Wednesday (31 July 2013) - The Sun Sets
[Note: I was expecting Happy to have today, 31 July, to wrap up the last items he had received from the AH, but when I logged in this morning the account had been closed. Ah well. The other account remains active until 7 Aug, closing on the 8th. I am giving Naithipe the last say. I suspect that you have already deduced her real name, but let me know if you've figured it out, and if you know the connection between the names. Her real name is revealed at the end of the post.]
The death knight was draped over a bar stool at the Inn shoehorned into a corner of Dalaran. The pig tails drew stares. The armor she wore warned of a more dangerous story. The baleful glare was that of a creature lost to her pain and willing to take all who dared down the dark road she trod.
She was bone tired. Cursed as a death knight, murderer of a trusted friend, and mother of a fatherless child. She had never wanted to be any of those things, in the early years. Now, she accepted her solitude and wrapped her crimes around her to protect her bruised soul.
There were whispers around the edges of the bar. "Naithipe," they murmured. She was known here in Dalaran. Washed up on a forgotten chunk of floating rock and caught in the eddies of a land falling into obscurity. It fit her mood. It fit the dingy Filthy Animal Inn and the decrepit denizens who thought they had a life. It fit the blackness of her heart.
That was her state of mind when she left Dalaran for the Valley of the Two Moons in the land of Pandaria. That had not been an easy journey. The Pandarens, strangely, had let her be. Perhaps they sensed the blackness she carried, and let her pass lest some of that blackness spill across their beautiful world. Perhaps they pitied her, or thought her not worthy of the effort to obstruct her. It made no difference to Naithipe.
Her journey ended at Halfhill Market. At the Lazy Turnip Tavern, Naithipe watched from a dark corner while her only child danced without music on the counter of the bar. She watched with wetted eyes. She could see the darkness in the child, a darkness that Naithipe carried in her own soul. She had not wished to pass that on at her birth, but there it was. Perhaps the curse will pass her by anyway, she hoped. In a quiet way she was proud of her daughter. She had advanced much farther than herself, and surpassed even her mentors. Her daughter was happy in her own way, Naithipe knew, as no daughter was ever watched so closely as her.
Her daughter slowed to a stop and stepped lightly down to the floor. She passed a coin to the barkeep for letting her share his counter. There was appreciative applause without the ugliness that seemed to follow Naithipe. There was envy, there was lust, but there was also respect. There was also that smudge of blackness on her heart. Which way will your life turn? Naithipe wondered of her daughter.
Naithipe rose and spoke. Her daughter turned at the sound of her name, "Plumrosefist." Plumrosefist turned her head to one side, and then the other, seeming to take in and accept every secret Naithipe had ever had. "My little Rose," Naithipe called her, for the first time out loud, for the millionth time in her heart.
"Mother," Plumerosefist said then, and embraced her with a smile.
Someone in the bar murmured, "Naithipe." Plumrosefist's mother turned to the voice, her arm still around her child. "No," she said firmly. "My name is Tiphaine."
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday (24 Jul) - Level 60, Now What?
Wednesday (24 Jul) - Level 60, Now What?
[Continuing the look back]
Ah, there is nothing like the first time. Wild's guildies cook up a surprise for their new level 60.
Got home from work Friday planning to check on what the guildies that did not get in on the MC run were going to do so I could join them later. Had some fish to cook and turn in for the war effort and then RL dinner and maybe a movie before heading back in game.
I did not sign up for any of the weekend MC runs (there are runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday now with the two groups picking two of those days). I'd thought about hanging around Burning Steppes to see if I was needed, but heck, there was a long signup for these things. No, I'll just have a nice dinner and check in later.
Then Wild gets a whisper from a guildie - "Hey Wild, you done your MC attunement?" "Yes," Wild replies, wondering how many times I have to tell people that and thinking I'm going to be doing escort duty for someone who needs to get it.
"Well, then, get your tauren butt in here! We need you." 'Here' was Molten Core. MC. Home of the 40 person raid. It was 6:15pm server time. Wild has been a level 60 for a grand total of five days.
I was still in Orgrimmar, had to fight through the lag, take the zep to STV, then the flight to Kargath, and finally jump on my mount and rush to Blackrock Mountain. I remembered how to get to the npc where I had gotten the attunement, but I'd never directly ported into MC before. Luckily, another guild druid friend was on the raid so I whispered the question to him. Ah, the thing I needed was right next to the npc, ok! (oh, and let's not forget the RL "Honey, I've got a favor to ask - you know that dinner you're cooking, well . . . " )
Wild wasn't the very last member of the raid to show up, but only by a couple. I really didn't even have time to think about where I was and what I was really about to do. There were lots of instructions, group assignments, tasks issued for each of the groups, all very organized. It was about 6:30pm when we got started.
There are two coop MC groups. Group 1, which is the veteran group that is close to taking on Ragnaros; and group 2, recently formed and still getting a feel for MC. Wild was in group 2. Both groups were heading into MC tonight, and that is why Wild got pressed into duty. Group 2 was short the needed 3 druids, and Wild was #3. [Imagine eighty raiders all crammed together on narrow ledges, climbing those vast chains, waiting for word to enter MC, and the lake of molten lava below should your finger twitch on the mouse at the wrong moment.]
Wild's responsibilities were to support three 5 person groups - my own and two others, 15 players counting Wild. Basically my role was to keep my 5 man group alive, debuff curses/poisons for all three, and help watch over the other two groups while the healers in those groups were doing the same.
Being in an MC raid did not change my luck (or unluck) at the start of instances - After a bad pull on some trash mobs - can you say raid wipe? After that we settled down and began working our way to the first boss. We had already been at it for 20 minutes or so when the progress stopped while the leaders conferred. Wild finally had a chance to look around. Visually (at least so far) MC looks like a typical cave system. The tunnels are larger with higher ceilings, and the mobs are built to that size. Everything is huge in here. Wild was checking out the mobs at the edge of sight of the raid group. Everything was 61+ elite or higher, and then Wild caught a glimpse of a named mob. Who is that? It was Lucifron. Wild could actually see Luci, an MC boss. That's when it started to sink in that Wild was actually doing MC. And shortly after that we engaged.
Lucifron can be tricky, but this time went down fairly easily; you could tell the core group had done Luci several times. No one died and I took a screenshot of my first MC boss kill. The clock said 7:15pm, 45 minutes to organize and kill our first boss of the evening.
Directing a group of 40 players to tackle a boss is kind of like real combat planning. Each step is talked out, questions answered, reminders repeated again and again. As we worked our way further in we were told - stay to the right wall here, everyone come to the back of this cul-de-sac, get your buffs up, and on and on. In front of us now were packs of core hounds. The strategy is to pack a group of hounds as close together as possible, and then AOE them into dust. It worked! Wild was even starting to get the hang of things a little. Despite the size of the place, 40 people still took up a lot of room and it made viewing angles hard. And that wasn't helped by having a screen full of Wild's own UI buttons plus the raid screens. Wild had all 8 groups visible. It was learn on the go as far as using ctrassist went, and there are still a couple of things I need to figure out before next time. But it worked, and Wild healed and debuffed away.
With the core hounds cleared we faced our second boss - Magmadar. Wild could tell that the raid leader was nervous about this one, although he talked confidently on raid chat. The monstrous two headed thing could Fear, and you did not want to be in front of it when it spewed fire. The strategy was to arrange all healers in main and alternate groups together, setting the healers at max range but still within healing distance of the tank. A hunter was designated to run in and pull Maggy to the lone tank who would have to hold him while the DPS folks moved in.That was the strategy, anyway.
It is scary how fast one boss can kill 40 people. The healers were too close to the tank. The DPSers attacked too soon, before the tank could hold aggro. Maggy obliterated the healers, killed the tank, and then ran amuck. In less than a minute the raid leader hollered for everyone to "just die and get it over with!" Wild died with the rest.
