Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Moving! All merchandise must go!

Ok, it's been a LOOOOOONG while since I posted here and that's because we took sort of a blogging hiatus while my fiance and I worked on a joint blog for us. So much has changed since I did this blog that looking back at it is just funny. HMech being hard and my "pointy end goes in the other man" theory among those amusing things. I've learned so much it's amusing to look back at how I started. STILL, I am a very new WoW player and I'm sure there's so much else out there to learn.

Meanwhile, we've moved over to "RaidedM, Adult Situations and Brief Nerdity". If you want to see how things have changed, what new alts we're rolling up and the rest of our amusing and sometimes argumentative collaboration, check there!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

PvP and Me

So, not only did I give in and go ahead and start PvPing, but I now think I might be a full-fledged PvP addict. Yes, I get angry when I'm not winning and yes it can be frustrating when people are being stupid, but all in all, I've been having fun with it! No one is more surprised than I am.

Not only that, but I have my Gladiator's Quickblade and, after long and arduous AH farming, I have my Vindicator's Brand. Of course, right after I get those, Edge of the Cosmos drops out of Mech and THREE Blinkstrikes show up on the AH.

I haven't hit up Arathi Basin or Eye of the Storm since getting them, but I'm thinking it can only be an improvement. I've decided that I hate, hate, hate Warsong Gulch, because of a horrible match in which the other team simply refused to cap the flag and farmed kills instead. I didn't think we'd ever get out of there. Alterac Valley just takes forever to wait for. I only attempted one 2v2 Arena with Martin and we got killed in record time. I think, after some gearing, we'll try 3v3 with our Pally pal.

Meanwhile, I've made a comprehensive list of all of the pre-Kara upgrades I want to get and where to get them. This just means finding people willing to run things like Old Hillsbrad repeatedly until I get what I want. At least that one's easy. (Heh. Easy. I never thought I'd say that of an instance.) Not like running Heroic Mech. That...sucked.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Shattered Halls Sucketh

It started out bad. I don't know why I didn't expect it to just keep going downhill.

Firstly, we had to PUG one of our members because we didn't have enough from the guild. No big, it's just one person, right? So, we snagged a mage. We already had me, Martin, a Druid healer from the guild that we like and our enhancement Shammy friend. I'm game, I'm fired up, it's the daily, I'm ready to tackle it.

We fly over to the Citadel, ready for action. "Go pick the door." "Uh, I can't. I'm four skill off of max and, evidently, it takes max." So we have no key and no picking of the door. I instantly feel like n00b roguetard! Dur! Ok, calm. Even though none of us guildie types has the key, the PUGged mage does! Awesome. PUGs don't look so bad, now. So, we get inside, and the Mage is like "I thought we were doing Heroic." So, already she's disappointed. You can see how things began to slide, can't you? (It was also discovered that I couldn't pick the door inside and we had to take the sewer to the first boss. No one was excited about this.)

In the end, Martin had never been there and neither had I. Pulls went wrong, aggro-stealing happened, wiping happened repeatedly. It was nasty. Finally, Martin decided to send me out to sap in a room absolutely saturated with mobs. We didn't know what to pull first. Three times I attempted to sap, three times I got seen and beaten down. Eventually the group was laughing so hard no one could speak. It was just that funny. It was Wipefest '08.

We ended up giving up and going to do the quest that gets you your key to Shattered Halls. Hey, at least I got to kill a Fel Reaver, finally. THAT tasted sweet.

Meanwhile, I've since realized...I should've distracted while trying to sap. It might not have worked, but it might have. And I feel like an idiot. Martin said "You should always distract when you sap". Here I've been relying on blind luck. This really goes back to what I'm having a problem with right now. I'm gear-stressed, yes, but more I've been feeling like I just don't know what I'm doing. If I knew what I was doing, I'd have already known to use distract. What else am I not doing that is going to drive people nuts or cause problems down the road?

I think I'm going to have to accept the fact that, if I ever do become one of those really accomplished, smooth rogues that everyone expects (which is looking unlikely), that it's going to be FAR down the road.

In the meantime, I'm fiddling with a new mage character to take the edge off. That's right. When too stressed from playing WoW, just play more WoW.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

The pointy end goes into the other man!

Today I was talking with a guildmate who was attempting to choose a helm for his shadow priest. I told him I couldn't be much help, as casters completely confound me. He said that rogues confound him. Now, personally, I don't see much confounding about rogues. Ok, maybe there's stealth and finesse and timing, but really I think it boils down to that quote from Zorro. "You know how to use a sword, don't you?" "Yes, the pointy end goes into the other man!" I mean, c'mon, it's that simple. Put your blade where it's supposed to go and try not to get tagged by the bad thingie. Try to say it ain't so!

I've almost assembled most of the mats for my Shadowprowler's Chestguard. I've seen some discussions about this with people saying it's not good for rogue's at all, that druids should have it, ha ha you stupid rogues wearing gear that's not for you! Well, thhhhpppttt. Bite me. It has the stats I need right now and the list starts at Stamina. My AP is currently almost 1400, but my hit and health need help to reach the point where I can hit some heroics, start collecting badges and start working towards getting better weapons which is a huge thing for me right now.

