Daddy Gamer

One adiction at a time

2009-05-05T14:45:00.000+02:00

'Why do you play so much?' my wife often asks me. And since I like to analyze stuff I have thought about that a lot.

My conclusion is this:

As most guys I am a bit a 'one track mind'. And if I doesn't have anything that occupies my thoughts I get a bit restless. Like that feeling after a 500 page book ends.
So I tend to immerse my self in some activity that needs me to focus on it in a analytical way. It may be a book, a game or building new shelves in the cupboard. Sometimes it is work - but since I don't want to work around the clock I like some thing not work related to focus on.

Usually this 'thing' is a game. Mostly since it appeals to the problem solving and exploring side of me.

This is what I think is the core reason that busy working guys starts home improving as soon as they leave the car. The more stressful job - the more addictive side activity needed.

Anyone out there that agree?

Back in Chaos

2008-10-10T10:33:00.000+02:00

Hello out there.

Long time since I made a tanking post but here is one again. The reason for that is I have started playing Warhammer online (yes I know i jump around alot) and rolled a Chaos warrior class called Chosen. Incredibly cool class to play. From the experinece I presume it will be a bit similar to Death Knights in WoW.

Basically the Chosen is an evil human in fat armour wielding sword 'n board and having auras. The reason for the auras is the corruption from the evil Raven god the Chaos armies worship.

Aside from auras and ordinariy spanking abilities the Chosen have acess to some semi-magical abilities aswell. Like Ravage which is a attack making spirit damage and therefore negating armor.

One of the best things about the Chosen tank class is the viability in PvP (called RvR in WAR). Aside from taking damage we can really dish some out. And we can be annoying enough for the other team so they need to take us out. This is mostly by snare abilitys etc, but also due to the fair damage output we do.

In WoW's Warsong gulch the tanks was mostly flag carriers and in Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley we could be mostly ignored. Not so in Warhammer.

PvE?
But how is the tanks in PvE. On sologrinding we are good. Better than good I would say, downtime is about zero. But I havent doneany dungeons yet. I'm just lvl 15 (of 40) and about right level for the first available instance. Looking forward to it though.

Will fill you in when I know more.

Long time no post

2008-09-03T12:20:00.001+02:00

Hello out there.

It's been a while since I posted. Mostly because I've been away on "daddy-leave" for eight weeks. But also that my WoW-experiences has dwindled to almost nothing.

Well. I will keep posting now and then. A bit sparser now when I don't game that much.

Right now I'm playing Max Payne2 (with #1 bullet time was an innovation - now it's just main stream, but the story and atmosphere are great) and Medieval Total War 2 (good fun - but I hate the irrationality of the pope by now).

For the love of seams

2008-06-16T12:50:00.000+02:00

These last couple of years one of the big technical improvements in game is the seamless worlds, like World of Warcraft. Everything sticks together without any loading screens and you get the massive feeling of being in a real world.

Some games would greatly benefit from this - like Witcher - where the seams break the pace a lot. But there are also games that makes the most out of the seams instead.

Often these games are referred to as "episode games". You play one part in a confined area with a big "out of game" pause in between. Recently I have played two old games where this is a good thing namely Homeworld2 and Hitman.

Hitman in a seamless world would be a lot like GTA or Assassins Creed. Instead it makes the most of the confined area. The great reward in a game like hitman is the scripted events which are scripted in such a fashion that you don't think they are scripted but more like a stroke of luck.

I climbed a scaffold on the outside of the White house to look into a window. Two carpenters are chatting inside. I hang on for a short while and one of them leaves while the other turns his back to me and continue using his nail gun. I sneak into through the window, just before the marine on patrol below sees me, and sneak up behind the now lonely carpenter with a syringe dripping with a sedative.

A couple of rooms later I look out through the window onto the lawn. As I do this I can see my target, the conspiring vice president, exiting the West Wing to walk the dog in the rain. From the window I have a clear shot with my sniper rifle.

The good thing with these scriptings are that I don’t know where I trigger them and don't have a clue what scripted behaviours I can trigger at the start of the episode. But they make the game feel like a movie where the story unfolds while I progress through the mission.

When gaming is good it is like this. I could rush through ant mission with guns blazing and probably make it out alive. Or I can try to sneak and only hit the marked targets and even make it look like accidents. Most maps can be rushed through in 10 minutes but in reality it takes about a couple of hours since I sneak, fail, get into gun fights and need to reload.

To make it especially worthwhile to play properly is that there are myriads of options to take out the targets. Poison their food? Snipe them from distance? Garrotte the from behind or feed the to the piranhas?

The game facilitates for me in such a way I don’t notice it - only feel like there is a good pace in the story.

Long time no post

2008-06-06T14:45:00.000+02:00

I have been away from blogging for a long time now. Probably the longest since I started my blog.

Right now I am playing the waiting game. The content available isn't that interesting for me to play the game and I can't play as much as needed to progress beyond heroics and PuG Karas. And honestly - PuGing Kara is a pain as most ppl know.

And heroics was stale from the start. Same place - harder mobs. Not much to do for a content oriented player.

The problem with being away for some time is that the old friends which I tried on Kara with a looong time ago is already doing Gruul and Mag so it isnt much fun for them to play with me - and getting new friends is to bothersome.

That was a whole lot of whining at once =)

Right now I am playing a old copy of Hitman - Blood money. Great game. Not the graphics or the story - but the blend of puzzle, action and sneaking. And short missions with loads of different options of success.

Getting rid of the gear race

2008-04-24T12:22:00.000+02:00

One of the biggest issues and controversies in WoW at the moment is the comparisons between gear.

Is the PvP gear 'welfare epics'? Should all new drops go to tanks/main healers in the first place in a raid? Is the arena rating limitations on S4 arena gear making the 'below 1700' not worth going arena? etc etc.

I think I have the embryo of an idea to solve this.

Let's first explain with arena gear.
With the coming season 4 lots of the gear demands a specific rating, and already there have been a discussion about it killing of the non hardcore arena teams.

First I thought - that’s easily solved. Why not get like 5 different versions of the shoulders which demands specific ratings? Like: none, 1500, 1700, 1900, 2100. This will make it possible for every arena player to slowly achieve better gear according to accomplishment.

And to not make it cost too much, get rid of earned arena points (not rating) and say that chest takes 4 weeks of playing a minimum 10 matches/week to be able to buy. And shoulders 8 weeks.

Here we have options of needing to work toward specific pieces. Like say that each week earns you a merit point which can be put in towards the 4 needed for chest. (A bit like a talent tree where the full tree make you able to wear that piece. Maybe should come with the option of respeccs.) Gettig 'attuned' to wear shoulders makes u able to upgrade to better rating shoulders without putting in the weeks again. A bit of a two way improvement avenue. Rating wise or slot wise.

New arena gear
What will be the result? Well. We would get arena players which all can work toward new gear in two ways. Either by improving their rating or to week by week work towards ability to wear a specific gear slot. More intervals makes it easier to actually get up on the ladder in comparison to now where its a huge difference if u can get the S4 set or not. This would make skill more important but keeping the gear advancement element of play.

But what about PvE then?
Yeah that’s another thing - or is it really? Why not get rid of the old drop system. Let everyone earn PvE rating by downing bosses and clearing instances.

This rating would then make you eligible to buy new gear, much like the arena system.

Wait a minute! Why not grind ZF then to get the best gear!?

Well thats easily solved too. Each boss is wort a number of points, say 60 points for Omor the Unscarred. Say that first time you get 60 points and then we have diminishing returns for him like cutting it to a third each time. 2nd=20, 3rd=7, 4th=3 etc. This to a max of like double the original value for him 120 points. Then you cant grind Omorr any more.

Then we can get phat loot by going in with a good group. Twink runs FTW!