We reassembled for a 2nd try. The strategy was modified to put even more distance between the groups of healers. Everyone was told to stay out of range of the fear attacks as in the last try those healers that survived the first assault got feared (Wild included) and couldn't heal the tank. New tank assignments were made for backup duty in case of another early main tank kill. We tried again. This time we lasted quite awhile. Wild was running around, staying out of fear range (mostly), trying to keep my group alive while keeping an eye on the main tank. I actually thought things were gong fairly well until Maggy looked right at Wild, charged, and took Wild apart. Why pick on me, I wondered? Lying dead in the field I got a chance to look at the full raid board, which showed most everyone already dead. Another wipe.
Another attempt, and another wipe. It was a solid, determined group, though. No grumbling, no quitters, just reassemble, discuss what went wrong, and adjust. As Wild listened in he and several others were asked to make the run back from the graveyard to save on rezzes since there was time. Oh no.
Wild tried, he really did. While trying to work his way back, though, Wild fell. Into the lava pit. It took awhile to find a way out, and then longer to . . . well, it was embarrassing by the time Wild got back to the group and even then had to be summoned. Then it was more embarrassment trying to find the repair bot (there's a repair bot?) to get my gear repaired while everyone else waited. Where is it? The raid leader patiently explains, Right next to me, Wild. Where are you? Sigh. Wild got it all sorted out. Finally. The raid leader is a wonderfully patient fellow.
This will be our, what, 4th attempt on Magmadar. We had to repeat the clearing of the core hounds as they had respawned. No problem there, and then again Maggy glared menacingly at us.
This time the groups of healers finally got into the rhythm of main healer group up front healing the main tank, and then as soon as the Fear spell scattered them the 2nd healer group (Wild's) would rush in and start healing. When we got feared then the first group was ready to plunge back into the fight. Success breeds success. The longer the tank stayed alive, the better hold on aggro, and the less likely Maggy would break free. The battle raged, and Magmadar went down. No one died. Not one. It was 9:30pm.
Before joining the raid everyone was asked to set our hearthstones to Kargath. Not really knowing why, and being in a great rush, Wild had still taken a moment to do that. Wild was glad he did as the raid leader called a break after the Magmadar kill, asked everyone to hearth to Kargath, get repairs, take a bio break etc, and then head back into the instance. Some had forgotten to set their hearthstone and had to be summoned back. Wild was glad he wasn't one of those getting mild admonishments for forgetting.
It was a bit of a walk and fight to the next boss. The group was constantly advised to be cautious, stay close and not to aggro anything unless specifically targeted. It was fun clearing the path and things relaxed a little more. When the raid leader called for quiet on raid chat, though, everyone shut up. We had arrived at the next boss.
Gehennas. Flanked by two other elites. The raid leader asked if anyone needed a reminder of the strategy for this boss. Are you kidding? A chorus of Yes and Plz followed. The basics - hunters send their pets in to attack the two elites, and then the pets are called back to draw them to the raid off tanks and away from Gehennas. As the off tanks and their support groups took care of the two elites, the main tank and his group attacks Gehennas. All healers focus on the main tank once that happens. Gehennas has a 2k plus random lightning bolt, a firestorm that will kill you if you can't get out from under it, and deadly curses that all priests/healers were warned to keep debuffed as quickly as possible.
Everything was going according to plan and we got him down under 50% when the main tank suddenly died. We were having trouble re-acquiring aggro with a new tank when that happens and Gehennas was no exception. The next tank fought hard but Gehennas was starting to kill people. The tank kept trying to hold him, and we kept eating away at his health as the litter of bodies mounted on the cave floor. The raid wiped with Gehennas at 13% health. So close.
Frustrated, and trying to beat respawns, we went back after him a little too quickly, and wiped again. The third time we tried we failed to kill him, but the raid survived, and then much time was spent fighting off mob respawns/patrols. Wild died in the 3rd fight and then died again attempting to escape a patrol shortly after being rezzed.
The fourth attempt was almost a repeat of the third try, but Wild got a chance to play a pivotal role in keeping that attempt going. Fairly early in the fight Wild saw one of the off tanks battling an elite go down and was able to get to him for a battle rez. As the DPS group tried to contain it, I got the tank back into operation to finish the job. Then, for the fight with Gehennas, Wild did the bulk of the decursing, and was often the first to decurse the main tank, allowing the main healers to focus on healing.
But the random bolts and deadly firestorms had killed several players. Gehennas wore down the main healers, and heals were longer in coming to the battered main tank. Wild had periodically started heals on the main tank but could always interrupt them when the main healers got to him first. With under 10% health left to Gehennas, Wild's heals on the tank started to go through. With the other healers either dead or out of mana or otherwise incapacitated, Wild's heals kept up the tank and we killed Gehennas. It was 11:45pm when we wrapped up the run for the night.
I suspect that veteran's of MC have these bosses on farm status and would be appalled if a raid were to wipe at any of these. As a relatively green group without a full set of regular players, I was impressed at how it was run and the commitment of all those in the raid. The raid leader was always calm, was good at explaining what needed to be done, and offered helpful critique when we failed. On a personal level, when Wild "got lost" and had trouble getting back to the group on that one wipe, the raid leader whispered Wild directly, not in
anger or frustration, but to help. Everyone I worked with directly in the raid were the same way.
All in all I think Wild did a fine job for my first MC raid. I contributed and did my part. I don't think I "nubbed" it, DT, and I know I'll be invited back. But I hope not for saturdays raid - I have to be very nice to my better half saturday or it will be cold leftovers from tonight's uneaten meal for me.
Postscript on "lewt": We do use a DKP system for determining who can roll on drops, and of course Wild started MC with zero points. However, there was the possibility of druid gear dropping that neither of the other druids needed, so there was a slight chance Wild might come away with something, but no druid gear dropped. Drops went to shamans and priests mostly tonight, and like the rest of the raid, was handled in a friendly, professional way. A class act all around.
As a last note it was quite a thrill during the run to get whispers from friends, guild and non-guild alike, who came in game, saw where I was, and sent congratulations. Very nice indeed."
PS - One thing I can't quite get my head around is that the three coop guilds supporting the raids that night managed to bring together EIGHTY level 60 people to make those two MC raids. Look at the raiding today. The largest raids are 25 man, but there are very few guilds who run them. Ten man raids are the standard, and even then it seems they are often very hard to fill. Back then Wild was lucky to be a druid, because druids were needed, and that's how Wild got that invite to MC. Wild would run MC many, many times.
[Continuing the look back]
Ah, there is nothing like the first time. Wild's guildies cook up a surprise for their new level 60.
Got home from work Friday planning to check on what the guildies that did not get in on the MC run were going to do so I could join them later. Had some fish to cook and turn in for the war effort and then RL dinner and maybe a movie before heading back in game.
I did not sign up for any of the weekend MC runs (there are runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday now with the two groups picking two of those days). I'd thought about hanging around Burning Steppes to see if I was needed, but heck, there was a long signup for these things. No, I'll just have a nice dinner and check in later.
Then Wild gets a whisper from a guildie - "Hey Wild, you done your MC attunement?" "Yes," Wild replies, wondering how many times I have to tell people that and thinking I'm going to be doing escort duty for someone who needs to get it.
"Well, then, get your tauren butt in here! We need you." 'Here' was Molten Core. MC. Home of the 40 person raid. It was 6:15pm server time. Wild has been a level 60 for a grand total of five days.
I was still in Orgrimmar, had to fight through the lag, take the zep to STV, then the flight to Kargath, and finally jump on my mount and rush to Blackrock Mountain. I remembered how to get to the npc where I had gotten the attunement, but I'd never directly ported into MC before. Luckily, another guild druid friend was on the raid so I whispered the question to him. Ah, the thing I needed was right next to the npc, ok! (oh, and let's not forget the RL "Honey, I've got a favor to ask - you know that dinner you're cooking, well . . . " )
Wild wasn't the very last member of the raid to show up, but only by a couple. I really didn't even have time to think about where I was and what I was really about to do. There were lots of instructions, group assignments, tasks issued for each of the groups, all very organized. It was about 6:30pm when we got started.
