LoTRO again

During the PAXEast event, Turbine offered the complete LoTRO game, including Mines of Moria & Siege of Mirkwood, along with 30 days free play for $9.99.

Yeah I know, had to buy it!

I already have the collectors set from the games initial release but have never purchased the expansion as I haven't played in a year.

My biggest regret with LoTRO is not buying the lifetime membership for $199 when it was initially offered.  This is a gorgeous game and I love playing it - beautiful scenery, characterization is fun, crafting is different, PvP is really different!  Rumor is it's up to $300 for lifetime, which is the equivalent of 20 months.  Hmmm.... if I had bought it in 2007.... Oh well.  I put a ticket in to Billing to see if Lifetime does still exist.

The tradeoff - time to play versus monthly cost.  I always balk at the monthly fee for a couple days a month.  could look at this as equivalent to going to the movies once or a meal out, but in our current economy.... hard to justify!  Add to that I still have DragonAge and Borderlands collecting dust.

LoTRO is downloaded, account is activeLoT and on the agenda for Easter weekend (on the recovery side of the flu/but not up for socializing).  Another game to remember how to play - lol!

New Server

It's been a few weeks on the new server, Vashj.  So far....it's okay.

I was a bit bummed, when my Alliance guild was deciding where to move and the vote seemed to be going for Vashj and I jumped the gun, then it swung to the Malorne server.  Malorne is CST, and I just didn't want to get trapped into that again - raid/group at 4pm PST - sorry not going to work!  I'll miss a number of people from that guild, but not the frustration of trying to play with East Coast players that log out before I'm ever on - missing raids/instances/old content because of time difference was not fun.  Bid them all farewell, good luck and exchange of text info, and off to make my way on a new server.

I've put a couple of alts in different guilds, but haven't found the 'fit' yet.  I'm not a guild hopper, and don't really mind being guildless as no guild is better than the mindless chatter/drama filled ones.

I keep thinking I should be lonely, but after the past year or so of both Alliance and Horde guilds restructures, dramas, people coming and going - I'm actually enjoying the solitude, leveling alts that have been sitting around for awhile instead of the pressure to be on or go do/run something I'm really not in the mood for - so all in all I've had a relaxing time.  These are all characters that I have wanted to try the different professions on as well as 'eventually' get a couple to end game before Cataclysm.  So that is what I'm doing!

Two hunters - a dwarf and draenei 35/36 (I know but I love this class its an addictive sickness!), the druid 46 (my only male character), the gnome warlock 37 (my original WoW Alliance character!) are working on their professions (enchanting, engineering, alchemy, tailoring and the assorted gathering professions).  Next on the list is the shaman sitting at 28, and the pally at 23 for jewelry and blacksmith professions. 

Ziboo (gnome rogue bank alt), has been freed from duty and is leveling slowly too.  Level 12 right now, I'm finding rogues are fun to play - lol! 

Therefore, the plan for the next couple months, is to continue leveling with a mix of questing, grouping and bgs (okay lots of bgs), while having the death knight run higher instances for mats to level up their skills if needed.


The dungeon finder is a godsend - thank you Blizzard - as LFG is no longer the PiA it use to be!  I've been in more level appropriate dungeons in the past month than in the previous two years!  Love it!


 A slight digression, but I have to say with WoW, I haven't found a class that I don't like to play - well maybe Warriors.  Not that I dislike them, just seem to have no talent that direction.

Twice I've made it to level 20 and deleted the character!  Getting, maintaining rage - yikes!

I may try again I have a gnome warrior at level 5 that may one day....

This in truth is followed by Mage's.  I don't know why but I can't get into playing a Mage.  My original WoW character is a Mage.  2 1/2 years later she's 23.  I just can't/don't play her.  So, if I get the rest moved along I may try to level a Mage and a Warrior - just to see if I can!!!


So, thoroughly loving my Alliance group - even on a Horde heavy server - where winning Wintersgrasp is usually an activity after 2 a.m., and world PvP is abundant.  I'm enjoying Vashj.  It's a medium population server, trade is trade, the people have been mostly friendly, so all in all a nice place for the gang to hangout while I level along.

(Feels like a scene from 300 in most WG's - outnumbered in a sea of red)

Now that I've said all that, a blogging community guild has been started - Single Abstract Noun on both US (alliance) Argent Dawn server  and EU (horde) Argent Dawn server, so I've been highly tempted to roll yet another character there.  Time for that Mage, Warrior or Rogue to level ...hmmm, or Hunter #1,155... rofl!

