Been busy…
Portent Alliance has what we call “The Wrath Curse.” For every raid tier in the Wrath expansion, we swore the Lich King was manipulating our real lives to keep us from killing the end boss. This can come in the form of failed hardware, network outages, real life priorities (death in the family), sickness…you name it. SOMETHING would happen so we go for weeks in between attempts on the end boss.
The Wrath Curse has continued in Cata. But sooner or later we eventually overcome whatever is plaguing us and take out that final boss.
On Tuesday, March 8, Portent Alliance became the #3 guild on the server, and #2 guild Horde-side, for progression by finally downing Nefarian. Now I admit, Sentinels isn’t exactly the quickest at server progression and achieving world firsts, but I love the community. I’m not in a huge rush to the “World First” or even “US First” progression, but it feels good to make this accomplishment on our server.
BAM!
On top of finally getting Nefarian down, we also unlocked the Dark Phoenix mount. We were server first to have both the Dark Phoenix AND the Dark Phoenix Hatchling mini-pet!
Shadowbudgies!
Now we’re back to a rotation-system to gear people up. The next tier of raid content won’t be in 4.1, but that’s okay. We’ll probably begin working on hard modes soon. After that? FIRELANDS!
BLIZZCON 2011 ANNOUNCED!
No details were given on the cost of tickets or when tickets would go on sale.
I’m going to do everything I can to go. Last year we managed to get tickets for several guildies, and hopefully we’ll have an even bigger turn out this year!
And yes, this time I’m going to do my best to make a costume…
Portent Alliance at Blizzcon 2010
Portents meet Ghostcrawler at Blizzcon 2010
Weekend Round-up
Quickie post:
Lock Robster has mostly been put on hold over the past week so he can generate more rest and so I could work on Keiriel.
Keiriel caught up to Lothloren, and we’ve been leveling together. We’re in Uldum now, and about a half a level from 85. When we reach the cap, Loth will get us the guild’s “Classy Blood Elves” achievement.
I’ve been leveling Keiri as Ret with the intention to go Holy once I hit 85. That means a dungeon grind again, but it will be helpful to have another healer available for dungeons and in case we need a raid healer on a day I wouldn’t otherwise be raiding on Aili.
After two very near-hits on Robster in Tanaris, I FINALLY got the [Stood in the Fire!] achievement on Keiri in Uldum. I still haven’t gotten that on Aili. Guess I should get out and do some archaeology or something.
On Friday and Saturday we did some fun old-school raids. I finally got the Robes of the Guardian Saint on Aili from AQ40. We then went to Ulduar and have been working on the 25-man hard modes for the drake achievement and the legendary mace. Afterward, we went to Tempest Keep for a chance at the Ashes of Al’ar. No firebudgie this time. Maybe next week? Kael’thas DID manage to bug out on us and not go into the final phase of the fight. We were all stuck in combat too, so we couldn’t leave the room or put up a port. But we were able to hearth out, and that reset the encounter.
Plans for this week:
- Get Al’Akir down on 10-man. We got him to the third phase once. But at least we were steadily learning the quirks of the fight.
- Keiriel (and Loth) to 85. This will get us [Classy Blood Elves]. Start gearing Keiri for dungeons.
- Check Lock Robster’s rest. See how far I can get him through Outland. I’ll probably stay there for as long as I can. I like Burning Crusade content better than Wrath. The quests and rewards are better in Wrath, but BC just appeals to me more.
- Ulduar. I think we need 6/13 more achievements for the mount?
- I can haz firebudgie? ^_^
This…is my BUDGIE PERCH!
This...is my BUDGIE PERCH!
This is just one of those cases where I picked a spot when the Shattering happened (the pre-Cata launch event) and have parked there ever since. It’s in a location where I can see things going on, yet can be out of the way. When guildies need to find me for gem cuts or ports, they know where to go. (In Dalaran I had a location we called “Aili’s Alley.”) Apparently the Budgie Perch looks like prime real estate, because I’ve noticed more people plunking there.
Y’know, it’s just like how when you pick a desk on the first day of class, or a pew on your first day at church (as in the King of the Hill episode), or that first bathroom stall, or first parking space in a parking lot at work…I don’t know about you guys, but I like choosing one that is out of the way. So yeah, I’ll admit being a little possessive when people take that spot. I’m already purposely trying to be out of the way!
Well, in times like these, there’s only one thing you can do…
To quote @feral_pigeon on Twitter:
*puff up and harass other pigeons*
Only in this case, *harass other people who perch on my Budgie Perch*
Mages: We’re transportationally efficient
The most common question I hear in game is: “How do I get to Dalaran/Shattrath?” Same goes with getting FROM those places TO the “old world.” Since the portals are gone, traveling home isn’t as easy as it once was, and going to those places means you have to remember how you got there in the first place.
So here are a few directions to get to where you need to go (Horde side):
Undercity to Orgrimmar: Go outside the city toward Brill, take the zeppelin.
Silvermoon to Orgrimmar: Take the portal orb in the back of the Sunfury Spire to Undercity, exit the city toward Brill, take the zeppelin.
Thunder Bluff to Orgrimmar: Go to Spirit Rise, take the zeppelin.
Any city to Shattrath: You must be 58 to make this trip–Find the mage trainers. You should see a portal to the Dark Portal nearby. Take that portal to reach the Blasted Lands, the Dark Portal should be in view. Go through the Dark Portal. At the bottom of the steps and to your right should be the flight master. You can hop a free flight to Shattrath.
Shattrath to Orgrimmar or Undercity: Fly out to the Dark Portal. Go through the Dark Portal to the Blasted Lands and head north to the Swamp of Sorrows. In Swamp of Sorrows, follow the road to the right when it forks to reach Stonard. Fly to Grom’gol Base Camp. Take the zeppelin to Orgrimmar or Undercity.