So huge, in fact, that Martin and I have decided to switch to Aldor. Me, so I can get the Vindicator's Brand and him for...I don't know, something or other. Other than that, I've finally given in on the whole PvP thing. Yes, I hate it. After trying it, I can't stand it, it's no fun and it gives me a headache. But there are swords. I figure if I just keep going and hope everyone else doesn't suck as much as I do, I'll eventually grind the honor/marks to get a decent offhand weapon.

Meantime, instances, instances, instances. That part of the game I love. I like the shared experience, the teamwork aspect and the general laughter and talk that goes on during them. Even when I die six times (like in Mech the other night), I still have a good time. Plus, there's loots. I like loots.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Respeccing and Flying High

I finally figured out that I don't get to have my cake and eat it too. I can't have the DPS and energy regen talents and have the stealth talents that I've come to love so much for leveling with Martin. I have to make a choice and, well, since we're coming up to lots and lots of instance running, I'm going with the uber-DPS. Especially since Martin and I have decided to get that Fel Leather gear made, I should be able to slice through bad guys like they were made of cream cheese, just like in my dreams! No, really, I have those dreams. It's so sad.

Enter the respec. I'm tweaking the standard combat rogue 20/41/0 spec just a bit, because I want to have more deflection, so I'm going with a 19/42/0. I don't know if this is optimal or right, but it's what I'm going to try for now. If it tanks, well, back to the drawing board and all of that. I'm hoping that this respec will do what I'm looking for it to do, though. We'll see! I don't really have a combat swords friendly mentor to give me any noteworthy input, as the only other regularly-on rogue in the guild is dagger specced and does a ton of PvP, which I'm currently avoiding. I'd actually also like to know from someone's firsthand experience what PvP as a combat swords rogue is like.

In other news, I finally broke down and let someone lend me the money for my epic flyer, as did Martin. This friend, yes, has tons of money on his other character, but I still hate borrowing cash. He doesn't care when we pay it back, but I do feel compelled to try to do it as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, though, I can fly! I can fly fast! I did a turn around Nagrand hunting for Adamantite today and, man, was it a ball. Then Wot and I practiced some silly flying tricks like loops and barrel rolls. Stupid, but fun! I can see that having a flier is going to spoil me rotten. Which is just how it should be.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Farming Bunny

That's me. Farmer Allysera. Bourg and I both need a ton of Primal Shadow for gear we want to have made and guess who gets to farm it, because I'm home with the time? That's right!

Turns out, I have the right temperment for this sort of thing. I set a goal of, like, 3 or 4 in a session, and then bang away until I have enough motes. I get tired, go do something else for a while, then I'm ready to do it all again. Unfortunately, this has given Bourg ideas. He thinks that we can make scads of cash if I just farm my heart out. He even volunteered to do all the backlogged housecleaning if I just spend my time farming. Dunno about that one, myself.

Friday, February 15, 2008

70! ...wait, what?

So...70. Wow. I'd say it's been a long haul, but it doesn't seem like it's been that long at all. In fact, I don't feel ready to be 70 in any way, shape, form or fashion. My gear isn't up to snuff and I'm not entirely sure on where to go from here. Everyone says "Arena! PvP! It's awesome" and others, who I'm inclined to listen to because I don't think I like PvP very much say that PvP gear is good for short fights, but not good for the sustained DPS that I like. Honestly, I'm not sure that I feel like I know how to play the damned class anyway. I thought that, at 70, I'd be comfortable with what I was doing and have all kinds of awesome gear. My gear is semi-alright and I still feel like I'm banging away in the dark. I don't want to be known as a "Noob Roguetard", which what I'm deathly afraid of.

I have decided to try out the more conventional sword specs, maybe with slight tweaking, and see how I like those. However, I need spiffy new weapons. You get those from instances and whatnot and there have been precious few of those. Move on to Martin's post about wanting to run instances and....there ya go. I guess I have to start banging out those instances we missed if I want to have a chance at the phat lootz, as they say. Of course, that could mean multiple runs and I hope everyone's ready for THAT, because I want some specific items. I have another friend who swears we should start churning out heroics as soon as possible, because THAT is the way to get awesome gear. Meanwhile, I'll keep farming up the 40 primal shadows Martin and I need to get some interim gear made. (And, ohmygod, do I HATE Collapsing Voidwalkers.)

In other news, I have my flier. The regular one, so it's painfully slow, but at least I can get up high now. We did some stuff in Skettis (Skeksies, anyone?) and I managed to only get dismounted and killed once. I think I might get the hang of this flying thing. If I can only get together the rest of the dough for my epic. And then special rep-based mounts. And, oh, farming rep for enchanting formulas, don't forget that.

Hey...I DO have stuff to do at 70 after all!