Waiting For The Lich King To Come...

The Original Cardinal Fear
WoW went offline sometime in the early morning around 1:00 AM and hasn't come back yet. The new patch with the final piece to the upgrade we all paid for over a year ago is finally going to be on our door step.

One thing that irratated me about the Lich King expansion is that they didn't even release the most important part of what they claimed they were selling us. I don't read all of the public test server stuff and attend all of the discussion groups. I really thought that the entire upgrade would be included... Did they bite off more then they could chew again? Probably. I didn't agree with the way they released that expansion, and I think it could have been planned better. Throwing us 50 bones on the way to the expansion pack costs you accounts and that means less money.

I guess that if it means to get it out the door on time, you have to cheat the customer, I am not down with that. Hey, call it whatever you want, I feel cheated. Perception is everything, just ask Gordon Walton.

So, while I am waiting for over 12 hours for them to give me my game back, I thought I would come bitch about some stuff.

Okay, who ever thought rep grinding was a good idea needs to DIE! I mean, okay, there are ways to gain reputation with WAY TOO MANY different groups and organizations, but okay, here is an example. You build a DK, and they come with a lot of great stuff, but about zero reputation with anyone. So what do you do? So far my only options that I can see are... Participate in the Argent Tournament dailies, you can gain alittle rep each day with whatever faction you like, or you can go do all of the quests in the earlier zones that pertain to the faction you want to gain rep with.

Now, as much as I hated going back to Silvermoon to run all of the quests, I did have some fun when I found a "Ceremonial Loin Cloth" and a "Dirty Leather Vest". As you can imagine, even naked, my DK can perform quite well even up to level 50 or better. I decided to shed the DK of her massive plate PvP armor, and go with something a little more suitable to the enviornment. I wish I had taken a picture. Running around as a level 80, or a skull to them, in a newbie zone with newbie clothes and weapons certainly gets you a few questions from passers by. I tried to help one young undead get their "Duelicious" acheivement, but he couldn't even damage my DK nekkid. I told her to look me up when she hit 80 and took off. Eventually, I did get myself to exaulted with Silvermoon, and got the title I was looking for etc.

Then I made the mistake of trying to grind reputation for Undercity. I have some serious issues with these guys. Everything they do is trying to wipe out the living, which I am, "The Living". Not only that, they don't even administer their destruction themselves, they make me do it! Here, give this potion to this guy and see what happens... The guy dies.. Whoops! That's great Hazmat, Sylvanis will be pleased. I want to poke that bitch in her eye.

Some of those more questionable quest lines that normally wouldn't bother me, are bothering me now because I know it was happening from the beginning. I originally thought it was something new in the WotLK expansion, but that is not the case. Chemical warefare is pretty gruesome stuff, and I just think the undead could come up with something a little more creative. I guess it could just be me, but I am annoyed with those guys. They are supposed to be "good", hell we are all supposed to be "good", but the undead are not your typical, "cut the head off this guy" sorta folks.

So today, whilst I sit and wait, I offer you a glimpse of the Original WoW version of Cardinal Fear. In all his glory. He never made it past level 6 before I re-rolled him into one of my massive army of chicks. Maybe some day, he will live again on another account.

As far as my main account, I have my mage at 34, my druid is at 40 and holding, my pally is 32, and my shammy is 34. Still enjoying each different character, and it will take some time to get them all leveled, but it keeps me busy and my mind in the game. All of my hordies are still on vacation except Haz, my little money maker.

Enjoy your day people, that's all I got!

King for a day, err Queen...

Myd On The Throne of Stomwind
I was taking the level 80's out for a spin this week trying to complete all of the achievements for the new Pilgrim holiday quests. I guess they just added these quests this year, but I was thrilled about one thing... You can build your cooking skill to max in about 2 hours.

My Warlock needed the most work in this area, so I started with her. She cooked and received all the acheivements except for Turkinator, Terrokar Turkey Time and Turkey Lurkey. I didn't realize at the time you need about 7 shooters to complete the Turkey Lurkey achievement, so I had to get all the shooters on the next day.

