I’m still here

Thanks for the comments, it is good to know that I am missed a little.

I apologize for disappearing off the planet.

Here is an update:

-Still unemployed, it passed the one year mark a little bit ago. I can’t even begin to describe how supportive my wife has been. She is my foundation.

-I in love with Left 4 Dead 2.

-The house is progressing nicely. We have made quite a few improvements.

-I finished leveling my Death Knight as Blood spec DPS. Now I’m Dual spec, Blood DPS and Frost Tank. I freaking LOVE tanking.

– I’m in an alt leveling race with a guildie. One Saturday night a bunch of us rolled new alts and had a race. 2 hours. At the end of which whoever was the highest level wins. At the end I was tied at level 9 with one person, so we went Sudden Death. 10 minutes later I dinged 10 and won. We decided to keep the race going. Two of us are racing to 80. 1000G is at steak. I’m far in the lead at 51 – 32.

– Our guild was struggling to have 10 players on, and we were beginning to fall apart. We started doing 25 man naxx with another guild and that worked well. We decided a month later to merge into them. That did not go well. They were good to raid with, but outside that we were not compatible. So, we all left and merged into another guild that we all had friends in. That has been very nice. We are farming Uludar 10 and Ony 10 with two different groups and raiding TOC 10.

You know how I knew I was going to fit in, the second week we were there someone asked if anyone had a DPS meter, and no one did. We are raiding TOC 10 successfully and no one cares about the numbers, because the numbers can lie. In the guild we left there was a guy that was always attacking the wrong target because “it made his DPS better”. In the mean time, he is pulling aggro because the tank is not focusing on that target, and causing wipes…to make his recount score higher.

There is an important concept that I have written about before. I personally feel that guilds that have members that put the good of the guild before themselves is going to be much stronger than a guild that is only out for themselves.

For example, we were struggling every week in TOC with the PVP type fight. Last week in ONY the gun dropped. There were three hunters. I had the lowest roll. Damn. Then, the raid leader said “Hey, this would be a bigger upgrade for Lumpey…by a long shot. What do you guys think?” The other two hunters instantly said “then give it to him.” They both had decent weapons, and it was a minor upgrade to them, so they both gave up the minor upgrade to give me a major one. ( I had the Drake Mounted Crossbow from a heroic, and got the gun from ONY 10, and I’m a dwarf. It was a SERIOUS upgrade.) The next week in TOC we one shot the PVP fight. My own DPS was Much higher due to the new gun, and I think that was a big contributor.

One more thing. I have to say, I’m excited. We have been saving the Ony scales and making the cloaks, so we can get the BWL achievement. That is something I have wanted for a very long time. I’m geeked.

Hunter Lock and Load nerf

Ok, in the last patch there were some MAJOR changes to SV hunters. Most hunters that I encounter are SV, so I would say that it is a pretty far reaching nerf.

There is a talent called Lock and Load. When it procs it gives you three shots of either explosive shot or arcane shot that cost no mana and have no cooldown.

That talent used to have a chance to proc on the damage from serpent sting, and had a 100% chance to proc if a trap went off. Any trap.

So, the old strategy was to serpent sting EVERYTHING first so lock and load went off all the time. Then, you could either run in and drop a trap to force a proc, or launch a freezing arrow trap from range. Doing this, lock and load procced VERY often.

The patch changed everything.

They added a new talent, Black Arrow. Black arrow is a dot / damage buff. It is on the same cooldown as traps (aka LONG). This means that you either get a trap OR black arrow. Black arrow buffs your damage, so that is the priority.

Lock and Load now proccs on freezing trap and a chance to proc on the DOT of Black arrow. Black arrow is not up all the time (dot is shorter than the cooldown), so lock and load hardly procs, PLUS black arrow can only be on one target unlike serpent sting, so no more spamming it to increase the chance of procs, PLUS since it is on the trap cooldown it means no more lobbing in a ice arrow trap to force a proc.

Lock and load used to be up all the time. No cooldowns means more damage done in less time, no mana cost means my mana pool lasted a lot longer.

Now, it hardly procs, so not only does my DPS drop due to that, but also I use more mana faster, so I spend more time in Aspect of the Viper, nerfing my DPS even more.

While I like Black Arrow, I wish that they would eliminate the cooldown, or at least make traps on a seperate cooldown.

The whole concept of Black Arrow and Lock and Load broke what used to be a very good synergy of talents.

Last Meal

Today I found a link to this page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20031202214318/http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/finalmeals.htm

There were a LOT of “two double cheeseburgers fries and a coke”. Some of them made me laugh. “a pot of coffee”, “bag of assorted Jolly Ranchers”, “one jar of dill pickles”, and “apple”. He could have anything he wanted, and his request was “apple”.

