Happy Holidays and my last update for 2008....

Well, I am not 100% positive that it will be the last update, but since I only made one other update in December, I am going with the odds.

So, I decided to do some catching up on the outside world today and realized that I have had a pretty good year. With the exception of my Mom passing away, I haven't totally gone broke or insane, and I haven't been arrested! Hey, that's a plus! I have been blessed with many different things and many new friends, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped in reality or spirit to get me back on a positive track.

So, I have this blog for a couple of reasons. One is that even though BV is not the booming PK network of days past, people still try to find me here. Well, everyone except Evocare and Adrick, which are both now sucked into the vortex of silence for Fear someone might learn something they aren't supposed to. The other reason, is that I still love to talk to myself in the hopes that there may be others out there that struggle with these very same questions. Maybe together, we can find our own path to glory.

I know there are still a lot of old UO people out there scanning this page to see if one day I might resend my terrible descision of leaving UO in any form, and moving on to something new. Well, as much as I hate to say it. I like WoW, and probably won't be leaving anytime soon.

So, I want to start off my last update with some questions about WoW that have been puzzling me. If you know the answer, please feel free to leave a comment.

1. There is a Hordie in Eastern Plaguelands named Georgia. I have attacked her as Aliance and she poped me like a zit with two huge demons. What is her purpose?

2. Why do some female Orc PC's sound like a guy?

3. Why do they keep making more and more factions that you need reputation with? At this point how many of those factions are even viable anymore?

4. Is it just me or does getting past level 72 seem like the slowest ride ever?

5. Are my quest items for the Warlock epic mount all worthless now?

6. Why don't the Hordies auction as much crap as the Alliance? Or, Why does the Alliance have all the money and the Horde have all the power? I think I can answer that.

7. Why don't the Blood Elf females do that ghey little jumping dance like their Dark Elf counterparts?

8. Is there some reason all Horde strongholds have to be so confusing with twists and levels? I can't find my way around anything in Org.

9. Why do they give you Nexus quests at level 70, when you can't even go through the door until 74?

10. When will there be housing in WoW?

Okay, so those are my burning questions, now to move on to status.

I am still running my Alliance Warlock at level 72. Stopped there because I wanted to try the DK for awhile. I did get someone to put me into a BG from Dalaran, so I have my new base of operations when I am ready to return her to active duty. I also have tons of rested exp now, so getting her up in levels should be quite a bit faster.

My DK is also level 72. I have been playing that DK like there is no other thing important in my life. I got some new blues from questing at this point, and still believe strongly that my DK is tougher then my Warlock. However, the Warlock is a clothy and it is sort of an unfair comparison, but my DK can heal fairly effectively and survive some seriously nasty encounters by several combatants. No scaring them away either, this DK will actually get stronger and heal better by fighting harder.

I really like the Death Knights. I see a lot of them around, and sometimes we even group up, but for the most part that is not needed. We are all pretty self sufficient with our goulish pets, blood worms, and dancing swords, we can do just about anything.

Anyway, that's it for now ya'll. Please be safe and have a great holiday! If I don't catch you before the new year, then enjoy and be safe for that one too!

Take care!

Beat Me, Whip Me.... Ooohhh!

I was reading this article and a couple of hundred comments...

Yes, all of my characters are evil, so I don't mind the "Torture" quests. Yes, as a person, I thought they were bad. I even got a funny feeling about doing them.

The thing is, no matter what cookie they offer you at the end of the quest chain, it won't be worth anything at level 80... Please skip those quests if the offend you so terribly.

On the other hand, I don't think those types of quests are needed in the game, however, if we are going to question morality, then there are a whole bunch of areas we could fuss about. One example would be the Warlock Succubus, who exclaims serveral questionable comments during the course of her use. My GF, said that she wouldn't even let the kids have that pet.

I don't know if a line has been crossed, but there are so many refrences to questionable things and of course there is supposed to be humor there. I can see many things being offensive to other people, that I take as being funny or cute.

Thanks, move along.

Best Commercial Evar!

Dread Lord, Death Knight, what's the difference?

So, as you may or may not know. My copy of WoTK came in the mail and I have been somewhat busy trying to work on the Warlock. Well, I was until I decided finally to start a DK, cause you know, I CAN.

So, after a few million quests in Borean, I stopped my warlock at level 72. Most of my guild mates are still only 71 or less so, I am in no hurry to show them why I am a serious WoW crack baby. Above is my latest action shot of the warlock and my pet, old Thangore...

So, on to the Death Knight. I decided to try the Horde side of things this time, since I would have chosen that side anyway if it had not been for outside influence, and maybe I just wanted to win a few BG's once in awhile. In any event, I decided on a blood elf, just because, well because they spin in the air while jumping. Pretty cool in my book.

I created the character, and immediately I was thrust into a very calculated series of events that prepared my DK for Outland. I played for about 12 hours before I reached level 60 and I have been in Outland since level 58. Much to be said for the DK, although I am not totally clear on what I am doing or how to drive the character to it's potential. I can drive the hell out of a warlock, but this weapons with casting is a bit different then I am used to.

Some of the things I like so far is that I started with all of my personal bag slots filled. Only 12 slot bags, but that was enough to get me started on my journey. I also like the fact that all of the flight paths for both old continents were filled in. I didn't have to do any exploring, and I can already fly wherever I want. I also like that they loaded me up with some pretty decent armor and a nice weapon. Even the greens at level 60 are still not quite good enough for me to change over. I also liked the quests that they gave me while building my level 55-58 DK. Even though I had not too much in the way of options fo quest choices, I found the cannon quest to be very fun, and it kind of reminded me of that first encounter in that old Commodore 64 game "Beach Head II". Graphics have changed, but the concept is the same,(kill everything moving). I also liked the way they made the terrain look different during different phases of your journey away from the Lich King. The king is a lot shorter then I thought he would be. I figure they used some sort of mutiple player instance to show the lands in different variations until the quest lines were complete.

