That Guy's Blog

Couple Tid Bits

2009-09-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly 3 months since I've posted anything. I've been distracted. We;re trying to find a house to buy in our budget. So far we're 0 for 3 on the offers we've put in.

In WoW all is carrying on as you'd expect. I still raid a bit, have upgraded a piece of gear here or there, and finished the Brewfest Meta achievement. This means I have the 'Brewmaster' title now. I'm not using it.

The reason I am not using the 'Brewmaster' title is that some guildies and I ran Naxx10 man with 8 of us and got the 'Undying' title. It's much more impressive than 'Brewmaster.' I think I'll sport it for a while.

Lemme Catch You Up

2009-06-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have not done any one thing that was particularly note-worthy lately. Every time I occomplish something, I just figure it's not blog worthy. The I realized I'm the only one that reads this so I going to epeen a bit.

I haven't been raiding regularly for quite some time. My schedule allows for one of the three days per week, so I can't really raid. In addition to that I have been enjoying some of the casualness of the game again.

I participated in the Mid-Summer event. I spent a weekend honoring and decicrating fires. It was fun, and allowed me to get my world explorer achievement too. Three achievements and two titles in a weekend ain't too bad.

Last night I relieved Uncas. He was raiding Ulduar with the guild, and wanted to go to bed. He had an early start to his day today, and wanted the extra shut-eye. I joined the guild at Hodir, and we carried on for another couple bosses. I forget which boss was kind enough to drop the head token, but I sure appreciate him doing so. I finally got my Epic achievement.

Some old Anathema guys joined the guild. Euripedes (mage) and Decessus (death knight - formerly Vox the mage) are nor part of our friendly guild. A PUG priest from last night's raid also joined up. It's nice that raids will have a better chance of happenning with the new blood. It seems we were always a man or two shy lately.

Since Armory is down I can not cross reference any of my achievement information to see what else I've been up to. No big. I'll let you (me) know what the hell I've been doing next time I post.

New Signature

2009-05-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Sequel What a stud!

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8035/ghostsigfinal.png

Chef Title, etc.

2009-05-06T12:31:00.001-07:00

Got this title last night.

While I was running around farming mats, making food, and seeing what time the Auction House could save me Gabrielle was working on Fishing achievements.

In the span of under 3 hours he finished up all of his coin fishing, fished up the sewer rat, fished up Mr. Pinchy, and fished up the turtle mount! A luckier fishing expedition has never occurred.

Upon learning that he has over 5900 achievement points I lost my zeal for accomplishing any more achievements. My 4600 (ish) points used to mean something. I thought I was just behind everyone else. Fucking Gabrielle is throwing off the curve!

A special 'shout out' goes to Pakmooicus. He provided me the last fish I needed to get my Outland achievement and title. It was some kind of rare trout that he happened to have in his bag. The stud saved me 30 to 45 minutes in Zangarmarsh. What a stallion!

Children's Week

2009-05-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

I loathe PvP. It both sucks and blows.

Children's week in upon us. Blizzard has it's standard array of silly quests to do with an orphan out. It has also added 4 achievements in the 4 primary battlegrounds that must be accomplished with the orphan out in order to get the title, "Matron/Patron."

I spent this past weekend in the battlegrounds. Yay me!

I am so bad at PvP that I don't even bother swapping out gear. I run around in my raid epics and do as much damage as possible. Screw resiliance, etc. Any PvPer that gets his hands on me is going to have me for lunch, anyway.

I got my title, but enjoyed very little of the event. Mind-numbing quests, an heroic instance, and 4 PvP achievements later I am now Ghostkid the Patron.

You know you're jealous.

Noblegarden

2009-04-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

I was working on the Noblegarden event because I've blown it off the past few years and was told it only takes a few hours. A few hours of silly shit for the 'Noble' title sounded fine to me.

As I was running around collecting eggs and completing menial quests I found a Noblegarden Quartermaster. The only thing the Quartermaster had that appealed to me was a companion pet (bunny) for 100 chocolates. The chocolates are attained by opening eggs (think decorated Easter eggs) that one gathers from the hiding spots near major cities. There are many toons hunting eggs to collect chocolates and to fulfill a daily quest requirement.

I collected enough eggs to buy my new companion pet with 100 chocolates. Honestly, by the time I collected 100 chocolates I had decided the entire event was an epic waste of time. It took me 2 hours just to get the damn pet.

