Stop the World I Want to Get Off

I've noticed a trend in the weeks that this blog has been running. My posts have gotten much more "rantty" than I'd like them to be. When I started writing the posts for this blog it was not my intention to rant about everything that happens to me, but here we are. So I promise to slow down on my rants and to rein in my nerd rage a little more. Well… I promise to TRY and rein in my rage… well… I promise to rein it in after this post.

I'm not sure if you've noticed in the news today, there was a small article written from Santa Clara County. It turns out that a panel of Soccer Moms and Larry Lawbringers sat down and decided that, in Santa Clara County, it would be illegal for fast food restaurants to give away toys in their "kiddie meals". This panel of Jackholes has, in their infinite wisdom, linked the epidemic of child obesity to the "reward" of getting a toy for eating unhealthy foods. It is their hopes that by removing the "reward" children will be free to make healthier choices. One of the twits on the panel (Ken Yeager) was even quoted with saying "Why would a kid say 'I want a burger with fries'? It's the toys that they want."

Are you freaking joking? First off if you want you child to make a healthier choice when it comes to eating, DON'T TAKE THEM TO MCDOANLDS! Simple, and no one has to pass a law for me to make that decision. Second, the reason kids say "I want a burger with fries" Mr. Yeager is because the only other choice is a Fish Crapwich!

I buy my children their food, not the other way around. Sometimes we "dine" at a fast food restaurant, and when we do, my kids eat whatever they damn well want. You know why? Because I live in Canada and it's my GOD GIVEN RIGHT to decide what my children eat. But here's the twist, I don't eat crap food all the time! What? That's right, see my family has what is known as restraint. It's a relatively new concept for some (especially Americans) but I think it will catch on. On the nights that we are not eating greasy garbage from a trash bin we are eating… HEALTHY FOOD, home made, HEALTHY FOOD. Yup, strange as it may be, my family does not eat out every night. Oh… and for an added bonus my kids also EXERCISE… Gasp! I know, weird right?

So apparently, in Santa Clara County, the ratio of Cupcake Lovin' Fatties to "Healty Kids" is so grossly uneven the County has decided to take away the fat kid bait from the kid-centric meals. Instead of education the county has decided to eliminate options. Hmm, interesting.

Hey shut up, this does relate back to WOW. It comes down to parents being parents and not their kids best friend. Just like the chunky chuckles from Santa Clara, we need to step in and understand what our kids are doing online and in real life. The computer is not a baby sitter, nor is the television. I will tell you now that yes, my oldest child plays online games, but he plays them with me in the room. His time is limited and I monitor who he chats with… I guess I'm not a cool Dad, I can live with that. I don't need some one else to dictate what my child can and can not do. I use my parenting skills and make that decision all by myself (and my wife).

Unfortunately, this is not the trend that the world seems to be on right now. It seems to be easier for the world just to sit back and let the government be the parent.

"I would love to let you eat that hamburger Junior, but the man in the suit says I can't. Please don't hate me, hate him!

Here, let me buy you a new car."

Give me a break. I implore all of you parents out there, STAND UP AND BE PARENTS! Lil' Timmy doesn't need another friend. Lil' Timmy needs you to be a Dad, so suck it up and be one!

Ass!

A Shaman Grows Up

Dear Blizzard,

I know we've had our arguments over the past few weeks. Stones were thrown and words were said that can't be taken back, I know that. Do you remember that time when I said "screw you", yeah, water under the bridge. I love you and you should know that. I thought that I should take this moment just to let you know that I think you're doing a great job. Gosh darn it, I ain't quitin' you.

Your always,

Nebz

I've pushed through that last totem quest and all I can see are blue skies and rainbows ahead for me. Shammy Davis is rockin' his way to 30 and is not looking back. The road to this point has been a sordid one to say the least. But once Shammy hit 20 everything started to "click". I was running quests, collecting XP and moving on with my life. Levels 20-30 moved very quickly for me, only a few hours in fact. Furthermore, just when I thought I was going to hit a brick wall in the form of yet another totem quest, Blizzard made it supper easy. Walk over there, talk to that guy and get your shinny new totem.