There are two coop MC groups. Group 1, which is the veteran group that is close to taking on Ragnaros; and group 2, recently formed and still getting a feel for MC. Wild was in group 2. Both groups were heading into MC tonight, and that is why Wild got pressed into duty. Group 2 was short the needed 3 druids, and Wild was #3. [Imagine eighty raiders all crammed together on narrow ledges, climbing those vast chains, waiting for word to enter MC, and the lake of molten lava below should your finger twitch on the mouse at the wrong moment.]
Wild's responsibilities were to support three 5 person groups - my own and two others, 15 players counting Wild. Basically my role was to keep my 5 man group alive, debuff curses/poisons for all three, and help watch over the other two groups while the healers in those groups were doing the same.
Being in an MC raid did not change my luck (or unluck) at the start of instances - After a bad pull on some trash mobs - can you say raid wipe? After that we settled down and began working our way to the first boss. We had already been at it for 20 minutes or so when the progress stopped while the leaders conferred. Wild finally had a chance to look around. Visually (at least so far) MC looks like a typical cave system. The tunnels are larger with higher ceilings, and the mobs are built to that size. Everything is huge in here. Wild was checking out the mobs at the edge of sight of the raid group. Everything was 61+ elite or higher, and then Wild caught a glimpse of a named mob. Who is that? It was Lucifron. Wild could actually see Luci, an MC boss. That's when it started to sink in that Wild was actually doing MC. And shortly after that we engaged.
Lucifron can be tricky, but this time went down fairly easily; you could tell the core group had done Luci several times. No one died and I took a screenshot of my first MC boss kill. The clock said 7:15pm, 45 minutes to organize and kill our first boss of the evening.
Directing a group of 40 players to tackle a boss is kind of like real combat planning. Each step is talked out, questions answered, reminders repeated again and again. As we worked our way further in we were told - stay to the right wall here, everyone come to the back of this cul-de-sac, get your buffs up, and on and on. In front of us now were packs of core hounds. The strategy is to pack a group of hounds as close together as possible, and then AOE them into dust. It worked! Wild was even starting to get the hang of things a little. Despite the size of the place, 40 people still took up a lot of room and it made viewing angles hard. And that wasn't helped by having a screen full of Wild's own UI buttons plus the raid screens. Wild had all 8 groups visible. It was learn on the go as far as using ctrassist went, and there are still a couple of things I need to figure out before next time. But it worked, and Wild healed and debuffed away.
With the core hounds cleared we faced our second boss - Magmadar. Wild could tell that the raid leader was nervous about this one, although he talked confidently on raid chat. The monstrous two headed thing could Fear, and you did not want to be in front of it when it spewed fire. The strategy was to arrange all healers in main and alternate groups together, setting the healers at max range but still within healing distance of the tank. A hunter was designated to run in and pull Maggy to the lone tank who would have to hold him while the DPS folks moved in.That was the strategy, anyway.
It is scary how fast one boss can kill 40 people. The healers were too close to the tank. The DPSers attacked too soon, before the tank could hold aggro. Maggy obliterated the healers, killed the tank, and then ran amuck. In less than a minute the raid leader hollered for everyone to "just die and get it over with!" Wild died with the rest.
We reassembled for a 2nd try. The strategy was modified to put even more distance between the groups of healers. Everyone was told to stay out of range of the fear attacks as in the last try those healers that survived the first assault got feared (Wild included) and couldn't heal the tank. New tank assignments were made for backup duty in case of another early main tank kill. We tried again. This time we lasted quite awhile. Wild was running around, staying out of fear range (mostly), trying to keep my group alive while keeping an eye on the main tank. I actually thought things were gong fairly well until Maggy looked right at Wild, charged, and took Wild apart. Why pick on me, I wondered? Lying dead in the field I got a chance to look at the full raid board, which showed most everyone already dead. Another wipe.
Another attempt, and another wipe. It was a solid, determined group, though. No grumbling, no quitters, just reassemble, discuss what went wrong, and adjust. As Wild listened in he and several others were asked to make the run back from the graveyard to save on rezzes since there was time. Oh no.
Wild tried, he really did. While trying to work his way back, though, Wild fell. Into the lava pit. It took awhile to find a way out, and then longer to . . . well, it was embarrassing by the time Wild got back to the group and even then had to be summoned. Then it was more embarrassment trying to find the repair bot (there's a repair bot?) to get my gear repaired while everyone else waited. Where is it? The raid leader patiently explains, Right next to me, Wild. Where are you? Sigh. Wild got it all sorted out. Finally. The raid leader is a wonderfully patient fellow.
This will be our, what, 4th attempt on Magmadar. We had to repeat the clearing of the core hounds as they had respawned. No problem there, and then again Maggy glared menacingly at us.
This time the groups of healers finally got into the rhythm of main healer group up front healing the main tank, and then as soon as the Fear spell scattered them the 2nd healer group (Wild's) would rush in and start healing. When we got feared then the first group was ready to plunge back into the fight. Success breeds success. The longer the tank stayed alive, the better hold on aggro, and the less likely Maggy would break free. The battle raged, and Magmadar went down. No one died. Not one. It was 9:30pm.
Before joining the raid everyone was asked to set our hearthstones to Kargath. Not really knowing why, and being in a great rush, Wild had still taken a moment to do that. Wild was glad he did as the raid leader called a break after the Magmadar kill, asked everyone to hearth to Kargath, get repairs, take a bio break etc, and then head back into the instance. Some had forgotten to set their hearthstone and had to be summoned back. Wild was glad he wasn't one of those getting mild admonishments for forgetting.
It was a bit of a walk and fight to the next boss. The group was constantly advised to be cautious, stay close and not to aggro anything unless specifically targeted. It was fun clearing the path and things relaxed a little more. When the raid leader called for quiet on raid chat, though, everyone shut up. We had arrived at the next boss.
Gehennas. Flanked by two other elites. The raid leader asked if anyone needed a reminder of the strategy for this boss. Are you kidding? A chorus of Yes and Plz followed. The basics - hunters send their pets in to attack the two elites, and then the pets are called back to draw them to the raid off tanks and away from Gehennas. As the off tanks and their support groups took care of the two elites, the main tank and his group attacks Gehennas. All healers focus on the main tank once that happens. Gehennas has a 2k plus random lightning bolt, a firestorm that will kill you if you can't get out from under it, and deadly curses that all priests/healers were warned to keep debuffed as quickly as possible.
Everything was going according to plan and we got him down under 50% when the main tank suddenly died. We were having trouble re-acquiring aggro with a new tank when that happens and Gehennas was no exception. The next tank fought hard but Gehennas was starting to kill people. The tank kept trying to hold him, and we kept eating away at his health as the litter of bodies mounted on the cave floor. The raid wiped with Gehennas at 13% health. So close.
Frustrated, and trying to beat respawns, we went back after him a little too quickly, and wiped again. The third time we tried we failed to kill him, but the raid survived, and then much time was spent fighting off mob respawns/patrols. Wild died in the 3rd fight and then died again attempting to escape a patrol shortly after being rezzed.
The fourth attempt was almost a repeat of the third try, but Wild got a chance to play a pivotal role in keeping that attempt going. Fairly early in the fight Wild saw one of the off tanks battling an elite go down and was able to get to him for a battle rez. As the DPS group tried to contain it, I got the tank back into operation to finish the job. Then, for the fight with Gehennas, Wild did the bulk of the decursing, and was often the first to decurse the main tank, allowing the main healers to focus on healing.
