WoW

I have a slight dilemma with this blog: do I include my life or keep it completely pertaining to WoW and Gitr as if I don’t exist?

I’d really like to know what my readers want because you are the ones that read ir, or will stop reading it if the content is out of the expected mainstream for ‘Gitr’s WoW Blog.”

Right now, my life is slightly more interesting than Gitr’s because my life is so interesting that I haven’t had enough time to play.

For an example of what I would include if it’s an all-inclusive blog, see my previous post. I also noticed a posting on the bulletin board at work this week about an internal position for the IS department, which includes a promotion. I also had an interesting baby-sitting experience last night when I fell asleep and the kids stayed up too late watching TV, and it wasn’t even 9pm yet.

If those are too mundane or real-life, that’s cool. I’ll just start up a blog on me an link them.

Have a good one, and looking forward to tons of feedback. Lots and lots of feedback. Give me so much feedback, it chokes the server.

By the way, Heh, I’m looking into getting a domain and putting up an improved blog with “real” blogging tools. More feedback = more incentive to get going.

It was a very filled day yesterday. Notice that it was not a “fun-filled” day. Work was brutal by starting out twiddling my thumbs. I like days like that.

*birds chirping* (somewhere, but certainly not inside)*people having tea with their friends* (again, not here, but somewhere fun)

BAAAMMM!!!!
/*knock knock”We have a rush that needs to go out by tomorrow.”
“OK, no problem.”
“Just fix the text. We’re waiting on the drawings for the documents.”
“When is the meeting?”
“Ten o’clock.”
“Fine. I’ll get started.”

*An hour passes

BAAAMMM!!!!
/*ring ring”You know that document that we have until the 14th to finish? The guy in charge is leaving tomorrow for the rest of the year. We need it through processing by tomorrow morning.”
/*e-mail pops up”The images are being worked on by so-and-so and you need to get with them to put the new drawings in.”
I started putting in the drawings and realized that only one set was done for 6 docs!!

That is how my day started out. Not cool.

I got one done by 4:30 and left because the drawings STILL weren’t done. I met my girlfriend at Panera to help her with a project due today. Before she got there, I decided to download the patch. Huh-uh. The firewall was keeping BlizzardDownloader from working.

When she got off work and we ate, we realized how bad her professor’s instructions were. I had no idea what was going on because I’m not taking the class, she is. So after 90 minutes we go to her house to look at the book. Nothing helpful. So we did what all great college students do: B.S. Lots of it. It’s kind of hard when it’s “I want to see this data and your analysis of it,” but I think we managed wonderfully. I left at 9:45 after falling asleep as she was typing, but not before she walked on my back to crack the heck out of it from my miserable day. At least I got to spend 4 hours with her, even if the project was ick.

I was passing out on the way home, I was so tired, but I wanted to check my mail when I logged in. I fell asleep while the patch downloaded.

In an effort to level, I shrugged everyone off and went to Badlands to grind 38-41s and farm [Heavy Leather] for a guildie’s reputation with the Thorium Brotherhood. At one point, I took on 4 lvl 41s that kept coming before I got a chance to heal or bandage up. I had to pop a potion and eventually trip Retaliation, but that was some nice burst rest xp. I ran through my rest in about 30 minutes at a rate of 35,000 xp/hr. I was supposed to level at 11:45, until I realized that was not going to happen without rest xp. I decided to look for the quest grinding stuff in my log in the area. One of them was [Small Stone Shard] drops from some rock elementals just next to where I was. Unlike the ones that I needed help with last week, these guys were 38s, and I was taking them on 2-3 at a time. I got my 10 shards and turned it in with 900 xp to go for level 42. It took 3 wolves and a big cat to ding, hearth, IF AH, SW trainer, and log.

In the AH, I saw 2 one-hand [Mug O’ Hurt] maces that I really wanted for their dps and speed alone. To dual-wield those would have been funny awesome. Too bad they didn’t have any STR or AP stats.

It was now 12:45 and WAAAYYYY past my bedtime, but at least I was a 42 and got to use a talent point and train up some more.

More text to come later from work. Pics from home computer. A teaser, though: did you know that I can swim while a corpse? I can also die very fast while on Thottbot when I land in Redridge.

Alrighty, then. Back to the daily grind of the real world. This was quite the weekend that included two more runs of SM and about 5 hours of Twisting Nether, a Deadmines run with my rogue, and having a blast helping a guildie’s low-level alt smash through Loch Modan’s elite quests faster than I ever thought I could kill level 20 elites.

From the beginning: Friday night. The evening began with a great Lightning hockey game against Chicago with a nearly full-house. I’ll summarize by saying: overtime, shootout, Lightning win. Great experience. I came home and logged in Gitr to run to Desolace so I could get the SM quests that Tox told me about. I got about half-way there and got invited to SM anyway. Sure! I’ll go regardless of quests in my log. We had me, a 26 warlock, 41 hunter, 35 hunter, and a 45 pally. Totally not naming names, but what do you think the strategy should be in SM with 2 hunters, a tank, a healing/tank, and a utility? Hmmm. mmmhumm.. right. That’s what I think: hunters with their long range should pull the mobs by 1s, 2s, or 3s, and let me tank them while the pets and other go freaky on them. What usually happens is that I use my gun and pull around corners into established safe areas to finish off small clumps. So that’s what I was doing, but that’s not the beginning of the story.