Now, granted, my spell rotation hasn't really changed much. It's still a matter of casting bolts, shocks and then clubbing the crap out of something (no need to capitalize that anymore).

Everything is rainbows and puppy dogs!

I mean yeah, it's a little annoying that my attack rotation hasn't changed for over 30 gosh darn levels. I bet that Blizzard's just trying to make the new Shaman inside of me a really great warrior. It's not like they forgot about the Enhancement Shaman, right? I remember on my Mage by the time I was 30 I had some great crowd control spells and mobs died before they reached me. With my darn Shaman I need things to hit me, otherwise that freaking water shield won't return any darn mana. So as a melee class it's kind of inconvenient when the that piece of crap mob that you just pulled dies 20 feet before he reaches you and renders your damn shield impotent. But that's just what happens now, doesn't it Blizzard? Admit it you cowards, you really didn't think anyone would play this class, or more specific, this spec. Well guess what… I'm your huckleberry. I've stuck with this stupid class for 30 levels, been on pointless quests for stupid totems that I never use.

You know what? Up yours!

Where's my Shaman love? For god sakes, I finally reach a level where all that wandering around Azeroth would finally be a little less painful. With all the flight paths I have now I could actually complete a totem quest in under two damn hours, and what do you do Blizzard? You jackholes give me quest that takes me two f'n minutes! WTF?

That's it, I'm out! You can take this game and cram it with walnuts! I'm fed up and I've had enough.

Now if you'll excuse me there seems a couple of men at my door and it looks like there's some sort of sparkly horse behind them… oooh, shinny.

Welcome to Wuss-dom

Well it all seemed innocent enough, Shammy Davis asked me to head out into RL to watch his wife sing at their local bar. She sings there often, and well, I needed to deliver a jar of pickles to him (that is another story). Heading down the highway, I came to the conclusion that this was just a ruse to keep me from leveling my druid too far ahead of the shaman that he has been writing about.

They live in a rural community, not a one tooth, pick-up truck with a missing tailgate rural community, but more of a minivan with a missing tailgate, bedroom community for a fairly large city. But I digress, this article isn't going to be about hill billies.

As we skip ahead to this morning, I have to report an incredible hangover. I haven't felt this bad in ages. Not since I drank that punch bowl of Sake as part of my initiation for getting my black belt in Jiu-Jitsu has my head pounded this bad. What happened to me? Did one of the local cougars slip me some roofies? I didn't notice any chaffing on my parts (my wife verified that there was no part chaffing that she was responsible for).

As I re-travel through the fog, that is last night, I came to the conclusion that it was my journey to Wuss-dom that I completed. For the drink tally - 2 beers. That's it! Two beers totally wrecked me. I am so in the line up for umbrella drinks from now on. I never have this problem in Azeroth, in between instances or after I empty my bags from questing I can go to the local pub and drink several caraway burnwines or a glass of Dalaran white without fear of this much pain. Maybe a fuzzy monitor (but that is easily fixed with the un-checking of a few graphics options).

I am now to the point in my article, where I say to myself, "How am I going to end this?" You know what? I can't think of a single thing. My head is freaking killing me so much that I can't even come up with anything witty. I feel awkward like Frodo's uncle at his birthday party, in the Fellowship of the Ring. Fidgit, fidgit - Good bye.

When It All Started

November 8^th 2008, that’s the date that my life changed. That’s the date that I became a certified geek and joined the ranks of millions. That’s the day I started playing World of Warcraft.

After posting the last article I began thinking back about how long I’ve been playing and, frankly, how quickly the time has past. I’ve grown from a struggling newbling to a struggling older player that’s short 15 bucks a month for the past year and a half ($270). I find it interesting how things have changed for me. How complex this game can be and how, after a basic understanding of certain vernacular, simplistic the game can become.

I remember the first night I played. My buddy was a long time player and had MANY characters on MANY realms. Before we left work on that faithful fall day he told me to give him a call once I start my character and he would come and help me get acquainted.