But the random bolts and deadly firestorms had killed several players. Gehennas wore down the main healers, and heals were longer in coming to the battered main tank. Wild had periodically started heals on the main tank but could always interrupt them when the main healers got to him first. With under 10% health left to Gehennas, Wild's heals on the tank started to go through. With the other healers either dead or out of mana or otherwise incapacitated, Wild's heals kept up the tank and we killed Gehennas. It was 11:45pm when we wrapped up the run for the night.
I suspect that veteran's of MC have these bosses on farm status and would be appalled if a raid were to wipe at any of these. As a relatively green group without a full set of regular players, I was impressed at how it was run and the commitment of all those in the raid. The raid leader was always calm, was good at explaining what needed to be done, and offered helpful critique when we failed. On a personal level, when Wild "got lost" and had trouble getting back to the group on that one wipe, the raid leader whispered Wild directly, not in
anger or frustration, but to help. Everyone I worked with directly in the raid were the same way.
All in all I think Wild did a fine job for my first MC raid. I contributed and did my part. I don't think I "nubbed" it, DT, and I know I'll be invited back. But I hope not for saturdays raid - I have to be very nice to my better half saturday or it will be cold leftovers from tonight's uneaten meal for me.
Postscript on "lewt": We do use a DKP system for determining who can roll on drops, and of course Wild started MC with zero points. However, there was the possibility of druid gear dropping that neither of the other druids needed, so there was a slight chance Wild might come away with something, but no druid gear dropped. Drops went to shamans and priests mostly tonight, and like the rest of the raid, was handled in a friendly, professional way. A class act all around.
As a last note it was quite a thrill during the run to get whispers from friends, guild and non-guild alike, who came in game, saw where I was, and sent congratulations. Very nice indeed."
PS - One thing I can't quite get my head around is that the three coop guilds supporting the raids that night managed to bring together EIGHTY level 60 people to make those two MC raids. Look at the raiding today. The largest raids are 25 man, but there are very few guilds who run them. Ten man raids are the standard, and even then it seems they are often very hard to fill. Back then Wild was lucky to be a druid, because druids were needed, and that's how Wild got that invite to MC. Wild would run MC many, many times.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Tuesday (24 Jul) - The Last Guild Report
Tuesday
(24 Jul) - The Last Guild Report
Each
year, in January, I do a wrap of the prior year. One of the staples of that
report is about guild raiding. The report is not only about Wild and his
guild's current raiding status and progress, but of all of the other guilds
Wild has associated with over the years.
Here
is the final report on the status of Wild's raiding guilds:
Meitha
- Technically, this is Wild's current raid guild. Wild stopped raiding on 10
May, 2012. It wasn't supposed to be permanent, but Wild has not been in a guild
raid since.
Total
Members: 495 (2013) - an increase of 109 guildies
Total
90s: 118 (2013) - an increase of 15
Raid
Accomplishments: Based on Achievements (bosses/downed bosses)
Raid Dec 2012 July 2013
Mogu’Shan
Vaults (0/6) (2/6)
Heart
of Fear (0/6) (1/6)
Terrace
.. Spring (0/4) (0/4)
Throne
of Thunder (0/12) (0/12)
Mayhem
- Wild’s guild until June 2012. Kirà/Wightblade GM
Misguided
- Kirà/Wightblade GM
Note:
At one time Mayhem used an ansi character in it's name, though I no longer
remember which letter. The Mayhem guild above has no ansi character and was
active at least as early as 29 Feb, 2012 (from the Silvermoon realm site).
Misguided shows up on 18 Feb, 2013, with the same GM so I'm pretty sure this is
just a renamed guild. Whether it spawned from the original Mayhem guild that
Wild belonged to ... well, I can't be sure.
Total
Members: 119 (2013)
Total
90s: 47 (2013)
Raid
Accomplishments:
Raid Dec 2012 July 2013
Mogu’Shan
Vaults ?? (1/6)
Heart
of Fear ?? (4/6) - nice
Terrace
.. Spring ?? (0/4)
Throne
of Thunder ?? (1/12) - progress
Fate
Sealed - Wild’s longest serving guild. Ramux/Frohgurt GM.
Total
Members: 166 (2013) - an increase of 35
Total
90s: 50 (2013) - a decrease of 16
Raid
Accomplishments:
Raid Dec 2012 July 2013
Mogu’Shan
Vaults (0/6) (4/6)
Heart
of Fear (0/6) (1/6)
Terrace
.. Spring (0/4) (0/4)
Throne
of Thunder (0/12) (0/12)
Warchild
- FS spin off. Rhonna GM
Total
Members: 53 (2013) - a decrease of 18
Total
90s: 19 (2013) - a decrease of 35!
Raid
Accomplishments:
Raid Dec 2012 July 2013
Mogu’Shan
Vaults (0/6) (4/6)
Heart
of Fear (0/6) (1/6)
Terrace
.. Spring (0/4) (0/4)
Throne
of Thunder (0/12) (0/12)
I
had no idea how ugly this would be. It seems that Pandaria has utterly
overwhelmed the old guilds. Or, to look at it another way, they ARE old guilds.
All of these guilds have been in place at least as far back as the Burning
Crusade. Perhaps they should get some credit for surviving this long.
The
exception is the guild Misguided. It appears that the old Mayhem was reborn as
Misguided, and is the most active raiding guild in the above list. I'll try to
contact the GM and find out how things are going for them.
Seeing some of the old player names, I can't
help but wonder just how many of Wild's current and former raiders are still
out there. I intend to find out.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sunday (21 Jul) - Molten Core Attunement
Sunday (21 Jul) - Molten Core Attunement
[Continuing the look back]
On 19 December, 2005, Wild completed the attunement quest for access to the Molten Core via a teleport window that eliminates having to cross through BRD while fighting mobs to get to the other entrance. Here is how Wild described it:
"Once you are attuned, you can teleport directly to (or at least close to) the MC entrance to save all that time. The teleport is a window you jump through opened by the npc I had just turned my quest in to. When you complete the quest the npc tells you about the open window, and actually opens it for you when you complete the quest. The urge to jump through that window is strong - this is a major quest accomplishment and you want to make sure you do everything right. Wild had already made one mistake by not turning the quest in before.
The catch? You know there's a catch. The catch is that the window only works if you are part of a raid. Only raid groups are allowed in MC, so the npc won't teleport you if you are not in a raid. Ok, so what? Well, if you jump through that window and aren't teleported, you simply jump to the other side of the window - which happens to be a very long fall to the lava below. Very funny. And very fatal.
So, nya nya nya! to you vets, Wild did NOT fall for it. Wild completed the quest, got a very lovely blast of bright lights announcing to everyone standing around that Wild had been Attuned, and turned down the chance to jump through that window.
Everyone in the area cheered and clapped. What a great feeling! Later, Wild wondered if they cheered because he got attuned or because he did it without jumping to his death afterwards. Probably both.
There's a follow up to this story. Wild noticed that there were now some guildies among the folks standing around. And more of them were showing up. A new MC raid was starting with the coop. Wild started to make his way out of there when Jo came up behind him and gave him a big hug and a kiss. Drats, caught in the act! Wild just hugged and danced with his guildies, and then wished everyone a good MC run. One day that could be Wild entering MC."
Wild eventually made it to level 58 on 3 January, 2006 during a BRD run. Wild had some UI (user interface) issues, which was quite common back then. Some of the third party UIs Wild had completely forgotten about, like CTRA (raid assist), Castparty (for healing), and Discord Action Bars. Wild was obsessed with healing addons and was constantly testing and changing them around. Castparty was interfering with CTRA so Wild was off looking for a new one, and he started using Benecast. Back then healing spells had "ranks" in which different levels of the same spell could be used. Healing addons were used to automatically choose the right level of spell. Spell "ranks" are now long gone, thankfully.
Wild made level 59 on 12 January, 2006, taking nine days to get there from level 58. About time Wild started speeding things up.