The ending kind of threw me for a loop. I mean with the "300" against 10,000 gouls and me, I figured we were going to win for sure. Suddenly, all fighting was stopped and there was a conversation between a priest and the head of the lich army. Something about the bad guys dad fighting scourge etc. etc. Then the Lich King shows up to kill the high priest commander, and somehow gets hurt and teleports to safety. Arthas, the Lich King left his command center in the Plague Lands behind so we "good" Death Knights formed our own group called The Ebon Blade. They gave us a cool little "Death Gate" hearth stone that we can use to recall home for training or whatever. I still don't know if we have to train for the rune inscription later down the road or not.

I was also wondering if I am caught up on all of my talent points. Things went by so quickly, I was hoping I didn't miss a quest or two that may have given me more talent points. I suppose I will know for sure at 80, but I did have all blue armor and weapons at the end which led me to believe that I was on the right track.

So, the Plaguelands still hold no real value for me. I hate that place because most of the quests are in a dungeon that I do not wish to visit. So, I immediately found the flight master and headed to the Swamp of Sorrows so I could hit the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. Once I hit Hellfire Pen, I made my way to the other two flight points so I could link to Shat and claim the Scryers Inn as my home.

So, now I can portal all over the place, but I have no clue as to where anything is in the old lands for The Horde. I am sure it will be a slow and painful process, one which I will curse Tom Chilton for along the way.

One thing that has me irritated just a little is that I have no reputation with the Blood Elves, of which I was a member at some point before I was abducted by the evil Lich King. I am not sure if this will prevent me from getting a mount in that area, and I know I won't be able to purchase a mount anywhere else. I haven't really investigated that avenue just yet.

Outside of that, I have been grinding my way up the level chain. I really appreciate all of the abilities that the DK has compared to my Warlock, and I am learning new things as I go. Gold is already looking pretty good, so I feel I made the right decision in going to the Horde side. Now I have a better way to make money for my other Horde characters if I choose to build them.

I guess time will tell, but for now, I am in the Dark.

Northrend to Alaska, comon, the rush is on!

Goodness, I forgot just how annoying questing can be. I would think that all that Epic gear I have would keep me a little safe, but some of these crazy mobs up in Northrend are giving me a hard way to go.

Almost level 71 now, and I got the old Tailoring up to 375! Just in time to have to build it to 450. I would start to cry, but that would be a weakness, and we can't have that with skulls on my shoulderpads now can we?

Yea, I am playing a Hot Warlock Chick. A lot of fun really. I didn't think I would even play WoW, let alone have a level 70 running around.

The World Server for Northrend is still a bit unstable. I think we are going to need a larger rack of servers to handle this expansion. Doing quests is a breeze, but unlike when I started a new character 5 years after release, there are tons of people fighting over resources. Overcharged Capicitors are being overcharged for daily, and I suppose at some point I will have to let them overcharge me for one. I am at that point already, where I need one to complete a quest out at the Airstrip.

I am however impressed with how much data they are storing on characters and items now. I was reading the acheivements page last night, and even though some stats are incorrect, probably due to when they started tracking the events, it was interesting how much they could tell me about my character.

So, we grind for levels again. I hear there are already some 80's running around. Death Knights are like a dime a dozen at the moment, but I am sure that will calm down eventually.

Profession: "Grand Master" (Thanks Evocare) I see they have adopted something else that reminds me of UO. In UO, Grand Master was for skills more than professions, but it all works the same I suppose.

A semi-interesting interview with Tom Chilton, formerly "Evocare of BV" if you are interested. He is alive and doing well, we had a very brief hello and that's about it, but he did say he was glad that I was sucked into WoW. Made me chuckle and want to kick him at the same time.

Anyway, I am off to see a man about a horse, or a mammoth or a Death Charger, or something...

Nothing to see here, please move along...

Well, I got my WoTK expansion. Everything seems to be in order so far. I was a bit shocked that they tried to tell me my 1G of memory laptop was not sufficient to play WoW with the expansion, but so far it is working.

I didn't start my Death Knight yet. I am still trying to decide if I should just go ahead and switch to horde with the DK or not. It would certianly help getting a Hordie up to speed faster then waiting on a new roll, but I am still unsure.

Kelly Kindred started up her old account to come hang out with me on Norgannon. It is not the greatest server in the world, but it is workable right now. Norg was crashing a lot yesterday, so I will have to see if anything good came out of the last maint update.

See you in BG!

Get Your Email For Nothin', And Your Epics For Free...

Well, after about roughly five hours of downtime, the illegal PvP Epic gear has vanished. No word on the Email situation except for the up to a few days server message of last night. Blizz also sent out emails to let us know our email is jacked up.

The good news is that Blizzard can track items obtained illegally, by glitch or bug. This will help me sleep better today.

I don't think banning everyone who did it would be the right choice for 2 reasons. It was Blizzard's mistake, and they obviously can identify all the illegally obtained items through their database system. Nice going on that fix Blizz...

I would still bet there might be some job openings at Blizzard today, so check your local listings.

Edit: The Email was returned the following day at about noon. I am pretty sure I got all of my stuff back.
CIAO!