This is the unedited email chain from the day after that conversation.

Alts (friend)-

“I was waiting all night to give you a hand - I crafted a bunch of stuff for you to make life easier. What level are you now?’

Nebz (me)-

“I didn't realize that I couldn't just 'txt' you in game, this frigin' game is huge! I'm currently a level 9 Warlock, and I've chosen to learn first aid, I'm an apprentice tailor and alchemist. I finally turned it off last night because I got lost in a place called the 'Undercity'. The last thing I did was train in one-handed sword fighting, cuz my guys a puss! I got attacked by a BIG ASS bear that killed me in one swipe!
I couldn't find my last three quests and I got lost so I finally went to bed. Some Elf was following me around last night throwing spells at me to strengthen my attacks, it was a very strange night.
Can I add one of your guys to my list?
Are you going to be on tonight?
Oh, and I finally found an Auction but apparently 'Trial' accounts can't use it.
Damn!”

Alts-

“You crack me up.

If you want to be an alchemist you need to take up herbalism (herbalism allows you to pick herbs which you need for the alchemy profession) which would require you to drop tailoring. You can only have 2 main professions. You can however take up cooking and fishing. You will have to buy some wood a flint and tinder, a fishing rod and lures to be able to do those things.

PS: you are addicted - welcome to the club.”

Holy crap!

C.R.E.A.M.

(Yup, I'm old enough to still think that Wu-Tang references are appropriate)

Obtaining large amounts of gold has always been a mystery for me in this game (and still is). Regardless of the server or faction I’ve always been a gold poor player. When I started the game a couple of years ago (Alts, has it been a couple of years already?) I had my buddy on the server with me. He made me some Netherweave bags and tossed me some cash just to get me started. I actually remember on one occasion I was trying to fly from Thunderbluff to Orgimmar and I couldn’t afford the flight cost. I had to borrow enough silver just to take the flight. I’ve also started a Death Knight on a second server. That doesn’t really count as starting a “new” character considering by the time you finish the starting zone with a DK you have pocketed around 60 gld. So, for the first time in a couple of years (yikes) I’ve started a new toon on a new server and I would be left to my own devices to gather cash.

After starting Shammy Davis the very next thing I did was start a level one Blood Elf for my bank alt. I’m not sure if using a Blood Elf is 100% necessary, but I like the time it saves me from running back and forth to the Auction House. Plus, I use the mail system as a bottom less bag. I can empty my bags of all useful articles and keep on questing.

The next step was to choose a couple of professions for my main. I understand that crafting professions (Blacksmithing, Engineering, Tailoring…) are all gold sinks. With this in mind I decided to start as a Skinner and Herbalist although any combination of gathering professions would work. For the first five to ten levels all I did was gather mats and mail them to my banker for posting on the AH.

Sell, sell, sell.

Once I was able to bank roll roughly 25 gold I switched from Skinning to Inscription. Not for gold making purposes, but just for shatts and giggles.

My banker’s role in all of this was very important. Every day I would log into my banker and scan the auction house using the Auctioneer mod. Religiously I scanned and scanned, once a day during the week and two to three times on the weekends. After a week of gathering data I began to use a couple of additional features on Auctioneer.

There are two fantastic scans that a player can do using this mod. One is called Vendor, and it’s under the search tab. A vendor search looks for articles in the AH that people are listing for less than a vendor would pay for them. Every day I perform a vendor scan and every day I consistently make two to three gold.

The next scan I use is Resale, this scan is found under the search tab as well. Resale scans the AH for all articles being listed at or below normal price (as gathered by Auctioneer). Once the list of articles is gathered I would buy or bid on as much as I could until I had almost zero gold left. All the articles that I bought or won in bids were relisted for “normal” value.

Simple and quick, the whole process takes me approximately 10- 15 minutes. By using this process I was able to reach 1K gold before I reached level 40.

Now I know that this probably isn’t earth shattering for most players. But for me it was a matter of making a goal for myself and achieving it. I am able to afford bigger bags now, I can afford all my training, and I can afford my shinny new mounts. It’s nice to know that the cash is there if I need it.