On Sunday, 15 January, 2006, Wild was in Winterspring. He was 9% of the way to level 60. At 4:30am on 16 January, Wild hit level 60, four days after hitting level 59.
"Postscript: I began playing WoW on 21 Feb, 2005. So it took Wildshard "just" 10 months and 27 days to make level 60. Hehe. Lol! Jump in the air!! /dance !!!! Too bad not a single friend and not a single guild member were online when I did it. But that's ok. Lots of celebrating throughout the day as folks came online and a personal congrats on the guild message board from the GL.
I kept meaning to go take a nap, but I stayed online all day."
[Continuing the look back]
On 19 December, 2005, Wild completed the attunement quest for access to the Molten Core via a teleport window that eliminates having to cross through BRD while fighting mobs to get to the other entrance. Here is how Wild described it:
"Once you are attuned, you can teleport directly to (or at least close to) the MC entrance to save all that time. The teleport is a window you jump through opened by the npc I had just turned my quest in to. When you complete the quest the npc tells you about the open window, and actually opens it for you when you complete the quest. The urge to jump through that window is strong - this is a major quest accomplishment and you want to make sure you do everything right. Wild had already made one mistake by not turning the quest in before.
The catch? You know there's a catch. The catch is that the window only works if you are part of a raid. Only raid groups are allowed in MC, so the npc won't teleport you if you are not in a raid. Ok, so what? Well, if you jump through that window and aren't teleported, you simply jump to the other side of the window - which happens to be a very long fall to the lava below. Very funny. And very fatal.
So, nya nya nya! to you vets, Wild did NOT fall for it. Wild completed the quest, got a very lovely blast of bright lights announcing to everyone standing around that Wild had been Attuned, and turned down the chance to jump through that window.
Everyone in the area cheered and clapped. What a great feeling! Later, Wild wondered if they cheered because he got attuned or because he did it without jumping to his death afterwards. Probably both.
There's a follow up to this story. Wild noticed that there were now some guildies among the folks standing around. And more of them were showing up. A new MC raid was starting with the coop. Wild started to make his way out of there when Jo came up behind him and gave him a big hug and a kiss. Drats, caught in the act! Wild just hugged and danced with his guildies, and then wished everyone a good MC run. One day that could be Wild entering MC."
Wild eventually made it to level 58 on 3 January, 2006 during a BRD run. Wild had some UI (user interface) issues, which was quite common back then. Some of the third party UIs Wild had completely forgotten about, like CTRA (raid assist), Castparty (for healing), and Discord Action Bars. Wild was obsessed with healing addons and was constantly testing and changing them around. Castparty was interfering with CTRA so Wild was off looking for a new one, and he started using Benecast. Back then healing spells had "ranks" in which different levels of the same spell could be used. Healing addons were used to automatically choose the right level of spell. Spell "ranks" are now long gone, thankfully.
Wild made level 59 on 12 January, 2006, taking nine days to get there from level 58. About time Wild started speeding things up.
On Sunday, 15 January, 2006, Wild was in Winterspring. He was 9% of the way to level 60. At 4:30am on 16 January, Wild hit level 60, four days after hitting level 59.
"Postscript: I began playing WoW on 21 Feb, 2005. So it took Wildshard "just" 10 months and 27 days to make level 60. Hehe. Lol! Jump in the air!! /dance !!!! Too bad not a single friend and not a single guild member were online when I did it. But that's ok. Lots of celebrating throughout the day as folks came online and a personal congrats on the guild message board from the GL.
I kept meaning to go take a nap, but I stayed online all day."
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Tuesday (16 Jul) - The Naked Race
Tuesday (16 Jul) - The Naked Race
I reported on "The Naked Race" on October 3rd, 2005. Wild was a level 52 and running with what he would later call his "cabal" in his longest running guild. This is as much a tribute to "Jo" (Jomamma) as a revisit to a time when the game was still new and fresh.
"Our guild is pretty loose, despite the end game focus, so loose in fact that I have yet to figure out who the real guild leader is. The de facto leader, though, the 60 that is online most of the time and encouraging and helping everyone, is Jo. She is fun, and funny, and a little flighty at times, but everyone likes her and she is continually looking to come up with things the guild can do together. Starting to get the picture? Jo decided that it would be a fun guild event to do a naked race.
So on saturday afternoon about twenty of us gathered at the northern edge of Un'Goro Crater. Not just high levels, but there were some 30s and 40s there too. Some of them had yet to even visit Tanaris (you generally get to the Crater from Tanaris) or Gadgetzan, the closest city to the Crater with a flight path. Jo burned a lot of shards porting players directly to our location in Un'Goro. For those unfamilar with Un'Goro, the mobs are level 50+ and numerous. It's safest to move along the edges, and folly to go straight through the center. The exit from Un'Goro is at the southern end. The finish line, though, is at Gadgetzan, so not only do you have to traverse the entire Crater, it is a very long run across the desert of Tanaris (high 40+ level mobs) to get to the city. So, the course is from the farthest edge of Un'Goro Crater, out of the crater and across the Tanaris desert to Gadgetzan. No mounts allowed. By foot only. No speed buffs, no travel form (darn, that's what I had in mind), no ghost form for those shamans, nothing.
Did I say nothing? I mean REALLY nothing. Once we were all gathered Jo passed the word - Everyone, Get Naked! Off came every piece of gear. Ok, a quick disclaimer. WoW simply does not allow a character to be "completely" naked. Everyone wears "woolies" in the expected places that are not removable. Think diapers (that's what they look like to me anyway) and (for the girls) bathing suit top. Seeing twenty of us sans armor was frightenly funny! We should have done this on Halloween, what with the Undead showing their bones and us Taurens towering over everyone in little more than our fur. And just as a final reminder, without our armor we are like - well, undefended. Easy prey. Dinner for anything that catches us. You get the picture.
The actual start of this race was sort of staggered. We all danced around for a few minutes making fun of each other, and then Jo said GO! And eventually we all did. I tried to follow Jo, which was a mistake. What I should have done is played it smart and run around the edge of the crater, which I know well since I've been completely around it's circumference a couple of times and know what to avoid. No, I followed Jo and a gaggle of others straight into the center of Un'Goro. Did I mention that us big Taurens are slow on foot? In seconds the group of twenty was spread all over the place, mostly because we were trying to evade or outrun the mobs that were already anticipating a fine meal. In less than a minute I was all alone as the 60s outpaced me and with mobs everywhere there was no such thing as a straight line.
I was surprised, to say the least, that I made it as far as I did before the first mob targeted me. Evasive maneuvers worked that time, as it did the next couple of times. Did I mention what the bulk of the mobs are in Un'Goro? No? Dinosaurs. Lots of them. Big ones. With teeth. But every move to avoid one mob raised a greater risk of attracting more, and it wasn't that long before one caught me. Ok, I'll admit, at that point I cheated. The mob stunned me, and I bounced in and out of travel form to remove the stun and to get a little distance on the thing. Ok, I'll admit, I did that more than a couple of times. But I was ALIVE, and still running. Chat typing got nearly illegible as folks tried to joke and scream at the same time they were being run down by things much larger than them.
I was just starting to think that I was going to make it to the Un'Goro exit path when a family of raptors decided I was just the snack they'd been waiting for. A level 52 tauren druid, even without armor, has a few tricks and is pretty hard to kill. I used them all, and I could see the waterfall that marked the exit trailhead when they brought me down for good. Well, that ended any chance of me winning the race (not that there was ever any chance of that). I rezzed, recovered my body, and started off again, determined to at least finish. Which I did, and we all danced in Gadgetzan to the amazement/amusement/disgust of all the alliance hanging around that neutral town.
Sometimes you just have to do crazy things in this game to stay sane."
I reported on "The Naked Race" on October 3rd, 2005. Wild was a level 52 and running with what he would later call his "cabal" in his longest running guild. This is as much a tribute to "Jo" (Jomamma) as a revisit to a time when the game was still new and fresh.