This made me think. If I were being asked for my last meal, what would I request.

1) Burito: grilled chicken, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, green olives, and sour cream.

2) 1/2 lb cheeseburger with romaine lettuce, sharp cheddar, tomato, pickle, mayo, and mustard.

3) Caesar salad with grilled chicken.

4) Pecan pie

5) 4 liters of Diet Coke with crushed ice.

6) A pack of Wrigley’s Doublemint gum.

Then again, I don’t ever see myself doing anything that would deserve a last meal…

SSSAAAAAWWWWEEEEETTTTTT!!!!!

I am NEVER going back to Winterspring again!

Nuff Said.

Fastest way to exalted with Wintersaber and Timbermaw

I started yesterday morning with a mission. I WILL get my Wintersaber mount. I spent all day yesterday working on it. I was 5 bars from exalted at 3am when I was falling asleep at my keyboard and crashed.

I hit Exalted with Timbermaw at about 1am.

TIP: If you have not done much with either and are looking to do it, it has gotten much easier than it used to be. When you come thru the tunnel from felwood and take your first step into Winterspring, turn right. Hiding next to the tunnel opening is a furblog that wants you to do a quest. Do the quests. You will get a repeatable quest for turning in beads. These beads drop from the furblogs that you have to kill as one of the quests for the Wintersaber trainers.

When you approach the Wintersaber trainer for the first time he will ask you for some meat. Repeat that quest until you go up in rep and he offers you a second quest. The second quest will be the one to kill the Furblogs. Do those two. Save the beads from the furblogs, you turn them in to that chick by the tunnel in stacks of 5.

Those first two quests offer 250 rep each for wintersaber, the stack of 5 beads rewards 300 rep for Timbermaw.

For a while, you will be getting rep for killing the furblogs. DO NOT TURN IN THE BEADS YET! Save the beads. When you hit revered you stop getting rep for killing, and only get rep from bead turn ins. You need 350 beads to get thru revered. So, if you have more than 350 you can start turning them in to help you hit revered.

Keep running the first two wintersaber quests and collecting beads. After a while he will start offering a third quest for killing some giants. The giants are REALLY far away. You can do them if you want to disrupt the boredom, but it is not quite as efficient as only doing the first two quests. The giants are easily soloable at 80.

Hope this helps.

Booooooooring

So I have gone there once or twice before, but I decided to start a serious effort to get my Wintersaber. I spent about 7 hours yesterday and got almost to revered. I have gotten to the point where I know almost every bump and tree in Winterspring. Last week I started on Timbermaw rep. I ground on the felwood mobs until I got to revered, then they stop giving rep, so I stopped grinding. The furblog guys for the Wintersaber quest drop a rep thing for Timbermaw, so I am working on both at the same time.

I just hit exalted with Argent Crusade and Sons of Hodir, which was my 20th exalted faction. After I finish Wintersaber and Timbermaw I’m going to go finish off the last 20% that I need for consortium, and the last 10% I need for Ironforge to get exalted. If I put a really concentrated effort, by this time next week I could have all these to exalted.

That would be cool.

I need some overalls I’m farming so much.

So, now that I’m 80, and have almost all the heroic gear I want, I’m stuck waiting for raids. We are running Slarth, and Naxx. We have no trouble with Slarth (no drakes), but have not managed to get it with one drake yet. In Naxx we have Spider wing on farm, and Patchwerk, and the first boss in Military wing are also being farmed. Grob is being a block, and we have only downed him once, by losing a healer and picking up a DPS. We also got 4 horsemen on the third try last week, and have it figured out now.

So, since raids are only two nights a week, I have taken to farming.

I have been farming Timbermaw, that is going very well. I started farming Thorium Brotherhood rep. Lots of Dark Iron turn ins, and Core leather and the other things from MC sometimes show up in the AH. I have spent a LOT of time farming in BRD for Dark Iron and Runecloth. The Runecloth I was turning in for Gnomer rep, until I hit exalted, now I’m working on IF rep, it is the only major city rep I’m missing.

I have also started a renewed effort to level up alts. my DK hit 72, my pally hit 37, and I started a new Shammy and got it into the low teens. Being able to afford high level enchants for my alts is a HUGE time saver. I picked up the Heirloom (BOA) shoulders for m lock and pally.

By and far my biggest income has been from farming the relics for the Sons of Hodir rep. They are selling for Crazy gold right now.

I know, I know.

I have been a little depressed about not having a job, so my motivation to play / write has diminished.  I’m setting a google reminder to pester me into doing it more frequently.

Ok, update.  Still have no job.  Still fighting to get my unemployment that they denied on the first go round.  My furnace is about to die, and my roof leaks.