The first day I mostly worked on leveling cooking on any of my toons that were able, and also completed "Turkinator" on a couple of my toons. You have to kill 40 turkeys in either Elynn Forest or Tristfal Glades with 30 seconds in between each one. I did this in Elwynn with one of my lower toons, but once I hit Tristfal Glades with the DK, I decided that I would also take my Warlock there to finish that Achievement or "cheevo". Tristfal is flatter, and they lay the turkeys in a better pattern so they are easier to find.

A couple of days later I started to work on the last three "cheevo's" for both my Warlock and my DK on the Horde side. Pilgrim's Peril was fairly exciting but also very time consuming. You have to go to each enemy capital city and just sit wearing a piece of "Pilgrim Attire". I don't normally travel to the enemy capitals, so it takes a bit of time for me to figure out the best way to manage my running time.

The most interesting things I discovered were that the Alliance capital cities for the most part are easier to get to because the Alliance allows enemies to ride on the boats unmolested. You can not even get on a Hordie Airship without getting the wholey crap kicked out of you. I also noticed that most of the Alliance cities don't make you go automatically into being flagged PvP, where the Hordie cities were mostly all close enough to perma-flag you before you could sit down. I think Ironforge is the hardest to get to because of the narrow path up to the city and the guards crack you in the skull and aggro to you like a swarm of bees. It was also the only capital that I was forced to kill guards to finish the quest.

So, we get to Turkey Lurkey. You have to get these Turkey Shooters from doing the daily quests and then you have to hunt down one of each race's Rogues and feather them with the gun. Talk about fun? Well, is was fun to be able to shoot Rogues without any worry of retribution, but finding one of each one is not always so easy. For me, Dalaran is much too laggy and too much competition for capping one of the Rogues in the hiney. So, I did the next best thing. I went to all of the Newbie Zones for each race that I couldn't find easily and hunted them as level 1. Hey, it worked. Some of those guys are hard to find. Orc Rogue? I don't even know if I have ever seen one anywhere before, but I found em in the Newbie Zone. I also had some issues finding Dwarf Rogues. That one took me sitting in their Newbie Zone for about an hour checking each toon that ran by me and being stared at by tiny characters wondering what a level 80 Hordie DK was doing sitting out there. I would just wave and emote at them, but I don't think they could talk or emote back to me.

After that we went after the hardest of all the Pigrim cheevo's, the Terrokar Turkey Time. You have to kill the last boss in Sethek Halls with a Pilgram Hat and Pilgram Attire, Robe or Dress. So, I go there with the Warlock, and try to solo the instance, and that wasn't happening. I had to call in a couple of friends to help me out with that one. The Warlock is just a bit too squishy even in full PvP gear and a pet for the level 67 dungeon. I got it fairly quickly and then moved on to the DK.

The DK can handle up to about 5, 67 Elites without even having to pop a potion, but after that it gets a bit tricky. I decided not to clear the dungeon but only hit what I needed to get to the King. I knew the way because of doing it with my Warlock, so that also helped. I get all the way in there, and I get to the boss. I potion up, eat up, buff up and get out my Army of the dead to go kill this guy. I whipped him, but then I realized I forgot to change clothes. So, I got to do it again.

This time I invited a friend who also needed the cheevo, and we go in for a second time. We got to the first boss, which actually killed me the first time, because he saw my pet. To which, he brought all his pets and kicked me in the skull. So, this time, I dismissed my pet, and told my partner to go around. He didn't... He got stuck on a pole and got too close, so we had to do the guy anyway. The Pally is pretty tough, and we managed to burn the boss down fairly quickly.

We got to the last boss, and this time I told the Pally to change into his Pilgram garb, and we went for the kill. No problem for 2 level 80's to burn this guy to the ground. I got my cheevo's and my "Pilgrim" title. My partner wasn't as lucky however, he didn't have the hat on, so he didn't get the cheevo or title for Pilgrims. So, he decided he will just finish up next year, and I had to go anyway, so it was all good.