A Shaman Gets Wet

What the hell Blizzard?

Are you freakin’ kidding me?

So I went on the damn water totem quest and two hours later I was finally able to obtain my Water Pole. Now I won’t rant about the obscene amount of travelling you have to do in order to complete this quest of futility. I also won’t complain about the fact that once you finally have the damn Pole in your bag it’s primarily useless. I will, however, complain about the fact that by going on this quest it takes a player out of the overall questing rhythm.

By the time you hit level 20 a player feels like they are finally hitting a bit of a questing cadence. Go out CLUB THE HELL OUT OF something and return to get your XP. Your spell rotation is starting to take shape and things seem to be happening fairly quickly. Then Blizzard throws this giant brick wall in your face and flips you the middle finger.

“Dear valued nerd. I understand that you’re trying to achieve greatness with your Shaman and kudos for sticking with it this long. But could you do us a favour and go wander around ALL OF AZEROTH for the next few hours. It would be most entertaining for us. Thanks.

P.S. We’re going to send you into zones that are above your level just so you can have your ass handed to you by a nomadic bear.”

Give me a break. I understand that they are trying to make the totems a bit of an achievement for the player. They’re trying to make you feel like you’re accomplished something. But come on, why the hell does it have to take so damn long and waste so much of my damn time? Why can’t the quest be a challenging battle with a powerful mob? Or even better, how about a damn quest that you are accompanied by an NPC. During the quest the NPC puts you into situations that require you to use specific totems. It would be a sort “training” quest and would allow the lonely shaman the opportunity to better understand the mechanics behind different totems.

Well, regardless of how much time I spent on this quest, the quest is over. The Water Totem is in my bag and I am able to move on into my 20’s.

The Diet

I am not sure how I am going to relate this to WOW, but over the weekend I found myself in a discussion with my wife over blue nacho chips. You see, my wife started a corporate challenge where she works, and the goal is to totally eliminate processed foods from her (and by extension the households) diet. I think their mantra is "eat to live, not live to eat". So all our "crap" food was removed from the house. That was about 3 months ago. We are doing well, my wife is over 20 pounds lighter, I am totally the same weight (I think my issue is exercise), and my kids are still asking, "Whats for dinner at the gulag?".

My issue is these healthy blue nacho chips are triangular which makes it difficult to scoop my organic salsa made from free range tomatoes out of a round bottomed bowl. It came to a head on the weekend and I asked my now thinner better half to search tirelessly for round blue nacho chips. Then I can safely scoop my chips without fear of spillage. Seriously, it was like practicing yoga to get the salsa out of that damn bowl with a triangular chip (which may solve my exercise issues). She was given an ultimatum, "Bring home round blue chips, or round normal nacho chips".

Well she came home with the triangular blue nacho chips, I gasped in horror until she handed me the square bowl. It's for my health she explained.

A topic for another day, why with "healthy" foods, do they make it almost impossible to get into? Seriously, potato chips you grab the two sides of the bag and tug and the bag opens. These blue nacho chips the bag needs a nuclear intervention (i.e. scissors) before it opens. I am thinking it has something to do with providing us some exercise.

Any way, I digress, connection to WOW - yes, what WOW foods would you consider healthy and which would you consider unhealthy? Feel free to make your suggestions in the feedback below.

I have to go now and eat my roasted egg plant sandwiches - YUM.

My Little Pony

There has been quite a bit written the last couple days regarding the Celestial Steed and whether or not Blizzard is right to sell it. The 'against' group are saying that it is a cash grab or that items this special should only be for persons that are lucky enough to get it from a world drop or end game instance. The 'for' group (which technically I guess I am in) a) doesn't care or b) doesn't care.

I purchased one today, along with the Lil'XT. Why you ask? Because I can. I like the game and my daughter likes the game and when she saw them she wanted one and I like doing stuff for my daughter. It got me bonus points when she was playing and all of a sudden the mail icon lit up. She opened the mailbox and there they were. It was Christmas and I was the top dog in the gift distribution list. My wife couldn't even come close to something as special. She even made my daughter get out of bed at 7:00am on a Saturday to go to swimming lessons. She definitely didn't earn any points with the kid today.

