Happy Holidays! Part 2

It's almost time for Children's Week! I can't wait - two more pets and some more achievement points! It's silly that I'm so excited about getting a little rat pet (whiskers is so cute!) but I am. Speedy is still my all time favorite pet, but I can't wait to get whiskers too.

It's disappointing when holidays overlap, since that creates long stretches without any special events, but this is a short overlap and Noble Garden (Easter) is a pretty simple, straightforward event so it shouldn't be too difficult to finalize early.

Nostalgia

I've been listening to Lineage II game music today and it's making me soooooo nostalgic! I even found a fantastic little compilation of different store themes from several villages.

(After the Storm, Hunter's Village, Expedition March, Deep Shadows, Gathering Armies, Unicorn's Rest)

Sometimes I forget how beautiful the game was. And infuriating. But beautiful!

Argent Tournament

When I first heard that the new content patch was going to include (in addition to the desperately awaited new raid instance Ulduar) a new daily quest hub with vanity pets and mounts as rewards, I admit to being extremely excited. I've always had a love-hate relationship with WoW, but the small changes they make to accomodate better gameplay, like adding the pet and mount books, are what really make the game stand out from other MMOs. Just as an aside note, if they added in player housing I would probably be hooked for life - this was the single coolest "extra" feature of Dark Age of Camelot.

Logging in on patch day, I made my way to the Argent Tournament grounds first thing - I wanted to get started on my way to glorious new vanity pets. I was surprised with what I found when I got there. I appreciate that Blizzard is attempting to level the playing field with dailies and quests that utilize vehicles, but jousting is far too annoying for a daily quest. As a player who has a healer, I understand how frustrating and slow it can be to get anything done on your own. My holy priest never managed to finish rep farming with Burning Crusade factions due to her inability to accomplish much on her own and my unwillingness to put another person on the hook for my dailies. However, patch 3.1 also introduced dual specs - effectively every healer class can now chose a dps spec as well, allowing them to complete their daily quests without trouble.

So, instead of making things easier for healers to do these dailies, they've made it tougher for everyone else.The idea behind the jousting is fun, but the process is slow and frustrating - especially for someone like me who tends to complete game dailies while I do my RL dailies - making dinner, putting away groceries, checking email and tidying my apartment, etc. Once you start jousting against an opponent you need to finish. There's little room for stop and go, and a lot of time needed for travel across the map in order to complete all the quests. And unlike other dailies that you can pick and chose from, you really must complete all the dailies. I made the mistake of skipping one quest on the second day, and as a result I had to wait a full extra day before I could proceed to the next set of dailies. Missing one daily set me back quite far.

I'm confused as to why they implemented a massive quest hub that requires players to control units rather than just completing traditional gameplay based quests. I play a hunter for a reason - I like playing a hunter. The jousting controls are annoying to me, and I greatly prefer old style dailies. I appreciate that Blizzard is attempting to provide a broad spectrum of quest styles, but these are dailies that literally must be done every day - so something that is pleasantly repeatable is necessary. Not something that annoys you before you even start doing them. I dread these dailies, but I have to do them anyway because I desire the rewards. I am already sick of the quests and I don't even have enough marks to purchase a single vanity pet!

That being said, I have progressed pretty well so far. I am an Exalted Champion of Silvermoon, my home city. In just 2 more days I will be an Exalted Champion of the Sen'Jin (horray - raptor mount here I come!), and after that I'll tackle Thunder Bluff. I can't help myself, the flamingo pet is probably the best addition. I mean, it's certainly better than a MAGICAL BROOM...unless the broom splits up like the Sorcerer's Apprentice...then it's cool. Creepy, but cool. Unfortunately it's not nearly as cool as the baby restoration druid pet.

I have to say that Blizzard really dropped the ball on balancing the pets, though - the Alliance pets are much neater than the Horde equivalents. Here's hoping there are more pet rewards added in the future.

Happy Holidays!

