Monday (28 Jun) - Back From the Desert

Monday (28 Jun) - Back From the Desert

We are, at last, back from the desert. It was a fun trip, but it seems I am even farther behind now that I am back. Our 21st wedding anniversary is July 1st and the Mrs birthday is 30 Jun (what kind of a glutton for punishment does that make me?). Our gift giving is more on the creative side than the costly side (at least this year) and it is taking up most of my time right now to get things together.

Happy is still manhandling the Auction House, Wild is still pondering the cost of a pair of i264 boots, and Naithipe is still being her enigmatic self. The MM guild ICC10 raid appears to be on for Tuesday and Wednesday, and Wild is signed up for that despite the looming RL events.

As for Monday night, I desperately needed to go kill things to recharge the batteries, so Monday night pvp couldn't have come at a better time.

Happy had been logging in and out of the game during the day with no problems. However, at 8:45pm when Mery tried to log in, I could not get past the Connect screen. After several tries I finally got in game. Mery was in Thunder Bluff. Lao was already in game in an Arathi Basin match. We greeted each other and Mery started preparing for the evening, donning her heirloom gear and swapping out her soling pet (Sassy the gorilla) for her pvp pet (Fleshrypper the predator bird). Lao invited Mery to group up, asking Mery if she was ready. Lao didn't get an answer because Mery went into an extended lag and then was booted out of the game.

It took several more minutes of attempting to login before Mery was finally able to get back in. All seemed fine this time. Lao reported that Ando would not be joining us, not on Monday night and not for awhile. Real Life had taken center stage . . . Ando and the rest of the DER family hope to be back in about a month.

Lao and Mery got into Warsong Gulch, on a team in which more than half the players were paladins. It was not a good mix and when it became obvious we had no chance, and when players started leaving, we both agreed to bail on the match if an Arathi Basin match came up. After a protracted and fruitless battle, AB became available and we switched over.

Arathi Basin was no better, however, but for a different reason. The alliance opponent must have been under represented, as the horde team swept through the bases with little opposition. Lao and Mery took two bases ourselves, and then helped overwhelm the alliance graveyard, killing alliance players as they rezzed. In less than five minutes we'd won the match.

Then it was back to Warsong Gulch in another protracted fight that didn't seem to go anywhere. The terrible lag earlier in the evening returned as well, and Mery found herself in a twilight world where she could do nothing while the battle went on around her and without her. She was then disconnected from the game once again.

There is major server maintenance planned for Tuesday, although our server supposedly had our big upgrade done last week (when our server was down a full 24 hours). This time the new Ruby Sanctum dungeon might be opened, and perhaps preps for that caused the lagging. Also supposedly, Silvermoon server will be back online at 11am Tuesday morning. But I doubt it.

Mery and Lao decided to call it a night, given Mery's lag/DC issues and the uninspiring pvp matches. At least Mery picked up a little experience, going from 23% to 30% of the way to level 44.

Wild will be waiting to see whether he'll be joining the MM guild in an ICC10 run Tuesday night - or perhaps getting a first look at Ruby Sanctum.