I logged, because I was done hunting eggs for the day.

The next day I picked up the event again. I had to go to major cities to allow my new rabbit to mate with other players' rabbits, and I needed 20 more eggs to complete the daily quest.

As I was tootling along doing my egg gathering I looted a shirt from one of the eggs, then some pants. One of the event achievements was to loot the outfit, so I got that. I looted a robe from an egg that allowed me to plant flowers, which was another achievement. At this point I figured getting the 'Noble' title wasn't going to be so bad.

Before I looted my 20th egg for the daily one of the eggs gave me the companion pet bunny. This is the same bunny I spent 2 hours gathering eggs for the day before. I was not a happy camper, and I wanted my time back!

You see, one of the achievements is to eat 25 (then 100) chocolates. I could have eaten the chocolates instead of handing them over for a little rabbit that I just got for free.

I continued my egg hunting because I still needed to eat 100 chocolates, and loot a dress from an egg. After I looted enough chocolates I ate 100 of them and crossed the achievement off of my list of to-dos. I kept hunting eggs because I still needed the damn dress. I only had to loot the dress and sprinkle flowers on different female players for my title. I was determined.

Not 2 minutes went by after I ate my cocoa delights I looted another pet; then another 30 minutes later, and another 20 minutes after that. I currently have 1 pet learned, and 4 in my bags. The rascally rabbit is soulbound and can not be vendored. Yay me!

I hunted eggs for about 3 hours the second day, and never got the dress. With 2 achievements left in the event I decided to finish sprinkling flowers on the ladies. I camped Yellek from Shai in Dalaran who was sitting on her mount allowing herself to be sprinkled by any passer by that waited for the 2 minute cool down to expire. She's a troll, and that was my last lady. God bless her whorish soul.

Upon sprinkling the flowers on Yellek I got the achievement, and credit for finishing the event...and the title of 'Noble.' I was surprised and relieved.

I think I'll leave the dress egg undone. Maybe Blizzard found pity on me for looting over 400 eggs, and never getting the garment from hell.

Guardian of Cenarius

2009-03-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention...I got this title too.

It took about 6 hours to grind the mobs and drops to get from neutral to exalted.

I really need a more productive alternative for my free time.

...The Diplomat

2009-03-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

Yup, I got the title.

I accidentally stumbled upon the Timbermaw last weekend. I was going to the multi-faction auction house in Winterwhatever and killed a mob that yielded me Timbermaw rep. The kill was fast, so I hung out long enough to kill as many mobs as it took to pass through the damn tunnel safely.

I decided it was time to get the Leatherworking and Enchanting patterns/formulae these guys had to offer. I had always wanted them.

After a day or two of grinding mobs and drops I hit exalted. I thought that would be enough for me to get my whimsical desires for rep out of my system, but then I stumbled upon "The Diplomat" title. I already had 2 of the 3 exalted reps done...time to work on number 3, Sporeggarr.

It didn't take too long since I was already Honored. I ran Underbog about 7 times, and collected enough Hibiscus to turn in for my exalted rep. I got the title, bought the sporebat, and finally hit exalted with all of the TBC factions (non-raid)...4 months after WOTLK. I tend to do theings bass ackward sometimes.

New Hands and Stuff

2009-02-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

The guild was in 10 man OS last night trying to down it with two drakes up. I think they managed doing it with one. I was the 11th guy on line after they started, so I didn't get to go play with my guildies.

I joined a PUG for 25 man OS. It was the same guy running this week's PUG as last week's. I didn't post about last week because nothing came of it.

This week, however, I got my 25 man hands token. Yay me! More stats for everything except Hit. There's less Hit. Fuck, I need Hit. I'm rolling at about 200 and cap is 263. What a waste of 3 talent points.

I'm rambling....

While I was in the raid getting buffed I looked at one of the other two Hunters in the raid. He was head-to-toe blues...quest blues; except his bracers. His bracers were crafted epics.

Bracers have been a bit of an issue for me. Mine were blue, and I haven't gotten an epic drop yet.

I looked closer at his bracers and realized they were crafted by a Leatherworker. It's a simple Dalaran pattern. Hell, any Leatherworker could craft these nifty little things.

HOLY SHIT!

I'm a Leatherworker, and never bothered to learn the pattern of craft them for myself. What the hell!