Was Blizzard right? Was it a cash grab? Maybe - a new expansion is coming out soon and that costs money to make. The costs for the artwork alone to create the "World" of Warcraft boggles my mind. Creating this world is not cheap. Most say they make a ton of money every month. Yes they do, but that is to keep the current hardware working and to provide the database technicians to help recover the solid stone you deleted by mistake. I also read that there is going to be a need to upgrade and/or replace much of the existing hardware to be able to handle the new improved world.

So if you think it was a cash grab, guess what, don't buy one. If you think it should have only been available for you 6000 GS, uber snobs from the depths of Ice Crown Citadel, initiate a corporate take over and reverse the decision. While I wait for that to happen, I will continue to bask in the attention from daughter. FOR I AM SUPER DAD!

Courtesy is Dead

Please understand that the last thing I want to do is steal the thunder of the other contributor to this blog. So to Alts I apologize, but something happened last night while I was playing WOW that I just can’t let go.

I was on Shammy Davis (I think I’m going to put a space in his name now) and I was on a quest to kill a certain mob that spawns “randomly” in a certain area. I’m being vague because the particulars really don’t alter the conclusion of this little parable. While killing the surrounding mobs in hopes of triggering the random spawn I see a hunter from the same faction running around beside me killing the same mobs. The poor hunter was not doing quite as well as he should and was on the verge of death. Noticing this I toss him a quick heal and move on with my killing spree. This happened a total of three more times for a total of four times I saved this basement dwelling craptard. Now most decent members of society would, at the very least, toss a “Thanks” my way or even a freakin’ wave, not this product of inbreeding. Not only does he not wave he ends up killing the mob that finally spawned as a result of all the killing that I was doing.

Screw you jackass!

Next up on the dumb ass parade is the asstastic individual who followed me up a path on the way to the final kill for another quest only to run past me as I engage the second last mob to ninja the end objective for me.

Awesome, thanks!

I understand that everyone’s time is precious and everyone is looking for the quickest way to get to the end game, although I don’t know why. But would it kill someone to invite you to a group so when you kill that final objective you both get credit for it? How hard is it share a quest? Give me a break, this is the kind of crap that makes me want to jab shards of glass in my eyes. This is another reason why I haven’t jumped into a low level dungeon yet. I know that the Dungeon Finder is a great way to help supplement ones leveling progress. Unfortunately, the last time I tried I was paired up with a tank that still suffered from resurrection sickness, a healer that hadn’t trained up his skills for the last 6 levels and a dps that was AFK for the whole run, but I digress.

Maybe I’m wrong (I doubt it) maybe I shouldn’t have healed that hunter. Maybe I should have “gone all nerd-ranty” on the ninja. Maybe, but I don’t play the game that in that way. I have enough stress in my job and personal life, I sure has hell don’t need to get all stressy over a video game. I play this game to relax (ha) and if I can’t enjoy myself while I’m playing I turn the game off. I just hate the fact that sometimes I have to turn the game off because someone else doesn’t know how to function as a human being. So please, I beg of you, the next time you get an anonymous heal or buff give that player a wave. It goes a long way and it doesn’t cost you anything.

A Shaman Gets Rolling

With that awful, awful fire totem quest in the rear view mirror (it really was just awful). Shammydavis is able to look ahead to the great span of levels that is 11 through 20.

I have to admit, I’m having a good time playing the Shammy. It hasn’t felt too gear dependent and even without the help of any heirloom items the levels have gone by fairly quickly. The only change to my rotation so far has come with the addition of the lightning shield. The lightning shield was an ability that I got back in the early levels. I just never used the damn thing that much, it didn’t seem necessary. As I climbed the levels I found myself buffing myself with the lightning shield before every pull. So my rotation went from Bolt, Bolt, Shock, CLUB THE HELL OUT OF THEM to Lightning shield, Bolt, Bolt, Shock, CLUB THE HELL OUT THEM, Lightning shield (reapply) and FINISH CLUBBING THE HELL OUT OF THEM!

