Cruel And Unusual Punishment

Why is that commercial suddenly relevant again?  I’m playing Liouxpold yesterday, as he approaches 85.  I hit the old LFD and after a fair bit of time, Stonecore comes up.  I’ve run that thing dozens of times and could do it with my eyes closed at this point.  So what made this run different?

I was in a great group for this to happen.  We pretty much all jaw-dropped when that popped up.  It was the first time any of us had seen it drop.  I don’t remember what I rolled, but the healer aced it with a pure 100.  We were happy for her just the same.

Bottom line, it’s the little things like this that give you just a hint of hope and makes you obsess come back for more.

Of Records And Failures

“Can ye sit still `til the Phink arrives? Nay?”

After my morning adventures with Navimie, Dragonray, and all, the rest of the day was a mixed bag.  As a family we went downtown and took part in our city’s attempt at the World’s Largest Picnic.  Largest or Longest?  I can’t recall now offhand.  Either way, it was really fun to be a part of and we had a great time (despite junior Amateur’s overtired-ness).  Apparently it’ll be a couple of weeks before we get the “official” word on it.  Still, it was definitely a great time either way.

Last night’s Laid Back Raid was to be Ulduar on Alliance.  A few people had asked about this one and I was finally happy to be able to slip it into the schedule.  Unfortunately Cheetah Dave, Jai, and Tome informed me earlier in the day they were unable to make it, but I told both not to worry as we would definitely go back again.  As for the raid itself, even after waiting until eight o’clock (I had bumped it up to 7:30), there was still only four of us.  We tried Flame Leviathan but came up significantly short.  The trash was a breeze, but he was brutal.  I’m wondering if we should have cleared more first, but the 4-man strategy I had found said otherwise.

Realizing we were overpowered at this time, we decided instead to work on Glory of the Hero as we built towards our Red Proto Drakes.  At this point, Mrs. Amateur’s computer was running a bit high and so was our boy’s desire for attention (can’t blame him for that), so she stepped out as well.  That left myself, Shoryl, and Phinkbunny.  We attempted Abuse The Ooze first because we were out there anyway.  Well, we killed the wrong oozes and thus didn’t get the achievement.  Next it was off to Violet Hold, but due to poor bosses on the RNG, the only achievement that popped was Defenseless for Shoryl (but one is better than none!).  Our final location for the night was The Nexus.  Shoryl got Chaos Theory and Intense Cold.  Tum and Phink got frozen to the ground and thus missed out on it.

So, this was the first time there was literally no Laid Back Raid.  Given we’re full swing into summer, that’s to be expected sooner or later.  That we basically turned it into a Laid Back Dungeon run was a nice save and I thanked both Shoryl and Phinkbunny for that.

Shut Up!

SHUT UP!

SHUT!

UP!

Me: *blink*

THE BARON’S MOUNT JUST DROPPED.  IN STRATHOLME!

Me: *blink*

AND I FRIGGIN WON IT!  SUCK IT!!!!

Me: *blink*

Property of Warcraftmounts

…I love my wife.

Friday Top 5: Instance Bosses

The bane of our existence.  The darkness to our light.  The Newman to our Seinfeld.  Okay, that last one was a bit much.  Still, the bosses of an instance are the reason we heroes exist.  They cause trouble, in almost all cases for personal gain and we go in and whomp `em…in almost all cases for personal gain.  There are plenty of baddies in the 5-man content of World of Warcraft, but these are the ones that stick out most for me.

5. Salramm The Fleshcrafter
Salramm makes the list simply because he makes me want to kill him.  When he calls out “you are too late, champion of Lordaeron.  The dead shall have their day.” in all honesty I think he sounds like an absolute pervert (a credit to the voice actor).  It creeps me out to no end and, though he is overshadowed by Mal’Ganis, he’s one of the many things I love about the Culling of Stratholme.