Sure. But if we then add this system with a negative multiplier according to the PvE score of all the individuals in the group/raid? So doing Omorr the Unscarred with a group of BT raiders will diminish the PvE-points gained a lot. That will actually make it worth the time to do the instances with like levelled people.

Ok. I'll save up my points and buy the phattest axe in Azeroth already at lvl 60

Well, you wont. The system will work like the arena system above. The total points make you able to buy better gear. But they will not go away. They are a rating and not spendable points.

What do we get then for PvE?
Players get gear according to accomplishment. There is still a grinding component in there. And there is a motivator for taking on content made for your level.

This will make it meaningless to do Kara badge runs or easy heroics.

There is one drawback though. The thrill of seeing what that boss will drop today. Nothing is as thrilling like seeing that nifty helm drop and checking it out with a ctrl-click.

OK. Suggestion time is over. Please comment if you made it all through =)

Is levelling the wrong path?

2008-04-16T15:24:00.000+02:00

MMORPG is all about getting better and doing cooler stuff. No problem with that. But I do wonder - is levelling actually the right thing?

Ok, I really liked to level up my first WoW-charachter, my paladin Gawain, to lvl 60. And then I levelled up my warrior to level 70. 1-60 was boooring but done with the 60 to 70 span to look forward to.

Then I tried to level up a warlock to 70 on a different server (this was actually my very first char that got abandoned at lvl 42 for my paladin). I managed to get the lock to 62 before interest faded completely. Same with trying to level up the pally just to be able to heal in the end game. He's stuck at 65-ish.

Not that I don't wanna play them in 70 instances. But it was too much of a boring one man job to get the bastards to 70. Doing the 1-60 span was better since with dedicated playing following a levelling guide it was kinda neat just to ding twice an evening. The lock was levelled after the "fast levelling patch" so he was even easier. And maybe because paladins are one of the slowest classes to level, fury warrior and affliction lock was pure dps fun in different aspects.

Reason for 10 new levels
But back to the point. New level caps are made for two reasons. One of them is that reaching the new cap is time needed to play (play time = income for Blizzard) and the other that everybody is at square one after reaching the new cap. All old gear needs to be replaced, factions worked at etc which needs more play time. And also since the slate is wiped clean we are all on equal footing Newbies and Hardcore raiders which makes it possible to become a hardcore raider for a former newbie.

Ok, that settled.

Blizzard wants us to play more. But levelling of alts is just made by some. Most people tend to leave them midlevel in my experience. If we played with many characters we would probably play more. Maybe it should only be needed to level one char and the rest would follow? Or will that mean we will only see hunters farm their way up to lvl 70 and then become different classes that don't know how to play their class?

More gaming = more fun = more money
All I know is that I would play more if I didn't need to level my alts. Especially since the problem with my warrior was that I reached what I call the "content-cap" (it is reaching the cap of content that you may experience due to different circumstances like game time, guild progress etc). I didn't have enough game time to do Karazhan on a regular basis and doing heroics over and over wasn't that fun. But I wouldn't mind healing through Shadow Labs if my pally had been lvl 70.

I don’t have the solution for the problem but I feel like it needs to be addressed. This is maybe a way towards a problem I noticed a while back with mates playing but not able to enjoy it fully because of different levels of progress. That might become a later post.

PvP - a rush of blood to the head

2008-04-15T14:42:00.000+02:00

As you might have noticed I have been playing mostly Lotro for som time now. The other day I had a bit of Lotro fatigue and decided to have a look at the new continent from patch 2.4. (Whats it called Sunwell?)

Well, my first impression was that it was a ton of daily quests in a concentrated area and not much more. Then I experienced the PvP aspect of WoW that Lotro totally lacks.

It was me, an undead rouge and an adrenaline overload...

God what a rush PvP is sometimes. The adrenaline makes your fingers shake... I really need to convince some of my old WoW companions to come back to play some arena again.

WotLK - the death of WoW?

2008-04-11T09:01:00.000+02:00

I have this nagging feeling that expansions in WoW is slowly killing the game. I'll try to explain:

When playing the original WoW, pre Burning Crusade, we all knew that 60 was the level cap and reaching that would make it possible to go into the raid instances. Gear upgrade was slow.

Then BC landed. In a couple of days (hours for some) they had exchanged every last piece of equipment to Outland greens. All work pre-BC was more or less for naught - if you look at the game gear wise. The good experiences lingered though (I still remember taking down Onyxia and meeting Ragnaros)

In Outland we where going for 70 asap. We all knew that instance loot in Hellfire Citadel or Coilfang was just a step on the way. Many even didn't enter the mid 60 instances before trying heroics (which is a huge mistake as all know who tried heroics with someone that hasn't done the regular).

For me, a medium fast leveller, I reached 70 and made all of the instances, but no raid content, before the news of WotLK released.

A friend of mine had grinded for money a lot to be able to make his tailor set (Frozen shadoweave). He got a bit pissed. "Why the hell did I do all this work when in a couple of months it will be all for nothing?" he asked me.

The only good answer I could come up with was: "But you must be playing for now also!?"

Investing in WoW
Somewhere here I got a bit concerned. If we should be inspired to try to get better and better equipment we need to feel the investment (of time) is worth the outcome (of gear) in accordance to its longevity (time to update making it obsolete).

I think this might be more of a problem for casual gamers. If playing time is scarse (like mine) and I have 12 months before next expansion makes gear outdated I don't want to put 6 of these months into getting ok gear for early raid content. The investment doesn't pay off enough.

Then we have the arena season gear and the discussion of welfare epics which makes it even more complicated. (For those not into this discussion it is about that the Season 1 gear is available for honor, which makes grinding Alterac Valley the best way to get great gear. For dps the S1 gear is on par with heroics/Karazhan gear).

Time over execution
Now it might feel like I am whining about my gear not being good enough and it takes too long time to get it. Well I am ;) No not really. The thing I think is the problem here is that WoW is extremely concentrated on gear improvement. All the avenues on getting good gear is more or less about the time you invest in the game. This might seem offensive to say, but I don’t mean that all are unskilled that have good gear - but admit that you met your fair share of real asshats with really great gear? =)

Maybe this is a better way to put it. Playing little but good gets you ok gear. Playing a lot but quite badly gets you better gear.

Since this is a tanking blog mostly I just ask you to remember all the times in a PuG with some real stupid party/raid member that you more or less ask not to mess things up and are glad if he’s on auto shot (yeah I'm talking to you huntard =) ).

Conclusion?
Hrmm, I got a bit sidetracked here. But my point is: Since WoW is such a gear improvement orientated game, too short intervals between making that earned gear obsolete (welfare epics or new level caps) makes it less interesting to play the game.

If the focus could shift towards skill this wouldn’t be that much of a problem.

One thing to take into account is the difference between vertical vs. horizontal advancement in a game. Vertical is things orientated on getting you onwards, horizontal is stuff that improves the experince on your actual level without increasing the ability to progress. Vertical orientated games are more addicitive (new fixes/gear) and WoW is one of them.

The ring runner

2008-03-25T08:49:00.000+01:00

Have been playing Lotro mostly the last couple of weeks. Logged in to WoW to level an alt a bit more. Oh what a drag. Especially since I realized that warrior is the thing for me.

Warriors really have the best of two worlds: survivability and melee dps. Even if specced arms/fury we are tough as nails. And being able to dish out huge damage while specced right is nice - the best part is tanking.

When choosing a class in Lotro I was heavily into going Guardian (like a prot warrior) but since my best friend already rolled one I started a Champion instead (dps warrior). My luck was really with me on this choice since it has occurred to me by reading forums etc that Champions are more than viable tanks in ordinary instances. And that you need to dps tank to keep aggro!

This is really sweet. Not only is my role to be the one up front taking the attention of the mobs - but I can wield two swords at the same time!

Reached lvl 30 yesterday (that's when you get the tanking stance called Glory) so I am all eager to try some serious tanking soon.

