Thought Bubbles

If each of those bubbles was a thought, there probably still wouldn’t be nearly enough in the picture.  People ask me where I’ve been as of late, and I can’t say it didn’t come without fair warning that I’d grow quiet.  Some suspected I had sent my laptop off for repairs, but that’s not the case.  It remains wired to a television upstairs, which actually works alright.  It’s just near impossible some days to read the chat window.

I’ve been asked a little bit on my thoughts about 5.2 and I’ll try to articulate a post when I actually care.  That harshness isn’t directed at Blizzard or the content or anything like that…I just…well my interest in a lot of things lately (including WoW) is there one moment and gone for many more a heartbeat later.  So when WoW’s not of interest, it can be hard to want to even write about it.  So aside from the Transmog Contest, I really haven’t had much to say for some time now.

It’s weird.  One moment I want to race change my Worgen Warrior to a Pandaren, and the next I’m ready to cancel my subscription.  I haven’t, and in the near future I won’t.  There are times when I very much want to hop into Azeroth, and so I’m not turning my back on it.  I’m sure a few of you have seen me pop on here and there for moments at a time…and yet I never logged in for the Darkmoon Faire last week and aside from the first two days, completely skipped the Lunar Festival.

That brings me to Laid Back Raids.  With everything going on (and yes, I know exactly why the things I’ve talked about are the way they are), by the time an LBR comes around, I can be completely exhausted.  I’ve pushed through it most nights, but it takes more effort not to (unfairly) snap on people over trivial comments or matters that come with booting through a raid.  Trust me, for those wondering, you never genuinely bother me in the slightest.  As the ex always tells us, “it’s not you, it’s me.”  That’s the case.

But, LBR is important.  It’s a tonne of fun and there are always people up for it on some level.  As such, I’m continuing to schedule them and will even show up I’m sure.  My appearances are just going to be sporadic for a little while (much like my WoWing in general).  With that in mind, I asked both Healblade and Repgrind if they would be contacts and both graciously accepted.  Their contact information is on the LBR page, and I can’t thank the two of them enough for looking after things in my absence, especially when the two of them can almost always be counted on to be in attendance and bring both wisdom and laughs.  Kinda suits the LBR model (not that I ever bestowed much wisdom).

I’m trying to work on more chapters of Posthumous.  Yesterday’s was honestly written ages ago, but I kept forgetting to pull the image from my computer.  Yes, I’m obsessive like that.  I couldn’t publish it without that little raptor image.  I’ll see what I can do about posting more soon.  It’s a matter of getting the writing bug and the time to dedicate to writing it.

Saw an article that Trivial Pursuit is putting out a WoW edition later this year.  That’s exciting.  Combines two things I happen to enjoy a lot, and Mrs. Amateur is a trivia addict (and an Illidan damn wealth of knowledge to boot).  I can see it ending up in our collection in no time…barring an elaborate price tag.  Personally, I’d like to see them replace the pie with a generic character that has spots for Legendary weapons instead of pie slices.  That would be sweet.

Speaking of Legendaries…I think I got the quest that starts Tarecgosa’s Staff with Tum.  I doubt I’ll get past that first part, much like Siori’s daggers.  I know folks were willing to help me, but if I’m not on much…let alone when others are, it’s kinda hard to complete.  But, I’m ok with that.

I guess ok is probably the best way to sum things up all around.

Dawn of 5.1

All is quiet before the patch.

Was a bit surprised last night when Blizzard came right out and said Patch 5.1 is being released today.  It’s the first major update since Mists launched back in September and it’s bringing a fair bit of goodies with it.  Of course, I’m not talking about specific class mechanics because those will no doubt have mixed results.  But what items are most exciting?

Battle Stones:
The need to track down a Rare version of every pet is no longer necessary.  The stones will upgrade the quality of the pet.  They come in general and family specific versions.  If you use one on a pet higher than level 15 though you do run the risk of losing two levels in the process.  Still, this is a welcomed addition.  And at last word they’re BoE, so I foresee them impacting the economy for sure.

Raiding Gets Better:
Vanilla WoW raids (including Naxxramas) just got more exciting, as their bosses have the chance to drop pets.  On top of that, you no longer need to be in a group to enter a raid.  This obviously doesn’t apply to Mists raids, but everything else you can now solo without having to group up first.

Brawler’s Guild:
In the Stormwind and Orgrimmar underground there are now fighting rings.  Hopefully it won’t be limited to level 90′s, but either way it will definitely be a fun little addition.  More options for players is always a good thing.

There’s more to the patch, including a plethora of things relating to pet battles that I didn’t mention.  As always, be sure to check out the official Patch Notes after things go live today.  With a major patch, don’t be all disgruntled if things take a little longer to come back up either.