As far as using that stupid fire totem, I have learned one very valuable lesson. Don’t use the fire totem. Lesson learned. See, the problem with the fire totem is the fact that, at this level, all it does is a ranged attack. But the ranged attack is completely uncontrollable, when you‘re finished CLUBING THE HELL out of a mob this damn pole of Satan will fire another attack at the next closest mob. Sometimes my totem would fire a shot at a passing squirrel, but other times it would fire a shot at a wandering mob. The mob would get all pissy and come over and first club the pole of Satan and then start CLUBING THE HELL OUT OF ME. So if I can pass along any advice it would be this; keep you totem in your pants, I mean bag (sorry). The only time I pull out my totems now is when I screw up and pull too many mobs. As soon as I recognize that the F’n Harpie I just sent a bolt at is bringing a couple of bitchy friends I frantically throw down any and all totems available to me. At this point that would be a totem to increase my armor and the pole of Satan. Then as soon as I am finished CLUBBING THE HELL OUT OF THEM, I retract my fire totem right away before it can get a shot off... and drink.

Oh, I have left out the greatest addition to my rotation. I have decided to become an Herbalist. The skill learned at level 75 herbalism is an instant cast heal over time spell and believe me I use this skill. Maybe more than the heal ability that Shamans learn from the trainer. Not only has Herbalism saved my life more than a couple of time it has also provided me with a nice little income on the side. All thanks to wonderful flower power.

Levels 11 through 20 have flown by and I now stand before you an adult Shaman. I wonder what wonderful skills I will get at level 20? I get a nice shiny new dinosaur mount, no more walking for this sucker. Off to the Shaman trainer to get my… oh crap… Water Totem quest.

Now We Can Move On

Well the wooden spoon has been swung and I guess it didn't hurt too badly. Of course that's assuming that everything that Blizzard "wants to take care of" actually stays in the game. So due to the fact that I don't want to get all worked up on talents, buffs and nerfs that may not stay in the game (I'm looking at you Druids with your Magic Mushroom). I will eat crow for partially being wrong yesterday about the sky falling, regroup, and come back with another thought.

P.S. Truth be told I just needed something to write about so I can try out the "post be email" feature.

Watch Out For That Spoon

I’m scared.

I am sure that we have all been following the upcoming class changes for Cataclysm. It all started with the changes to the Shaman class (Shammydavis is excited) and it finished with the Mage, or should I say, the updates were suspended with the Mage. Within all the updates there was one glaring exception, where’s the Paladin changes?

Now I know that Blizzard warned us ahead of time that the Paladin changes weren’t coming until the following Friday (April 16^th). But with all these changes, some good and some bad, we are left to wonder just how bad are these changes to the Paladin class that Blizzard has decided to wait an entire week before announcing them?

Any educated person knows that Blizzard is not taking the extra time to finalize the upcoming Paladin changes. These changes have been designed and finalized awhile ago. Blizzard has something different in mind. Blizzard is waiting for most of the crying (QQ) over the other class changes to calm down before dropping the Paladin Bomb on us. Good or bad, nerfed or buffed the Paladin changes are coming and apparently they need their own dedicated day to unveil them.

Personally I hope that the reason they are waiting is because they have no changes to the class to announce and they just wanted to give the Paladin class their own day. How great would it be if Blizzard published an article that said,

“Keep on truckin’ Pallies. We think you’re special just the way you are.”

Let’s just give the Paladin some kick ass level 81-83-85 talents and be done with it. But a betting man would place money on the fact that the Paladin is going to change drastically. So now all we can do is wait. At least we don’t have to wait until Friday anymore, Blizzard has pushed the date up to Wednesday (April 14^th). Good or bad the changes are coming at us like an angry Mom with a wooden spoon in her hand. So when the changes come and Blizzard swings that wooden spoon at your head just duck and try to push all the agro to your brother. After all he plays a Gnome Warlock, he deserves a spoon to the head!

