The World of Warcraft Blues

Are you bored yet? Are you looking for something to do? Are you level 80 and tired of doing the same old stuff, be it farming or fishing, dungeons or raids?

It's that time folks. The time at the end of an expansion when everyone is, for lack of a better term, just plain over it!
I keep hearing it in podcasts and lately I've been feeling it a bit myself. Do I really want to log in and do this again?

So the question is...what keeps bringing me back? Truthfully it's the same thing that kept me logging in from the beginning. I don't have the same goal every day. Sometimes I want to wander around and look and sometimes I just want to kick some ass!! Depending on how I feel, what I've been doing, listening to or reading will determine what I'll be doing in game for the day. Sometimes what others are doing will determine where I go. So I don't get bored very often. There is ALWAYS something for me to do. The only time I get really bored is if I've been doing the same thing over a couple of days, then all of a sudden I will have to step away from the game for a day. I believe Blizzard must be employing some sort of social psychologist or they have some extremely smart game developers. The idea of creating multiply areas of play is what is allowing them to rake in the bucks. WoW can appeal to anyone, and I mean anyone. Like puzzles? Do quests. Like art, walk around and inspect the architecture and style of the world. Like to talk to people? There are plenty standing around in the cities just waiting for you to stir their pot. Want to beat people up? Well hell, you can do that too! Yes! You too can be an asshole, battlegrounds and arenas are just a click away. Or you can join a PVP server and grief people all day long! Co-op or challenging? Dungeons and raids of all levels and types await you! How can you NOT like this place?
(disclaimer: I like battlegrounds and pvp and am in no way assuming PVP'ers are assholes. I'm just saying you can be one if you want to)

Those are just a few of the things out there to do. And when you get bored with doing them on one toon you can start something else and see how the other half live. Are you a tank? Start a priest. Caster? Find a melee class to try. Not sure? Grab a hybrid such as a druid, paladin, or shaman and you can try all 3, or 4, or 5 different play-styles.

So there you have it, that's what keeps me going during the long slow dreary days of waiting for the new expansion.

What keeps you coming back?

Stack Your Tank

Hi. Since my post about maximizing dps I have learned a few things about stacking for tanks I'd like to share.
This will not be as extensive due to some time constraints at the moment.

I had an opportunity to off-tank ICC a few weeks ago and learned some great techniques. Though what I'm going to share is primarily for prot warriors I'm sure there are many that can be utilized for other classes.

Glyph - specific to prot warrior is Glyph of Blocking. Increasing the block and duration of your shield slam.

Next is to either use Greater Rune of Warding or even Lesser Rune of Warding. Either will give you a small amount of damage absorption. And remember, anything is better than nothing, no matter how small.

Third is potion stacking. The potion most useful seems to be indestructible potion.

Use Shield Slam whenever it becomes available, or right before you taunt when you're swapping tanks.
Follow this with the potion during critical times in a fight can make the difference between a wipe and a successful boss kill. Such as during the 3rd inhale in the Rotface encounter. I learned the hard way on this one.

I'm sure there are other tips and tricks that can be applied but so far these are the crucial new ones to me I wanted to pass along.

Happy Hunting!

What's in a Guild?

The time has come. I have been meaning to put some guild ideas down on paper...er computer...and I have not been able to decide where to start. I've opted to begin with my philosophy of what I think a guild should be. Let me start from the beginning.

The Beginning
When I first became guild leader I was overwhelmed and I must admit a bit panic-stricken with the idea of being in control of this thing that was made of so many other people and personalities. I was voted in, and accepted the nomination thinking I probably wouldn't be able to cope with it for very long. I have a strong dislike of conflict and am really quite afraid of confronting people. Even though I seem to put my opinions out there freely and I will admit, I have a big mouth and sometimes a big attitude to go with it, I will shy away from confrontation.

Blizzcon

I hadn't had the chance to share this yet....I got tickets!!! woot!

Hope to see everyone and anyone at Blizzcon 2010 :D

(this is where I spent 20 minutes trying to find the logo and insert it here. As you can see, it didn't work all that well and I'm out of time)

Dumb and Dumber

Dumb
Feeling all full of myself I offered to help a guildmate who was running regular Azjol-Nerub and was in need of a tank. I logged over to my prot warrior and joined the group. I promptly proceeded to wipe the group several times on Hadronox. How you may ask? Well...let me tell you.
We took out the first boss ok fine. A little messy. Sometimes you forget how the aggro radius is on a 72. Ah well, moving on.
Everyone gets in position and I pull the first mob to begin the event on Hadronox. The other 2 melee dps run down to join me, aggroing the other mobs close by. I drag them all up the web to get away from anything else and we take them out. We pull another group, I don't know where that came from and are almost done when they suddenly disappear on me. I'm standing in the area where the first mobs spawn and they're gone. Weird but ok. I've seen people bug out this encounter recently so I figure it is bugged. I move down the web ramp halfway around the spiral heading to Hadronox and the rest of the group follows me. Spiders begin spawning at the top heading down to Had and they KEEP spawning. Oh shit this isn't right! I am now tanking about 15 spiders, the healer is healing her little ass off and everyone is wondering (including me) what the hell is happening. We wipe. K now I feel totally stupid. I explain I thought it was bugged, don't know what is going on etc. The Shammy restores herself right there and rezes me first. Before she can get up the rest of the group the spiders start spawning again. Again I find myself tanking a shit-ton of them while everyone desperately tries to keep alive. We wipe again. Now I'm done. I apologize and leave along with my guildmate.
I have never felt so stupid in my little WoW life as I did at that moment. Here I was going in to save the day and completely fucked the entire encounter up.

Dumber
I was listening to a podcast the other day and I was so flabbergasted by what this guy did that I feel the need to repeat it here. The podcast is Wowphiles. I've been listening to them since their 2nd show and was really excited to see others out there in the podcast world trying out new things. Now I don't ever know if I will listen to them again.
Jason, the main host, was asked to start a guild by his listeners. After long thought he decided it would be a fabulous idea to start a guild on another server on the opposite faction. His tale starts off innocently enough. He rolled a level 1 NE druid and proceeded to run to Darnassus. Where he then began a begging spree that has left me with my jaw on the floor. From begging a mage to port him to SW to begging everyone for 10s to start his guild charter and then begging people to sign it.  I am just astounded that an adult person, who had at least one level 80, has played the game for over a year, and I would expect to have some sort of sense in his head, would stoop to the level of a 10 year old noob. Really tell me you're joking. I had to turn off the podcast right then and there and I don't know if I'll ever be able to turn it on again. That was truly the stupidist thing I'd ever heard anyone do. At least anyone who has had any substantial time in the game.
Let me add. I told this story to a friend of mine who does not play WoW. Even she was amazed and had come up with another plan he could have used instead of begging.
I hope he enjoys his time on his new server where half the population has already put him on ignore.