WoW

I was able to get together an awesome in-house group for my second shot at BRD just now. Three guild 60s joined Gitr and Inebriate. Herein lies the tale of run number two.

I was getting quite upset over being 8 hours into level 52, and only 26% of the way through. Every time I spent 2 minutes getting somewhere, it was time to go, too hard to complete a quest, too camped out, or an Act of God prevented me from having fun at the time. I logged in after a 20 minute struggle of handshaking, retrieving the character list, and getting into IF. Man, I wanted to get somewhere today.

I flew down to put the ogre’s head on a stick in Blasted Lands after Neb told me it was soloable at my level. I saw a number of 60s on that had finished Scholo and put out a request for a BRD run because I had 6 quests that were just jamming up my log. I NEEDED to get through there several times. Soon. I don’t want to be one of those 60s that got there not doing anything fun or difficult.

Is this difficult enough? This was our first stop after talking to one of the prisoners. My mind is complete goo, and without taking screens for notes, this is the best I can do in my accounts of a night. I have asked Tox/Neb to help in this area so you get a better picture of what happened, because he remembers everything he’s done and seen since he was born. As the Geico commercial says, “I digress.” We made our way to the highway and hung a left to go to the big lava boss, Bael-Gar, and complete a quest. Again, sucking as I do at knowing things ahead of time, I didn’t have the item I needed to complete the quest, so I get to do it again. YAY! It was a really fun fight. It went something like this:
[Gitr]: What am I going to do for this fight? He’s a 54 Elite.
[Neb]: I think we’ll have you tank him.

[Gitr]: *cheer, woot, YAY, cool*
[Fivefinger]: (rogue) I think he has adds.
[Neb]: Just help Gitr. Ach, just heal and everything will be fine. Mana up, go ahead and charge, Gitr.
[Gitr]: (above screenshot) *gulp*
[Ach]: Wow! He hits hard. *dies*
[Gitr]: *pops a major healing potion*
[Party]: *everything dies when the boss dropped*

We made our way to the bar, dropping another boss or two along the way. Names excape me, Neb will have to do that for me. One was a level 57 Elite, and that is the best I can do. We finished in the bar by breaking a barrel and opening up a can (or barrel, I guess) that ended with a recipe that needed to go to Barley Thunderbew. I danced on a table for the entertainment to the patrons of the bar in an attempt to persuade them from attacking when I spoke to the goblin. My dance didn’t work. People died. It got ugly, but we overcame and got two very fine blacksmithing recipes. After checking the guild bank, Gitr took one and ran to the AH, laughing all the way. If all goes well, it’s a good chunk toward and epic mount.

Earlier in the day, a guildie asked me to tank for Razor Fel Downs. At the time, I had just started grinding for Bloodpetals in Un’Goro after traveling for 27 minutes. I just HAD
to finish the quest, but the drop rate was getting worse as I went on. I finally stopped trying for the day at 11/15 petals and mounted up to run to the Downs. It was kind of embarassing to get there, because I ran right past the entrance. I just saw dots on the map, but they were already underground and had to send someone out to show me the way. *blushes* Your fearless (and clueless) tank is here. 🙂

I had never heard of the place, let alone been there. I was suprised to see that everyone else in the group was in the low 40s, and confirmed that they wanted a 52 for a tank because I was going to steal all the XP. They said they were all there for the drops. It was going to be REALLY easy until the druid dropped in the first 10 minutes. After waiting for 10 minutes, the group decided to work on up to the top. The top of what, Gitr had no idea. I was just there to take a beating and dish out damage as allowed. We beat the next three bosses with no healer. As it turns out, I was there for the drops, even at my level. I got a great chestpiece from the spider boss, and an equipable helm that I wore into BRD.

Gitr didn’t play much this weekend, either, but still managed to get to level 52. Much more difficult, though, was getting herbalism from 154 to 201 by riding around Arathi Highlands. He sent all the herbs to his level 16 mage alt, who used them to get alchemy maxed out at 150. After locating the next level trainer in Darnassus, he learned that you need to be level 20 to train for that skill. Crap. Later, I guess.

Gitr’s about to log in now, but the server is full. It shall be a late night because the office is still closed tomorrow. Back to the daily grind on Tuesday.