I swear that the more I play this damn game the worse I get.

Is that possible?

Love Seasonal Thing

2009-02-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

I'll admit I wanted the title for the Valentine's Day crap, but I didn't have enough on-line time to accomplish all of the silly things to get it. Oh well. There's always next year.

Lunar Thingy

2009-01-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

I made a commitment to myself to get the Elder achievements done this year. Mainly because Blizzard has provided me with a checklist of shit I am missing.I started the journey last weekend, and got my title last night.

What an epic pain in the ass!

I hate having to travel the world to talk to different NPC's. This is a huge waste of time. I could be masterbating to Wowhead or something instead of seeking out Elder Dick-In-His-Mouth in Bumfuck Egypt!

Anyway...it's done.

Now I need a new goal. I really only enjoy playing when I'm trying to accomplish something. It's usually an obscure thing that means nothing to most people.

This is where most bloggers would ask for your suggestions. I won't. It's my goal, not yours! Stop trying to control me! Ass!

TBC Waste of Time Heroics

2009-01-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

Oliveta has posted in comments how he considers it a waste of time to go do things in the old world for the achievements. Another guildie, Hottietroll, has the opinion that the entire game is about achievements. Hottietroll's point of view is that the achievement system was added to WoW, but each person was doing them already...geared toward their own personal goals of what they wanted out of the game.

Both of these people are right. I'm leaving it at that because I do not have the time nor desire to carefully craft a well thought out post on things that do not matter in real life.

This post is about the smack-in-the-face difference in power I am seeing with the new talents, glyphs, gear, etc. from level 70 to level 80. Ironically, I am posting the day after a patch that has nerfed my toon.

I did not play old WoW when the level cap was 60. That's not true. I got the game when the level cap was 60, but at level 42 The Burning Crusade came out. Obviously, my guild was all about hitting Outlands and the new content. I hit level 58, went to Outlands, and continued leveling. I saw no instances past Scarlet Monestary and ZF in the old world.

By reading the above paragraph the reader can assess that I never saw the difference from level 60 to level 70.

Last nigth Pak was going to run some TBC heroic instances to clear the achievements from his log. Blizzard does not give a player credit for doing an instance unless there is a piece of gear, etc. in the player's inventory from the instance with the new achievement system. Pak had run these things multiple times, but has since out grown the gear and vendored it. I did the same thing.

Pak got a small group of 4 together that included me, and we went to Outlands to terrorize some bosses.

It was bitter sweet. I had an old attitude at my new level. I looked at a boss that took some strat and finess, and tried to remember how I was supposed to perform my roll. You know. I didn't want to be responsible for a wipe for poor performance. Nothing should have been farther from my mind.

Pak would engage 3 or 4 trash mobs at a time. He'd pull them into a moster cluster, and we would burn them down into a mass grave. It was rediculously easy. I felt joy when we spanked a boss that used to give me fits, but felt sad that all of the time I spent honing my approach to the fights was now of no need.

I have to say that finishing a Heroic Crypts in 6 minutes was kind of cool.

At one point we were in Mech, and it seemed like Pak pulled everything from the enterance to the elevator for one big killing spree. It was like we brought a hand grenade to a pea-shooter fight. Maybe a case of grenades.

Heroic Ramparts is all I have left in Outlands. I didn't want to bring it up last night becauses we had just run 8 to 10 heroics back to back, and I wanted to go to bed. I will do the instance for no other reason than for my own satisfaction to have the pixels on my monitor tell me I have done them all.

I play for fun, and will eke it out where I can find it.

Pretend Money

2009-01-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Gold is the currency of WoW. This gold is acquired as one plays the game, and is spend on imaginary crap within the game. All of these things on my monitor do not really exist, to I am not really acquiring them, and the gold I spend to get them is pretend...just pixels on a screen.

Then why does it hurt so much that I dumped 2300 imaginary gold on 10 levels of imaginary Enchanting, leaving my imaginary charachter with 1700 gold to his imaginary name?

Fuck...I am pretend broke!

Chillaxin'

2009-01-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

I spent last night goofing off. I went to WC with Mokasa to do the instance (third time) to get the achievement. This time I let the summoning dude get hit so the mob can be summonned. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's OK. That's not what this post is about.

After completing WC and another instance in the area Mokasa hearthed out to do dailies. I need rep too, but had no desire to run around Northrend doing mindless tasks just for a shoulder enchant.