Oh, by the way. My friend is going to contact the Guardian Union for class stealing and unauthorized tanking ;)

The infidelity of DaddyGamer, part II

2008-03-11T09:16:00.000+01:00

My second affair has made me spellbound. That’s why I haven’t written for so long. This fling is less calculating than I have been used to for a long time. Not as flashy as my main relationship but instead more down to earth and good looking in it's own way. I have been asked about deciding looks and clothes a lot more than used to. This do make me feel like not hanging out with a harlot or hobo in multicoloured garb. But the importance of a ring was mentioned almost from the start...

Well. Not as good description as my first affair. As you may have concluded it's Lord of the Rings - Shadows of Angmar that I am talking about.

It is very similar to WoW. Levelling to 50 is done by quests and monster kills. But the quests give much more experience than grinding mobs. A mob of the same level might give about 100 xp (at lvl 25) while completing a quest at the same level will give somewhere around 1200 xp.

Another nice thing is that there is something called Deeds. Different deeds are possible to accomplish according to zone, class and race. For example killing 25 wolves in Bree-land might give you the possibility to use the title "Wolf slayer" (I made this one up - but you get the drift). And after finishing killing wolves on the basic level of the deed you can start on getting the advanced benefit like the trait Valour +1.

Traits are given for accomplishing deeds and they add up. So it is possible to get Valour 4 for example. Each rank of a trait will give you more bonuses. And you can only equip a certain amount of traits according to your level. There are also class and race traits.

About the looks. Chainmail look like chainmail. Leather like leather. No lightning ridden wolves heads on your shoulder pads as in WoW. At lvl 20 you are allowed to equip gear for only visual purposes also. You get two extra copies of the character screen in which it's possible to equip gear and make them show but not count for bonuses. It's still the gear on your ordinary character screen that will give you equipment bonuses.
This is a nice feature. Makes it possible to custom your looks a lot more. But you will never look as sinister or kick-ass as in WoW since Lotro is low fantasy.

In the same time the looks in Lotro are more real. You get the feeling that you are moving in the world of Tolkien. The first time I saw Weathertop trough the mists I had to stop and look in awe.

Another thing that is kind of nice to is that since it is not the no.1 MMORPG out there, no number crunchers have gotten the proper threat rotation etc right yet. Although I hugely appreciate them in WoW this do make playing in Lotro a newer more open experience. There is no right or wrong. I've heard no discussions about the proper spec or right gear yet.

The biggest boon is actually that most of my IRL friends started playing it too. All online games are social games foremost. That is what makes them nice.

And it seems that Lotro attracts a more mature crowd too. That is real nice. Not heard any leet talk yet.

The infidelity of DaddyGamer, part I

2008-02-26T10:00:00.000+01:00

I have to admit it. I have an affair on the side, or two actually. But one has ended. I will tell you about this ended brief affair of mine today...

Her name is Eve. She lured me with sweet talks about that the first two was for free, the first two weeks that is. She dazzled me with her awesome looks, love for freedom and that I didn’t have to commit myself to her all the time. She would go on making me happy even if we didn’t meet for a couple of days. Eventually we broke up after the two weeks. The freedom was a bit much, her huge size frightened me and my friends didn't like her that much.

Her full name is EVE Online if you haven’t guessed yet. It is an awesome game. The graphics are terrific and the scale of things is even better. If you think Ragnaros is big in Molten Core then you haven’t had close contact with a titan class ship in EVE while in a small cruiser yourself. The scales are like flying an X-wing over a Star destroyer. It feels like a landscape on it's own.

Another scale thing that is nice is that there is no shard realms - none. A weekend there is about 30 k online at the same time! This is closer to virtual reality than any other online game I've played in. It does come with some issues. The rookie chat channel is flowing almost to quick to read for example...
I have heard about clashes of Corporations (the guilds) in the scale of hundreds of ships on each side. From cruiser- to titan-class.

That brings me to the PvP side. The game is focused around PvP. For better or for worse everything is player driven. The AH is really good and is a combination of vendor and AH. The need for friends is big if you want to fight - but you could be a miner as well and trying to stay away from others. Or why not a hauler? There is a market for transporting stuff since banks are not linked. If you store something in a station it stays there. And since some players are pirates out for a good loot (yes you can loot each other) you need to protect your stuff.

And the greatest thing is the no grinding issue. You will train skills in real-time. Logged on or not. There is no classes either so you can theoretically master all aspects. But since there are so many of them that is only theoretical. Now some will say: Hey that means it impossible to beat someone that has played longer. But since many/most skills are non combat oriented you may meet an very experienced miner in combat.

Well it did end. Since it is player oriented and none of my friends played it wasn’t that fun. And it is a big learning curve in the start. I didn’t get in far enough to get caught.

So that affair has ended. Next time I will tell you about my still ongoing affair...

Running on empty

2008-02-14T10:27:00.000+01:00

After browsing my favourite blogs abot WoW I realize we share the same problem. Most of us are running on empty. Motivation is low, game time declines and old groups are torn apart due to ppl leaving the game.

One of my most trusted friends, which have I have played arena with a lot, have decided not to prolong his subscription. Another haven’t logged in for 3 weeks.

My warrior is stuck pre-Kara. My lock is loitering in Honor hold. And my paladin have taken a nap in Terrokar forest.

I feel I ought to level the lock and pally before WotLK arrives. But the levels between 60 and 70 are hard work. And somewhere in the back of my head I think "Maybe they will extend the 'easy leveling' to a 20-70 span after the expansion?"

Maybe the best thing is to take a break until expansion arrives so I won’t get fed up on WoW? :(

Revive the heroics!

2008-01-23T11:11:00.000+01:00

Heroics are a half assed attempt of keeping the same instances alive longer. Why not going for a more story related/accurate version of the heroics. Why are they harder? Why the same exact mobs?

Probably (I'm no designer) the hardest part wit the places are the layout and that kind of graphics. So keep that. The other must be the skins and movement of the mobs/bosses. So keep that too. The third must be placement so they chain pull properly etc and are at the right level of challenge. That needs to change.

Take Blood furnace for instance. That is a place where they have corrupted orcs to fel orcs and tapped the blood of Magtheridon to do so. Last boss is Kelidan the breaker - a warlock.
Lets make heroic BF like this: Since the heroes (that’s us ;D ) cleared the place the remnants of Kelidans soul has reshaped into an unstable dimensional rift and is spawning demons all through the place. Make first boss w skin of Omor (from ramp) and some new abilities. Place demons all over the place and make it feel new. Etc.

In my mind that wouldn’t make it that hard to get done - and give completely new content. Just jacking up the health and damage of everyone seems like a cheap solution.

Let the Belfs invade the empty Slave pens, make Nagas push into Mana tombs, let the demons take over Shadow labs. And why not revive the old continent instances in the same fashion? Let the beasts and monsters from Outland transgress the portal as well as us. Fel orcs would love BRD in my mind. Let the Belfs of Tempest keep ally with the Scarlet crusade.

What would you like to see?

S1 and Kara badges broke the way of progression

2008-01-23T11:06:00.000+01:00

In a way I think that the vendor S1 (although I love it) has broken the progression chain. Same with Kara dropping badges.

Since Kara started dropping badges no one needed to go Heroics if they where in a good guild. And if you didn’t get anyone from a good guild to do Kara you wouldn't make it. And not being able to do heroics stops you from entering/playing with a good guild.

Now you might imagine that S1 for honor might solve that. But it actually made it worse. Foremost because it isn’t possible for a group to clear Kara if everyone has S1. The tank and healers need some PvE gear at least.
To make it worse, many decided that doing BG's half heartedly was an easier way to get the loot than struggling in Kara.

And if less people are going Kara or 25-man content. What do you need your epic S1 gear for?