Gitr is currently pushing his way through level 51, but is taking the day off to recuperate. He’s been doing a lot of instances and quests with a lot of screenshots. There will be a very big post soon, I promise. Just not yet. Things will really get in gear again in the New Year.

Is this an Easter Egg?

The weekend is quite a blur because of how many groups, quests, and levels were going on. Gitr really moved up the ranks and got lots of experience, almost 350,000xp. He did everything from ZF to southern Tanaris to Un’Goro to The Hinterlands to Blasted Lands.

Much of his time was spend collecting quests and doing those he could solo while Inebriate was signed on as Intoxication, and then grouping together for the harder ones Gitr can’t solo. Neb has ridiculous crits with his frost spec and gear, killing most things 2-4 levels higher than him before taking a hit. Combine him with a tank 1-2 levels higher (Gitr at the *beginning* of the weekend) to keep things away for good, and we did MASSIVE damage.

At the very bottom of Tanaris is a big door with about 7 51-53 elites guarding a quest podium. We decided to test ourselves. To our great delight, we came, saw, and conquered. We only made two mistakes, one killing Neb in seconds, and another finishing me off and Neb finishing the elite off. The first mistake was critting a frostbolt for 1100HP with only one sunder armor. The mob ran, Neb died, I ran for the hills. The next problem was a patrol that got too close before I could pull us back far enough away. We ended up killing both, though.

As we finished turning those quest in, I got an invite to run ZF, and Gitr still needed quite a few quests there. Keep in mind, I HATE PuGs with a passion. I hate people. I know it’s kind of hard to tell here, but I’m an introvert. Get to know me and trust me, and build my trust in you, and you’d never know I’m introverted. Meeting people just wears me out. It’s the same online. I spend too much time trying to figure out the roles in the group, how to get classes to do what they are supposed to, etc. We had a mage who wouldn’t sheep, a rogue that didn’t do enough damage, and a priest who liked to use fear so much, we were constantly fighting 5-6 mobs. Oh, did I mention that he forgot to heal? Yeah. I popped 4 major healing potions because I had to watch my health instead of tanking. Sure I tanked. Had to keep hitting challenging shout every 10 minutes when it cooled down, taunt every 10 seconds, bandage after every fight. I did 36% of the damage (in 1H defensive stance) and took 43% of the damage in a 5-man, like-level group. It broke up after 3 wipes.

I didn’t play too much on Sunday, but Monday brought my first BRD run with an all in-house group. The best learning environment. I died 2 or 3 times, but I was pretty small. I think I was only 50, maybe even 49. After so many quests in Blasted Lands as being lower than the Golem Machines, it’s hard to remember if I was higher yet or not. It even turned out to be quite profitable. I got 2 black diamonds, which sold for 25g each within 2 hours. I learned so much on that run and people were pretty patient with me, too. Gitr took the normal low 40s% damage and had a 2g75s repair bill. The only thing not broken were his Truesilver Gauntlets, which still had 2 points left. 🙂

That about covers the weekend. Hope you’ve all enjoyed it and are still happy and safe.

I can’t believe the answer was so simple. I was just staring me in the face on the Options panel. ‘Users must be logged in and registered to comment.” Enjoy. Sorry for the delay.

Gitr has a pondering buzzing around his head: have any of his readers suffered personal or career consequences as a result of playing WoW? Do you know anyone who has? I read that EQ has overcome hundreds or thousands of people with significant damage to relationships or careers. Is this prevalent in WoW?

I have heard a few people say that they met their significant others through playing, or started playing together and that is all they do now. This concerns me a lot. For a few reasons.

How much about a person can you find out through the confines of the game? (Assuming that is how you met) Sure, you can experience giving, kindness, anger, leadership, and several other traits and emotions, but in the end, it is still a game. Is anger in a game real anger that would be displayed in person? You obviously can’t throw an ashtray or kick someone in the groin or get seriously hammered in the game. Is it really generosity if it’s fake money that doesn’t pay the rent?

If WoW is the central activity in your life, (i.e., you both work, come home, grab a quick bite before or while playing, and play until one or both of you pass out from exhaustion) what will happen when WoW is no longer as popular, supported, enjoyable, or whatever may come to pass? What was the glue to the relationship? If WoW is your gratification, what are the consequences?

Is this saying that if you play WoW with a significant other that the relationship suffers? No, certainly not, but I think there could be some interesting social studies about this phenomenon.