Ideas of March

My efforts thus far to get where I want to be for Warlords has been met with limited results.  It’s entirely my own fault as I’ve been spending my time Hearthstoning when free, usually in an effort to complete a daily each day.  Yes, reader, that one has its teeth sunk in but good.  Fortunately with some free time last night I finally got in some actually WoW time and took to my Gnome Warrior.  The Mrs. and I did some puttering around but actually got into a dungeon pretty quickly(!) and I picked up a couple of levels in Blackfathom Deeps.  After that she was kind enough to run me through Stocks before calling it a night.  Another Gnomeregan run this morning and she’s now 27, on her way to 28.  Go figure, as soon as I lament queue times, I have two occasions where it was less than 20 minutes.  But, now that I’ve actually been productive to some degree, I figure I can increase said productivity and give myself a proverbial kick in the rear to do so…by jotting down some goals for the month.

• Get Semblance the Warrior (27) to 35.  My original plan was 25, but I accomplished that quite easily yesterday.
• Get Paramita the Priest (41) to 45.
• Get Elcombe the Mage (68) to 70.
• Finally have Elcombe learn Alchemy, and then actually power level it to some degree.
• Max out Saintvache’s Herbalism, currently 310.
• Get his Enchanting (487) up over 500 as well.  Who knows, might even Max it as well.
• Get Junkshot the Monk (7) to 20.
• Clean up Claws of Nature Guild Bank.
• Get Liouxpold (85) at least one level in Pandaria.
• Reach 2,500 Daily Quests

Not a vast list by any stretch, and many of the goals are pretty simple to obtain.  I average about an hour and a half of free time a day, so I can’t be shooting for the moon.  If I get all of these accomplished then it will feel like I’ve done something and will push me on towards the next ones in April.  Let’s face it, many little things can add up to one big thing and in this case that one thing can be momentum.  It wouldn’t hurt for me to have some of that the closer we get to Draenor.

I Never Punched Him

While relaxing this afternoon, I got a little bit ambitious.  Truth be told, I’ve only gone into the Raid Finder once and that was with my friend Valanyr (and it was at his behest, too).  So, I’d done the Siege of Wyrmrest Temple, and even a boss with Saintvache.  But that’s literally it, and so I thought why not give the Siege a try again.  I’d heard and read horror stories about the Raid Finder but was in the mood where if it didn’t work out then “oh well.”

The first moment I knew something wasn’t right was standing on Wyrmrest Temple.  I thought, hrm…I must’ve joined one in progress.  Wasn’t that big of a deal, as I said a moment ago I was just in the mood to be there regardless.  Turns out I was wrong about the whole situation and it stemmed from what I must’ve clicked on.  You see, a rather ominous presence appeared on my screen and I realized I wasn’t saving the Temple…

Property of Furious-Gaming.com

So, indeed, when I realized I was fighting Ultraxion I reconsidered things just a bit.  I hadn’t even read the fights for the Fall of Deathwing because I hadn’t planned on being there any time soon.  But, in this case I was there, so I figured I may as well make the most of it.  If I failed, I’d learn from it.  Ultraxion went smoothly, as did the ship.  Then came the Spine and I just shuddered because of the various horror stories I had heard.  We cut it a bit close, but still succeeded.  Then came the final fight and when everyone was a platform over, I had no idea how they got there as Mrs. Amateur came in to inform me the boy was sick.  So worrying about him and trying to figure out how they got there, I was pretty well useless.

So I did a bit of dps on anything I was in range of, and otherwise just kept myself alive.  I kinda figured the raid might come back to me and I should be ready if that was the case (and for those who haven’t been there, it was).  After that it was a piece of cake!

I have to say given the stories I’ve heard, and even the random dungeons I’ve had, I never expected a run this smooth.  Sure, a few people died and we had to battle rez a tank twice, but otherwise everyone just showed up and did their job and those who did any chatting were friendly and helpful.  I couldn’t have asked for a better run.  I rolled on a pair of casting gloves and won them but ended up giving them to the Mage who they were more suited for (no Spirit), and I think that brought the luck to my side as I won Maw of the Dragonlord.

The one thing I did learn, is that with my computer running Ubuntu and my Emulator (Wine) not able to access all my hardware, I had some serious lag.  Heck, I would hazard there’s a cinematic between each fight but I couldn’t even play them.  The screen was just black so I was smart enough to hit escape.  But, it was a tonne of fun…speaking of which, tonight’s Laid Back Raid in Blackwing Lair should bring some fun of its own as well!  Rest assured I’ll share the story as always.

Second Ring Of The Circus

Ooh…buffet!

So that’s what he looks like!

I hate to say it, but until yesterday, I’d never seen the Ley-Guardian. I’ve lamented my PuG adventures, though I’ve neglected to mention the lack of success I’ve had in The Oculus. On the few occasions I’ve gotten together in a group, we always died on Mage-Lord_Urom.

In fact, even in yesterday’s run it looked inevitable. The DK tank we had seemed to be content to tank him on his Frost Bomb. As a Rogue, you can imagine how much use I was with that strategy. Well, after we wiped, I pointed out that wouldn’t work. I got the impression this was the first time the tank had challenged the Mage, so there was still hope. She decided to tank him in the opposite direction, and I told the ranged dps to stay ahead of the FB rather than follow behind it. This proved to be much more successful.

As I had taken the healing drake, it was off to Eregos himself. The stage is epic the first time you go up there. The fight itself was a serious let down. I was on Emerald, so I was healing. I cast a total of four heals before the fight was over: two on the tank, and two on dps (separate Amber drakes).

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the dragon fighting (which Northrend just continues to deliver over and over in various forms) and the only chance I’ll have at instance healing any time soon. Still, I guess after all the struggle to get to Eregos, I guess I wanted a bit more.