Heroic PuG is a pain

2008-01-22T09:51:00.000+01:00

Tried to do a heroic the other day with a PuG. Got really nasty. The last couple of times I have done heroics it has been an all guild run - but at the moment our guild is disbanding a bit. People are leaving WoW for LotR and other games.

Well anyhow, a PuG was assembled for Mechanaar. But it got ugly in the first room, which is a pretty easy pull if tank can hold aggro.

After the wipe and reassembly I inspected the others gear. Mostly green gear like "Crappy shoulders of the Easykill"!!!

I asked: "How did you manage in the normal mode with that gear?" One answer was stunning... "I haven't done normal mode."

This I blame the availability of getting heroic keys at honored instead of revered.

After talking with a couple of friends they stated that heroic PuG's are dead.

I always advocate that more should be able to join the fun. But this has made PuGging heroics harder and thus more casual unfriendly.

Bored, stupid or just mean?

2008-01-16T09:13:00.000+01:00

I am currently leveling my lock a bit since it's a slow period in my warriors guild. My warrior is on a RPPvP server which is nice in two ways. First - it is always cool to have some RP interaction although it is scarce. But the best part is that ppl are a bit more mature. If I see a horde, I'd say it is a 50-50 chance that he will attack me. If I'm a lowbie and he's a lvl ?? for me I'd say he will only attack once out of ten. It is a bit civilized actually.

But my lock is on a pure PvP server. It is aggravating.

Logged in into Gadgetzan the other day. Came out of the inn and outside there is 4 lvl 50's loitering around trying to emote taunt me in to attacking them. Like anyone would with the guards around. Then they hang around waiting for any alliance trying to leave to gank them well away from the guards.

Next time in Gadgetzan a lvl 44 (I was lvl 48) tries to taunt me and lure me out of the city so his friendly ?? rogue can backstab me there. Good the guards cast net otherwise I would been had again.

And the third time I barely log on before a pally (?? again) runs around Gadg slaying all alliance and bubbles to get away from guards, runs out to loose aggro then repeat.

On this realm I always check out an inn before entering because often some lvl ?? hangs around there killing ppl.

What I wonder is - WHY??!!

The only gain from this behaviour is to aggravate other ppl. And the only reason to do so must be to take out their frustration from real life on someone in the game that can't fight back.

Now you might imagine that I am pissed. Well, I was at first - but not any longer. If anyone out there have been bullied in school, mistreated by their parents or feel that they are the lowest form on the social evoloutionary ladder. Then you are welcome to attack my lock. He's just a bunch of pixels and there isn't even a repair cost for PvP death. Go ahead give him your best shot.

I just hope that you realize that IRL-problems can't be solved in WoW or vice versa, so learn how to deal with them in real life too.

The Sunwell

2008-01-11T15:18:00.000+01:00

I am really looking forward to The Sunwell in 2.4. Especially the 5-man instance. Should be like Shadowlabs in difficulty. Nice.

The repetivity is the biggest issue now a days for me. Doing heroics? Nah, done them all to damnation before in normal. Doing Kara - don't got the time to join the guild. But battle grounds? Well - being the only one on defence sucks.

Arena is the joy of the moment. And playing my lock. I am at 48 so going ZF should be done already. But as most at my lvl are alts wanting to get boosted, LFG is mostly filled with lvl 41's that want to be walked through.

But it is nice anyhow to play the lock. Good fun to dot em up and fear em. Take next mob, repeat, then third. By that time the first is ready to be looted. =)

The irresistable lure of MMORPG

2008-01-08T09:44:00.000+01:00

The Witcher is a great game, I've gotten to episode 2. Medieval Total War II is awesome in its big scale battles, I've almost conquered France.

That is the thing. I have tried them out for a while, but I always get sucked into WoW again.

I have just a little time to play and I need to choose what to play. And the decision always falls on WoW ultimately. Just that instance, just that piece of gear. Always wanna become a little better.
And when one character gets boring someone new gets my attention. Right now I am playing my 44 lock and try to level him up. Good fun to try to learn a new class. And locks rock when u get a hang of it. As we all know as warriors who have done the feared dotted up running around.

But the thing that really keeps me in the game is my friends. I live 500k away from most my old friends and a good chunk of them are playing WoW. It is a great way to keep in touch and have fun at the same time.

What is that makes you tick? Is it that extra gear or the social life?

Nightbane linked to my kids

2007-12-03T09:07:00.001+01:00

It's very strange. But somehow Nightbane is linked to my kids. Pull one - and pull all...

Last week I had the opportunity to actually join a Karahzan raid. My guild more or less has Kara on farm (not my making) and they where doing the second night run - which means all is cleared up to chess or so.

Well, they asked me if I could join but I was sceptical - since my kids tend to wake up a lot at the moment. But I agreed.

We went in and up to Nightbane. All went smooth. At the same second they pull Nightbane both my kids wake up screaming. One needs a bottle and one needs comfort. Up to the kids with bottle to my wife and a quick re-tucking in of the older. Back down. And I am still alive!

I go in swinging. 'Sweet', I think. Then the older wakes up again screaming. Excuses over voice chat and back up again. I come down to the computer at the exact moment I die. Then all is still upside. Both kids sleeping and I sit watching my dead char lying on the ground.
I feel so bad about deserting them in the fight so I leave afterwards. (They kill NB so I get my badges, that’s how much better than me they are).

The rest of the evening the kids don’t wake up a single time and I loiter around Shattrah while I can still hear the rest of the raid on voice chat taking on Prince...

The joy of ass wippin'

2007-11-19T09:38:00.000+01:00

I have seen the light.

Well, at least I have seen the snows, grass and lightnings of Alterac valley, Arathi basin and Eye of the storm.

After speccin for arena I have had an enormous boost in game satisfaction. Doing arena is tremendous fun since it is short, intense and very demanding on proper tactics.

To be able to fight better I need some decent PvP gear. Luckily I didn't buy the Merciless gladiator shield wall for my points, so now I am waiting for season 3 to start so I can buy at least one piece of S3 armor.

The new season will make season 1 gear possible to buy for honor points, as most probably know, so I am trying to stack points for the release. At the moment I am making about 2k honor a night. Not able to play all nights it will take some time. But I am aiming at 27k honor for the Gladiator Greatsword.
And if I get bored I might just buy something less pricey. But a new weapon would be great.

When it comes to armor - I need a new pair of leggings since I am PvP'ing in my tanking pants for the stamina. But check out the new helm in season 3 (just click the pic above). I already got the Overlords helmet of second sight wich is nice - but the S3 looks mean!!! Too bad S3 shoulders need rating of 2k though, would be a nice match =)

How about you guys - what is the best battleground to get quick honor. AV has this problem with loads of leechers. Up to 10 in one game I have had.

Hitting the content cap

2007-11-06T09:07:00.000+01:00

Ever got that feeling that 'This is as far as I will get'? I have that feeling right now. It's a bit of a combination with real life and motivation. Let's call it the motivation cycle.

In my eyes the motivation cycle is dependent on the want and possibility to go further into the content. Below lvl 70 just reaching 70 is the thing for motivation, after 70 it is to clear all the instances and getting attuned for heroics and Karazhan. The cycle is the correlation between running heroics and raids. Something like this:

I need better gear to be able to progress further in Karazhan => Doing heroics => better gear => Able to do more in Karazhan => I need better gear to progress further in Karazhan, and on and on.

The problem is when this cycle breaks. For me it has broken on the ability to go Karazhan. I will probably easily have a spot in the guilds raid group, but due to IRL stuff (read previous post 'Total disgrace') I am not able to join.

This makes all other WoW-gaming a bit irrelevant.

So I respecced Arms and keep on going Arena to have some fun there at least. Such a huge difference when going in as a PvP spec in comparison with a tank spec.

Things will probably lighten up at home soon and I will find the time to game a bit more. But right now I am playing games with a 'pause' key.