What is Wrong With Some Players?

This is my first article, never blogged before and do not have the journalism degree like my other blogging cohort. How do I do this? First person, third person, how many words? Can’t make it too long or people won’t read the whole thing. So there will be growing pains. So bear with me. Here we go…

From my pen name I have a few alts (sic) and when a new WOW holiday event comes around I select one of my toons and try to get him/her the title. Well I was playing one of them the other night, trying to get the Noblegarden achievements completed before I went away for the weekend. She is a level 29 Tauren druid and I had the “Desert Rose” achievement to complete.

For the “Desert Rose” I got all the zones completed except Tanaris and Silithus and I was starting to think how I was going to pull it off without getting killed numerous times. On this particular realm all my RL friends are sporting alliance 80’s so I asked one of them to switch over and escort me to Silithus. He switched up and eventually arrived in Tanaris.

This is where this article really begins. As I was discussing the plan with him through vent a horde hunter came over and flagged PvP. He began jumping up and down around us and shooting off his volley. I told him that my Alliance escort was not interested in a fight because we wanted to get this done.

Well this hunter followed us and then would try to get in the way of my buddies targeting when I went and aggro’d things, and boy did I aggro stuff. I may not have been politically correct when I asked him if he was “retarded”. No response. A little farther into our journey I ask him what his problem was and he finally responded with something similar to this (since my daughter plays I have the language control on), “This is what you get when you have a &*^DFT^% H&*IFHISH &*$HJ S real life friend that decides to roll a J*S&KFH&&*$# SK alliance. I will eventually HF&@jd kill him.” To this I responded with, “Are you 12?” and immediately put him on ignore.

He went away and our journey through Un’goro Crater was mostly uneventful. However; upon arriving at Marshal’s Refuge, I get a whisper form a level 1 toon. It was the hunter. Went something like this, “You AH@&H HS*$H A$$, you are no better than your HS&$H HSH*@ Alliance friend.” I responded,” So you are retarded, 12 and obsessive compulsive” and put that toon on ignore.

We finished the journey to Silithus and I got my quest “Desert Rose” completed.

So my question, “What is wrong with some players?” I was going to ask the question, “What is wrong with some of the players on [insert realm name here]?” but realized these people are probably on all realms. Please, through your comments enlighten me. I would love to hear from some psychologists; maybe they can shed some light on why some people turn into idiots when they start playing WOW.

A Shaman Hits Double Digits

Dear Blizzard,

SCREW YOU!

Thank you,
Nebz

So Shammydavis dinged 10 and with great power comes great responsibility. Finally, I was thinking, finally I can specialize in my chosen talent tree. Finally I can train in some kick ass abilities. But best of all I can finally get my fire totem and add a little dps to my shaman (insert fail sound effect here).

First let’s talk about the talent tree I have decided to pursue. A shaman has three choices (duh), Enhancement (two handed melee DPS), Elemental (DPS caster in leather/mail) and Restoration (healer). Now, personally I don’t have very much interest in trying to level Shammydavis through the Dungeon Finder (too many horrific runs with other toons). For leveling toons my poison of choice is good old fashion questing. Leveling a healer through questing is a matter of outlasting the mob you are currently poking and for me that doesn’t spell fun. So that narrows my choices down to caster or melee, and since I already have a level 80 mage, I decided to level as a melee (Enhancement).

Alright, we have a talent tree! Let’s look and see what I get to put my first point into on my journey to uberness. Ummm... ummm awesome… one point goes to raising my intellect by a hair. Nice. Great. Wonderful. Grand.

Well at least I get to go on my magical and mystical journey for the elusive fire totem. Now I won’t bore you with the specifics of my journey, but I will tell you that I wasted a total of 54 mins of my life on this damn quest. 54 mins! What the hell Blizzard?