It's Easter all over again, and I'm going to punch a bunny if I don't get my elegant dress tonight. I opened hundreds of eggs yesterday and still have yet to loot one!

The bunny sticks are awesome though - I love turning people into bunnies and then chasing them around Dalaran as my cat (using Eyes of the Beast).

We Are Experiencing A High Volume of Petitions

Because our game is always broken!

Seriously -- several hours ago, while doing my dailies, Icecrown glitched. No NPCs, unable to log out. I reset my computer and went about doing some other things. When I attempted to log back onto my character, I discovered that I couldn't. She is stuck in some sort of no-man's land. The character selection screen properly places her in Icecrown, but I am unable to log in. Instead, the blue bar simply sits on full for minutes. I can hear people logging in and out with game sounds, but see nothing but the loading screen.

Now I get to spend my Friday waiting in que behind people with petty complaints so that my major issue can be explained or resolved. Horray for bad customer service!

Come on, Blizzard. LET ME IN!!!

UPDATE: Wow, a GM actually fixed something. I'm nearly speechless. Unfortunately my other petition was answered with "GMs cannot award achievements if they bug out and do not credit you" so I guess I will have to redo "Watch Him Die".... FAIL!

In The Cards: Part 2

I finally completed my Nobles Deck for my Greatness card! I only had to buy two cards, and managed to make one of each of the other decks with pleanty of extras! Hah!

Patches are Fun: 2

Favorite gem from today's patch update:

Thrall's thrown has been adjusted back to its proper size and the base replaced. He will no longer need to defy gravity.

Patches are Fun

Patch days are chore days - it's amazing how much I can get done while I wait for patches to download and install, or servers to come up!

Bills Paid
Dinner Made
Dishes Washed
Record Playing
Patch Note Reading. Favorite gem:

Priest Changes - Inner Fire - Charges of this buff will now be consumed properly if the priest is attacked while using emotes.

If the download doesn't speed up I'll have to bake a freaking cake or something...

Horray for Patch Day!!!

Yay...finally 3.1 day. I can't wait for dual specs so I can go tame a special kitty.... /yawn.

At least Ulduar looks to be complicated, so maybe raiding will return to a respectable degree of difficulty. I can't stand puggers in greens and blues pulling less than 1k dps in 25 man raids acting like that's excused by their poor gear. A level 70 can pull 3 or 4x the dps I've seen some of these guys put out. Nothing quite like hitting the enrage timer 3x in a row for 25 man Vaults because you have half a dozen people under 1k dps...

Hopefully this new content will be difficult enough to keep the total idiots and casual gamers from dragging things down as much as they have been since WotLK released, but time will tell! And here's hoping the servers don't fail.... /laugh

In The Cards

I am usually not the type of person to comment on my own luck or lack thereof, but it occurred to me after a second week of trying to finish off my bravery deck that my in-game luck just might be of the bad variety. 

Case #1: Firefly

I killed 1,400 + fireflies in Zangarmarsh in an attempt to capture my own cute little firefly pet (still flying!), with no luck. I was given fireflies by luckier (and very kind) guildies and still haven't managed to acquire my own!

Case #2: Greatness Deck

I broke down and bought an 8 Sunday night, but was unable to come up with a 6 in time to finish my deck. The Darkmoon Faire will be back at the end of April, so here's hoping my luck improves before then! I should especially thank Singeslayer for milling all my herbs and making all my dye. He's spent easily a few hours helping me out with this, and unfortunately for him I'm still not done. He had no idea what hell he was getting himself into (added bonus for me!!).

Horray for Pets and Mounts!

I finally managed to finish getting items from Oracle rep - my proto-drake mount is massive and very green! The proto-drake whelp is adorable too. So finally off to farm Frenzyheart rep for achievements.

Still I am lagging embarrassingly far behind thanks to my month or so break - I need ~10 or so achievements in both versions of Naxxramas, and a handful more 5 man achievements as well. I'm only at 5610 points.... /sadface