Archive for August, 2008

Well I had a couple of dings. Even with the Grand Opening on Tuesday, random insanity, headaches, trucks coming in with freight, and flat-out exhaustion, I managed to scrape some time together to run ZA with the guild and level the gnome up some. She’s just -this- shy for turning 18, which isn’t too shabby for only being able to grab an hour here and there for the past few days. I’m getting used to the whole caster/pet/rawr thing.

The one thing that I can say about this whole experiment (other than Damn You Bre!) is I’m finding it a lot easier this time than in times past. Yes I’ve tried to lock before, but I’d get them up to lvl 8 or so and delete them. This is the highest level I’ve ever gotten one before and I’m pleased with myself over that if nothing else. I think what’s helped me has been my playing a mage and a hunter. Warlock certainly takes aspects from both (pet managment, mana management, aggro management, caster squishy factor) and puts them together nicely. I’m kinda looking forward to see what else I’ll be finding out along the way. If nothing else, I’m getting to play a new class that I had blissfully left to others, knowing I’d never play it. Well, that’ll teach me. >.> (Damn you, Bre!)

/falls over dead

Wow, okay this has been a week. The teachers raided my store. I spent most of the week shut into my office frantically ordering anything teacher-ish in a vain attempt to stay ahead of their buying. To say we’re a success with them is putting it, erm, mildly. >.>

As a result, I had to back out of almost all raiding this week. Coming home exhausted was the norm, as was falling asleep on the couch while the Olympics played out on the TV. I’m refusing to give up tomorrow night’s ZA guild run tho. Dammit, that’s our fun run! I need silliness! I need carnage! I need… well more sleep.

So no drama (/cheer!), no raiding (/boo!), and no me to tease Breana with cries of “I have fountain pens and youuuuu dooooon’t! /cackle”. Thanks to those that listened to the Twisted Nether podcast and my insane ramblings. God knows why I was deemed interesting but hopefully I was at least entertaining (please feel free to not delusion me :D)

But there is something that I found in my screenshot gallery that I had to show. Something… odd…

Wait… what was that? HUH?!

…

::throwing down gauntlet:: Damn you, Bre, you taunted me into it. I rolled a ‘lock. A GNOME ‘lock. She’s lvl 11. I got her that far on my “crapIhavenotimeGAH!” schedule this week. You. Will. Pay. Remember: I still haven’t shown you the paperclips! MWHAHAHAHAHAhahahahaAHHAHAHAH!

Ah drama. How we loathe it. Well we like watching it as long as no one we know is involved, including ourselves. But once it touches us, it’s kinda hard to get rid of it. Once upon a time ago, I was a guild leader in another game. It was formed to be casual friendly and full of people that were drama free. We had a couple of people that might go for some drama, but as a whole, they were kept in check. Within the guild we rarely had fights over loot (actually I can’t even remember one instance of loot fighting), and almost all of the “drama” was directed towards external influences, like people who trained mobs onto others for fun. Yep, in a pre-WoW world, that’s how some people got their non-PvP kicks (morons). No we weren’t perfect: we had spats with each other, names were occasionally called, but over all, we were a pretty good group of friends.

Cut to today’s WoW: yes, I read WoW Insider and yes, I read the weekly guild drama recaps. Some of the time I giggle cos it’s so silly, and sometimes I just sigh cos it’s so pointless. But for the most part, I read them with a sigh of relief that “it’s not me”. But then I have a brush with the drama llama and I’m reminded to not get cocky. That it happens to everyone and when you least expect it.

The problem with raiding with another guild as a guest is that sometimes drama over loot happens. We’re all human. We all want that “omg shiny!” item. Hey, I admit it: I’ve had my moments of avarice and loot whoring over the smallest thing. Hell, I have the Baron’s Cloak from Strath still in my bank as a “war trophy” (god I hated him). The group The Boyfriend and I are running with is doing okay in SSC and TK. The whole time I’ve run with them, I’ve never seen anything that made me stand up and put my name in for loot when they’ve called for loot council. Wednesday night that changed when I got the Rift Stalker Gauntlets. Last night, Bands of the Celestial Archer dropped off of TK trash. As I was still wearing Stalker’s War Bands, once again, I figured wth and tossed my name in. I was given them, but apparently that caused drama with some people in the guild. At this point, there’s little that I can do. I put my name in, they checked my gear. But, to make peace, I now have an alt in their guild, as well as The Boyfriend. It’s light drama, and something that’s handled, but it’s still drama. ::sigh::

So how do you handle inter-guild raiding loot drama? Avoid it and not take anything? But then you gimp yourself and not help the raid which means there’s no point to you taking a spot in their raid. Ignore any snarking that occurs? Never been fond of the hide the head in the sand approach (even if I occasionally practice it). Confront it headon? Well then that’s where fights can break out. Yeah so not happening.