Signature Generator

 I've been messing around with Zetbit.com a great little site that pulls your characters information from the WoW armory, adds it to a background of your choice for those lovely signature blocks.

It's very quick and gives you a jpg image, html or code for phpBB Forums.

(examples)

Image link
http://www.zetbit.com/sig-1459515.jpg

HTML



BBCODE (phpBB forums)
[url=http://www.zetbit.com/][img]http://www.zetbit.com/sig-1459515.jpg[/img][/url]

How to Kill a Server

Blizzard in its infinite wisdom made the decision to turn my Alliance server, Darrowmere, into a PvE server from a PvP one. Considering that the decision came down on March 3rd, with no advance notice/warning or any attempt to poll the population it was a surprise to everyone.

The response to Bornakk's blue post (full thread here) has been mixed at best.

As part of our continued efforts to balance the World of Warcraft player population across all realms, we will be converting one of our lower-population PvP realms – Darrowmere -- to a Normal PvE realm. For players on Darrowmere, we will be offering Free Character Moves to alternate PvP realms both before and for several weeks after the conversion takes place. This will allow us to continue to support healthy communities on the realms and help new players transition easily into the community.

The conversion will take place on Tuesday, March 9, with the Character Moves opening on March 3 and lasting until April 6. Upon being converted to Normal PvE, Darrowmere will be given the “New Players” flag to ensure an influx of players over the coming weeks.

The following are the destination realms for Free Character Moves off of Darrowmere:
Alterac Mountains of the Nightfall battlegroup is an Eastern time zone realm
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=68891

Auchindoun of the Retaliation battlegroup is an Eastern time zone realm
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=75725&sid=1

Malorne of the Vengeance battlegroup is a Central time zone realm
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11378&sid=1

Vashj of the Whirlwind battlegroup is a Pacific time zone realm
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=36015&sid=1


Having only been on Darrowmere for a little over a year (a free transfer moved me there in the first place), coupled with the fact I play on a few different servers, I don't have the long history and huge group of in game friends many of the original players to the server have, but I do feel their loss as guilds are breaking up and the diaspora began yesterday March 4th.

Trade chat was filled with the guilds and individuals making their goodbyes and telling which server they were transferring to. It reminded me much of Fiddler on the Roof when the inhabitants are all forced to leave their home town. The goodbye's, the look me up when you get moved, the few guilds that have decided to ride it out encouraging people to stay and recruiting - it was so sad.

Reading the Server Forum was no better. As one poster stated going from PvP to PvE won't be that big of a change for end game raiding guilds, especially as with the current looking for group cross realm, the need/use of summoning stones is pretty much gone and world PvP is all but dead on most PvP servers. In general PvE servers tend to have higher populations with RP having even higher. The few PvP servers in the Whirlwind Battlegroup (Darrowmere and Vashh) are all fairly low population or heavily unbalanced Horde:Alliance rations from 1.3:1 to 4:1.

Many view PvP servers full only of the gankers or wanna be griefers, roaming Azeroth looking for lowbies to kill and corpse camping. I've been killed by those types, but in all the time I've played I've never been camped. I don't think camping is nearly as common as people believe. Not being a ganker/griefer and not always embracing the "red=dead" philosophy, I've received alot of flak from guildmates over time. Generally I leave an individual alone if they're questing, but do on occasion go on killing sprees - lol! I will defend myself or make a tactful retreat if need be... choose your battle is my philosophy!

I just liked the added tension and need to be aware when leveling/questing of the "potential" to be killed by the enemy. I mean Alliance and Horde are in opposition, so I've always found it strange to be questing 20 feet away from someone that should be an enemy to my faction. It really changes your play style if you know you might die, versus only worrying about NPC's and pulling to many mobs.

• Racing through Elwynn Forest dodging trees, being chased by a Mage and Druid team was exhilirating.
• The pirate jumping out of the bushes at me near Tarren Mills.
• My rogue guildie saving my butt in STV, while he was on a gank the opposition spree
• Locking down whole zones with the guild on a raid through Arathi Highlands
• The back and forth wars between Tarren Mills and Southshore
• Traveling through Ratchet, Booty Bay or Wintergrasp should be all about being aware!
• Everyone should experience STV on a PvP server. It's just a right of passage in many ways.

What does a rogue do on a PvE server? Kill the bank and AH NPC's? Camp the Crossroads? (my rogue is level 2 bank alt)


So with a heavy heart, last night I moved the gang to Vashj, as that was the only PST server available. My Alliance guild is still debating where to move to, and will make their decision this weekend. As half on EST/CST and half on PST it won't be an easy decision. I feel for some of them that have played together for years, as they may lose many ingame friends.