4. Nexus-Prince Shaffar
For all the awesome that was Burning Crusade, there weren’t that many instance bosses that stood out for me. But the Nexus-Prince has been fun since the first time I encountered him, and I remember him being such a challenge at first. It didn’t hurt that almost everyone I knew farmed Mana Tombs for Consortium rep, so we got to know each other really well. Plus, he’s an Ethereal. Does it get any better? Actually it does, as his lines are all just perfect. He reminds me of a Bond villain in that he’s just so proper in his interaction and comments…you know, before he tries to lay waste to the party.

3. The Black Knight
I think it safe to say many people did not like the whole Argent Tournament idea. Some people hated jousting. Some hated the raids. Others, in the early stages of release, hated fighting this guy. Our final fight for the tournament (5-man), the Knight showing up caps off a rather enjoyable little story arc.  His fight mechanic was interesting, in that phase two was a kill or be killed contest.  I remember bubble/Divine Hymn so many times on that fight.  That’s presuming his ghouls didn’t book it straight for me.  It was easy to get frustrated with other players, but this was a fight that for a time actually challenged you.

2.  Keristrasza
We actually do some questing for Keri, before Malygos gets his claws on her.  He ends up binding her in Nexus and she goes nearly as insane as her captor in the process.  The cold mechanic, or the hop fight as I’ve heard people call it, made an other wise easy fight unique.  What I love most about her, is when she screams at us to finish the job and kill her.  Again, it’s a case of the actor capturing her perfectly.

1. Herald Volazj
Doing this fight now isn’t nearly the same as when it first launched.  With gear and nerfs and what have you, the fight isn’t even close to as hard.  However, I remember the first time I went into it.  I was healing at the time and courtesy of WoWInsider I had heard about the mechanic of the final fight.  The whole full party mind control was just awesome sounding.  Well, let me tell you something…this is a case where if your healer is the awesome of the party, you’re screwed.  Reason being, they will own your ass when you become MC’d or have the visage or whatever you want to call fighting the shadows of your party.  I think it was the second time I went in there, I suggested I drop group so they could get a weaker healer and the other four were very appreciative.  That’s not a testament to my eliteness by any stretch, I was just better geared and the mechanic of the fight turned the volume to 11.

When I started putting the list together, the last thing I expected was for a nearly clean sweep of bosses from one era of WoW.  Unless I had included the original Deadmines because I loved everything about that place and the bosses in it.  Heck, I even debated other Wrath bosses such as Skadi the Ruthless from Utgarde Pinnacle and Ionar in Halls of Lightning.  The biggest decision was to not include Kael’thas Sunstrider.  Yes, he’s the final confrontation in Magister’s Terrace, but to me he’s always going to be a raid boss first and foremost.

The odd thing was not a single Catalcysm boss jumped out at me.  Some of the stuff from Hour of Twilight was tempting, but that was about it.  I like a number of the dungeons, but the bosses just don’t grab my attention nearly as much.  Perhaps they’re too new to be in the nostalgia category like so many before them.  What do you think?  What bosses have you enjoyed most in the game and why?

No More SLabs (And Other Thoughts Too)

There's no buff for bad breath.

I was always meaning to move my auto-run key as the way my laptop is designed, I had it next to my Print Screen key.  More often than not I’d snap a picture when I was actually meaning to run or autofly.  This is probably the only instance where it worked out in my favour as I got this great shot (complete with witty guild banter).

In an effort to look good for my Lich King burning party Saturday night, I designed a new outfit for Tumunzahar with MogIt.  I had a couple pieces already so then I just went about completing it and then set out to gather the pieces.  One was an easy quest reward and one a dirt simple tailoring recipe but the tricky part was going to be getting the chestpiece.  I had to kill Murmur.  Not that big a deal, as it’s Shadow Labs and I can easily solo it.  However, as a Holy Priest with ZERO hit there were times where it was tedious simply because my damage is horrid.  And even worse is the fact you can’t skip two of the bosses before Murmur.  You also have to kill the trash in both of those rooms plus Murmur’s.  Again, just tedious.  Took a total of nine runs (3 of which glitched or I got DC’d) before the bugger finally coughed them up this morning.  So no more having to go there.  Of course, that leaves me debating whether to try killing Quagmirran for Saintvache’s sword before the weekend.  Then again, I plan to play a great deal on Saturday as a grand exit so I may include that in my ventures.  Difference is THAT one is Heroic so I’ll only get one shot at it.