I hung around The Barrens and finished exploring the zone for the achievement. I had such a fun time that I continued doing the exploring thing. I hit Thousand Needles, Ferales, Durator, and Mulgore.

It was relaxing and nostalgic. I was on my mount riding through different zones without a care in the world, remembering different times playing WoW in the different areas. Some were good, and some had me thinking of wipe fests.

A long time ago Anathema was raiding 25 man content regularly. Raids were scheduled for 3 hours a day 3 times a week. I saw Nisko on one day just questing in Netherstorm. I offered to help him with whatever he was trying to accomplish. This was a bit presumptuous because his gear and skill enabled him to own the zone. He declined my offer, and later stated that he had a blast just questing.

The raids and heroics are fun, don't get me wrong. Last night I finally understood why Nisko was enjoying lower level content.

Sometimes it's good to just treat the game as a game. Just play. Enjoy the pasttime. No pressure, just joy.

Heroics anyone?

Jenkins Title

2008-12-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

If you are a gamer in any sense of the word then you are likely familiar with the story of Leroy Jenkins. In the unlikely case that you have no idea what I am referring to click the following link...it's OK...I'll wait.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU

Continuing on...

With the release of the new patches and expansion Blizzard added an achievement type thingy to the game. Basically, if you do something noteworthy then you get an achievement logged and some achievement points the first time you do whatever it is. I'm unsure what the points are for. I just call them as I see them.

There is an achievement for killing 50 whelps in UBRS within 15 seconds. It's the 'Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins' achievement. It also comes with a title...'Jenkins.'

I had not run UBRS until last night even though my buddy, Oliverta, got me the ring/key months ago. My friend, Mokasa, had not stepped into and BRS at all, and had not earned a title in the game yet. Laelaps, long time guildie, joined us so we could summon the first boss and get to the whelps. It was Mokasa and I's chance for the achievement and the title.

The massacre happened flawlessly. Mokasa and I became Jenkins titled, and Laelaps hearthed out with more 'ty's' than you could shake a stick at.

Mokasa and I proceeded to finish the instance for the achievement, and both agreed we don't want to go there again.

I'll let you know if anything else interesting (to me) happens.

A New Battleground

2008-12-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

While working on my Merrymaker title I had to kill 50 people while wearing a Santa's Helper outfit. I look adorable as a Dwarf by the way.

The concept is very simple. One goes into a magical booth that changes your appearance into a Santa's Helper. Upon accomplishing this trivial task enter a battleground and start killing people. Simple, huh?

There is a rub. When you die in the battleground you lose the disguise.

I elected to try a new battleground since I hate PvP and have had my fill of Warsong Gulch, A Basin, and AV. I haven't run them in months, but still did not have any desire to set foot in any of them.

The name of the new battleground escapes me. The premise is a simple one...defend against a siege while the other side sieges. There is a timer running, and when the attackers successfully complete their siege everyone changes sides. The defenders become siegers and the siegers become defenders. If the new siegers beat the time of the old siegers they win, if not they lose.

This is a fast battle...maybe 20 minutes (if that).

I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed this new battleground. There is a great deal of action, and it ends way before it becomes tedious. I didn't mind having to run it 5 or 6 times to get my achievement done. And, hey, I got about 5,000 honor points out of it too.

I guess it's time to start grinding for some welfare epics before I get complacent about PvP again. I can't let Wriken and Uncas out DPS me forever. Welfare epics are going to be better than half my gear anyway. What's a week of mindless killing among friends?

I'm Still Here

2008-12-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in over a month because I've had nothing of interest to post. This includes this posting, by the way.

I hit level 80 on GHOSTKID about 3 weeks after the expansion came out. This is 2 weeks behind the rest of the guild.

Because it took me so long to level I missed out on all of the guild instance runs, the emblem grinds, and am not in the 10 man raids. The guild has cleared Naxx. Woot!

I have crafted what I can to upgrade my gear. There are just a couple of pieces left until I have crafted all of the pieces I can to improve the toon.

Running heroics has been spiratic for me, at best. It seems that the times I am available are not gelling with the current membership at the moment.

Not running too many thing with the guild has really made me realize how much I play this game for the social aspect of the game.