Sit down and pull up a better chair. This is a great debate. (*Ayae and Sequoia especially) On the way to SM from Southshore, I had to clear a path at one point and used my gun. I see in chat, “I hate guns.” Fine. I can understand that, however, this is a game with guns. I kept silent, even as another said, “I don’t even have one. I use a bow.” Then we get in there, although separated at the time, and I went in the wrong door because I couldn’t see which one they went in. By the time I got into the right instance the whole hall, and I mean the WHOLE hall is at the beginning end attacking the group. Good Golly Molly! Challenging Shout, Thundering Clap!!! It took about 90 seconds after I got there, but we didn’t wipe. I held my tongue and didn’t chew out the one that pulled an ENTIRE hall and proceeded down the hall to shoot and pull a single target. “I hate guns,” again.
Kill. Bang!
“Stop using the gun.”
“??”
Group leader (pally), “I think you should stop using the gun.”
“Yeah, right. That’s good tactics.” I used it two more times in the courtyard before the hound master.
“STOP using the @##$@$ gun!!!” came the desperate cry.
“Gitr, please stop using the gun. Apparently they have a real problem with guns.”
We went back and forth for a couple of minutes, but in the interests of the guild and not getting kicked from the group, I complied. However the new tactic became pulling with pets, and worse yet, bodies into groups of mobs. It got messy. Screw that, if we’re pulling with bodies, it’s going to be mine so I don’t have to rip aggro off our healer and squishy. I started charging and killing as fast as I could. I didn’t care if the warlock didn’t have any mana, the anti-gun whatever. I had absolutely no sympathy or compassion over the issue at this point, because it should have been disclosed before the instance. In the last room before Doan, I didn’t use any special moves and charged in with full 100 rage. We dropped him in about 12 seconds and called it a night after doling out the drops.

So, my debate is: In an open community, should one person have the right to completly alter the tactics or style of an entire group because of a personal issue? If you have a problems with guns, are you going to play Quake or Doom? Probably not in this person’s case. In hindsight, and removed from the present situation of fighting, I can come to the understanding of one thing: if you were a victim of a violent crime or injurious accident involving a gun, I can understand the sound sending chills up your spine EVERY time you hear it. I can have compassion about that. But what are you doing playing a game with guns? Does she go around asking every hunter out there to use their axe or sword?

Enough with the debate and ranting.

I like Twisting Nether. I hate gankers. I’d like to gank gankers, but that is impossible. Too bad. I spent a good 4-5 hours as Little Gitr trying to level him for more skills and get some money flowing in the very poor economy on that server. I have 8 slot bags and started the day with 75s. I ended as a 15.5 with the same bags and 1g 64s. The AH has almost nothing. If you want something, it’s got to drop. I completed about 15 quests, 5 in Redridge amidst getting ganked just for being me. At least I was never far from the cemetary.

I used all of his rest want to keep leveling him so he can run with The Forge, our military patrol against lewd horde creeps. Have fun, and keep gaming.

After getting some help killing Forzuk on my 5fps laptop in Panera, logging in later and getting help finishing the quest in the Circle of Inner Binding with the rod that dropped, I was ready for real action when I got home to a good computer.

While I was still putzing around in IF trying to make money and get a full set of green plate armor, Silverwing logged in. I asked if she wanted to do another SM run. It depended on who got online, came the reply, so I putzed around some more and we soon had 4 to go. (Screenshots at home, sorry) She had a fellow guildie and another person, whom I never got the connection. We had Silverwing, Shadow, Luannane (I’ll have to check the screenshot), and eventually Inebriate again. We killed off one group of mobs when Intoxication finished his quests and logged in Neb, so we ran out and summoned him. We rounded out our group of 5 with a 40 warrior, 30 mage, 34 druid, 35 druid, and a 34 warlock.

Being a different makeup from my last run, it really took me a while to get used to things again, but no one died until we got to Doan. Several things went wrong in that fight, but it was all good in the end: he died a vicious Execute death. I charged in and got aggro. Then they all started busting up on him too. As we were working him, I pulled him closer to the doorway for an escape when he bubbled. When he did, he was at about 65% and I ran out and around the door’s column, but he was pretty much in the doorway. Inebriate died from his fire thing and Doan ran back in and to the right, where the screenshot will show his final resting place. My bad move was that I think the fire thing took me to about 50% and I just ran in and around the corner, out of LoS of the druids. My health dropped quite rapidly since I had all of his attention. At a sliver of 76 health left, I popped a Superior Healing Potion and tripped Retribution and spammed Sunder armor to 5 and Heroic Strikes and Overpower when he dodged. When that ended, I noticed Execute was lit, and Gitr finished him with his massive rage. I LOVE dual-wielding a level 40 warrior!

