my gear, didn’t find myself getting killed to fast when I got focused. I identified a few areas I need to macro, and shift my keybinds, but all in all, it went quite well. I didn’t dominate, but I didn’t suck, either. When I had a group that worked as a team, things went well. When I had a group that thought Eye of The Storm is all about capturing the flag, things didn’t go well.  One Warsong went really well, with me leading in HKs, and in the top four in killing blows. We had a good team, and I spent my time picking engaged targets, and hitting them with Arcane Blast, and destroying their health bar, while staying out of close up mismatches. Looking back at it today, that was probably my best battleground, and it highlights what I need to do – get myself in a good position, avoid short range mass crowds of melee, and focus on staying alive. In later battlegrounds, I forgot those principles, and while I didn’t do terribly, I was letting myself get focused, and not escaping effectively enough. It’s something I noted before. I tend to go for the goals, and dive into things, counting on my teammates to be there to back me. When they are, I rock. When they aren’t, I die. It all goes by fast, but I can clearly remember several fights yesterday where I had a healer backing me, or a couple melee-types keeping me from getting smothered. I felt comfortable, in control, and Horde were dying. I can also remember several times that I rushed in too fast, and then, when I went to escape, was still trying to do damage, instead of getting away, and I invariably died.

Arcane has some great control and escape features. Insta-Invis, PoM + Polymorph, and a 3 second speed burst after blinking. I used all of them Sunday, but not as effectively as I should have. Using PoM effectively is going to be a key skill in this spec. The two biggest uses are going to be Insta-Sheep, and Insta-Nuke. In the past, playing the old Arcane Shatter spec, I used Frostfire Bolt as my Insta-Nuke, since it was buffed by the Frost tree, and had the benefit of slowing the target down. Now, with Nether Vortex, Arcane Blast slows the target, and applies the buff, so it’s going to become my nuke of choice, with Presence of Mind making it instant when I need it. More on that later.

I ended up getting about a third of a level in the battlegrounds (gotta love that!) and made level 84 shortly after logging on this morning.  I’m going to finish up Vash’jir, then head out to Uldum. I’m guessing level 85 by no later than Wednesday.

And I’ll be respeccing this evening as well. I’ve already foregone Arcane Tactics, since I don’t plan to be doing much raiding early on. I’m going to drop Focus Magic, and putting that point in Shatter. My level 85 point will go in Shatter as well. “Lol-wut?!?” you say.

Arcane Tactics is a 3% damage buff on the raid. In a raid, over the course of a boss encounter, 3% is significant. In PvP, particularly when you’re not packing a buttload of spellpower, it’s not crucial. Likewise, with Focus Magic, a once-in-awhile 3% crit buff is significant, on a raid where you can make sure it stays on your partner. In PvP, it’s nice, but again, not particularly crucial.

However, being able to selectively apply a triple-damage crit in PvP is very significant, and very useful, especially when that allows you to tie it in with Arcane Potency and Arcane Power. PoM triggers the former, and Arcane Power just adds more goodness. If they’ve been pounding on my Mana Shield or Mage Ward, so much the better, as Incantor’s Absorption is  going to be buffing my damage. Get an interrupt on a caster? Woo-hoo, he’s silenced for 4 seconds, AND Invocation kicks in. Quick freeze, AP, POM, and nuke well.

Then of course, there’s Frost Ring, which has a significant range, which opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities, especially when you note that all the arcane tree goodies are worded “all damage”, “your damage”, “spell damage”, etc. Are Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt going to hit as hard as Arcane Blast? Of course not. But  they’re not going to start the mana ramp-up either, and against a frozen target, Frostbolt is going to get a 20% buff in addition to all the other spell buffs Arcane gets, including the mastery buffs. Not to mention, it has a shorter cast time, and also very importantly, if I get interrupted, I’ve only got Frost spells locked out, and I have most of my main guns still available.

Is it gonna pwn like the old Arcane Shatter spec? Probably not, and I suspect it will play significantly different, but we shall see.