Commas Confuse Me (And Other Thoughts)

…there’s no cream for that.

In the last two days I’ve actually managed to get back into the game a bit.  No, not on my main computer.  So far Blizzard’s reply to my ticket was to refer me to the 5.0.4. known issues thread and post…which doesn’t mention my problem and I’ve already done all those things.  Of course upon telling them that, I’ve not heard back.

From a talent standpoint, things are certainly interesting.  I’ve only done some questing at this stage, so I don’t know how the changes would stand up for me in a raid or dungeon setting.  I do know this: most of the level 15 talents do nothing for me and don’t feel all that much like a “choice.”  It’s like when I ask my son if he wants jam on his peanut butter sandwich or not.  In the end, he’s still having peanut butter.

I cannot get used to commas in the game.  Whether it’s my gold, or damage meters…it’s just weird to see.

I really love the flavour Glyphs.  It just feels to me like that’s how they should have been in the first place.  I also like the idea of learning abilities from them (Corpse Explosion!!!).  As I haven’t been on as much as I’d like, I don’t have a full grasp on them, nor have I managed to make as much gold off them as I wanted to (still do well enough just the same).

AoE looting is wonderful.  I say that truthfully, but still manage to completely forget its very existence more than half the time.  The same can be said for no longer requiring range on my Hunters.  Liouxpold keeps backing up to take his shots.  Old habits die hard, don’tcha know.

Read Tides of War and will be posting a review on it.  Short thoughts:

• Jaina’s final destination makes complete sense.
• Windle Sparkshine was tied in beautifully.
• I didn’t like the key relationship in the book.
• Um, exactly how did Garrosh’s new assistant end up where he is?  Seems kind of “So, I’m here now.  Deal with it.”

I need to be updating the LBR schedule for this month.  After the Alliance go get Illipants this weekend, the Horde will get Arthas next weekend.  I had originally planned on getting a Deathwing run in before Mists but after a minor incident a few weeks ago, I think something current (plus still adjusting to all the class changes) would create the wrong environment and defeat the purpose of Laid Back Raids.  I’m sure in no time I’ll be adding the Cataclysm ones in though.  I can’t wait to see them for the first time!

Indeed, the only Cataclysm raids I’ve done are the two Deathwing ones in LFR.  It wasn’t intentional, it just worked out that way.  Plus, I know for a fact if I wasn’t running LBRs each week, I would’ve been able to go with Myth on a few.  Sad thing is how many Transmog outfits I could make even better if I did go.

Speaking of Transmog, you’d think I would be burned out after the games wrapped up.  to some extent this is true.  But, having said that, I have something in mind.  No, no more contests for a while.  This is just an idea I had that won’t involve too much work.  I think I’ll start it next week or the week after.

WordPress added a “random header” feature that allows for your header to change.  I don’t know when, but this makes me happy.  I like being able to have a non-stagnant header and this will allow me to feature more members of Team Amateur more prominently.

Better Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Easier

So with the new patch this week, there was some difficulty expected as a Linux user.  That Blizzard still fails to openly support the system doesn’t help any either, but those of us who choose to use it anyway also understand that.  We’re on our own, and we do alright.  So it took me until Wednesday to sort out the inability to even download the patch, but once I did that it was smooth sailing.

For a day.

Since Thursday night I’ve gotten to the point where I can select a character and “enter world” but the load screen gets as far as about 95% and then the music fades like it does when you enter the world….except I’m not entering.  It just stays at that 95%.  I’ve been on the forums and tried every trick under the sun that I can think of or read about.  Alas, none of it has worked.  I am left with one alternative and just hope it solves whatever the conflict is…

edit:My inability to even install WoW now is doing nothing to improve my already “frustrated by a number of things” demeanor.

edit:The game is installed, and I can even login under a trial account but not a full one.

Tides of War Cover Model

Yeah, I feel a lot like Jaina this week.  Not necessarily drowning, but definitely some pressure of a lot of things going on.  I did manage to get the patch installed on my main computer, turns out I just had to update my Windows Emulator (I run on Linux, you may recall) and then things went much more smoothly.  It was finding the right place to do that which lead to a bit of difficulty.  So at least I have piece of mind that fight is over.

I logged on for a few minutes yesterday and amid greetings folks were asking me my thoughts on the changes and while I would love to share them -I can’t.  I’ve posted some Glyphs and I chose my 5 talents for Tumunzahar.  That’s all the time I’ve had.  Well, not entirely true.  I logged on to most of my characters to combine my mounts and pets.  I do like the Mount UI by the way.  Oh, I’m also getting Glyph of Confession as soon as I have time.