So, while I was doing all of this, cheevo chasing with my Warlock, the Hordies were busy raiding the Alliance Capital cities. I happened to be at a couple of them after the Horde had laid waste to their respecive Kings. I gladly jumped up on the throne and offered my service as the new King in Ironforge, but they mostly ignored me and went back to their business. In Stormwind I had a much better audience because there were about 4 DK's waiting to get the King to pardon them.

So, I jump up to the throne in SW and let them all know I was taking over and asked all of my loyal subjects what their new King could do for them. The first loyal subject asked for a port. I was like, "Umm, I don't do ports, NEXT!" The next loyal subject asked me for a pardon, and I replied that I wasn't quite ready to deal with that yet, but I would talk to my boys (The Guards) about throwing rotten fruit at the loyal subjects. They mostly just stood there AFK or whatever, so I started making jokes like asking them to stop just standing there starring at me. I wasn't getting too much of a response, so I decided to pick on one directly.

Mirkaba, was there getting pelted by rotten fruit and I told her she must have pissed someone off. She asked "What did I do?" and I responded, that I didn't know but I will talk to my boys about spitting on the loyal subjects. Another DK walked up and I tried to get him involved, but again, all I got was silence. I asked Mirkaba if she wanted to be King for awhile and she said "No, I'm fine". I said "I have to go anyway, come on up here and be the King!" So she agreed and I stepped down.

I turned to her, kneeled and said "All hail the new King Mirkaba!" Still, the crowd was quiet. These guys are like dead fish. So, I told Mirkaba that she should have a talk with her boys about spitting on the King, because that is just rude. I offered the King good luck and farewell before I logged for the evening.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I wish everyone could be as entertained by me as I can...

That's all I got. Till next time!

Myd On The Throne Of Iron Forge

By The Moon And The Stars...

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for the Wow account. First off, I have to tell you all about Moon Guard. Probably the most crazy and interesting server I have ever visited.

I have a friend that said they play on Moon Guard, so I go looking for it, and can't find it on the list. I keep looking, and finally at 4:00 in the morning I decide to scroll all the way to the bottom of the list. Low and behold, there she is, FULL! I was like WTH? Of course I created a DK there and started to play. My goodness, I was just amazed at how many other new DK's there were at 4:00 AM. It was crazy! Not only were these DK's there, but they were actually helping me get through quests faster and helping and stuff. This by far was the best DK experience I have ever had anywhere.

So, I get through to level 58, escape the Lich King, again, and then started to get my things in order with Exodar and of course I had to go see the King, which even going there, I was escorted in by 3 other new DK's.

So, we get all settled, get some potions, get ready, and bam, let's try some PvP. Again, the best time in PvP evar! I go in there in my blues and I started waxing some serious amounts of Hordies. So many in fact that I was the highest in damage several times, which is really confusing to me, because I just ain't that darn good. So, I keep on going, because like this has never happened before and eventually I hit 60. So, I wonder, what the hell is wrong with these Hordies on this Battlegroup? I had to Wiki up the servers and see what the hell was going on. Seems Moon Guard only has 2 PvP servers in their battlegroup as where Stormstrike has 12. Big difference there. I couldn't believe the amount of honor and damage I was getting over there. It was a breath of fresh air to get multiple kills and stay alive without a healer. Alas, it isn't my main server, but I plan to do some more PvP there when I get frustrated on Stormstrike.

So, I decide that after some vicious PvP, I would give the Hordies a well deserved break and go check out Hellfire Penn. Again, I was completely Amazed at how many people were out there at 5:00 AM. My server is mostly a ghost town at this time, so I am just flipping out how much is going on here on Moon Guard. I ran a Wiki on that server and found out it is supposed to be the most popular WoW server. That is not a mistake, this server rocks the socks off of Norgannon. Not only were there many people out there playing the game, there was actual ROLE PLAYING going on! Wholey spukets! I could not believe my eyes as characters were playing up the attacks on Hellfire, and the towers were constantly under siege by both Horde and Alliance.