The Joys of Killing Paladins

So, we moved Nick’s DK over yesterday. By the time I got home from work, he’d already headed out to Hyjal, and was over it because of the constant ganking. So we tried the Vash’jir heroes call, which started okay, but then was cut short because the first quest refused to complete for Nick. (He found out this morning how to fix it, yay!). We went back out to Hyjal, started questing, and immediately, a level 85 Horde pally named Arvalon, or something like that, started displaying his douche-bag-ness. We’re in the middle of a bunch of mobs, and he jumps in. With a level difference of 5, Nick couldn’t even hit him, and frankly, Nick’s a PvE tank, not an arena player. I fared a bit better, and I can testify that Improved Blink is the shiznit in PvP, but I also haven’t mage PvPed in about 5 or 6 months. We hurt him, and finally got him to drop an AoE, and got some guards on him. We died about 5 times to his 1, but I still count it a minor victory. He camped the questgiver, and laughed at me. I laughed right back at him, and even gave him a mock-salute. I find it amusing that someone can misses the stupidity of making fun of someone they’ve killed who can’t really even hit them back, and let’s face it, that sort of person gets their nut on thinking they’ve pissed someone else off. No worries, it’s a big world, I can go elsewhere to level, and yeah, fucker, what goes around comes around, and the day will come when I’m what comes around.  My son hasn’t really had that sink in yet, I’m hoping he can be taught.

Caraway and I were talking at work, and he was marveling at the survivability of paladin’s in general, particularly prot. I was regaling him with tales of Hartbane‘s battle-healer spec in the good ol’ days, and as I told him, you don’t so much kill paladin’s so much as you dismantle them. Sort of like peeling an onion, and far more painful and full of tears. But hey, a Blood Elf pally died last night, so at least one new angel has a set of wings, and the day was a success.

My first experiments with Arcane PvP were interesting, though. I complete forgot to use things like Arcane Power (need to get that macro-ed in, dammit), but that really wasn’t a factor. As I said, Improved Blink rocks. I haven’t had time to evaluate the Glyph of Arcane Power (I’ve heard some discussion on how it’s supposed to work, but doesn’t). The biggest thing that jumped out at me was the lack of a really spam-able Arcane spell. Arcane Blast just isn’t suitable for quick use in combat. My initial cast with haste adjustmetns, is still like 1.9 seconds. In a battleground, with distractions, that’s probably doable, however, 1 on 1, or in Arena, that’s an eternity. Of course, there’s always Scorch or Ice Lance, but those really aren’t optimal for Arcane.  I sort of have visions of running along a freeway, throwing pebbles at trucks. Then again, Shatter is available on the first tier of Frost, for double/triple crit chance… and Arcane Blast has a 40 yard range, AND slows the target with Nether Vortex.

I’m having this vision of stacking AB a couple times at long range, then jumping in with a Frost Nova, and cutting loose with a PoM + AB that crits for what Christian Belt describes as “ also doing damage to his posterity down through seven generations, causing his children’s children’s great-great-grandchildren to speak in hushed tones about the time many generations past when a mage blew up his forefather”. Granted, Layjos is only level 80, and doesn’t have that kind of spellpower yet, but the principle is there, and yeah, I find it exciting. More research required.

All that said, I’m going to experiment with Fire and Frost as well, I think.

 

 

Moving On

So, yeah, much as I hated bailing on Crits, I had too much time and effort invested in Lajos to let him sit, and the reality was, I’d never play him. So, last night, I popped on Winterhoof, sent the heirloom items from my other toons to Lajos, and a few other key items. The old guild bank had been ransacked by the last member of the old group, who had stayed with the guild. That surprised me, though on reflection, it shouldn’t have, since I haven’t really been on in about 3 months. It would have been nice to have my share of the titansteel we’d been pooling for choppers, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. For all I know, Booters sent it to me, and it timed out and returned.

So, now I have to learn how to play a mage all over again. Whee, good times. Actually, I think it’s going to be pretty interesting, since there isn’t a whole lot out there for Arcane Mage PvP in Cataclysm. Yup, you read that right. Arcane.