Speaking of Saturday, there’s been positive response thus far and tomorrow I’ll post a list of who’s coming where.  That way if you mentioned you were coming and I missed it, we’ll catch it in time and we’ll make certain you’re along.  As I say, I’ll be around most of the day should anyone be up for anything else.  For those that are coming, I should mention I don’t have or use vent.  It’s something that didn’t occur to me since my guildmates are aware of it and I just take it for granted.  If you guys hook up on a channel, that’s cool.  I may try to get the Linux run version up and running before then but I make no guarantees.  I’m also the type of person who you look at and go “this is what you need to do for this fight.”  I’m good with direction and then experiencing it.  I suck at watching videos for a fight (I still fail at the Saftey Dance) and I’d just rather go WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?  when something crazy happens.  No doubt Tome and I will react the same.

Speaking of reactions, there was no shortage of talk regarding my post yesterday.  I appreciate all of the shared thoughts and comments regarding the whole thing.  I particularly thank Ironyca for popping in and responding. Having her explain it wasn’t a planned segment discussion or anything helped me understand a bit more though I still don’t “get it” and that’s no fault of hers.  It was nice to get her overall thoughts on Mog Madness as well.  Very flattering.

I continue to get comments and e-mails regarding my no longer playing after Saturday and people wishing me well in “whatever comes next.”  I just wanted to stress once more that I’m not leaving.  I’m heading into Azerothian retirement but the blog will continue on. Some people know that, but others gave me the impression they thought I was closing up shop and I just wanted to reiterate that is not the case at all.  It will be business as usual and if I ever need to get into Azeroth for post-related items, I still have a trial account and the keys to Mrs. Amateur’s account as well.

Is it Saturday yet?

Friday Top 5: Raids

I thought I would switch things up a bit with the Top 5 list and take a look at the Top 5 raids in the game today.  Blizzard’s done a great deal with the raiding system and the environments, and some players spend 90% of their game time in them.  So, it only seems fair.

5. Sunwell Plateau
The final raid for The Burning Crusade expansion, players (lore wise) had to head to the Isle of Quel’Danas and prevent Kil’jaeden from entering Azeroth via a portal.  Visually impressive, and the benchmark for difficulty at the time, Sunwell did a great job of tiding most players over until Wrath of the Lich Kind was released. The bosses were varied, and challenging. I still remember when you had to be a solid raid team just to get past Brutallus before he raged.

4. Molten Core
You couldn’t compile a list without including the original. Yes, Onyxia’s Lair was also available on launch but Molten Core is the design most raids have followed, with the classic dungeon crawl system. Ragnaros is the grandfather of end bosses, as such and back then it took 40 people to take him down.  This was the pinnacle of the game at the time and it set the gauntlet for players having to work hard and spend a lot of time trying before they actually succeeded.

3. Temple of Ahn’Qiraj
Both Ahn’Qiraj instances arrived in Patch 1.9 via what I still consider one of the coolest ideas Blizzard has had in the game. The Qiraji war effort server wide, building towards the opening of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj was brilliant and has never been duplicated even slightly. The Temple was the 40 man raid of the two, and brought players in contact with an Old God for the first time, in C’thun. Say what you want about the content getting easier over time but all you need to know about AQ40 (as it was called for so long) is that to this day you still can’t beat The Twins or Viscidus without proper build components…and wiping on C’thun can still easily happen if you don’t know the fight.

2. Ulduar
Forget the fact people are going back to it more now than ever thanks to Transmogrification, Ulduar had everything going for it. There was a great patch release video with Brann Bronzebeard filling us in on the situation, a fight players were farming in no time (Flame Leviathan) and a vast and beautiful environment that was incredibly rich and deep. It all around felt epic from start to finish. It also did a great job of pulling together much of the lore we encountered throughout Northrend with Freya, Thorim, and more.