"Our guild is pretty loose, despite the end game focus, so loose in fact that I have yet to figure out who the real guild leader is. The de facto leader, though, the 60 that is online most of the time and encouraging and helping everyone, is Jo. She is fun, and funny, and a little flighty at times, but everyone likes her and she is continually looking to come up with things the guild can do together. Starting to get the picture? Jo decided that it would be a fun guild event to do a naked race.
So on saturday afternoon about twenty of us gathered at the northern edge of Un'Goro Crater. Not just high levels, but there were some 30s and 40s there too. Some of them had yet to even visit Tanaris (you generally get to the Crater from Tanaris) or Gadgetzan, the closest city to the Crater with a flight path. Jo burned a lot of shards porting players directly to our location in Un'Goro. For those unfamilar with Un'Goro, the mobs are level 50+ and numerous. It's safest to move along the edges, and folly to go straight through the center. The exit from Un'Goro is at the southern end. The finish line, though, is at Gadgetzan, so not only do you have to traverse the entire Crater, it is a very long run across the desert of Tanaris (high 40+ level mobs) to get to the city. So, the course is from the farthest edge of Un'Goro Crater, out of the crater and across the Tanaris desert to Gadgetzan. No mounts allowed. By foot only. No speed buffs, no travel form (darn, that's what I had in mind), no ghost form for those shamans, nothing.
Did I say nothing? I mean REALLY nothing. Once we were all gathered Jo passed the word - Everyone, Get Naked! Off came every piece of gear. Ok, a quick disclaimer. WoW simply does not allow a character to be "completely" naked. Everyone wears "woolies" in the expected places that are not removable. Think diapers (that's what they look like to me anyway) and (for the girls) bathing suit top. Seeing twenty of us sans armor was frightenly funny! We should have done this on Halloween, what with the Undead showing their bones and us Taurens towering over everyone in little more than our fur. And just as a final reminder, without our armor we are like - well, undefended. Easy prey. Dinner for anything that catches us. You get the picture.
The actual start of this race was sort of staggered. We all danced around for a few minutes making fun of each other, and then Jo said GO! And eventually we all did. I tried to follow Jo, which was a mistake. What I should have done is played it smart and run around the edge of the crater, which I know well since I've been completely around it's circumference a couple of times and know what to avoid. No, I followed Jo and a gaggle of others straight into the center of Un'Goro. Did I mention that us big Taurens are slow on foot? In seconds the group of twenty was spread all over the place, mostly because we were trying to evade or outrun the mobs that were already anticipating a fine meal. In less than a minute I was all alone as the 60s outpaced me and with mobs everywhere there was no such thing as a straight line.
I was surprised, to say the least, that I made it as far as I did before the first mob targeted me. Evasive maneuvers worked that time, as it did the next couple of times. Did I mention what the bulk of the mobs are in Un'Goro? No? Dinosaurs. Lots of them. Big ones. With teeth. But every move to avoid one mob raised a greater risk of attracting more, and it wasn't that long before one caught me. Ok, I'll admit, at that point I cheated. The mob stunned me, and I bounced in and out of travel form to remove the stun and to get a little distance on the thing. Ok, I'll admit, I did that more than a couple of times. But I was ALIVE, and still running. Chat typing got nearly illegible as folks tried to joke and scream at the same time they were being run down by things much larger than them.
I was just starting to think that I was going to make it to the Un'Goro exit path when a family of raptors decided I was just the snack they'd been waiting for. A level 52 tauren druid, even without armor, has a few tricks and is pretty hard to kill. I used them all, and I could see the waterfall that marked the exit trailhead when they brought me down for good. Well, that ended any chance of me winning the race (not that there was ever any chance of that). I rezzed, recovered my body, and started off again, determined to at least finish. Which I did, and we all danced in Gadgetzan to the amazement/amusement/disgust of all the alliance hanging around that neutral town.
Sometimes you just have to do crazy things in this game to stay sane."
Monday, July 15, 2013
Monday (15 Jul) - Just When I Thought It Was Safe
Monday (15 Jul) - Just When I Thought It Was Safe
Just when I thought I could get safely away from WoW a new feature of the forthcoming Patch 5.4 has piqued my interest. It's called the Proving Grounds.
Essentially, the Proving Grounds is an instanced dungeon for one player. Using scaled down gear (so that it is talent, not gear, that is tested), you can choose any role (healer, DPS, tank) and then, sometimes with NPC (non-player character) help, you complete a challenge that is designed as a training tool to improve your skills. There are four levels of difficulty: bronze, silver, gold, and endless. The theory is that players can use the Proving Grounds to hone their skills or learn new roles without having to find a group or worry that you aren't ready enough for live action.
There are achievements for completing challenges and, in endless mode, competitive scoring to brag about how many waves of baddies you survived. I'm going back a few expansions, but the "waves" part of this harkens Wild back to the days of Mount Hyjal (Burning Legion expansion) and the waves of mobs we fought against to bring down Kaz'rogal. Those were the good old days. At least that's how I remember them, the many wipes notwithstanding.
Were I to come back to the game (note that I haven't actually left the game yet) I would take advantage of the Proving Grounds to learn what had changed and get some practice where I could try things and wouldn't feel embarrassed. For example, Fist is a level 90 geared well enough for heroic dungeons and the LFR, but her only experience is as a DPS. Were I to run a dungeon or LFR raid, I would want to do it as a healer, and I have little experience at it with Fist. The Proving Grounds might help Fist get comfortable enough with healing to try a real dungeon.
The impact of the Proving Grounds could prove interesting, too. Will it encourage players to join more raids? Will raid leaders require raiders not only to endlessly run the LFR, but reach "endless" level in the Proving Grounds, too? Or, from another perspective, will anyone bother to use it, when such skill is hardly needed to defeat an LFR raid?
No, don't expect me to be extending my account. But I can't promise that after the launch of 5.4 I won't take a peek at it.
Just when I thought I could get safely away from WoW a new feature of the forthcoming Patch 5.4 has piqued my interest. It's called the Proving Grounds.
Essentially, the Proving Grounds is an instanced dungeon for one player. Using scaled down gear (so that it is talent, not gear, that is tested), you can choose any role (healer, DPS, tank) and then, sometimes with NPC (non-player character) help, you complete a challenge that is designed as a training tool to improve your skills. There are four levels of difficulty: bronze, silver, gold, and endless. The theory is that players can use the Proving Grounds to hone their skills or learn new roles without having to find a group or worry that you aren't ready enough for live action.
There are achievements for completing challenges and, in endless mode, competitive scoring to brag about how many waves of baddies you survived. I'm going back a few expansions, but the "waves" part of this harkens Wild back to the days of Mount Hyjal (Burning Legion expansion) and the waves of mobs we fought against to bring down Kaz'rogal. Those were the good old days. At least that's how I remember them, the many wipes notwithstanding.
Were I to come back to the game (note that I haven't actually left the game yet) I would take advantage of the Proving Grounds to learn what had changed and get some practice where I could try things and wouldn't feel embarrassed. For example, Fist is a level 90 geared well enough for heroic dungeons and the LFR, but her only experience is as a DPS. Were I to run a dungeon or LFR raid, I would want to do it as a healer, and I have little experience at it with Fist. The Proving Grounds might help Fist get comfortable enough with healing to try a real dungeon.
The impact of the Proving Grounds could prove interesting, too. Will it encourage players to join more raids? Will raid leaders require raiders not only to endlessly run the LFR, but reach "endless" level in the Proving Grounds, too? Or, from another perspective, will anyone bother to use it, when such skill is hardly needed to defeat an LFR raid?
No, don't expect me to be extending my account. But I can't promise that after the launch of 5.4 I won't take a peek at it.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Thursday (11 Jul) - A Trip Down Memory Lane
Thursday (11 Jul) - A Trip Down Memory Lane
The time is coming to close the book on the Wild Family. As of 31 Jul, 2013, Happy and the rest of the gang on Happy's account will depart. Wild, Philly, JB, and a few others will still be around until August 8th, when the second account expires, and then that will be the end.