Sure, I know, Frost is a no brainer for PvP. So, I’m guessing that there are going to be a LOT of Frost mages in the battlegrounds. Fire has been improved, and likewise, I expect to see a lot of Fire mages there as well. So, since I’m having to relearn anyway, I figured I’d stick with what’s realtively familiar. Everything I’m reading seems to indicate that Arcane rules when it comes to burst damage, and PvP is very much oriented around burst damage. We shall see. Should be exciting.

Oh, and incidentally, I had to rename him, so now he’s named Layjos. Meh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moar PeeVeePee

So yeah, I’m a bit obsessive. I’ve tried leveling my lock a few times over the last week, but it dulled real fast. Right now, I’m immersed in mage PvP mode, and I keep feeling the compulsion to hit the “H” key and queue up for a random BG.  Why fight it?

With this weeks arena matches in the books, this weekend was a running mixture of heroics, an Ulduar 25 and 10 for the weekly, and lots of bgs. As RG mentioned, Saturday afternoon Fiaked, Hartbane, Kalyon and I teamed up on a string of random bgs, and while I wouldn’t put it in the “pwned” category, it is true that we won pretty much every BG we went into.

So, a couple notes on the incessant whining on Winterhoof that “Alliance sucks in Wintergrasp”, and on the Whirlwind battlegroup in general that “Horde dominate bgs”.  None of these is particularly new or earthshaking, but I’ll repeat them here anyway, if for nothing else than to display the fact that I get it.

1. Battlegrounds in General – Know the objectives. If you don’t know, ask. If you’re too timid to ask, shut up, listen, and stick with the crowd. Even if they’re “not doing it right”, battlegrounds are about coordinated effort, and while you learn, you’re much better sticking with a group. Curb your heroic tendencies, you’ll live longer.
2. Bases are King – Particularly in Eye and Arathi, but the theory applies in some form to pretty much all battlegrounds. In those two in particular, if you consistently control 3 bases, you will win. The flag in Eye is only of use when you can only hold 2 bases, and need an edge, or when you hold 3 bases, and want to speed up the victory. If you’re going for the flag with less than 2 bases, you’re doing it wrong.
3. Think Logically – If you have 3 bases in Arathi or Eye, and half a dozen Horde show up to attack one, that means one of theirs is going to be lightly defended.
4. Don’t Road Fight – This is a reflex that’s really hard to overcome, but it must be overcome, nonetheless. The only time you want to road fight is when you have a numerical base advantage, and you can tie up a significant number of the enemy on the road, so they can’t attack your bases. Guess what? This is what the enemy has been doing to you in all those BGs you lost!
5. In Wintergrasp – If you keep throwing your forces at a single point, the enemy will mass there, and unless you outnumber them drastically, you will be stopped. If you ignore your towers, they will be destroyed, and you will run out of time.
6. Moar Healerz – To all those healie types who come to bgs and heal me… I love you, no shit, let me buy you a beer. That’s why paladins, druids, and priests can be such terrors in battlegrounds… they bring their own healer.
7. Communication and coordination – a group of 4 or 5 people who are on the same page can dominate a battleground.

Case in point… on Saturday, in Warsong Gulch. While Kalyon and Hartbane were back on defense, Fiaked and I went on the offensive. We ran into 3 Horde outside the upper tunnel, 2 of them mages, and took them out, then got some cooldowns, and rushed the flagroom. Five enemies in there, with TWO resto druids. Neither was well geared, and it showed. We burned both of them, and held out long enough for a few other teammates to show up, and a flag cap soon followed. None of it was particularly due to MY skill. I played my class, we communicated on Vent, I got heals, and good things happened.

Like the arena, being on Vent is huge in actual fights. But I did a lot of battlegrounds solo over the weekend, and invariably, when people played as a team, and paid attention to the objectives instead of just “see Horde -attack Horde”, we did well.

Wintergrasp is tough for Alliance on Winterhoof, because yes, we’re generally hugely outnumbered. That’s only going to change if we encourage more people to come out. It’s still possible to win, though, even when outnumbered, if people play smart, and coordinate. Even outnumbered, you have to spread out to attack from Broken Temple, and Sunken Ring simultaneously, and to defend the towers. When you get right down to it, it’s the “Bases are King” principle. If you control all the bases, the enemy has to dispatch forces to take them back, and to do it effectively, they have to send a larger force. So, effectively, 2 people on a base can keep double, triple, or quadruple that number tied up. That’s X number of fortress defenders that aren’t up stopping siege vehicles. That’s the numbers game that allows a smaller force to win on attack.