I will say this: I’ve deliberately not taken loot before if someone else rolling on it needed it more. I’ve waited and checked others’ gear before putting my name in. I try to be a good guest when I’m not in a group with my guild. So I toe a fine line: being a good guest, getting geared up, not gimping myself but trying to not step on toes. ::sigh::

Tonight? I get interviewed by Breana and Fimlys for a podcast after hopefully doing Kara. Tomorrow, I’m off with friends for an evening of Real Life fun. Sunday, Mount Hyjal! Monday, … I pass out. >.>

Tuesday night’s raid, we were all over the place. Attempts were taken at Al’ar and while we did great on Phase 1, Phase 2 was… well… not so great. After 2 hours at it, with everyone getting more and more frustrated, we pulled out and went to go kick Void Reaver’s butt nicely before we called it an evening.

Last night, we waterwalked over to the Leo trash in SSC, skipping Hydross and Lurker. Once we got to Leo, we had the same thing happen there that had happened at Al’ar: messy, all over the place, and once we got Phase 1 over with, complete chaos. But that last attempt at him, something happened to the raid. You could feel it. Everyone was ticked, since the previous week they had one shot him. He was mocking the raid. This was WAR. Everyone snapped into focus, and we had a great kill with just seconds left on the enrage timer.

For loot, this guild runs something I had not come into contact with before running with them: Loot Council. To me, it’s not better or worse than other distribution methods. It’s just a different method. Every method has the chance to be abused, so you just shrug and go with it as long as it’s being handled fairly. Last night, for the first time since I started raiding with them, I saw something I wanted. There were 3 others there who wanted it and I figured they’d get it before me, but I tossed my name in and linked my gear it would replace as requested. I think I just about fell over when I got it.

So now, Siana’s the proud owner of Rift Stalker Gauntlets. I’ve already regemmed to bring my hitcap back down to max instead of way over max, and gained quite a bit doing so. I just have to get them enchanted tonight before raid and I’ll be all set.

Here’s hoping I get everything done tonight before raid that I want to. ::crosses fingers::

I hurt. No, really. I’m covered in footprints, sneakerprints, heelprints, you name it. Why? Cos I got trampled by teachers all yelping in glee that my store was opened. The funny part? I was only out on the floor for part of the chaos. The two ladies working for me were in the thick of it and are still recovering. I was in the back office, frantically trying to order more stuff for them. Oh and for all those that had questions about the store, please see the previous post. I finally replied to them all.

But enough of that. What about WoW?!

Last week, I took off gaming except for a ZA run with friends. Why? Well there’s that whole store thing that was going on. And honestly, I wanted to have my focus be on that instead of trying to be all things all the time. This week, my schedule’s packed: Tuesday-Thursday 25-mans, possible Friday Kara, and a Sunday 25-man. Oh, and on Friday, I’ll be recording some podcast run by a couple of nutcases I know. /dies

And in all of that, I’m still reading and trying to absorb the changes that will/might be coming when Wrath is released. I mean, I’m thrilled about more stable slots. Some of the tree talents look to be droolworthy changes and are making me purr. But not of it’s really sinking in, since I’m not involved with the beta (at least not right now, I’m holding out hope for a beta invite tho /prays to random gods). My first thought when I see new stuff come in is “ooo!” then “oh yeah, raid tonight, and I need more money for repairs.”

See, I still have a lot to do in the current game. As Big Bear Butt has said over on his blog, there’s still a lot of content in the current game. Not everyone’s killed everything in the game. Not all the bosses have been downed by everyone. Me? I’d like to stick my nose into Black Temple at least once before the next expansion. Yeah that’s right, I said it. I haven’t been to BT. So nyah.

The group I’m raiding with now is Tier 5 and flirting with Mount Hyjal. Am I enjoying the raiding? Yeah, but it feels like everyone’s lost focus on the bosses in front of them. Don’t get me wrong, I have my off-nights too, where it doesn’t seem like I can focus to save my life. Last night for some reason I was terrified I was going to have a mob targeted while everyone was buffing and accidentally shoot/send pet after the mob, thus wiping the raid. And last night, that wouldn’t have been good. Things were too fractured and disjointed.

So tonight, we go into SSC and hopefully kick much butt. I’m hoping that everyone’s had their off night for the week and we really go in there and just own the place. Even more, I hope I have fun. Cos if it’s not fun, then I know of some PS3 games I could be playing instead.