Monday, August 31, 2009

Yay!

Patch 3.2.0

Welcome Darksparkles and welcome back Mango to Daggerspine XD.

I'm so excited that you guys are now playing on our server! Don't laugh, but I swear, it was so depressing to never be able to have a beer with guildies since normally we all aren't local, but now I can has a beer and talk about WoW with you and not feel like it's lame. hehe. XD

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Fail PUG is... NOT fail?! XD

Patch 3.2.0

I pugged a few heroics last night and by a few I literally mean three. Normally, this would be somewhat disappointing, but last night's group was so full of win that I had to stick around. (And I honestly mean that I liked the group. No sarcasm here. Just wanted to be clear on that.) XD.. So, "LF2M dps H UK and UP" was the start of my fun, five-hour long journey with this pug when it caught my eye in trade chat since the daily dungeon quests I still had in my log from a few days ago were UK and UP. What was also nice was that we had enough dps and good gear that we'd definitely finish the instances before they reset in a little under an hour and a half from when we grouped up. =) Or, at least that was the plan...

The group consisted of: Paladin (tank), Priest (heals), Rogue, Hunter, and Shaman (me). This group was good, I mean the "finish-UK-in-20-minutes" good. We did UK first with no snags whatsoever. Next was UP, and here's where the real fun began. I decided to mention the achievements for it, and a couple ppl hadn't gotten them yet and everyone agreed to give them a go. ([The Incredible Hulk], [My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time], [Lodi Dodi We Loves the Skadi]).

For the abomination achieve, we got the abom to about 10%. The tank starts situating the abom better onto the platform under Svala's Sword when all of a sudden, he runs off the platform with the abom following and he just stops moving. The abom misses the sword's damage and we end up killing the boss and abom as we realize the tank has been disconnected from the server. Oh well. People weren't too bummed about the achive since we were all just there for badges anyway. Tank reconnects and we resume the clear.

As we get to Skadi, I asked if ppl have vent just to make calling out harpoon duty easier for the one-pass downing of Grauf, and the healer offers up his vent info when I was poised and ready to click on my vent-info macro =). I logged into his vent where I see a user by the name "Blinded" in the lobby times four(!!), one more "Blinded" in the "Group 1" channel, user "holla"x3 and one other person in "Group 1", and server ping bouncing between 50 and 200. I kinda just write it off, and I notice I can't hear anyone, nor does my vent key work, so I go into the Setup and see that they aren't using the "Speex" codec on his server. So after a few minutes of party chatting about how I'm on a mac and won't be able to hear or say anything unless they come to my server, Holla, the vent owner, changes the codec to Speex and all is well. I explained the strat of how I've done the achievement with at least 5 other groups before, and they all agree that it's the way we'll run it. (Two people farm harpoons for [My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time] (we designated myself and Hollaholla for "poon-farming" *giggles like a 13-yr old boy*), and run back out to reset the boss so we have a chance at [Lodi Dodi We Loves the Skadi].

[Insert a shit-ton of more DC fun here]. The tank, Mutung, disconnects again during the fight and THEN the healer does too! We wipe, but I self res and we start the event over again. We try again, and Hollaholla DC's yet again, so we run out and reset. He comes back and coincidentally, Mutung DC's again. Try this about 3 more times and by this time, I'm actually laughing, Holla and I are pretty much the only two who are amused by this on vent, the rogue gets sick of it, and without saying anything more than, "sry guys gtg," he hearths out and drops group. We find a replacement dps, a boomkin from the priest's guild. We wipe a couple times more as the heals DC again, and Blindedsoul offers to heal since she won't DC lol. More DC fun with the tank and now-shadow priest, and eventually, we get enough online time together for me to call out when we harpoon him, we get him down in one pass, and miraculously survive the fight even after the healer dies from a whirlwind. ... ...

So, Skadi dies, and NO ONE gets the achievement!

*Sigh* So, Holla and I were designated harpooners, but I'm guessing that the hunter picked up a harpoon or two and used the harpoon guns before we called it out. He was DPSing the boss from next to a harpoon gun and he was the only one ever near the harpoons other than the moment Holla and I agreed to use them. Hunter was on vent, but maybe he missed the moment I said, "I'll call out the pass for pooning." XD Oh well, no one is too bent out of shape from missing the achievement, and we try to go on while Priest and Tank keep DCing alternately.