So, I run some quests, and got some better green and blue gear and went back to PvP in the 60-69 bracket. I was still kicking hiney at level 60. Even ran the Warsong flag a couple of times and made it. I was so happy I could spit! Ahh, the joy of dominating. I felt like a true PvP server guy. I suppose those PvPers in Stormstrike may have a point about the other servers not being as strong, but it feels good to kill them just the same.

So, after a bit, I go to Stormwind to check out the city. Still packed full of people, again I see something strange... More ROLE PLAYING! OMG... I don't know how they do it, but these guys are all walking seriously slow. I mean, I would kill myself if I walked that slow, but they do it. They also go sit around in the park and in the Cathedral and like SPEAK and EMOTE to each other! OMG! I was so happy to see this going on really. I like RP myself, and these guys are full of that. They even had people drinking IN THE BLUE RECLUSE! I have never seen anyone even go into that place on my server let alone RP in there with a fully stocked bartender that is not an NPC. There were several bars, and people yelling about ads for their particular tavern etc. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had in WoW.

So to Moon Guard, I salute you! You guys have a great server!

No worries to Norgannon... I have leveled my Druid to 40, Shammy is at 32, Mage is now 28, and my Pally is 26. Everything is moving along slowly but at least it is moving on.

Servers should be getting off maint soon, so I should go. Gotta get back to leveling the Mage.

Ciao!

The DK Collection...

Well, I decided to post my Male collection of DK's I have been running when I can't find anything to do on my own server... Well, not that there is much time for that, but when I get super bored, you will find me running around on one of the other Stormstrike realms. Occasionally I like to see what the other servers are like, and there is no better way then running in with a level 60 and checking out the action.

Plus, if you need to speak to any enemies or allies from those other realms after the BG's that is the best place to do it. Confront them head on I say. Like I said, in BG's often it is worse to read text from your own team mates then it is to hear something from your enemy. Our battlegroup has mostly normal and PvP mixed servers, and you know when the PvP server guys are online. According to them, their elite PvP server skills are unmatched by us low life normal server guys.

I'll tell ya what. I am almost wishing I had started on a PvP server anymore. It is not that bad, and I would rather run with guys/girls that like to do the same thing I want to do instead of hanging with the loot scooping, crazy raiders sometimes.

I see messages in trade now about how you can come on this pug or that pug, but they are rating your gear etc... I am thinking "what is the fun in that?" At the same time I am thinking it is 7 gold a pop for repair each time I die, and sometimes that can be a factor. But I think it kind of takes the fun out of pugging. I have been in raids with guilds that just need a couple pugs to fill out a 25 mix, and they have been the nicest folk on the planet. On the other hand, there are some guilds out there that insult each other to the hilt for not being on their "A" game, so it all comes down to who you hang out with.

I normally tell these guys, and I am sure they can tell by the PvP gear that I don't really know what I am doing in a raid situation. They seem to be all good with that in many cases, because they are so overpowered anyway, that I probably couldn't screw up.

Which reminds me about another topic. Tanks and Healers are the most wanted in raiding and instances because they do have a unique ability to make things happen. I am all about DPS because all I have to do is shoot at anything that moves, and if the Tank is good, then I won't become the target of destruction. But the tank has to not only shoot, but also must keep "all" of the monsters we are engaging interested in fighting only them. So, they play the "keep the threat" game with each monster, convincing them the Tank is the only threat in the room so I can continue my nice and damage free reign of terror. The Healer on the other hand is taxed with keeping everyone alive, mostly the tank, and I'll tell ya, that is not always an easy task. Choosing the wrong types of heals, or healing the wrong guy can cost lives and item repair costs start to skyrocket. I have noticed that there is a serious healer depression on my server, and I think that's just because the pure pressure of that job must be overwhelming.