On the plus side, our tax return is going to be enough to fix the furnace, and leave a little to help pad the quickly depleting (aka running on fumes) savings account.

On to happier news.

Our guild is farming Sartharion (no drakes yet).  We have tried one drake three times a week for the last 3 weeks, but just can’t organize enough to get it.  The struggle is who tanks the flame thingies when DPS is in the portal.  They get hit by a wall, enrage, and wipe the tank’s healers.  We’ll get it sooner or later.  We finally have a raid capable DK that may tank them, then switch to DPS when the dragon is down.

We are starting Naxx 10 man.  We are farming the spider wing, and in the construct wing we are farming Patchwerk and stuck on Grob.  We can get him to about 10-15% and wipe EVERY TIME.  The slimes are coming so fast we just struggle to keep up.

We are also farming bronze drake mounts from heroic culling of strath.  4 of us have them now.

Last week I had something Awesome happen.  I was in Strath farming runecloth for Gnomer rep so I can get my robot chicken.  Guess what dropped?

:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a216/bobthegoat/Deathcharger.jpg

I could not be more excited!

I have my albino drake, red drake, and bronze drake.  I’m working on the 100 mounts achievement.  I know, it is crazy, but I think I can do it.

/pissed

So, I have not been online much because I have been depressed and slacking. My old employer decided to fight my unemployment.

Fortunately for me, they have the collective IQ of a slightly retarded mosquito because the way they chose to fight it is full of error and half truth. On the plus side for me, they did not follow proper procedure when they fired me, making it likely that I will be able to win my dispute and collect benefits. In the mean time, things are getting tough.

Anyway…back to what you came to read about. Warcraft.

I have to admit a weakness…I’m an achievement junkie. I set my sights on the harder ones, figuring the easy ones will just happen. So, I have not tried for any of the Northrend heroic achievements, because our guild is progressing thru the heroics quickly and it is just a matter of time before they happen.

Two weeks ago I spent all day grinding ogres in Nagrand for Kurnai rep and got my mount.

A while back I spent two days grinding Strath for Argent Dawn rep. The butt load of cloth I got from that turned in got me the rest of the way to exalted with Exodar.

Last Friday morning I realized that I needed to work on rep with Cenarion Circle. As of 9am Friday I was just over half way thru honored. I was 8K into revered when I logged out that night. Saturday I didn’t do anything there. Sunday afternoon I headed back and before I went to bed that night I hit exalted giving me that achievement.

The 100+ stacks of runecloth that got me put me a pretty good chunk of the way thru revered with Gnomerang Exiles.

I sat in the AH buying random bits of meat to get the achievement for cooking every recipe in Outlands. For weeks I have been buying every recipe in the AH, and am VERY close to the 160 recipes.

Today I’m going to get back in and head to underbog and solo around for rep with Sporeggar.

One of the big changes in the patch (to me) is that you will get more rep for killing low level mobs that are grey to you. This change means I’ll be going to Winterspring and working on frostsaber and Timbermaw rep.

Wish me luck.

Save the Polar Bears

I just saw a commercial that made me sad to be a human.

Noah Wiley was on there talking about how polar bears are dying due to global warming.

First, I’ll ignore the fact that I don’t personally believe in man made global warming.  For the sake of this post I will suspend that disbelief.

He said that polar bears will die off during “Our Children’s Lifetime” and that for just $16 a month they could save the polar bears.

Now, first I would like to quote someone that is NOT an actor.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508132549.htm

“In fact, the polar bear populations have been increasing rapidly in recent decades due to hunting restrictions.”

http://newsbusters.org/node/12694

“Despite all the carping and whining by folks like soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore and his not so merry band of sycophant devotees about global warming killing polar bears, there is actually a baby boom occurring in this species in Canada’s eastern Arctic”

So, the population is NOT decreasing.

But, again, I’ll even let THAT slide.

Here is the part that left me sitting there with my mouth open.

They are saying that Global Warming is killing polar bears, and that for just $16 a month they will save the polar bears.  Even if EVERY man woman and child on the Entire Planet gave that $16 a month (by the way, which is less than some people make a month in many parts of the world) that would be just over 1.2 Billion dollars.

In 2007 US congressed passed a bill that gives 27.6 Billion to environmental work.

Even if they somehow magically got every human to send in the $16 a month, they are saying that with their measly 1.2 Billion they will be able to completely stomp out global warming?

SERIOUSLY!  Who comes up with this crap!

I do not want to sound like I burn baby seals to heat my SUV or anything.  I buy in bulk to avoid a lot of excess packaging.  I recycle.  I plan shopping trips to minimize driving, but that is because I’m cheap, and gas is not.

When someone talks, LISTEN.  Think about what they say.