By the way, I installed 'The Witcher' yesterday. If you haven’t played it - check it out. Awesome game.

Total disgrace

2007-11-01T09:15:00.000+01:00

Right now I am in a bit of a low considering WoW. We are trying to get my youngest son to sleep better and not breast feeding all night through. He is 7 months now, so he has this separation phase which means he is uncomfortable every time he is alone. In reality or just imagined. That includes leaving the room and standing out of view.

As you can imagine this has taken a toll on my wife especially, since she cant sleep that well. And to help out I am going to bed a lot earlier. With max 2 hours of time to play there is little room for WoW at the moment.

Well, I had time to do my arena matches at least. We got a 5 win 5 loss game, which is quite good for being a prot warrior. Our rating is around 1175 though - so not too good competition. Except this one guy...

We arrived at arena start area and realised that only one opponent logged in. 'Easy!' - we thought. He turns out to be this monster shadow priest that dots and kites both me and my pal around the whole arena. Two games in a row we face him, twice we are killed without hesitation.

Total disgrace.

But now I have points to buy the Merciless Gladiator shield wall. I just wonder if it counts as a weapon - or if it will be possible to save the points and buy the season 3 shield when it comes out... (Weapons are said to require arena rating of 2000 to be able to buy)

Playing with kids

2007-10-24T15:23:00.001+02:00

And I am not referring to the 13 year olds out there. No I am talking about having two small children at home. My oldest are three years and the youngest almost seven months.

This means some troubles. First the ability to show up on time. In my old guild everyone wanted to raid at seven. Which is impossible for me. My oldest goes to bed at about that time and since I am usually the one tucking him in - my wife attends the small one att the same time - I can never be online at that time.

Some people (read older ones with kids) are very good about this. But the younger crowd don't understand at all. Not much to do about. I try to only join raids starting at eight or later. But this is still hard to meet from time to time. Getting a three year old to sleep isn't anything like exact science. Takes from 10 min to one and a half hour.

Then we have the 'waking up screaming' issue. Happens from time to time. Three year olds are just starting to have nightmares. Last time it was: 'Daddy it is a bird in my bed'. Turned out to be one of his cuddly animals. Apparently he imagines pigs lurking in his room also. God am I glad I have been very strict about not having him look while I play if there are a fight... Some vendoring, horse riding and gryphon flying we have done together. But no fighting.

But I don’t think the kids are the biggest obstacle when family interferes with gaming. Nope it is 'aggro from the wife-mob'. =D

But that will be another post...

The full run guide

2007-10-24T15:03:00.000+02:00

I went into Kara last Friday with my new guild. I knew from before that they had downed Prince. And without too much of an effort apparently.

On my previous attempts I had only come to Moroes, even wipes on Attumen had stopped my progress before.

This time it was different.

To make a long story short. We took down Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Big Bad Wolf, Curator and Shade of Aran. This was done in under 5 hours. I was mightily impressed.

I tanked up to maiden then the original MT took over, since I didn't have the gear to make it. No plate drops at all though. But I got to see a lot of the place.

Mostly they are doing the instance in 2 days. First day up to Curator and maybe some more. Second day Prince. My plan is to play as much as possible on day one with them to get gear to progress up to tanking the rest also.

Big problem this time was that I felt like extra luggage, since I wasn't tanking - and we all know the amount of damage a protection warrior can make while dps'ing... =(

High velocity guild

2007-10-17T11:13:00.000+02:00

I quit my old guild. For a little while I felt a bit bad since I stirred up quite a mess with my Wednesday raid, as seen in previous posts.

The thing that actually made me change guild was the fact that my two IRL friends in the old guild already had quit to join a small guild made up from their IRL co-workers. First I felt a bit mixed up about joining them. I want to play with them, but I know that this new guild is as far from RP as possible, and I am on a RP-PvP server.

Well, I joined anyway. 20 minutes after joining I was invited to heroic Underbog. In my old guild getting a heroic team going was hard work. Here it just happens all the time. We went in. I knew that the new guild was composed of mainly former hard core raiders, but I have never seen as many epics in one group before. Luckily the healer was a paladin - since keeping aggro is the hardest part in a heroic in my opinion.

Now on voice chat the first comment I got was: "Nice - a good old protection warrior in the guild!". I probably can't explain how good that felt. I was appreciated again! I told them I had only done a couple of heroics before so they should bear with me if I failed.

Well I didn't.

We went ahead, all was good. Some ridiculous wipe on a trash pull that all just laughed about. Then we met the two guards before Hungrafen. They are tough. No cc works and tanking them both spells disaster. So kiting is the only other option. My IRL friend, a frost mage, was set up for the job. His first big time kiting too.

The first guard went down easily. Then the other came running. He had made a cpl of growths and was HUGE! He two shotted me and the killed the raid. Well well. Rezz and repeat. Now he was easy as pie.

Tanking Hungrafen is a bit hard since its all about walking backwards, generating aggro and to look out for the enormous amount of mushrooms growing al over. But all went fine. Afterwards my fellow guildies said that they could go all out with no problem in this fight. That warmed a warrior heart. Any dps going all out and not drawing aggro is a compliment to the tank. And when it is in a fight where you need to navigate around a lot all the time it's a big compliment.

Rest of the instance was easy mode. The mantas are the only hard part since they are un cc'able and come in packs of 3. But I had gotten the hang of it by then and kept up easily.

Black stalker is actually a laugh... He spawns adds in heroic. But we killed him so fast they came at the moment he died.

I got an extra Primal Nether towards my Blazeguard (only 4 more needed) and the Doomplate shoulders. Real nice - but more of a 2h-er armour. Well I will keep em in the bank for now...

Oh I almost forgot. My IRL friend the mage told me that the other in the group had asked him afterwards why I wasn’t allowed to tank in Kara since I did such a solid job. I really like my new guild :)

The guild drama

2007-10-11T10:25:00.000+02:00

Haven't written in a while due to the fact that we have had some high grade drama in our guild. As I have written before we have this core raid that should be the regular crew going into Karazhan. The A-team if you like.

Since many didn't get spots in the A-team me and two others started a Wednesday raid.

But now the core raid wants to forbid the Wednesday raid to go, because if someone might get locked to Karazhan and then needed in case of emergency in the Core raid. That would be bad.

This means they want the rest of the guild on standby just in case...

Of course this have made us quite angry. We can't come and we aren't allowed to do anything else.

Big drama is under way. Raid leader is resigning because members don't appreciate him enough and blah blah blah.

The most interesting thing is that he has confessed that the core raid ain't made up from the most suitable to the task - but from senior members because they deserve to go.

This is actually quite funny. Guild management is a bit like "Management for dummies".

Attumen aint my bitch

2007-10-04T10:05:00.000+02:00

Unfortunately I must say - he really isn't.

We went Karazhan again yesterday with the motley crew we have. Half from our guild and half from an other guild.

This means zero preparations. No communication - since downloading Ventrillo seems like an insurmountable obstacle for some.

We have this sign up system on the site. First come first serve. Three people had signed when the raid was due to start. I really don't get it.

Well - anyhow. We vent in and was one tank short. So after a bit of asking around we got an PvP specced warrior as OT. I thought that it wouldn’t pose a problem since they can do nice dps and therefore good aggro even when rage starved.

Right after entry we made our first mistake. While waiting for OT we started to clear horses - slowly. Since they are on a timer we managed to pull the horses on the opposite side of the plank at the same time as we pulled Midnight. Raid vs. Attumen: 0-1.

We got going again - starting to clear out the trash quickly. A bit too quickly. Some dps classes couldn't really handle aggro management. A mage died three times on the way. I usually don’t care when they do kill themselves, but we was a bit low on morale and this didn't improve it.

Well, at Midnight the OT pulled Midnight and started tanking. I took care of Attumen. BUT - our aggro happy dps constantly pulled aggro from the OT. Since OT don’t have that much threat moves it is understandable. But it was a constant thing. We wiped. Raid vs. Attumen: 0-2.