I have tried being a healer of sorts with my Pally, and I actually do fairly well with a hybrid DPS/Healer. Xina is okay at attacking, but I am still not quite ready for toe-to-toe action there. I am missing the key ingredient "skill" needed to actually cut the competition to ribbons. My healing and distance attacks seem to serve me pretty well.

I have been working on a Horde healer a little bit, even though I find it to be extremely difficult. I know that if I ever get that Healer to 80, people will be throwing gear my way to get me in their raids. It could possibly be the best geared character I will ever have if I can get it together and make it work.

Macros are something I need to work on now. They are becomming increasingly more important in BG's where you need to drop things faster or pull of spell combos etc. I see these Shaman that can drop totems at lightning speed and I am thinking I need to be able to do the same before I get too far along... My Shaman, Leighlou is coming along nicely. So far she is one of my favorites for PvP combat. The Shaman have stopping power that is unmatched by any of my other toons, and can run in wolf form and drop totems as needed. It is definitely going to be interesting to see this character at high levels.

I don't know why, but I have been doing a little bit of the Headless Horseman dailies, and Mydnight is still low in unarmed combat. While I was waiting for all of the other folks to put out some fires for me, I went out and started building her skill in punching. The little level 5 wolves in Goldshire took me way into the 300's before slowing down to a halt, so I only have a little bit more to go now before she can punch her way through a concrete wall. Myd was sporting her Pirate costume, looking kind of cute.

I try to spend some time with all of the characters I am working on, and things are going slow. I have also been trying to level the new characters as PvP rather then doing all the quests, and that seems to be working well. My druid is the highest now at level 38, and my Mage is the lowest at level 22. I have found each class to have something I can use in either PvP or raiding, and I hope to one day have all of my mini-armada ready for Lagaran and some dailies for cash! WOOT!

Well, it's my birthday, so I am thinking I should try and get some WoW action in before the days end...

Ciao!

One More For The Road...

You might say I am some what hard pressed to have one of everything, so I have went and created my fifth Alliance character, the Shaman into the Mix.

I really loved the Shaman in the level 19 PvP bracket just for getting flags. That's something my Lock rarely ever got to do. Dropping those little totems and running like hell is very fun. Most people forget to shoot the totems first anyway, so it was fun to be on the other end of that for a minute. Now, level 20, we will be taking a break from PvP to move into getting some gear for the level 29 bracket.

I absolutely love the Druid character. She is at level 32 now, and I am getting ready to take her into Theramore for some hard core leveling. The level 29 bracket PvP for the Druid was like mopping up helpless newbies. Probably contributed why I sailed from 28 to 30 in an afternoon. I even got a couple blue items off the Warsong vendor in Auberdine. I had no idea that you could by other gear out there that doesn't exist in the Hall Of Legends. It is the first time I have ever actually found the "real" entrance to a PvP arena, and was rather shocked to know there was other things afoot out there.

I was chatting with someone about the Lock's high-end pets the other day and realized that Blizz is still content with the Ritual of Doom. The quest to get this pet is long and painful. Then after all the pain you can never cast the deamon because it takes 4 people and one of them has to die. After one of you dies, assuming it isn't the Lock, then he/she has to enslave the deamon before he goes balistic and tries to kill everyone. I call BS on this spell. It is stupid to have to involve other people in a ritual where you may die, and why 4? So there is only a 25% chance the Lock will be the lucky one to get killed? I never understood that one, and it is why no one ever sees the deamon. Who the hell wants to pay for repairs for some dude to run around with a pet for 3 minutes? NONE!

I leveled my mage to level 22. This character is probably the hardest one to level, yet very powerful. I think I will like this character more as we move into the higher levels. The PvP for me and the mage wasn't all that grand. I felt like there was just not enough punch yet to go PvP so I skipped it for now. Maybe next round.

I don't really care for most of the races, so I kinda stuck with the ones I have something I like about them. The Blood Elves can silence as a race, and the Draeni can heal a little which is also something I like more then most other things.