Wild has let what is left of his cabal know that I am leaving. That really came down to just Bd (Bloodknuckle) and Lady Hunter (Talatiana). By a seemingly appropriate twist of fate, Wild was unable to log into the guild website to say my farewells to what few other players still remembered Wild. Just as well.
It may be just a game, but it was a passion and an obsession that consumed countless hours of fun stretching over almost nine years.
I intend to keep in touch, and continue the blog in one fashion or another. It's funny that endings often precede new beginnings. A friend of mine who I have not talked to in more than five years got in touch with me recently. He is getting married, and wanted to invite me to the wedding.
In all honesty, it will be hard to let go of the game. Funny, though, that it isn't the game itself that I will miss. More than anything, I will miss writing about it and sharing my thoughts and adventures with my friends. As much as I loved raiding, it was the retelling of those raiding adventures that I most looked forward to writing about. As much as I loved the Wild family characters, it was writing storylines for them that went beyond the game that I worked on the hardest. Those things are what I will miss the most.
Finally, I can't walk away without one more look back. I want to mention as many friends as I can recall, particularly those who made a significant impact over the course of this journey. I also want to list the things that I best remember about the game and the grander accomplishments.
The chronicling of Wild's adventures began on 22 February, 2005, with a post on the Sporting News forum site. "Any fans out there or am I the only baseball bat wielding Tauron Druid out there? Just started playing this online fantasy role playing game recently and am totally hooked." When this was posted Wild had achieved the lofty status of Level 8 and was still learning the game. Yes, I misspelled "tauron" which should have been spelled "tauren." Wild's family tales will end on 8 August, 2013, covering a period of eight years, five months, and a few days.
In between those dates, I had a hell of a lot of fun. I also encountered many, many folks who had a hand in Wild's success and enjoyment. It was Pete who first responded to my post. Just two days later, Pete had bought the game and created an Alliance gnome. Within a couple more days the World of Warcraft "addicts" started chiming in. There was Ed, with a level 59 Dwarf paladin on the Hyjal realm. He had started playing the game while it was still in beta testing. Bbrool confessed his obsession with a level 48 Dwarf priest on the Khadgar server. There would be many more.
Wild learned to "fly" at level 11. Not true flying, since that ability would not be added to the game for many years. "Flying" in vanilla WoW meant being able to buy passage on flying beasts that traveled between static points. It was the first time I saw the world from the sky, and it was awesome!
Wild didn't have any money back then. As the first character in a new game there was no Happy to give me gold, no guild to help me along, and I had no idea an Auction House existed. Wild's first great "tragedy" came at level 15 when Wild spent his entire stake of thirty silver to buy a staff from a local vendor, and then accidentally sold it back to the vendor for six silver. There was no "buy back" option then. I was destitute and had lost not only my money, but the staff I'd lusted after.
Other players started adding their own stories. A few, like Qsilver and Munich_man, called me "evil" for enticing them to try out the game. Remember, the forum I was posting to was the Sporting News Forum, and the purpose was to talk baseball, not WoW. I had begun to collect a following, though. NaturalDoc joined the conversation, lamenting that he was going to have to upgrade his computer to play the game.
I was surprised to rediscover that Wild joined his first guild on March 3rd at level 16. Wild also took part in the "wild west" pvp action in The Crossroads, back when it was common for Alliance players to take a ship to the neutral town of Ratchet and then ride to The Crossroads to harass and kill the horde defenders and any horde players that showed up to defend their town. Blizz has spent a lot of time and effort to improve pvp play over the years, but none of it compared to those days of combat at the Crossroads.
Wild's first bit of guild drama came on 12 March, just nine days after Wild joined. There was a falling out of some kind and half the guild left. I guess this was Wild's early warning that guild drama would be an ongoing thing. Funny, I don't remember the name of the guild and never recorded it. For some weird reason I was reluctant to make direct reference to people's names, character names, guild names, etc, out of concern that something I wrote might upset someone. A lot of people I played with over the years will forever be called by their initials or a nickname instead of their real character name.
On 29 March Wild's guild was self-destructing, but Wild could not figure out how to leave it. I asked the guild leader to kick me from the guild and was instead made an officer. I later figured out how to quit the guild.
On April 1st Wild entered his first dungeon group. He was a level 24 and the healer of the group. The dungeon was Wailing Caverns, and it took us over four hours to complete. They don't make dungeons like this anymore.
Did you know that killing non player characters (npcs) was not part of the original game? On 19 April a patch opened the Honor system, allowing npcs to be attacked ala pvp style. For awhile no town was ever safe from marauding players attacking npcs, and of course, each other.
Wild joined his second guild on 9 May. He tanked his first dungeon (Wild, tanking!?). Wild also got his first Honor Kill (hk). Wild added his first new character (JB). On June 14th Judi began playing her own druid, AechTee. So many firsts in those heady days.
Happyface joined Wild's family as his "investment banker" (yes, I actually used that term in the post) on 7 July. Happy began his role mining the Auction House with the grand stake of three gold. It was all that Wild could afford. Wild had one goal for Happy. Make enough money for Wild to be able to buy his mount. Back then Happy actually bought gear and did the disenchanting into mats himself. On July 18th Happy proudly handed Wild the ninety gold he needed for his mount, a kodo mount that only taurens could ride. It took Happy only eleven days to go from 3g to 90g.
Does anyone remember Thotbott? That is where one went to get all manner of information about the game. It's successor is Wowhead. Remember Carrot-on-a-Stick? The diabolical, difficult quest rewarded Wild with a 5% increase in mount speed, well worth the tremendous group effort to get it with his guild.
Speaking of guilds, Wild switched guilds again on 31 July, making it his third guild. There was plenty of guild drama, although Wild had little involvement. He reached level 47.
One for the Books: On September 11th, 2005, Wild's server, Silvermoon, got it's first Horde Ragnaros kill, the final boss in the FORTY man raid called the Molten Core. The party went on well into the night and early morning all across the server.
Another one for the books: The Sporting News closed it's old forum board and I had to transition all of my prior posts to the new board as of 15 September, 2005.
That wraps up Part One of my walk through the past.
The time is coming to close the book on the Wild Family. As of 31 Jul, 2013, Happy and the rest of the gang on Happy's account will depart. Wild, Philly, JB, and a few others will still be around until August 8th, when the second account expires, and then that will be the end.
Wild has let what is left of his cabal know that I am leaving. That really came down to just Bd (Bloodknuckle) and Lady Hunter (Talatiana). By a seemingly appropriate twist of fate, Wild was unable to log into the guild website to say my farewells to what few other players still remembered Wild. Just as well.
It may be just a game, but it was a passion and an obsession that consumed countless hours of fun stretching over almost nine years.
I intend to keep in touch, and continue the blog in one fashion or another. It's funny that endings often precede new beginnings. A friend of mine who I have not talked to in more than five years got in touch with me recently. He is getting married, and wanted to invite me to the wedding.
In all honesty, it will be hard to let go of the game. Funny, though, that it isn't the game itself that I will miss. More than anything, I will miss writing about it and sharing my thoughts and adventures with my friends. As much as I loved raiding, it was the retelling of those raiding adventures that I most looked forward to writing about. As much as I loved the Wild family characters, it was writing storylines for them that went beyond the game that I worked on the hardest. Those things are what I will miss the most.
Finally, I can't walk away without one more look back. I want to mention as many friends as I can recall, particularly those who made a significant impact over the course of this journey. I also want to list the things that I best remember about the game and the grander accomplishments.