I love the people I've met on WoW. For Whom the Bell Tolls and Stay Frosty have introduced me to some awesome people I enjoy chatting with while I'm out and about doing my own thing in game. It makes questing and the like so much more bearable when one can shoot the shit with the guildies as they do whatever they're doing. I love my guildies!

Hopefully I'll have something of interest to post eventually. You'll know as soon as I do, because I'll put it here.

The Expansion

2008-11-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

The install went well, buying 3 copies of WOTLK sucked, and the queue time sucked balls. I waited an hour to get on-line. By that time I was no longer anticipating the new lands, but thinking about how much I could get done before bed.

I had trouble finding the correct zeppelin to get to Northrend. First I took a zep from Org to UC for no good reason, then I hoped onto a zep from UC to some fiord place. I learned my profession training, and set out to explore a little bit.

I think I completed the immediate zone's quests, and it's taking me up a lift. I logged around that time because it was either that or get so involved in the game that I pull an all-nighter. I'm too old for that shit.

Most of the guild was at level 71 and some were at level 72. I'd like to slowly level to see what's out there, but fear I'll be left in the dust for instance content. We shall see, I guess.

More to come if it's blog worthy.

Halloween Night

2008-11-04T14:17:00.001-08:00

When I was a kid I would go Trick-or-Treating. It was a happier time when kids were kidnapped and never heard from again as opposed to kidnapped and found dead in a shallow grave...sexually molested.

The good old days.

Anyway...as my children (15 and 7) have been growing I've noticed less and less participation in Halloween by the neighborhood where I live. There are less candy-giver-outers and less Trick-or-Treaters. The lack of participation on one side furthers the lackluster performance of the other. 'Tis a vicious cycle.

In all fairness to the candy suppliers and demanders I live in a condo complex that required costumed kids to climb stairs every door they knock on. Every fucking one. Poor kids poop out after an hour, but their thighs get HUGE.

My family and I went to some friends-of-the-family's house this year to do the Halloween thing with them. The thinking was that the kids could go beg for candy under the close supervision of their moms while my buddy and I would sit outside his front door with bowls of candy and a lot of beer, hoping to catch a glimpse of a Milf that dressed like a slut the one day a year she can get away with it. Tradition runs through my veins.

I picked up a couple bags of bulk candy at Costco before arriving at my buddy's house. He had mentioned that he gets a decent turn out of little pan-handling sugar fiends, so I figured it couldn't hurt to have some extra cavity creators on hand. Besides, I'd put the extra stock to good use if we didn't hand it all out.

The two families started out into the neighborhood to extort sweets backed by a threat of tricks should the poor homeowner not pay up the protection fee of sugary goodness, and my friend and I proceeded to crack the top of a couple of Bud Lights. If you are looking for a real beer connoisseur please go to http://jillianunbound.wordpress.com/.

The waves of children with hands out and the chimes of 'Trick-or-Treat' were endless for a solid 2 1/2 hours! It was AWESOME! People came from miles around to beg for candy in my friend's community. It reminded me of Halloween when I was a kid...back when Fred and Barney would hand out rocks from the quarry they bought at a discount from Mr. Slate.

The candy we had on hand went very quickly. My friend had to open his private stash of Bazooka Joe gum that was in a tub of 500 pieces, and break out his treasure trove of Snickers, Milky-Way, and other chocolaty goodies.

We had over 600 Trick-or-Treaters! It was the most amazing thing I had seen since I saw the image of the Virgin Mary in my stool last summer...spitting image...except for the little corn pimple.

All those costumed freaks, and no Milf worth mentioning. Maybe next year.

Mokasa's New Helm

2008-10-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

I was on GHOSTKID last night and ended up getting into a partial group for the Headless Horseman event.

We needed a healer and 1 more DPS.

I pulled a healer named Darkvenom from AV who was grinding honor for epics, and my buddy Mokasa. Darkvenom is a real life friend of my son who dinged 70 last week...just in case you giva a shit.

Mokasa, Darkvenom, and I picked up the quest in Brill and headed over to Scarlet Monestary to do our thing with the pumpkin-headed freak. This was nice because we could run it an extra 3 times in the hopes of getting the mount.

No mount, but Darkvenom and Mokasa got epic rings. Mokasa also got the plate helm. The thing is sick! I can't link stuff well, so click to see http://www.wowwiki.com/The_Horseman%27s_Helm

Man, this dude is lucky.

What's Happening With My Toons

2008-10-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

OK...