I do hope they'll chose Vashj, but thoroughly understand wanting to play on a server with a better chance at a healthy population during the time you're on than not. Why I went with the only PST server available.

The move wasn't an 'easy' choice. I did check all four options Forums and finally made an alt on Vashj. Read trade for an hour, checked the AH (better economy than Darrowmere sadly) and spoke with a few individuals. No one was very encouraging about the move as many started on Vashj and have watched their own population dwindle as people transferred off for greener pastures. Raid progession is still far behind most servers and WG is owned by the Horde 18 to 20 hours a day. Hmmm already feels like home - lol! Darrowmere has had these same problems so hopefully this change will infuse new blood into Vashj.


My last toon (Ziboo) made her way through both Stormwind and Ironforge her goodbye view (considering each serve is identical its amazing how 'different' they can feel!) It was sad as the majority of players were bands of roving Horde killing NPC's. It was a ghost town.

It really felt like the world was coming to an end - all it needed was a coyote and a few tumbleweeds to get that desolate feel.


Oh well! Here's to a fresh start on Vashj! Cheers!

Death Knight fun

I really love the Death Knight start area. I think I've made/deleted at least half a dozen (that I'll admit too!) DK's as I love the progression changes.

My first DK, named Greaf is/was a gnome on my Alliance server. I leveled her to 65 as she had Inscription, and needed to ding 65 for the recipes. I never intended to level past that. DKs... too dang many of them, OP and why bother, right?

Well I did end up, just for fun playing with the guild on occasion with alts., and she was leveling very slowly. When I moved back to my Horde server I took Greaf, but her name was taken, so she became Biya.

A Blood Elf - yeah a Belf DK - none of those around - lol!!!

So, Biya came along to bring her Inscription skills (which she has maxed level and has ALL recipes including turning into a giant wolf - ftw!), again with no intention of max leveling her. She was quite comfortable at level 71.

My Horde GM, had a DK too, and we did start leveling together a bit. The addition of XP in BG's was a big motivator to continue as I do love PvP, but still with no idea what I planned to do with a DK if she reached 80. She is specced unholy, although people kept 'encouraging' me to go Blood or Frost, I've stuck with unholy.

Current spec is 17/54, but I've been looking on ElitistJerks and the new spec for 3.3 and may switch to that going out of Blood and into Frost. It looks interesting, although if I do, I'm going to find a way to put a point in Lichborne for that ability to give myself an oh shit heal with Death Coil.

So, Biya's been running instances and getting geared. She's in a mix of T8-T9 gear, and more heroic farming should get her better gear as wellas more learn to play time for me! I have thoroughly been enjoying her, more than I thought I would.

I've also been macroing her abilities/spells, working on a better rotation, which has improved my DPS too. That along with a few BG's has been keeping me busy.

Not too busy though as I've been leveling the Druid and the Pally - both fun to play too. More on those two later.

DK resources -

Elitist Jerks.com
DK Wiki
Death Knight Builds
Death Knight Info
Death Knight add-ons at Curse

Blogs -
Death Knight blog
Death Knight Tactics
DeathCoil
Me and My Ghoul
Plagued Candles

It's been awhile...WoW update

I haven't posted in a few months, mostly as lots of 'changes' have been occurring in game as well as in real life.

In game, I made the decision to combine my three highest level characters on one server, so moved Sithi, the hunter (now dual specced BM/MM named Sithie) and Greaf, the Death Knight (now Biya, still unholy) to Blackwing Lair to join Sassi (now dual specced shadow with disc/holy) to play with the people I've played with on/off for two years.

Nice being back with friends, BUT they've gone into ten man strict raiding guild format with an abundance of level 80's that have been raiding since vanilla. So raiding, unless I want to PUG or do the weekly random, has been non-existent. Although, I did finally get to do Sartherdon 3 drakes up 25 man which was fun. It's pretty much been randoms, bgs and gearing the girls.

I did manage to get Biya to 80, something I hadn't intended to do, but did! Now trying to gear up three 80's in both PvE and PvP gear is a chore. Add to that I've started healing on Sassi, more gear needs - a healing PvE/PvP set - big ugh!

So since December they've all been together and it's nice, but GAWD!!!! do I miss playing Alliance! I do like the Horde too, and the people I play with, but really miss Alliance. Bleah!