Then we went to the graveyard to get the orb or hat for Silver and Neb. The orb dropped as my eyelids were dropping, so I thanked and hearthed. A good night’s work left me at about 50% through level 40.

Yes, you heard it here first, folks. At 12:23am Kargath Server Time, Gitr achieved the previously unthinkable: level 40! To the drumroll of his fellow guildies as he killed the last gorilla, Gitr slaughtered his victim so fast he didn’t even get a Kodak Moment.

The evening started with going for a red quest with the help of Rani, one of Aurora’s alts. We went to the ogre mound in STV and got Maury’s key after about 6 ogres. No problem. Before I had time to go grind, Tox’s little guy, Inebriate (lvl 29 mage), rounded us up for a Scarlet Monestary run. After my disaster 2 days earlier, I was REALLY up for this run. Besides, I was going to be the highest level there.

Our initial group was Aurora’s druid alt, Silverwing, her offspring, Sandrah, was a level 33 warrior running with a shield, Inebriate, and Gitr still at 39. My instructions were simple:
Inebriate: “Don’t let me get hit.”
Silverwing: “Don’t let me get hit.”
I can do that! I think. Well, I can. I took over 50% damage in the first leg to the boss. If I remember correctly, Silverwing didn’t even get hit, or at least for a very long time. It really gave me a lot of confidence. I made quite a few mistakes in the beginning, but I tried my best to not repeat them, and Silver and Neb are so good, they easily made up for my shortcomings in the beginning.

We moved on the the second part, and wiped after the guy with the 4 hounds. By then, it was bedtime for Sandrah, so we had to decide if we wanted to try again or if I should start grinding to level. After some time, Silver was able to locate Ronin, a lvel 38 druid. Gitr took advantage of the wait to catch some ZZzzzZZz.

Now that we were healer heavy and had 2 high level ppl, it was time to pull out all the stops for Gitr. Armed to the teeth at 88dps, 1400 HP, and 1900 armor, I was ready to wreak havok on SM. This was the first time that I was really getting into the role of tank. I’d done Deadmines before as tank and liked the action, but there was little or no strategy involved other than not pulling adds. Last night, we had to coordinate sheeping, pulling, aggro, and healing. I really feel like I can do tanking now, and do it well. The others’ damage stats proved that, and I went to bed proud of my l337 gaming skillz. In the end, we got Doan and I put him down with Retaliation and a well-timed Execute.

What can beat such a good SM run? Why, leveling to 40 and getting a pony, of course. So, off to grinding Mistvale gorillas I went again. One hour later, I was on my way to the Eastvale Logging Camp for my mount with 95G in my bags. Enter the dilemma: which horsie do I want? There were so many to choose from. There were so many things to consider, but being a guy, I just chose one.

Sooooooo close!! Sundays are very limited in game time, but I gave it my best shot. I was grinding away for a while after lunch, and got some help from fellow level 60 guildie, Aurora and her daughter. We were able to complete an orange and 2 or 3 red quests in STV before I had to leave again. The final red quest we completed raked in 8750XP for a very nice chunk of my way to level 39. I got back on around 9:30 and hit 39 around 11pm give or take 30 minutes.

By then, I was getting tired and had fallen asleep a couple of times, but at least wanted to get to 39. I had set in my mind to not give up until I hit 40, though. Reawakened with reaching a goal, and empowered with a new talent, Flurry, I had no problem diving back in to grinding the gorillas. My renewed vigor was rewarded when I discovered how fast they drop with Flurry tripping 2-3 times per fight. Without rest XP, Gitr was getting 1,000 XP every 2-3 minutes. With level 39 being 85,700 XP long, I had a way to go for 40, but I was going to give it my best shot. Before too long, I was falling asleep during fights. Then I was falling asleep on the way to the fight and getting attacked. Time to call it a night. I hearthed to SW and flew to IF for auctioning off my third bag-full of leather and drops. One of my first kills of the night, a 31 Stranglethorn Tiger, dropped me a very nice suprise. A [Black Duskwood Staff] that was my first blue drop on my own. It was completely unexpected, however also completely useless. I debated all night about giving it to a guildie, sharding it, or selling it. Because of my idiocy with buying the rapier 2 nights before, I settled on selling it after offering it to a couple of people. We’ll see how it goes, but the going rate was higher than my rapier.

I WILL hit 40 tonight. I’m leaving work after lunch for an appointment, and the doctor is going to hurt me, so I’m going home after that. It’s going to be hours of play, and I’m going to grind until ‘ding.’ After I hit 40, I’m going to get my mount and train up. I have full rest XP on all my alts. I’m going to start with Zapit, my lvl 14 mage, then Gotr, the lvl 24 rogue, and then move on to little Gitr on Twisting Nether, who is languishing at 13. I really like that guild, too.