We made an other try. Cautioning the raid. Same thing happened, Raid vs. Attumen: 0-3.

One more go folks! Run in before respawns. And now I tank Midnight and OT tank Attumen. OT didn't manage to get an hold on Attumen - he ran rampage and wiped raid. Raid vs. Attumen: 0-4.

Four wipes on a single boss was enough, especially since we had respawns.

We went and killed the beasts. To get some nice stuff at least. We killed, and killed and killed till we were at the end of that part of the castle. Not a single boss spawned. I have no clue why. They shall spawn after a certain number of beast kills - but no...

That was not the best night for the raid and certainly a downer. I hope this wont get it even harder to get some raiders for next time.

My favourite foe

2007-10-01T12:28:00.000+02:00

For some strange reason I don't like murlocs or naga. Not that they are particularly difficult but they just dont feel good to fight with. I really can't describe it better but they aren't real foes in my eyes. Sure they hit hard and can wipe your raid but...

It might have something to do with the instances they inhabit. Coilfang reservoir is a bog. After a hard night in an instance you just don't feel good when saying: "I have been in a bog all night killing fish people and mermaids with tridents." I got this feeling already in Black Fathoms Deep. Damp and boring.

Orcs on the other hand. Or Dark iron dwarves in Black Rock Depth!!! That is what I want a dungeon to look like! Lava pouring from the walls while walking around in a hell version of Moria. I really loved that place. When I went to Outland and landed inside Hellfire citadel i got happy right away. Cool looking orcs in awesome armor, big demons and a run down citadel. My type of place all over.

Then we have this middle ground: trolls in a jungle. Me don't like...
They are skinny, have bad posture and all to much vegetables all around. This is a bad sign for the coming Zul'Aman (if I ever get there).

Am I the only one feeling like this? Do you have some place that you like more than the rest for aesthetic reasons?

Attumen down with ease

2007-09-27T08:55:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was the first time the non core raid (or the B-team) visited Karazhan. The raid was decided and announced on Monday. We had immense problems with getting people to join, mostly I think because the A-team goes Kara on Friday and they have started to have sign-up spots for the dps. Tanks and healers are pre selected as usual...

Finally we went in. But with only four guild members. Among the other six there where one from LFG and five from a friendly guild.

The problem was that we only had two real healers. I was one tank and my druid friend was the other so tank spots was good ;D
We did have one paladin, the LFG member, but he was retribution. Well we took him for the blessings.

In we went after over one hours delay. Some due to getting the last members there, the other was the fact that two Horde guild had decided to camp on the stirs and to kill everyone from alliance that wanted to enter. I don’t mind PvP - but 20+ arena geared Horde ganking everyone in sight is booooring.

Well. Back to Karazhan. We cleared the stables good. No problem what so ever. Came to Attumen. I was to tank him since he is disarmable. Easy as pie. Picked him up with a Thunderclap and kept him firmly on me. A very easy fight. Unfortunately no plate drops but the Spectral Band of Innervation and the Steelhawk Crossbow dropped.

Then we went up to Moroes. Clearing the trash up to him was a breeze. I died from OT'ing the stewards since I must have spilled the wine =D. They do a debuff called Drunken Head Crack that makes target unable to parry/dodge/block and all hits to do ~4k in damage.

On to Moroes. We wiped, wiped and wiped. The real problem was when he gouged me (I MT'ed him) and then a healer was second on aggro list => Oneshot. I have read that the OT shall try to go second on aggro list. But - who tanks the adds that needs to be killed?

Next time I think we need the OT to pick up a add, all dps goes to Moroes, move him to Moroes position. Build aggro on Moroes and add for a cpl of seconds and then dps goes all out again. They do have 80k hp so to let dps kill the by them selves aren’t that good I think.

Any suggestions?

Kara here I come, part 2

2007-09-25T09:53:00.000+02:00

Ok, now it is decided. We are going Kara on Wednesday with a second raid group. Got decided yesterday, Monday, and we got 5 sign-ups already.

The decision here is that we should be a sign-up raid only. The only demands is to fill the roles we need: 2 tanks, 5 dps, 3 healers.

Have been gearing up a bit. Got Helmet of the Stalwart defender, Fireguard and Bracers of the Green Fortress.

It should suffice. Next post on Thursday - will we abandon before entering or will we clear up to prince?

I want to do my own progress

2007-09-24T14:03:00.000+02:00

I am in a casual guild. Casual in that sense that we don’t have any leadership at all to talk about...

What the guild does is to run Karazhan each Friday with a follow up on Sunday usually. But that is only for the invited few, the core group, the progress group.

The idea is that when they are geared up they should spilt to form two Karazhan teams with half of them new Kara raiders. This sucks...

First of all it sucks since the core group isn't chosen on merit only, but the choosing process is biased due to friendship. This makes it impossible to get a spot if not one of them.

Secondly they don't do that much progress either. Up till now they have only cleared Opera. And this is the 6th week. This pace and I'll wait till after Wrath of the Lich King before I am going.

Thirdly - and mainly - I DON'T WANNA BE WALKED THROUGH KARAZHAN by anyone else. If I will complete it because someone else will babysit me through - what is the merit of that achievement? None!

A rebellion is brewing. Another Kara raid is forming in the shadows...

Stay tuned.

Hitting the spot with the A-team

2007-09-24T13:28:00.000+02:00

I read this new blog with this very very insightful post: "The A-team"

It's about why having an A-team is a bad idea for the guild and everyone outside that team. I have had that exact same feeling in previous guilds and in my current one also.

Very insightful Tarok, I am taking my Felsteel helmet of for you.

Going Karahzan anyway?

2007-09-21T14:28:00.000+02:00

I got a query from my druid friend. He is also a bit tired of the ruling of the guild - especially the raids. He has joined Kara on several occasions but now all of a sudden he is cut out of the loop without any explanation.

Well, we are trying to form a group of IRL friends that might make an attempt. I am probably the least experienced in that group. Several of the guys (mostly his work buddies) have been full time raiders pre-BC and are still doing some heavy stuff.

I really hope we can get it together for next week. I'd love see that ghost castle finally...

Fireguard walk with me

2007-09-21T14:05:00.000+02:00

After a long long time I have finally made 350 in Blacksmithing. Logged out on the gryphon on route to Shattrah to buy the recipe for the Fireguard. Finally - my first epic.

I do need another 10 primal shadows and 10 primal mana. So it will be a farm weekend. But then - Fireguard walk with me!!!

The only downside with it is that it looks weak. I am dual wielding two Latro's shifting sword at the moment which look über cool. Fireguard is a small puny sword in comparison. Looks like a golden dagger next to a Latro.

Threat Overload

2007-09-20T13:22:00.000+02:00

If you have read my previous blog entries you have seen that I have specced Fury to farm a sh-t load of motes.

Farming is boring. I say it again: Boooooring. It was fun at the start when I realized that I killed mobs quicker then my cool down for charge. That’s a mob / 10s. Real nice. At first. It's all just a click routine. I could even horse-gather mobs. That is mount up, ride around to aggro 4-5 mobs and then kill them all. This was good for Primal Life farming since the mobs are 61-63 and hardly give me damage nor rage.

Well, on to the overload bit.

When I was out there in the ruins hacking up ghosts into small small chunks of ectoplasm a friend wondered if I could help his alt priest to do Auchenai Crypts. We gathered a guild run of a 70 warrior tank, 70 hunter, 68 shadow priest and 67 holy priest. The priests wanted the xp, hunter wanted the experience (an alt) , tank wanted Felsteel gloves and I wanted to try to dps in an instance.
You can see where this is going, huh?

Well all was dandy. Massive spawns was no problem. I could dps to my hearts content flinging around Whirlwinds and going on a rampage all the time.