I'm see-sawing again about moving Sithi and/or Biya either back - miss that guild too - but not the low population that Darrowmere server has. The other option a new server. Finding a new server and a new guild is a chore and I haven't actively been doing that. Although I'd kind of like too! I really need a guild that's at my level of play (ToC10, just starting ICC stuff) too. I think there's a mild ADD masking itself as altitis going on here.

Add to that having so much of my Alliance-ness stripped off Sithi has been something I bemoan daily! I was less than 80 quests from completing the Kalimdor Loremaster portion and its GONE! 200 quests from the Seeker title... no hundreds and hundreds away! Argent Crusade titles/work - GONE! Furbolg change stick - GONE! Only getting to visit Darnassus for PvP ... not fun!!!

What do you do then? Roll a new character! A Paladin, Lyril - yes I know another Belf like the Azeroth doesn't have enough of those! She's definitely OP having only died once outside of a battleground in 32 levels! Loving the BoA +xp gear, that added boost helps alot!

So, keeping busy doing that and lots of BGs, the daily random, etc., not necessarily happy but busy.

I've always wanted to explore the whole RP side of WoW, but hesitate on some of the ERP you read/hear about. I've been reading and lurking on some of the RP servers and in their forums, but haven't made the commitment/jump yet.

A quick run down on the three I'm playing most -

Biya, has had two epic mounts drop (CoS & Occulus), but still doesn't have epic flying. She did max level ALL recipes for Inscription even the Full Moon turn into a wolf one. So she's mainly at gear up for whatever stage. Randoms and BG's is where Miss Unholy DK spends her time.

Sithie, I'm half-heartedly trying to regain her Argent Crusade titles, and dread it when I do it. I started the Loremaster, but can't stomach it, and with Cataclysm coming I'd hate to fall short! Or if I move her to Alliance and lose all this work again.... choices choices.

Sassi, I've actually been enjoying the disc/holy spec, but still learning what all the spells do. My GM teases me when I'm healing an instance - hit the candle button or whatever as I still don't have them all down yet. I've liked her in BG's and she's actually more survivable as disc/holy than as shadow. Plus the healing if it's somewhere I've been I don't mind. I don't like to do it in new places, too much of a tourist!!!

Enough WoW updating...

In the real world, a major life change I'm getting a divorce after 15 years of marriage. Good guy, just divergent paths in life right now. My son's back home again, hopefully briefly (ready for him to fly on his own!), and daughter is in high school with another year until she's driving.

So, 2010 should be a roller coaster both in and out of game as I figure out what I want to do.

Updated Header

Came out of a Warsong Gulch that Sithi had been mounted before we entered, to have Ender beside her! w00t! Took a few screenies of them roaming through Ashenvale and decided to update the header with one.

15 Exalted

Sithi did get her 15th exalted reputation last night in a quick Drek Theron heroic. Another achievement so yeah happy for that! But I don't find Wrath reputations as worthy or that they hold as much meaning since wearing a tabard can earn rep. It's just too easy. I was happy to get Hodir done, pre-tabard. Like earning the albino drake before the Argent pet availability - it was work!!!

It's not the horrid grindy stuff of the past!

Since I'm going back and working on the BC reps, I still get the daily grind that makes me scream, but will be so much more satisfying when that Exalted is achieved!!!

Dual playing

Right now I'm dividing my time between my Horde server, Blackwing Lair, and Alliance server, Darrowmere.

I'm not sure I'm happy with this and I'm trying to seek a balance.

My absence while not key to anything has not been popular, especially with my Horde friends. But then again I went AWOL for close to 8 months while I took a walk on the Alliance side!

So, now I'm achievement chasing and gearing for raids on the Alliance main, playing catch up on the Horde main (lvl 80, no epic flying, no money and PvP geared), and thinking which side to level the next one on.

The Alliance guild has been keeping me busier, so chances are more time will be spent there.

It's so hard when both groups are fun to play with and very enjoyable.

A twitter friend, Arrens mentioned guilds=guilt. To true right now, as that's what I feel.....

Day of the Dead

Another achievement chase - Day of the Dead. What can I say I'm a hamster on the WoW achievement wheel.
I do like the costumes we were transformed into (and the 12 hour through death ability!! w00t!!), kind of the Undead meets Latino Day of the Dead. Even our pet for the event with his sombero and maracas!

To get the achievement was quick, go dance with Catrina. To get the pet - Macabre Marionette - buy a recipe make bread, light candle and hold flowers for the dead - in your start city! Not very difficult.

A bit more background would have been nice for this holiday and the pet's so darn cute let it be permanent!!!