Wednesday (13 Oct) - Effin (Fn) Computer!

Wednesday (13 Oct) - Effin (Fn) Computer!

I had two presents on Thursday morning. First, a new release of Auctioneer cleared up the couple of problems Happy had been having, and he is now back up to full speed. The Auctioneer problems may have discouraged some of the regular sellers from posting, and certainly a lot of casual posters were off getting their toons set up for the patch, because the pickings on the AH were slim. That suited Happy just fine, and he emptied a few bags worth of materials into the AH at premium prices, and they sold, and sold, and sold. Happy couldn't give away large prismatic shards last week, as they bottomed out at just over a gold apiece (average price is usually over 3g). Happy sold truckloads on Tuesday, bumping the price up over 10g and they still sold. Happy was the only provider. Things are calming down just a little, but Happy hopes for another strong day.

Second, the addon Chatter got a new release and it seems to be working. That will allow me to adjust my UI to give me a bit more screen space. Sadly, Xperl is still in the doghouse. No release to fix the raidframes, and no prognosis on when there will be one.

Speaking of raid frames, there was an ICC10 G2 raid Wednesday night. Wild and most of the family had been in game on and off all day (dam but I have a lot of toons!). I'd logged off a bit for dinner and then came back in game around 6:10pm. Well, I tried to log back in game. I loaded the Blizzard Launcher, no problem. I clicked on Play (the new launcher has a VERY irritating and loud BONG! when you click play - who thinks of these stupid things?). Anyway, I got the login screen, selected Wild's account, and entered my password. I then checked my Authenticator and entered the numerical code. Only what I typed was gibberish.

Was this some new kind of hacker attack? No. When I hit one of the number keys at the top of the keyboard, instead of the number I was getting the special key instead. I wasn't really all that worried at first. Some issue with the Capitals key or something. I tried various things. They didn't work. Wild is supposed to be in game by 6:15pm for invites. It was already 6:20pm. Figuring I had a keyboard problem, I stole the Mrs keyboard and hooked it up. The problem didn't go away. I rebooted the computer, and I'm starting to get a little worried. The reboot didn't change anything. Also, the number pad simply ignored my pounding on it, obviously in league with the rest of the keyboard to keep me out of the game.

I was starting to get pissed, too. I had my second computer up so I could use see Vent and which I used to check boss strats and stuff during the raid. Surprisingly, the keyboard worked just fine on the other computer. It's the same keyboard. Hurry! Just switch to the other computer! Sorry, not an option. I didn't have the Patch loaded on that computer yet - and that would take hours.

I opened vent and went into the chat section so I could talk with the raid leader. I explained the problem. They really, really wanted Wild in the raid and they started helping me try to debug the problem. They were very excited about getting started, too, as it would be the first raid since the patch and we all had a million things to try and questions to get answered about what it would be like.

I lost count of the number of things we tried, from changing USB slots, changing cables, etc. It finally came down to either a failed keyboard driver or a BIOS problem with the computer itself. Windows keyboards used to have a Function key (Fn) known to cause this kind of problem, which could only be fixed through the BIOS (for non computer types messing with the BIOS is like doing open heart surgery. It's possible to kill the patient in there.) I didn't really want to mess with the BIOS, so I went after the driver. Then I learned it was even worse. I went into the Control Panel to get to the System so I could reinstall the keyboard driver. But now my mouse started acting up, highlighting things I didn't want and basically not allowing me to get to the System button.

The raid had to get moving, and I understood that. They replaced me (/cry!) and I listened in for more than an hour as they worked their way through ICC with great success. Later, after a lot more attempts and several more reboots, the keyboard driver started functioning normally again. I don't know what I did to cause the problem, nor do I know what combination of things I did to make it go away. It's a disturbing mystery that I hope never pops up again.

Wild missed out on Wednesday night, finding himself already getting behind his raid group. It's only one day, but unless someone from Wednesday can't make the Thursday run, Wild won't be raiding with them Thursday, either. And next week I will be out of town - on Wed/Thurs. That would make it two weeks without raiding with my group. This really sucks.

Let's end up with a positive note. When I finally was able to get back in game I took Mery for a spin. She's been farming leather in Felwood and I wanted to get an idea of how things would be different with my under 80 toons. I specced her as Beast Master, which is what she was before. Hunters got a little love from the patch. Mery no longer needed bullets of arrows for her ranged weapon. I have to admit here that I got the bag issue wrong. Hunters don't get five bag slots, they get the same four slots as everyone else. The ammo slot on the character sheet was eliminated instead of becoming a bag slot. I think Blizzard missed an opportunity there. Anyway, a really nice thing Blizzard did was allow hunters to bring along more than one combat pet. Only one can be active at a time, but now hunters can switch between pets without having to physically go to the Stables in a major city to get it. Mery brought her tanking pet Sassy and her DPS pet BlueWitch to Felwood, and went to work.

It was awesome! Pre-patch Mery had to pay attention to her mana pool and had to switch between high damage settings (which quickly ate up her mana) and mana conserving settings (which greatly lowered her DPS). Now, post patch, she simply could not fire off spells fast enough to make the slightest dent in her mana. I think it dropped to 90% once, but the regen was so fast it was unbelievable. The only thing slowing Mery down was the time it took to skin the piles of dead bears and scavengers Mery brought down. The new Kill Command was pretty nice, too. A special, extreme range spell that can only be used when the target is below 20% health. "Kill command" even showed up on the screen when the conditions were met to use it. And use it Mery did. There is also a Scatter shot spell that Mery didn't have before. This is a short range, shotgun like blast that disorients the target. Mery tested it by agrroing mobs before Sassy could get to them, and them hitting Scatter shot when they got close. A wonderful way to stop a charging mob for a few seconds to get back out to range and start shooting again. Mery just had to remember that Sassy also stopped attacking when Scattershot was used, and I had to be ready to re-engage her when the stun wore off. Mery's overall DPS went up nicely as well. Mery is much happy.