Nostik is 360/375 Inscriptions. I am not going to bother trying to get the last 15 ticks until after the expansion comes out. Nostik can make all of the Major Glyphs available through the trainers, and is doing the daily 'Learn a Minor Glyph thing" now.

GHOSTKID is rusty as all fuck! I took him into Kara with Shai (Zeet was tanking!) and it took a while to get back into the grove again. I got DC'd right before Moroes, and was unable to get back on the whole night. So much for getting into that guild.

Zombies suck balls! It's a chore to get anything done with all of the little kids on the server infecting Org and such for jollies. Shit, it's a pain in the ass!

Gavo (level 68) will be my Death Knight.

My level 70's are running zombie-ridden dailies constantly. I need gold like a hooker needs tricks to satisfy her pimp.

Mokasa (my buddy) is spending his time leveling Blacksmithing and running dailies. Leveling Blacksmithing is an expensive proposition.

And now you know what's going on.

Tunnel Vision / Procrastination

2008-10-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing anything on any of my toons except Nostik for the past few months. My whole focus on the game was to get him to level 70.

I have run very few dailies on my other toons. It has cost me about 2,500 gold from bank toons to get Nostik and Mokasa the essentials to make game play tolerable (mounts and training). Why so much gold? We both dinged 70 last night through a dozen World Server disconnects. Flying mount training, epic ground mount training, etc. will cost a bit of gold.

Now there are so many things I have not been doing that I don't know where to begin. I really need to recoup my gold, but I can't just abandon Mokasa for my other toons. This is his main. He has to go get his quest blues, start running instances, etc. and I know he'll need a bit of hand holding.

Maybe I'll just hop on GHOSTKID and team up with him that way. The quests should go fast enough that I can farm gold as well on the same night.

Sheesh! I wish I kept up on my normal maintenance routines on my other toons, bank alts, and the like. The game just turned into a job.

Dumber Ass!

2008-10-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

Remember last post? Probably not. I know this is more of a diary than a blog because no one reads it.

I solved my problem.

In the orge camp described in the post just below this one (read it to be on the same page...come on...lazy fucker...I'll wait) I found that there is an elite in the camp named Gurok that never dies. Of course it is not possible to just Auto-Shot your way to max level, but it's easier than running around killing random mobs. I fought him until I hit a level acceptable for Outland mobs.

Since I was in the area I ran through the Dark Portal to get back to Outlands. I hate using my hearthstone cool down. When I arived in Hellfire Penninsula I had a YOU-FUCKING-IDIOT moment.

I walked to the top of the stairs at the pit where the endless fight is going on at the portal, targeted a mob, and started Auto-Shotting my way to max level. What a dweeb. No aggro...grab a sandwich and hit the peak level.

I hope this helps you, even though you don't actually read this blog. I, really, hope I don't forget this tip for the next time I vendor my main weapon.

Dumb Ass!

2008-10-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

I finally got to log onto Nostik last night. He's the level 69 Hunter. I tought him his talents, got my training, and leveled Inscriptions to about 120ish (ran out of mats). I just checked The Armory for a more precise number, but the data is out of date.

Since it was more of a maintenance night as opposed to a leveling night I decided to level guns up to 345. Nostik has had a bow since he was first conceived, and was 1/345 in guns. I got the gun from the hunter camp quest in Nagrang, and never equiped it. It was time to get that gun and its 11 more DPS onto the toon.

I took the time to empty my bank of lower level ranged weapons, get an ammo pouch, and vendor the weapons I no longer needed...including the bow I have been using for the past level or two. I bought the cheapest ammo the Org vendor had because I knew I was about to waste a lot of bullets on the practice dummies near the mount vendor in Org, so why pay more than I had to? I have a flying mount to buy, after all.

I dismissed my pet and unleashed a hail of bullets onto the wooden practice post with a smile on my face. "Thank you, Blizz" actually came from my lips when I started this task. It is very nice of them to allow one to level skills like this instead of killing random mobs for no benifit.

I wasn't getting any skill points. Hmm. What am I doing wrong? I whispered other toons doing the same thing with their ranged and melee weapons to see if there was something I was missing. They indicated that they had no success either.