1. Karazhan
If you know me, or have read this blog for a while, you knew this would top the list. Karazhan revolutionized the raiding system in World of Warcraft. Don’t believe me? Every raid in the last two expansions has included a 10-man option. A small part of that is because developers recognized 25-man guilds are far less common, but mostly it’s due to the fact that Karazhan was the very first 10-man and it was a huge hit. From entering Deadwind Pass and the creak of the opening gate, to the organ music inside, all the way to the top with the echoing voice of Prince Malchezaar, the soundtrack is perfect. The fights were varied and challenging, and much like Ulduar it’s incredibly epic visually. To this day I love taking players inside because unfortunately most skip it on their way to 85.

So there’s the list.  The top 5 raids in the game.  I debated strongly on the list, cutting it down from seven actually as Black Temple and Naxxramas are both great raids as well.  What are your thoughts?  Did your personal favourite make today’s list?

Plague Infected Thoughts

First off, this pic is long overdue…

The picture was taken on the 8th, when us five officers were finally all on at the same time.  I had given those bad boys to each of them as a Christmas/Winter Veil present.  Each one of them deserved it too, just for being their awesome selves.  ’Course, I think I literally had to say that to each of them after they opened them (none were on to open at the same time, so I sent them via mail).

Now, begging your pardon, but I find the plague of the New Year never vacated my body, but in fact has come back for an uninvited stay.  Lucky me.  With that in mind, I’ll limit today’s post to some random thoughts as I sip the nectar that is Neocitrin.

• We have another member of the 2012 Challenge, as Reluctant Raider signed up over the weekend.  The more the merrier I say.
• After all, it proves I’m not insane (or at least, not alone).
•  Every once in a while, I actually consider selling some of the gold I’ve acquired in the game.  If the price was better, I don’t know…
• I have these considerations usually about the time I need money, oddly enough.
• I’m afraid of getting banned.
• This would be one of those slow periods in levelling.  I’ll make up for it, I’m sure.  I just can’t focus with the plague.
• Too much Mog, not enough toons.
• Seriously, I get ridiculous ideas and need to sort of mentally store them (and the gear somewhere) until I decide I want to swap my gear.  Problem is, I like what a number of toons have and the other can’t get the damn belt from Black Knight!!! (…and breathe)
• For the life of me I can’t put together an outfit I’m really happy with for my Mage.  Might be because he’s 65, I don’t honestly know.
• Why do people go to a battleground to farm honor and then bitch that the rest of the team fails at winning?
• How did both my wife and I do Ulduar two weeks apart, her with more people and me in hours less time?
• Liouxpold swears at me every time I log on and have to ride my land mount around Hyjal.
• I tell him get a belt, I’ll get him a Hippogryph.
• We swear at each other some more.
• Why is it any range can go over any range weapon, but I can’t replace my Rogue’s stein with a sword?
• Legendaries should not be used for mogging, or able to be mogged.  I said it, I stand by it, and I’m proud of it.  Go Blizz on that one.
• ChinPokeWoW seems to be growing in popularity as some details came out.  Honestly, it doesn’t do anything for me except at this stage I’m not planning to store much in the way of non-combat pets going into the expansion.  Sounds like you can level `em and sell them.
• That’ll screw with the auction house for a while.
• Are all the auctioneers gone to Star Wars?
• Seriously, where’d they go???
• When I schedule guild events, I need to remember to set the time.  There’s a reason people don’t sign up for midnight…or show up for 7:30 as such.  My bad, ride your chopper…nothing to see here.
• Why do blogs that interest me go quiet almost as soon as I add them to my blog roll?  Seems one out of five is a keeper.
• If you’re one of the five, it’s honestly because you’re awesome.
• Heroics are fun when you have laid back folk and people willing to learn and follow direction.
• Heroics suck when you lack any of the above.
• When are my BoA’s going to be just that?  I mean, we’ve moved from BoFoSoA’s, which literally got the F out.  Get rid of the S.
• I was always told the F word and S word were bad.  Now I know why.
• I should level my Death Knight three levels just so I can level his blacksmithing to 525.  Again, focus is an issue.
• Speaking of focus, *cough* *hack* *die*…there goes mine.