Anyway, things are going good... I played a few DK's on some other servers. Maybe I'll get their mug shots for fun. Until next time...

No Rest For The Wicked...

The thing I really hate about playing both sides of the fence in WoW is the fact is that they can't interact with each other even on the same account.

On the Alliance side I have my level 80 Warlock which has tailoring and skinning skills. On the Horde side I have my level 80 Death Knight which has Alchemy and Herbalism. The problem I have is that if I had those two together, they would make a great team for making money. The DK has all of the essences needed for the Warlock to make the really cool level 80 cloth. I can farm this stuff with the Warlock, but the DK gets them faster. I also need Frost Lotus that sells for almost 40G a piece on the AH that the DK can farm. Plus the DK can make all of the PvP potions and it would be cheaper to give them to the Warlock instead of buying them all of the time. Considering each of the really good potions sell for 25G a piece on the AH, I could save a small fortune.

However, that reminds me that Frost Lotus is the suck as far as farming. I usually have to cruise Wintergrasp for several hours just to get a couple of them. I think my last session of flying the landscape for them yielded me about 7 total. Some of this stuff, the Blizz folks put way too much emphasis on making you fight or spend huge amounts of time farming. For some, I guess it is no big deal to get from a dungeon, but not all of us find raids and dungeon runs that will yield a high volume of materials.

I am toon building more on the Aliance side right now. I am working on a Mage, Pally, and a Druid. The Pally just turned 20, so I went ahead and posted her pic. The Druid is level 26 and the Mage is still just 16. I think the Mage is the hardest of the three to level, but I am getting better at driving the toon doing the "stick and move" tactic of freezing my opponent, running back and then shooting the crap out of them.

I seriously hate leveling, but I now realize that the Blizzard devs back in the day were more sadistic then I could ever imagine. The pain involved in leveling characters in the early levels is horrible. Although, you do level faster, the types of things they want you to do and the "Epic" quests are just too time consuming. The Chistmas tree effect of going to a zone and seeing 20 exclaimation marks just leaves you with the feeling you are going to be in a zone forever. The number of times you are overwhelmed and killed is also a bit high for my liking.

Some zones aren't too bad, but on the Horde side when they send you to the undead zone to level from 10-20, and even with the blood zone in Exodar, you just get the feeling your life is going to end before you ever get to level 20 where they start to push you off to other places to level. Eventually you will all end up in the same places, and the tedium will be more intense as you will have to repeat a huge number of the quests per toon. I don't really like seeing a huge number of quests in one place, and I really hate doing the huge chain quests when you have to see the same guy more then a few times. I like the scenery and the types of things to do be more random and different to keep my attention.

So, for now, I am trying to get more "Alts" in the mix so I can possibly make some cash down the road without having to rely so much on purchasing mats. I have got some time before Cataclysm comes out, and I can't seem to keep up with the ever-changing PvP/Raid gear, so what the hell?

That's all I got...

LTNS

Wow... Looks like I have been too busy to write for some time here. The new Pallys are coming along and I have been working on a Feral Druid for a couple of weeks that I am enjoying somewhat.

It is such a different kind of character that it is a little harder to master then some of my other characters. I do PvP with all my lowbies now, and I have had some fun in BG's even without a mount. I am amazed at how fast the ques are for low level combat. I did seem to like the 19 bracket better then the 29 just because it is much less complicated and the gear is fairly easy to obtain through the AH or whatever. People all seem to know exactly what you need and have no problems letting you know that your gear is not quite up to lowbie par.

Patch day this week was again riddled with issues. You wouldn't know it looking from the outside, but once you log in, you can see the "top secret" notes that they allow you to see while asking you to be patient that there are problems they are addressing. I personally didn't experience too much of the issues, except for some crazy lag at one point. I didn't play that much on Tuesday, but they were still working on it Wednesday.

Anyway, I haven't had too much to bitch about lately, so I guess that is why I have been so quiet. I am sure I had some ideas about writing something, but I don't recall them at this time.

That's all I have for now. See ya in game!