I noticed the practice post was grey when I was shooting it, and decided to level my guns elsewhere. I had been clued into mobs just south of Swamp of Sorrows (SoS) that never die. Once you got them down to 1% health they take no damage. I had used these mobs to level other skills before on GHOSTKID, so off I went - catching a bird to Ratchet to catch a boat to Booty Bay (BB) to catch a bird to SoS - you know the routine.

When I mounted the bird from BB to SoS I made a mental note to buy back my bow from a vendor in case anything "bad" happened.

Then it did. Something bad did happen. I got kicked off of the server.

I know Blizzard's servers are smoking hot with activity right now, and the occasional disconnect (DC) is to be expected. I spent 20 minutes trying to log back on before I was finally successful.

20 minutes! My bow was no longer at the vendor for buy back. Shit!

Oh well, off to the immortal mob I go...Son of G-something I think is the name. I'll be fine since I'm never going to equip that bow again.

I entered the camp where the Ogres that surround the immortal mob. My pet did all of the killing on the level 45 mobs with me behind firing miss after miss. The occasions that I did hit a mob yielded very little damage (lowest bullet rating and no skill level at guns).

After clearing the area to get to Son of G-something I sent in my pet, fired a shot, got a skill point for the shot, and relaxed because everything seemed like it would be OK in an hour or so (see old post for exactly how long 1 to 350 takes on a level 70 Hunter).

Everything was not OK. Once the never-ending mob hit his minimum health level I stopped getting skill points. Blizzard fixed/nerfed/fucked-up my immortal mob!

I am now a level 69 Hunter with about 25/345 in guns and the weakest ammo in the game, parked near an ogre camp that I will be clearing for the next two hours of game play. FUCK!

Does anyone know what's going on with my situation? Are things broken right now, or are they fixed to be permanent?

Please help.

I know the handful of readers I have are either another classes (mage, etc.), my family (non WoWers) or people that don't play anymore; but I'd like a nugget of knowledge if you have it. If not, just comment about how utterly NOOB I am for such a boneheaded vendor move in the first place.

Patch Gripe

2008-10-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

I am not going to go through all of the Hunter changes that happened in patch 3.whatever yesterday. I will not be commenting on the new Talent tree, the new Inscription profession (Nostik hasn't learned it yet), nor any of the other changes that came with this patch - save one.

Before I go into the change that gets my ire up it is necessary to give a bit of background on shot rotation. This will not be extensive because it is boring for anyone other than a Hunter, and even Hunters start to yawn (Dinah, Anathema's guild leader, has told us Hunters to "blow it out our asses" on many occasions). This explanation is specific to Beast Mastery Hunters, relative to the old talent tree.

GHOSTKID is a SSC, HT, Gruuls, Mag (no BT or Sunwell) level Beast Mastery Hunter in T5/badge gear (proper enchants and gems) and can top the WWS charts with raiders at similar gear level. Ironically it takes time to get to that gear level, but with the two piece T5 set bonus the game gets easier. Barring nuances of the class to top the WWS charts all I had to do was make sure I wove my Steady Shot in between my auto shots.

Auto Shot has a 1.5 second cool down, and Steady Shot had a 1.5 second cool down. The trick is to use Steady Shot every time it's off of cool down without interrupting (clipping) Auto Shot. Of course there are other things being done to deal out DPS, but this is the most significant part. Done properly a Hunter can get an Auto Shot or Steady Shot off every .75 seconds. Please note that this is over simplified and takes no other shot rotation formulas into account. This post is a gripe session, not a theorycraft session.

Blizzard has increased the Steady Shot cool down to 2.0 seconds. I believe they did this so a beginner Hunter, or dumb Hunter (Huntard) can now spam Steady Shot and clip much less of the Auto Shots than he/she used to. In theory one could spam Steady Shot and never see an Auto Shot on the old system. Auto Shot does more damage than Steady Shot at GHOSTKID's gear level by the way.

I have been gimped! Not only do I shoot 10 less Steady Shots per minute than I did, but all of my crit procs just lost 10 chances a minute to proc. If I'm at 30+% crit, that's roughly 3 times per minute less procs. ****Please visit Criticall QQ for mind bending math. It's mage stuff, but the math gets detailed. I will not be doing any more today. That's Rip's job.****

So now I have to get GHOSTKID's talents past 375, train an exotic pet, get glyphs, and LEARN HOW TO PLAY ALL OVER AGAIN!

This blows. I hope my soon-to-be-acquired Devilsaur makes up for it.