By this time, it is 8:50am server-time. The instances are gonna reset at 9, and Mutung DCs in the room just before UP's end-boss. So we all decide to just call it, and run out so we don't get saved to UP for the next day when it resets. Hunter hearths/drops group without saying a word to anyone. And we (Boomkin, me, S-Priest and Pally) duel each other outside UP while Boomkin and Priest find someone from their guild to join us for H ToC.

We find someone, I use my awesome [Argent Crusader's Tabard] and Holla and I start summoning. The interesting fun in ToC though, was when two people started the jousting event while me and Blindedsoul were still summoning the new party member. We run in and they're already jousting the trash. The fifth party member, after only jousting for a one round all of a sudden has to leave, or never had time to do ToC in the first place, and we spend some more time looking for a fifth. We find a replacement, summon him, he acknowledges the summon in party chat, but didn't accept it in time, so the four of us were already jousting and decided to just down the bosses and summon again when we inevitably run out to reset after the joust event. *Sigh* =D We die one by one but run in from the graveyard fast enough to keep the event from reseting. And then the event bugs, though it was a different bug from what I'm used to seeing. The bug I'm used to is when we down two bosses from their mounts, and the third just never dismounts. But the bug we were experiencing was: all three bosses got downed, but we never popped off of our own mounts! So we just did the usual, run out and reset it, and all is well again.

We get through it pretty smoothly after the jousting event, and I decided to call it a night... or DAY rather since it was about 10am by the time we finished H ToC. XD All in all, I had a blast because the people were fun, easy to shoot shit with in vent during the "downtime", and I felt like I at least helped them by staying with them since they told me that other dps'ers just kept dropping group out of sheer frustration about the constant disconnecting! Haha.

Wow, thanks for reading all that if you made it this far in my post. I hope it was at least as interesting to read as it was for me to experience! XD

Friday, August 28, 2009

Ninja Raiders

Patch 3.2.0

Finished recording my version of "Ninja Raiders". Thanks to Ryan, a.k.a. Roninhobbit on YouTube for allowing me to cover his WoW parody cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies". He wrote all the lyrics, I just covered it. I figured, why write a new WoW parody to a song I was going to write one for when a parody of it already exists? So, I asked Ryan if I could cover his lyrics, and he said yes! XD

I don't want to just throw it up on youtube without a video, and I may not even make a video for this one since Ryan already has one with his original cover. I'm a li'l nervous about this one too, since I don't have any affects on the main vocal. So it's a lot more raw-sounding than "Shut Up and Grind." But it's online so if you wanna listen, here it is:

http://www.blackbackstudio.com/1so1te/audio/Ninja_Raiders.mp3.

I ain't no Beyoncé, so don't hate on me too much. lol.

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Power of WoW

Patch 3.2.0

I've been spending most of my free time in-game, so I decided that today I'd get back to recording another cover-song. I was already about 50% of the way through recording all the vocals when my video card decided to give out, so here's hoping that my vocals won't sound too different today, than they did a few weeks ago. XD I'm really excited about this one too. I sometimes can't believe that WoW has the ability to keep me from doing other fun things that I love to do... hehe. On that note: here's a video!

(G4's Infamous BC Commercial. PG-13)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

BlizzCon Excitement and WoWAion?

Patch 3.2.0

Decided not to subscribe to the BlizzCast Live stream since so much life stuff was gonna prevent me from watching it anyway. Also, the stream schedule for Day 2 (Today) looks like only one WoW related item will be shown. =/ Mostly Starcraft and Diablo stuff for the rest of the day.

Stream Schedule - Day 2
11:00am PST - Welcome to Day 2
11:30am PST - Diablo III Open Q&A Panel
1:00pm PST - WoW Dungeons & Raids Panel <==WTF?!
2:30pm PST - StarCraft II Lore Panel
4:00pm PST - StarCraft II Gameplay Panel
6:30pm PST - Closing Ceremony

Although [Grunty] would have been a nice addition to the pet collection, he's not worth my feeling like I wasted money on something I won't even be able to watch. But of what I've read from various fansites like MMO-Champion and IGN, Cataclysm sounds like just what the doctor ordered for experienced WoWers and new WoWers alike.