Defense is another matter altogether. Realize, from the start, that Blizzard didn’t design Wintergrasp to be defended effectively. They WANT it to change hands. The best bet there is to build catapults to go out and kill siege vehicles as fast as possible, and to send out squads to kill towers. Only after towers are down should defenders try to cap Sunken Ring and Broken Temple.

Anyway… a good tally this weekend. I was able to upgrade a ring, so I’ve got Relentless and Wrathful rings on, and I’m only a few WG marks short of being able to swap my PvE Bloodmage shoulders for the Titan-Forged Shoulderpads of Salvation. When my arena points come up for this last week, I should be able to swap my Hood of Fiery Aftermath for the Relentless Gladiator’s Silk Cowl. I might even manage another upgrade as well.

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?

My Butt Is Numb

Ah, Sunday night. Relaxing at the computer, winding down before falling into bed to get some shuteye before the workweek starts… well, at least, I’m at the computer. In this case, I’m trying to wind down, take the edge off, and let the remnants of repeated adrenalin rushes fade out. It were A Good Day.

Start at the beginning… with Saturday. I got to sleep in. For me, that means getting up after 7AM. After 30-odd years of getting up between 3:30 and 6:30 AM, it’s rare that I get past 6:30. Got up, logged on – and got hit with a splitting allergy headache. Screw earthquakes and falling into the ocean… this weekend, the SoCal winds decided to try and blow things into the ocean. Better yet, my daughter’s softball team had a doubleheader. Oh, joy of joys. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching her play. But…. it’s Rec ball. That means cliques, stacked teams, a season that starts in February with maybe three practices as a team,  and players that don’t want to be there but are because Mom and Dad think that they should be.  Or what’s worse, Mom and Dad  decide that soccer, homework, and who knows what else aren’t enough to keep their child occupied. At least one girl plays two other sports. She’s a good little player, but she gets beat up playing soccer, beat up playing softball, and then beats herself up when she doesn’t make the play. Sad, sad.

Screenshot Grabbag

Not too much new and exciting, and I’ve been remiss on the screenshots lately, so I figured I’d go through and recap.

Last night, from Crits Classic Raid Night, the League perched atop Nefarian’s throne in Blackwing Lair, with Louweaze from Crit’s nestled in there amongst us.

Of special note, look what’s strapped across Nick’s back:

That’s Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood, sword of Anduin Lothar. Kudo’s to Hartbane, who suggested that it be rolled on, so whoever got it could have the fun of running around Ironforge with it. Nick won it with a roll of 100, then promptly stripped down to nothing but the sword, and ran around IF.  Nick is a huge lore buff, and he was tickled beyond end.

Here’s the final from the Naxx run the other day:

And ToC25 from last week:

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to screenshots from other peoples computers. I need to set my guildies up with an achievement screenshot addon, and get them added to my Dropbox so they can upload them easily.

After BWL last night, Edelestar, Tiamarie, Lightblazer, Bootters and myself queued up for a random heroic, and got Gundrak. Of the group, only Ed and I had been through on Heroic, so it was new territory. We were still feeling a bit giddy after BWL, so we didn’t exactly go in serious and at the top of our game. Our wipes were pretty much “doh!”s (like yours truly grabbing aggro), but other than that, we went through pretty easy. All in all, a good night.

Blase’-ness is Relative

So, with schedules in disarray, and the sanity meter at work pegged well into “Complete And Utterly Crazed”, I’ve been making a point to try and get my random heroics out of the way before I go to work in the morning. Started my day yesterday with a little nibble of Pit of Saron, and today with a bit of Drak’ Theron Keep.