I haven’t done anything else because I simply haven’t had the time.  This week was back to work and it’s prep for the kids as they return to school on Tuesday, so there’s a bit of running around.  I have dinner company coming tonight, and am still not done the bathroom or the bedroom. 

Then there’s Mogolympics.  I have to thank my fellow judges again, as the final three events are being shared by them for posting.  As I think the events I posted averaged out to about 8 hours of work each, I’m glad they’ve picked up the final ones.  Of course, the flipside of that is I have the closing ceremonies to do.  I had hoped to have that in much better shape than I do, but I digress there is only so much time in a day…or a week, as it were.  I’m hoping for a worst case scenario of getting that posted on Monday. 

Hope everyone else is delving into the new features, or maybe enjoying Guild Wars 2′s official release.  Either way, I look forward to both myself.  Just a few more hurdles to leap first.

Somewhere Over The (Ported) Rainbow

What will he see when this spell finishes later today?

Here we are, at the dawn of another major patch in World of Warcraft.  The servers will go down within the hour and when they come up, we’ll be in for some heavy duty changes – the biggest of which will no doubt be the Talent Trees.  I haven’t decided who I’ll spec first to take part in the Theramore event though I’m leading towards Tumunzahar.  Of course, I’m also considering just logging onto my Scribe and crafting more Glyphs like a madman.  I hear there’s money to be made in that.

I’m hoping the servers are back up when I get home from work, which would be about an hour and a half after Blizzard is planning on having them up.  With a patch like this, though, it’s hard to say.  Either way, Mrs. Amateur and myself are headed to a concert not too long after that so hence my selfish optimism.  If they’re not, I’ll probably check things out when we get home -as it’ll be after midnight and I’m up by 4:30 anyway.  It’ll be an efficient way to cut out the middle man.

There’s also the excitement of what will come of Theramore.  I’ve avoided the spoilers that have surfaced in the last week just to experience it fresh for myself (much like the talents).  I can’t wait to see what that will involve, on both sides.

And yes, I’m looking forward to taking one of my Hunters and blowing someone’s head off at point blank range.  I’m simple like that.

Friday Top 5: Patch 5.0.4.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a top five, and with the patch coming next week I thought there’s no better time for a discussion than with the big change on the horizon.  So, here’s what I’m looking most forward to when I log on Wednesday evening (because I’m at a concert Tuesday):

1. Theramore
Yessir, the Lore fan in me is quivering with anticipation over what actually happens to Jaina’s nest and subsequently her as well.  I think what has me most excited, though, is for the first time in a pre-expansion event I get to experience the full spectrum on both sides.  Sure, I got to help Vol’jin get his island back but that was the extent of my Horde involvement.  Saintvache is armed and ready.  Tum has his spells prepped, and Siori’s lurking in the shadows of Dustwallow Marsh as we speak.

2. Glyphs
Probably a bit of a surprise, but much of what I have seen with the Glyph system is a welcomed relief.  Prime Glyphs are gone, and it looks to me like the idea of glyphs will be much more “flavour” than anything else.  I don’t think this could be more true than with the Druid class.  So many options now!  Can’t wait to see what they do with the others.  Oh, and of course the profits I expect my Scribe to experience.

3. Account Wide
Whether it’s achievements, pets, or mounts, it all falls under this category.  The mount one just allows me to use the best character for the job rather than the one I want it on most.  I’ll also happily admit it benefits those of us with alts and one could call it supporting laziness.  But much of this expansion is aimed at time-limited players, so less grinding and farming for alts is ok at this stage of WoW as far as I’m concerned.  Who knows, with achievements account-wide, I might actually try for a few more of them.

4. Battle Tags
In reading the Patch Notes, I finally saw confirmation of this system being implemented.  I’m happy because I know a number of people who have no interest in sharing anything personal via Real ID (and, quite frankly, I’m fine with that) but will quite easily share something as simple as a battle tag.  Once again, I have mine.  JDKenada #1124.  Feel free to hit me up if you’re not into the whole Real ID thing (or are just switching away from it).

5. AoE Looting
As someone who’s farmed and solo’d dungeons with some semblance of regularity (more so prior to this expansion)…this seems horribly overdue.  Heck, even my laptopis excited about this one.  I look forward to not having to figure out which sparkle is the one I haven’t looted and which one has the hunk of Bear Meat I just don’t feel like looting.

Obviously with a patch this big, there are a lot of things going on and a large amount offered up to us.  There’s currency conversions (man, I hope that means current Valor gear becomes Justice as well).  There’s the whole talent system, which I only kept off the list because I don’t know what to think at this point.  It’s definitely a wait and see on that one.  But you can bet for sure that come Wednesday night I will be doing all I can in Theramore…from both sides.  That’s the big one for me.