Then we came to Shirrak the Dead Watcher. Oh my oh my...

Tank went in. Got of 3 sunders. I charged and popped my talents. Charge/Rampage/Death Wish/Blood Thirst/Heroic strike/Blood thirst.

That was about when i got aggro. I stopped all attacks - but the tank had already burned his taunt so I stood there chewing on Carnivorous bites one after another. And I died.
Took about 10 sec for me to over aggro and kill myself. Nice lesson though.

One problem was also that the holy priest only had one instant heal, and since Shirrak dampens magic by prolonging casting time, that was a bad combo.

Well on next time I only drew aggro after the tank got killed which killed me ofc, but on the third attempt we got him good.

It is nice to do good dps - I now know how to read the threat table. But I prefer tanking any day.

Well, back to making ghosts even more intangible...

Not so Dazzling

2007-09-17T11:42:00.000+02:00

I was skilling up my Blacksmithing this weekend when I encountered a strange error.

At 270 the pattern for Dazzling Mithril Rapier was still yellow. "Great! I don't have to go onto Thorium just yet" was my thought.

I was happily standing in Ironforge churning out rapiers like a industrial robot till something said "clunk". At 275 the gears jammed. Pattern still yellow, rapiers still flying of the anvil - but no skill up!!!

So you all know. I got me a dorky crafting gear compiled of INT gear from drops and quest rewards which takes my INT up to 300. That way I will get more skill ups.

But being that smart standing there crafting with ye old Illusionary rod on my back I felt pretty lame...

I made 10 rapiers just to be certain. Not a single skill up...

Then I wrote a ticket to the GM and went farming thorium.

Halfway around Searing Gorge I got a reply. "Nothing is wrong with the pattern, you just had bad luck" was the response.

Like hell!

I made one Thorium belt (also yellow) 1 more in BS. I made 3 rapiers (yellow) no skill up!!!

It must be broken.

So all of you out there - don't think them rapiers to be that Dazzling when they are lying in heaps on the floor without making you any better at smithing.

Un-heroic attempts

2007-09-17T09:37:00.000+02:00

I have come to an understanding that going into a heroic instance is a very big leap for the tank.

Being revered with all "key" factions except Honor hold I hav had the time to acquire really good gear. After consulting several gear guides I know I am at the top of gearing for someone that has just started heroics.

The big problem is that it is not enough.

Thursday I did heroic Settekh with a PuG. Went very well in the beginning but it took ages. Up to Darkweaver Syth was no problem. Then it started to get hairy. The big problem was with holding 2 mobs at once. When there where Sethekk Guards it was fine. The healer could hold me up while I kept aggro on both, but when we met the Ravenguards it was another matter. These guys hit hard. If the healer held me alive he would get too much aggro which would make him draw the second mob and get one shotted. Happened several times.

The big issue I think is that I take a bit much damage => lots of heals => healer generates too much aggro => mob kills healer => wipe.

The way I see it there is 2 ways to fix this. One is to take less damage which means more armor and avoidance. The other is to generate more threat which means more Block Value and better dps.

So I am going to make a bit of farming to get someone to make me Bracers of the Green Fortress and Helm of the Stalwart Defender. While grinding I am going to up my Blacksmithing to be able to make Fireguard the one handed sword.

This means I need to farm: 20 primal shadow and 20 primal mana for Fireguard. 20 primal life for Bracers of the Green Fortress and 22 primal earth and 12 primal mana for Helm of the Stalwart Defender. Thats 74 primals...

Luckily I have the earth and the shadow primals already from levelling. Which leaves me with about 30 primals to go...

Do I need to inform you that I have respecced to Fury for a little while =)

OMG they hit HARD!!!

2007-09-11T13:04:00.000+02:00

Did my first heroic on the same friday I got shut out of the Kara raid. Went in with a PuG.

Usually when I party I feel a need to check on ppl that all have the right add-ons (like threat meters) or if they are comfortable with doing their class roles - like misdirection or seduce w succubus. This time it was different.

When we met at the summoning stone I felt like a spring chicken. After checking the others full epic gear I made a mental effort to cover myself. Felt naked in my blues.

Well - in we went. Me, a priest, a hunter, a mage and a warlock. First pull is as you remember a robot guardian. They hit hard. Around 4k I've heard. I was in a frenzy finding the right keys to get the proper rotation going. In a normal instance I don't even need to shield block. Here it is a must.

But since the robots always (preferably) come one at a time that was not a big issue. I dint loose aggro once from them, wich at least is a good testimony to my aggro generating abilities. Next pull was worse. Them casters are insane. I am mostly used to cast Spell reflect only in boss fights or so. Here I needed to do it constantly.

We had some deaths on the way - usually from early breaks in traps etc and clothies getting one shotted. I thank god for the fact that 'locks have so much hp since they are the aggro hoggers of all time. I think 3 out of 4 intervenes was to the 'lock. The others to the mage.

Boss fights are a totally new concept also. Totally different tactics. The polarity thing on the robo boss was brand new for me. Fun but dangerous. I did accidentally kill one party member after the fight when running to the boss to loot since the polarity was still on...

I did feel like a total n00b in there sometimes. But it was fun - more fun then I have had in a long time. Now I actually need to strain myself to do good.

Easy is boring - hard is educational.

(I did also get my first epic... No - not the Suneater, but a gem: Defenders Tanzanite with parry/sta on it. )

On the sideline with my new gear to no use...

2007-09-10T09:26:00.001+02:00

If you have read my previous entries about me going to Kara, you have seen that I was exhilarated about going. I had been looking forward to it so much that I was actually nervous - which I haven't been in a long time.

But Friday became a very sad day indeed...

I had prepped a lot and even logged out my character on the front steps of Kara. I logged in one minute to 8 and sent a message to the raid leader. "I’m ready - inv?". No answer.

I sent another message and got a reply: "Things have changed. I have made another setup for Kara. It's on the guild site."

WTF!!!

I got furious. The raid leader had contacted me on Tuesday to tell me I was up for tanking Attumen. I wasn't able to log in before 8 but he said he would fix that (raid normally starts 7).

To be able to log in at specific time I need to arrange things in advance with my family. On Friday I had postponed my TGIF evening with my wife, had just put one of the kids to bed and slunk down to log on to the game.

Since I was told I was going to tank I had bought new enchants to improve my gear managed to acquire a new trinket to use and stocked up on potions.

I was more than angry with the raid leader - I was even upset. He said sorry and that things happen. I do understand the position he is in. Its not easy to arrange a run with ppl being happy. I even understood the shift in focus (he wanted to gear up a core of 10 ppl to split in to 2 Kara grps later so we might progress further) but what was unforgivable was the fact that he didn't even bother to tell me that I was out. The post on the web was made the same day and I am not reading the site all the time. And even if I where I wouldn’t have understood it since he said he would arrange it so I could come even though I was logging on late (not something to post on the guild site I assume).

I felt like a little boy who was promised a spot in the soccer team but when showing up with his shoes, bought just for the game, gets to know that a different team set up have been decided. But the team roster was posted in the club house.

I actually wrote /gleave and let it sit there for a while before deciding. If it wouldn’t have been for the other great ppl in the guild I would have pressed enter.

Well - I won’t ever again show up on a set time for a raid arranged by this guy. A chunk big as Africa has bee torn out of the fun in the game...

Geared up and ready to go!

2007-09-06T15:34:00.000+02:00

I went around Outlands like mad to gather all necessary stuff for my raiding. I have stacked up with 2 Elexir of Fortitude, 5 Superior Health potions and a number of new enchants to stack up some hp. I am now at 11.400 hp with 12.500 armour. Got a block/parry/dodge rate at ~55%.
Total cost: about 100 gold.

Today at lunch I went online rode to Karazhan and logged out on the doorsteps. Al to not hold my guild up when entering. The over-zealous preparation is in a small way due to my fears of not being good enough but in a greater extent for not being able to log on in time for the raid.