On a side note, I got a li'l distracted by an Aion ad on WoWhead's site.. Geez, if I have a computer that could play that, I'd definitely at least check it out. That game looks GORGEOUS. The lore is a bit uhm... familiar LOL. Lots of things very easily relatable to the basic WoW lore, like the Maelstrom/Chaos Abyss, the World Tree/Tower of Eternity, Factions (Horde/Asmodian, Alliance/Elyos), The Legion/The Balaur... Even the gameplay and UI look very similar to WoW. Here's a video I found of some gameplay, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mqJPYgWNo&feature=fvw

I am in no way saying that you should drop WoW for Aion, but if you're a graphics junkie, I can see why you'd switch =p. I rather enjoy the comfort and stability the World of Warcraft has to offer. XD

Friday, August 21, 2009

Forbidden Love?

Patch 3.2.0

Hehe, I can't help but feel like I'm doing something really wrong in-game when I'm actually having a conversation through emotes with a Horde character. XD Made a friend the other night with an Orc Shaman named Thescandall and he hopped on an alliance toon of his and we chatted for a bit. It's fun now that there's no faction restrictions on ANY realm, cuz you don't have to resort to going to the forums to shoot shit with the hordies. Makes the game a lot more interesting when communication is limited between two players that actually get along with each other and can communicate irl. XD Just played hide and seek with him in the Horde inn in Dalaran before I logged. Felt like a teenage summer fling for a second, but very Romeo and Juliet-like. Hehe. I think it'd be great to be on an RP realm... but then I wouldn't be able to kill the hordies that steal my [Titanium Ore]... hmm.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cleared Naxx10 Today

Patch 3.2.0

Ran a Naxx 10 for the first time today with the new guild and a couple pugs. We cleared it pretty smoothly in about 4 hours. I was actually very pleasantly surprised. EoE10 tomorrow if nothing comes up. My sister is in the hospital already. (My new nephew is due in about a week, so maybe he'll be here a bit early.) =)

Actually something random I realized. With all the new gear I got, Isolte's starting to look very different. It's actually kinda weird because I've been in that old stuff for so long, I just got used to the way she looked. There was a part of me that almost wanted to keep her old gear just to do dailies in for the familiarity. Bleh, I'm just rambling right now because I can't go to sleep. *sigh*

Monday, August 17, 2009

Upgradez and New Guild

Patch 3.2.0

Got some new gear:
[Leggings of the Tireless Sentry]
[Conqueror's Worldbreaker Chestguard]
[Scale Boots of the Outlander](ToC drop)
[Uruka's Band of Zeal](ToC drop)

Been running a lot more heroics than I though I would be. Joined a new guild (Driven) that's starting back up again from falling apart not too long ago. I'm kinda iffy on how much I'll like this. I joined with the hopes of finally being in a raiding guild with mature players since the GM is really picky about who he invites to the guild, but I'm afraid we won't be raiding anytime soon as a result... there's only like 5 active players in the guild currently... Driven used to be in the top 3 rading guilds on our server when WotLK came out, and that's another thing I'm nervous about. Usually, in my experience, it is that mindset (of being a top rading guild) that attracts the assholes and wannabes. All I really want is to be in a guild with reliable, respectable players , even if that means we only do 10-mans. Heck, I don't even care if we do 10-mans, we can do 5's.. I'm happy with the gear I have currently because I can do my dailies with ease. So, really, I'm just hoping the guild turns out to be a good group of PEOPLE. =/

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Insta Vent

Patch 3.2.0

Found a Ventrilo server thanks to the experiences of friends. =)
We're hosting with InstantVentrilo.com.
Thanks to everyone for your input!


Wednesday, August 12, 2009

WTB Ventrilo Host

Patch 3.2.0

Nuku's cousin rents a vent server for his guild, Massacre , but it just doesn't feel right using it when Nuku and I are pugging with people who are not in . Technically, we aren't in Massacre either (or anymore rather), so we're looking into finding a good host for our li'l guild, New Moon. My intention for New Moon at the start was to create a guild that was as casual and [keyword!!] comfortable for all members. But I haven't done any recruiting since we basically use the bank for ourselves and a couple of friends. XD

I'm not sure we'll start raiding hardcore ever and even if we don't, it'd still be nice to have our own vent, cuz the in-game voice stuff is still kinda cruddy. So, if you can recommend a good quality Vent host, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

In Game. BRB.