Ok, put the phraseology in that last sentence down to “writing style”. Now stop, back up, and pull it out of that category, and look at it. Blase’. That’s how I feel about heroics, at least up to Pit of Saron.  Drak is strictly farm, although the bear tank this morning made it interesting by sprinting through the entire instance. The time was when I would have been frantically grabbing mana on the run, and trying to keep up, to make sure my DPS was up to snuff. This morning? Meh. I was toasting bagles, smearing them with peanut butter and apple butter, and munching away, while dropping flame strikes on the mobs, via mouseclicks, not keybinds. DPS? Meh. They want DPS, slow down and let me actually get in on the fight. I was banging Skada on the boss fights, so no worries, and my gear score is such that if someone calls me out, I don’t feel I have to defend anything.

Semantics, Philosophy, And The Point of a Good Debate

So, I was scanning the AH, and finishing waking up this morning, having an early morning chat with RG, and the subject of patch changes came up. Off handedly, I threw out “You heard about the two new instances, right?” This simple statement started a conversation that is of the sort that delights me. See, I have this problem. My mind typically as a lot of CPU time in the background. Bring up a topic that has to do with language, human nature, and the combination of the two, and all the cores kick in, and CPU time spikes. Why? Because, due to the nature of the debate, there is no right answer. The point is not to be right, but to think about the various angles and nuances of the topic.

A Change in Plans

So, I cut my WoW time short last night, and had planned a post today, concerning such weighty subjects as peace in the Middle East, ending world hunger, and the sputtering economy, but fate, in the form of Repgrind, dictated it was not to be. I am subscribed to her blog, of course, and this morning, I get notified of this post. Ah, raid news. Yada, yada… and then, imagine my shock and dismay as I discovered that I’m being accused of cow tipping some “poor little Tauren druidess”, and then portrayed as trying to blame such a nefarious deed on her guildie.

I had been thinking something was odd. She and I generally exchange pleasantries throughout the day, while at work, via IM, however, yesterday, her end of our workday chat consisted of “hi” in response to my greeting. No “Bye!” at the end of the day, nothing. Last night, of course, she was busy raiding, but even while standing around Dalaran, ignored any attempt at communication on my part. I thought this odd, but assumed she was preoccupied. It appears I was correct.

I encourage the reader to pop on over, and check out this travesty of inaccuracies, half-truths, and hyperbole. Indeed, the statement “poor little Tauren druid immediately shows the vindictive state of mind of the poster. When have you ever seen a “little” Tauren?!? And how does a Tauren flagged PvP – which RG so accurately notes doesn’t happen fighting Omen – equate to “poor”?

What really happened:

As I noted yesterday, Kalyon and her guildmate helped Shalae and I with the Omen fight. Some history here. RG forgets that I came from a PvP server. My hunter was ganked approximately half a dozen times fighting Omen last year. When I saw a Tauren, flagged PvP, bearing down on Kalyon… well, I think it’s pretty obvious what my reaction was. I didn’t ask for applause, or even a “thank you”. It’s what friends do. You look out for each other.

At the end of the fight, Kalyon, for some odd reason, accused me of “killing a cow”. I thought she meant… well, a cow, and I said “must have been the warlock”. Those of you that have played locks know that it’s not uncommon for a warlock to Drain Life on a neutral ambient creature in between fights, and this is what I assumed she was referring to. She started yammering about arcane missiles, and remembering a post of hers, I responded to the effect of if she doesn’t have it on a screenshot, it didn’t happen. She apparently missed the reference entirely.

She starts then going on and on about me being flagged PvP, and finally identifies the source of her distress… “a Tauren”.

At this point, it clicked what she was talking about, and sunk in that not only was she not thanking me, but she was poking fun at me. I was both indignant at the apparent ingratitude, and yes, embarrassed that I hadn’t caught the the reference. That was quickly replaced by realization that she hadn’t even realized the implications of a Tauren flagged PvP. So… I just shut up, and let her have her laugh. Little did I realize that it apparently went deeper than that. I know RG used to play Horde, but when did she start bucking for the “Defender of the Cattle” title???

And now, she’s messaged me. “Hi!” I responded “Hello. ” Conversation? No, she’s gone to lunch. Apparently, she’s disappointed that I haven’t given her feedback on her attempt to… well, do whatever it is she was trying to do.

/sigh. Maybe the troll episode over the weekend was WoW’s way of telling me something. It was fun, and I made a bitchin’ troll.