My guild like to start the raid at 19.00, ppl starting to sign up at 18.00. This is totally impossible for me. At 18 my family has barely left the dinner table. Then its changing into pyjamas for the kids, eating formula, reading bedtime stories, singing lullabys etc. At 20.00 I hope I will be online.

20.00 is the time I have arranged with my raid leader. He will actually stall the raid so I can join. This is extremely nice of him. So all the more, I dont wanna make a fool out of my self tomorrow.

Well, well - with my luck, the kids will be sick and puking all over the place when the clock strikes eight...

Hell - that was negative! Edit: With my luck i will breeze in at quarter to eight. Tank and one shot Attumen, Moroes, Maiden and Curator!!!

Going Karazhan on friday

2007-09-05T08:57:00.000+02:00

I have been chosen!

Our raid leader noticed me yesterday that I am to start tanking in Karazhan on friday!!!

We are a really casual and friendly guide so I shouldn't fell stressed or nervous about it. But it do tingle a bit in my stomach! Kinda stoopid, havent felt this way since my sporting days before a big match...

Fer crying out loud, I'm probably twice the age of many Kara-goers - but still, I am a bit... not nervous but... exited...

And truthfully a bit nervous to make a fool out of my self. This is a big chance for me to grab a firm spot in the guild as a good tank. I know I am concidered good already - otherwise they would have said no. But I felt the doubt in the tone of the raid leaders voice when he asked me if I felt up to it.

So fingers crossed - hope it will go allright.

I am only up for tanking the first boss. But I think he didn't wanna get my hopes up if he felt I wasn't up to par. So if I make good we may take four bosses on friday. I really hope they wont trade me out for another tank after we've done Midnight and Attumen...

////////
Other news. My druid friend got his Feral Staff of Lashing yesterday. Really happy for him!

Don't trust people that jump!

2007-09-04T13:58:00.000+02:00

Never ever trust someone to perform in a Pick up group (PUG) in WoW when they can't stand still. Characters who’s avatars jump all the time is one of the most annoying things I ever encountered.

Picture this:
We have just arrived at the entrance at Shadow Labs (SL). I am a bit pressed for time but said we could go if we try to focus and go through it quite quick (quick for SL is <2 hrs). And that we needed the dps. The group assured me (a PUG of course) that it wouldn’t be a problem.

I start off going through which marks are for what so all agree on kill order. This is when I start getting a bit annoyed. The shaman is jumping around my Dranei warrior while I am explaining. He's enhancement and clearly think tactics is for geeks. He will pwn the skull with all he got and then go onwards to X. Fine.

I do the only sensible thing. I assign him to off-tank (OT). Since he is melee with mail armour he thinks he can do it. After a while he asks if I could try to tank his targets too - since he's dead as a door knob twice before leaving the first room.

He has stopped jumping too...

I don't want skulls and spiders!

2007-08-31T09:45:00.000+02:00

I really needed a new mouse. Not that the old one wasn't working - but I wanted more keys!

Went to the local computer store and what did I see. Full shelves with great keyboards and awesome mouses. BUT - every one of them had this "kewl" spiders, webs, skulls, crosshairs etc.

I DON'T WANT NO FRIGGIN SKULLS ON MY MOUSE!!!

As a mid 30 daddy of two, skulls and spiders on my computer is NOT cool. It's ridiculous...

Gawd how I hate that computer games are meant for 13-year olds.

The problem if the industry wants to broaden its consumer base is that they have to adjust to a matured audience.
Let's not even get into the design of female avatars in games, which are the wet dreams of computer geeks. (Just look at plate pants for ladies in WoW that have the design of French underwear...)

Finally I bought myself a Microsoft mouse with 2 extra thumb buttons. Not the mouse I wanted the most - but the best without the graffiti...

No love for the fury/prot spec

2007-08-31T09:28:00.000+02:00

I re-specced yesterday. 0/30/31 is the new spec. I saved 31 in Prot to get to Shield slam and went for Flurry in the Fury tree.

Today I discussed it with one of my guild mates an IRL friend playing a feral druid. No love for the hybrid build. "You have to be full prot or Fury/Arms to be any good" he said. To his defence I must say that he never played a warrior. And this is the common criticism cross the classes. Most non warriors think full prot is THE only spec to have for tanking. And full fury/arms for dps.

What they never know is that many competent warrior guides recommend 18-20p in prot to be able to tank efficiently (defiance is the key, imp sunder and taunt is nice complements).

The sad part is that me and my druid friend had that problem earlier on in Botanica. We went together. The pally healer said at once (PUG ofc) "I wont go with 2 tanks!".
We assured the healer that he (the druid) was very good at dps so that wouldn’t be a problem. The pally muttered something and bitched about low dps the whole instance. We cleared it beside one wipe - which was the pallys fault.

Even so - my druid friend wont believe that non full specc can do the job. I really don’t get it.

Going for the Wall

2007-08-29T08:49:00.000+02:00

I am taking the plunge. Me and a fellow warrior are gonna start an Arena team. Just the two of us.

What are you sayin?

"Aint you a prot warrior?", "You dont have the dps?", "A team of two warriors are doomed?"

Well all of the above is true. But we want some arena gear. More specifically "Merciles's Gladiators Shield Wall".
After reading Berghs compendium on tank gear over at Tankspot I have seen the light. I need that shield. (Well - I want it at least) Beside being better than other shields - it looks cool.

And being just the 2 of us gives us the opprtunity to have our disgrace for our selves.

Now we need a fitting name. Birdfeed or Carrion are the most aproriate I can come up with right now =D

The trouble with tanking

2007-08-27T15:29:00.000+02:00

//This was a post I made on Kaliope's crafting blog. Realizing that I have not made any on my own made me post it here too :)

My original char was a paladin who wanted to tank. But I found the class severly lacking. Not to mention that pre TBC you could only tank undead instances. After the 2.0 we had a good space for pally tanking since Scholo and Strat undead sport mostly undeads. But after TBC i made myself a Dranei warrior, Whyrm on Ravenholdt, and I havent regretted it once.

Tanking was always my prime goal. And even if I leveled as fury I respecced at once when I hit 68-ish.

I felt the dps drop severly - but not nearly as much as I would have expected. The +10% dmg talent on 1h-ers make up for some loss from other abilities.

I still go through ordinary 70 mobs like a knife through butter, not a red hot one though - more lilke a luke warm one.

BUT the great up-side with tanking is not about damage. It is about standing there in-front of a huge boss blocking, parrying and dodging. We dont kick ‘em in the teeth - we hold them in their nose hair. Its painfull but not really hurting.

One other upside is the availability to find a group. Always some one calling out for a tank to an interesting dungeon in LFG.But here you have to be careful.

Some things to look out for:

Guys in full arena gear - they havent had a need for aggro managment for a loooong time.
Guys without a guild - why would you wanna play with someone who dont like to cooperate?
Hunters/warlock without a pet - If you are a “pet” class, why not use it?
“I only want rep” - these guys usually wants it to go so fast that any hickup will make em jump ship in the middle.
Generally anybody who jumps all the time - only 13 year olds are that impatient

Welcome

2007-08-14T09:53:00.000+02:00

Welcome to my new blog about the art of combining a decent job and a wonderful family with an almost addictive desire to play World of Warcraft.

How do you manage to tank Shadow labs while having a 2 month old baby sleeping in your lap?

I will address not only time management issues and how to keep the wife-mob happy, but also the annoyance of wanting to buy a new cool game mouse - but without the friggin skulls and spiders!!!
Gaming is not only for 13-year olds...

I hope you want to come here and participate with comments.

My primary language isn't English, but WoW is an international game - so why not write for everybody. Responses from parenting vs. gaming from different countries will be appreciated!

Welcome again!