Patch 3.2.0

Ever since I got my computer back, I've been playing too much to get anything else done, lol.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Got my computer back!

Patch 3.2

WOOT! Got a call from the fruit store today and I got me lappy back! Copied WoW back onto my new hard drive and I'm ready to rip! Actually, I was thinking about installing the rest of my important apps, but that can wait til tomorrow =). And as Blackheart the Inciter would say, "Time for fun!"

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Random musings of a Shaman with no computer atm... and PvP WTF?

Patch 3.2.0

With the release of patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade, a couple days ago, there have been so many awesome new things that I haven't been able to check out yet!! (Patch Notes here...) AAaaaAAAAaahh, it's killing me that my computer is still out for repair. I did hop on my husband's computer though to turn in my [Valiant Seals] for my last Champion faction in the Argent Tournament on Monday night. (I was really only saving them so that I could keep doing the Valiant dailies along with the Champion dailies since a few of them were like hitting two birds with one stone.) I've been trying my best not to play on his computer throughout the day while he's at work though so that I take a proper break, albeit forced, from my own computer.

But one thing I'm dying to check out, and most likely will as soon as I post this blog *maniacally grins*, is the new totem bars for Isolte. Before there was even a rumor that Blizzard would make one-button totem casting, I organized my action bars so that my totems were in groups. I even bound my arrow keys (and Shift+arrow keys) to each totem element, so I'll definitely be changing that back to the default directional movement lol. It was always funny to have my husband check Isolte's mail in-game and hear him plop down a [Magma Totem] when he's just turning to the left while standing at the mailbox. XD

And ok, this was news to me: PvP servers now capable of creating characters of OPPOSING faction?! I don't know how I missed this, but when I went over to mmo-champion.com this morning, right there, second post from the top (at the moment) in loverly Blizzard Blue:
By Eyonix (Source)
As we've already discussed, we’re in the process of developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. To prepare for this new service, we've removed the restriction that prevents players from creating both Horde and Alliance characters on a PvP realm. For more information on our Faction Change service, please visit the following link.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031079410&sid=1

.. OMG WTF BBQ BIKE!? I foresee drama and much QQ as a result, but I can see some of the benefits. I mean, my server according to some census I found a few weeks ago (don't hate me cuz I can't remember the website, but) it said that there exists 3 horde toons per 1 alliance (And that's not accounts, that included alts I'm sure). But, I can see the faction populations evening out perhaps? Eh, I don't know. There was a part of me a LOOONG time ago wishing that I rolled horde, but that was when I was hardly ever even playing the game, BGs for my battlegroup sucked ass because they were so lopsided, and everyone I knew irl that played was horde.. Meh... I take great pride in having been "raised" on a PvP server, so to speak, for the exact reason of choosing a faction and sticking with it. But with the new PvP restrictions lifted, it kinda rains on the parade a little. I mean, I'm no Alliance freak: I've tested out some horde toons on other servers, but on my home server, Daggerspine, I will always be Alliance.

I'm looking forward to seeing the replies to that Blizzard post because so far they are pretty black and white. XD

Saturday, August 1, 2009

My laptop is in the hospital.

Patch 3.1.3

I got my new hard drive, put it in, and now my video is gone. Took it in for repair and the tech assured me I did the install correctly and it was just "it's time" (that the video would go.) Since it is an Apple computer, I can't fix it myself. *cries* So, I'll have my computer back in a couple weeks. *sigh* And I was right in the middle of recording a new song too. Oh well, at least there's slightly good news: the motherboard is getting replaced and since they're shipping it out for repair, it'll only cost me $300 as opposed to $1500. =/ Yay.

Doesn't mean I can't hijack my hubster's laptop to play WoW on while mine is in repair. =) I just won't be recording any new music. But this will also give me time to write more stuff too, so I'll definitely take advantage of my computer-less time.