Years ago I used to read a comic in the Saturday newspaper entitled “The Family Circus”. Although the comic wasn’t very funny, once in awhile it had a drawing of the crazy adventures of little Jeffery. In one of the frames Lil’ Jeffery’s mother would ask him to go and get the mail. The next frame contained his “hilarious” journey through the house, into the yard, into the playground, out on the road, to the mail box, to the fridge, to the bar, into the bathroom and then finally to his mom. The final frame would be his mom asking “What took you so long?” Ugh! On this quest chain I felt just like Lil’ Jeffery. Crisscross the Barrens, then into Durator, into the Barrens back and forth until you finally end up back where you started just to kill some crappy fire elemental that was beside the guy who started the damn quest. Oh, and of course Shammy is only level 10 so I HAD TO WALK THE WHOLE DAMN TIME! Nerd rage! Screw you Blizzard! I had visions of some jackass sitting at corporate Blizzard laughing at me as I ran back and forth.

“Look”, he would yell to his buddies, “another sucker is on that stupid fire totem quest. Pop some popcorn this loser’s going to be awhile.”

Up yours Blizzard!

Well needless to say I finished the quest and I got my stupid fire totem. Big frigin’ deal. I just keep telling myself that this quest chain was an anomaly, after all that running around I’m sure that the water totem at level 20 will be a breeze.


P.S. Blizzard I still love, don’t make me leave the game. I’ll pay extra if I have to.

A Shaman is Born

My most recent endeavor has been to roll and level a Troll Shaman. You may think, “big deal” or “who cares”, well I’ll tell you the little twist I have in store… you ready for this… I plan on leveling all the way to 80 this time! Crazy, I know, but this time I’m actually going to see this one through.

The first decision I had to make was which race was I going to use. Admittedly, the Horde side has many more choices over the Alliance, so I was to chose between Tauren (slow, kind of dull and they take up too much real estate on my screen), Troll (ugly, crappy racial traits, but man can they dance) and Orc (way ugly, better racial traits and cool wolf mount). So I choose a Troll, what can I say I’m a sucker for the cool dance moves.

The second decision was his name. Do you know how damn hard it is to be original any more when it comes to naming your toon. Think of a name right now, any name, now try and use it in the character creator. Go ahead, I can wait…. Didn’t work, did it? It’s brutal; all the original stuff is gone. So now you’re left using a “1” instead of an “l” or some other form of phonetic bastardization. Oh and if the original name that you choose did work, guess what, there’s probably 100 other toons with the same name on other servers. My shaman is Shammydavis, there are a lot of other Shammydavis’s already running around Azeroth. I didn’t know this at the time. I swore I was the wittiest cleverest person ever when I thought of Shammydavis. Sadly, I am not.

So here I am, Shammydavis, ready to take on the world. I am part of friendly little guild that my friends started, For Shatt (s) and Giggles (damn we’re funny). I have my mace and my shield. Everything seems to be ready to go. Wait a minute. I don’t have any 18 slot bags? I have no gold? What the hell is this? Now I’m starting to rethink this whole thing.

My Shammydavis is born to the world and as a level 1 Shaman your attack choices are very limited, as a matter of fact for the first 9 levels every attack was exactly the same. Lightning bolt (usually twice before the mob gets to me) and then CLUB THE HELL OUT OF THEM! One nice thing that has recently happened is Blizzard has decided to make manna and health regeneration much quicker for the first 10 levels. This allowed me to bolt, club and move on with very little down time. Eventually I got my first shock spell (level 2) so my pattern varied enough to include the new spell. Lightning bolt (x2), shock and the CLUB THE HELL OUT OF THEM! That’s it, rinse and repeat for the first 9 levels. Oh sure I got a new shinny totem at level 4, but honestly I don’t think I ever planted the damn thing. Maybe once I threw it out there when I pulled one too many mobs, but as far as early leveling goes I never dropped a totem. Oh sweet ignorance, and then “DING!” level 10!

New Contributor

I am now a poster to a blog. Yikes - I hated English class in highschool which was a long time ago. I am calling myself Alt37, which I think is the current number of toons I have on my WOW account. My daughter treats the character creation screen as her personal Barbie fashion centre. Any way, I will from time to time blog about various World of Warcraft topics. We will see how it goes. Cheers