The chronicling of Wild's adventures began on 22 February, 2005, with a post on the Sporting News forum site. "Any fans out there or am I the only baseball bat wielding Tauron Druid out there? Just started playing this online fantasy role playing game recently and am totally hooked." When this was posted Wild had achieved the lofty status of Level 8 and was still learning the game. Yes, I misspelled "tauron" which should have been spelled "tauren." Wild's family tales will end on 8 August, 2013, covering a period of eight years, five months, and a few days.
In between those dates, I had a hell of a lot of fun. I also encountered many, many folks who had a hand in Wild's success and enjoyment. It was Pete who first responded to my post. Just two days later, Pete had bought the game and created an Alliance gnome. Within a couple more days the World of Warcraft "addicts" started chiming in. There was Ed, with a level 59 Dwarf paladin on the Hyjal realm. He had started playing the game while it was still in beta testing. Bbrool confessed his obsession with a level 48 Dwarf priest on the Khadgar server. There would be many more.
Wild learned to "fly" at level 11. Not true flying, since that ability would not be added to the game for many years. "Flying" in vanilla WoW meant being able to buy passage on flying beasts that traveled between static points. It was the first time I saw the world from the sky, and it was awesome!
Wild didn't have any money back then. As the first character in a new game there was no Happy to give me gold, no guild to help me along, and I had no idea an Auction House existed. Wild's first great "tragedy" came at level 15 when Wild spent his entire stake of thirty silver to buy a staff from a local vendor, and then accidentally sold it back to the vendor for six silver. There was no "buy back" option then. I was destitute and had lost not only my money, but the staff I'd lusted after.
Other players started adding their own stories. A few, like Qsilver and Munich_man, called me "evil" for enticing them to try out the game. Remember, the forum I was posting to was the Sporting News Forum, and the purpose was to talk baseball, not WoW. I had begun to collect a following, though. NaturalDoc joined the conversation, lamenting that he was going to have to upgrade his computer to play the game.
I was surprised to rediscover that Wild joined his first guild on March 3rd at level 16. Wild also took part in the "wild west" pvp action in The Crossroads, back when it was common for Alliance players to take a ship to the neutral town of Ratchet and then ride to The Crossroads to harass and kill the horde defenders and any horde players that showed up to defend their town. Blizz has spent a lot of time and effort to improve pvp play over the years, but none of it compared to those days of combat at the Crossroads.
Wild's first bit of guild drama came on 12 March, just nine days after Wild joined. There was a falling out of some kind and half the guild left. I guess this was Wild's early warning that guild drama would be an ongoing thing. Funny, I don't remember the name of the guild and never recorded it. For some weird reason I was reluctant to make direct reference to people's names, character names, guild names, etc, out of concern that something I wrote might upset someone. A lot of people I played with over the years will forever be called by their initials or a nickname instead of their real character name.
On 29 March Wild's guild was self-destructing, but Wild could not figure out how to leave it. I asked the guild leader to kick me from the guild and was instead made an officer. I later figured out how to quit the guild.
On April 1st Wild entered his first dungeon group. He was a level 24 and the healer of the group. The dungeon was Wailing Caverns, and it took us over four hours to complete. They don't make dungeons like this anymore.
Did you know that killing non player characters (npcs) was not part of the original game? On 19 April a patch opened the Honor system, allowing npcs to be attacked ala pvp style. For awhile no town was ever safe from marauding players attacking npcs, and of course, each other.
Wild joined his second guild on 9 May. He tanked his first dungeon (Wild, tanking!?). Wild also got his first Honor Kill (hk). Wild added his first new character (JB). On June 14th Judi began playing her own druid, AechTee. So many firsts in those heady days.
Happyface joined Wild's family as his "investment banker" (yes, I actually used that term in the post) on 7 July. Happy began his role mining the Auction House with the grand stake of three gold. It was all that Wild could afford. Wild had one goal for Happy. Make enough money for Wild to be able to buy his mount. Back then Happy actually bought gear and did the disenchanting into mats himself. On July 18th Happy proudly handed Wild the ninety gold he needed for his mount, a kodo mount that only taurens could ride. It took Happy only eleven days to go from 3g to 90g.
Does anyone remember Thotbott? That is where one went to get all manner of information about the game. It's successor is Wowhead. Remember Carrot-on-a-Stick? The diabolical, difficult quest rewarded Wild with a 5% increase in mount speed, well worth the tremendous group effort to get it with his guild.
Speaking of guilds, Wild switched guilds again on 31 July, making it his third guild. There was plenty of guild drama, although Wild had little involvement. He reached level 47.
One for the Books: On September 11th, 2005, Wild's server, Silvermoon, got it's first Horde Ragnaros kill, the final boss in the FORTY man raid called the Molten Core. The party went on well into the night and early morning all across the server.
Another one for the books: The Sporting News closed it's old forum board and I had to transition all of my prior posts to the new board as of 15 September, 2005.
That wraps up Part One of my walk through the past.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Tuesday (1 Jul) - So Much for Bragging Rights
Tuesday
(1 Jul) - So Much for Bragging Rights
(sorry, it’s all baseball today)
The
Padres played extremely well on their most recent home stand, and then went on
an extended road trip. After crushing the Miami Marlins 9-2 in the first game
of a four game set, the team proceeded to disintegrate, losing the other three
by lopsided scores. The Marlins (30-51) have the worst record in the National
League, even after winning three straight from the Padres. Beginning on 2 Jul,
the team faces the first place Boston Red Sox and the dangerous Washington
Nationals before returning to seven more games at home. All without a break
(ie, 17 straight games). The only silver lining to all this is that most of the
teams division rivals have played as badly or worse than the Padres.
Division
leader Arizona
(42-40) has lost four straight games. Colorado
(41-42) just hangs around, unable to gain any traction. The Padres (40-43) are
in third place. Fourth place San
Francisco (World Champions in 2012) has lost 8 of
their last 10 games. Then there is the last place Los Angeles Dodgers. Two
weeks ago they were nine games behind and nearly out of contention. In any
league but the NL Western Division, they would have been out of the contention.
However - the Dodgers have won 8 of their last 10 games and are only 3.5 games
behind the leader, Arizona.
Despite
the Padres 40-43 record, it's hard to complain when the team is just 2.5 games
short of leading the division. Still, the Padres offense has been brutally bad
of late. The return of Evereth Cabrera, Jedd Gyroko, and Yonder Alonso from
injuries could do wonders to fix that. All are expected to be playing again in
the next week or two. The mystifying collapse of Chase Headley (still hitting
just .227) continues.
Here's
the prior status as of 13 Jun.
>
|
Comparison
|
W L GB
|
BA
|
Runs
|
ERA
|
|
Padres
2012
|
76
86 18.0
|
.247
|
651
|
4.01
|
|
Reality
Autoplay
|
84
78 10.0
|
.243
|
667
|
3.69
|
|
Promise
Autoplay
|
80
82 10.0
|
.249
|
688
|
3.81
|
|
2013
Season
|
W L GB
|
BA
|
Runs
|
ERA
|
|
Actual
Results
|
32
34 5.0
|
.251
|
279
|
4.30
|
|
Reality
Results
|
34
32 4.0
|
.239
|
272
|
3.85
|
|
Promise
Results
|
33
33 8.0
|
.243
|
285
|
3.61
|
>
Here
is the current status as of 1 July.
|
Comparison
|
W L GB
|
BA
|
Runs
|
ERA
|
|
Padres
2012
|
76
86 18.0
|
.247
|
651
|
4.01
|
|
Reality
Autoplay
|
84
78 10.0
|
.243
|
667
|
3.69
|
|
Promise
Autoplay
|
80
82 10.0
|
.249
|
688
|
3.81
|
|
2013
Season
|
W L GB
|
BA
|
Runs
|
ERA
|
|
Actual
Results
|
40
43 2.5
|
.247
|
338
|
4.07
|
|
Reality
Results
|
42
41 3.0
|
.234
|
328
|
3.54
|
|
Promise
Results
|
40
43 10.5
|
.243
|
346
|
3.60
|
>
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