Orgrimmar to Dalaran: Take the zeppelin to Borean Tundra. Fly to Dalaran.
Dalaran to Orgrimmar: Hop a flight point to Borean Tundra (Warsong Hold). Take the zeppelin to Orgrimmar.
Undercity to Dalaran: Take the zeppelin to Howling Fjord. Fly to Dalaran.
Dalaran to Undercity: Take a flight to Howling Fjord (Vengeance Landing). Take the zeppelin to Undercity.
Don’t forget that engineers have their various wormhole devices, and there are other items that allow for self-ports.
Alternately, you can either roll or befriend a mage.
If you choose to ask a mage to port you: ask politely, don’t expect the mage to come to you, and say up front that you’re going to tip. I will ignore people who send me a tell saying “u port me to dal”…suddenly I’ll be AFK. Imagine that. But if someone says “Can you please port me to Dalaran? I will tip 10g.” I’ll often gladly help you out if I’m available. I think most mages are the same way. We’ve been burned by people who have wasted our time and our portal runes that many of us will only port those who are polite to begin with. Sometimes we’ll even waive the tip. All it takes is a little kindness…otherwise, see the above guide on where you’ll be running.
Refocusing
I know I haven’t blogged in a while, which is why I decided to post SOMETHING yesterday. Lately I just didn’t know where to go with it. I don’t want this blog to become a “How to Mage” style blog, because there are already a million of those out there. And I like having it because sometimes I just want to write out the mental clutter in my head, share my excitement with what I’m doing in game, talk about things I found interesting or amusing…that kind of thing. I just still feel that “calling” to say a little more, but I’m not sure what I can share that isn’t already covered elsewhere.
So if you see this page refocus a bit, don’t be surprised.
In the meantime, I have to share some of the search topics and terms that people have used to find this little spot on the web simply because it amuses me.
Fire Mage information: I suppose that’s what people would expect to see here. I figure there are enough blogs with good information that I don’t need to repeat it. Buuuuuuut, if you want to know the basics, the Elitist Jerks Fire Mage Compendium is a good place to start.
Character search: People have actually searched my characters’ names and arrived here. Huh. Kinda creepy.
Friends search: Since I have my Twitter feed in a widget box, sometimes I get hits to people I talk to or @mention on Twitter. One of those in understandable, but the other is also a bit creepy.
Blizzcon stuff: Most of the Blizzcon-related searches were in regard to the arena tournament. I do like the “Blizzcon hotties” search. /flex?
“Don’t Make Me Get My Main“: There, folks. Link provided. Ya might want to just go to YouTube and look up Cranius there rather than hit the link from a random blog? XD
Pyromania: Even when I’m playing another spec, I consider myself a Fire Mage. It’s my first love. I don’t ACTUALLY have Pyromania in real life. “Pyromania Fun,” “Comments from a person with pyromania,” and “Actually Playing with Fire” are two search terms that make me worry for people.
Blood Knights: A couple searches were for “Blood Knight RP gear.” Here’s your answer: There are some pieces that you can get from Outlands quests. There’s a chain in the beginning of Shadowmoon Valley that leads to getting a Blood Knight shield, and if you happen to sell/get rid of it, there’s one that drops in Hellfire Ramparts, I believe. The best cloak is a BC badge cloak from the Naaru vendor in Shattrath, but there are slightly shorter versions that are green drops in game. The armor itself can either be mixed and matched from quest rewards, or the “easiest” way to attain a set is to get the level 60 PvP gear. I can go through Keiriel’s RP set at some point and track down where each item came from in a future post.
Worgen: Considering this is the latest “IT” race, I’m not surprised this comes up a lot. “Worgen RP” and “Worgen Death Knights” are two of the search terms (I’ll save the third one for later) that have popped up. Well, I don’t really play Alliance so I can’t comment on it too much, but I will say this: My experience was good, but I only got a little further than just through the starting zone. There are always going to be some good Worgen DKs and good Worgen RPers, but I’m also hearing that a lot of them are NOT so good simply because people are making RP alts or RP-griefer alts. So if you WANT to play a Worgen or a Worgen DK for RP, and you want people to take you seriously, get a little higher than level 13 or 58, respectively. I know I need to level a bit more before I RP openly with other people, too. If you really like the character, putting a little time into leveling will help you give your character a little depth by figure out how s/he deals with situations in the field, and also gives you more options to RP gear than just black mageweave.
Sexy EQ2 outfits: LOL! By the time I stopped playing, there still was only ONE that I would consider sexy. And that took your GUILD reaching level 40 through those damned heritage quests and grinding writ quests. Maybe that changed, but…yeah. That was about it. Can I say I love the diversity of the gear in WoW?
And now, the term with the most searches to bring people to this blog:
DRAENEI FUTA.
(Worgen futa was the third most-searched-for term.)
/facepalm
/chuckle
Yes, I think finding more of a direction for this blog is in order…
Playtime
LOCK ROBSTER!
We were in Isle of Conquest
Everybody had matching mounts
Somebody went down to the Docks
And there they saw a lock!
But it wasn’t a lock
It was a Lock…ROBSTER!
Yes, I chose the name on purpose. It makes me giggle.
When the Shattering happened (the pre-Cata event) a lot of guildies ran the “new old zones” and did their quests. I wanted to, but at the same time I didn’t want to zip through them on a level-capped character. However I also didn’t know what I wanted to play to level through, so I set aside the idea of playing through the new quests until I was ready.
Cata launched, got Aili to 85, got her ready for raiding, you know the drill…and finally I got to a point where I had some free time to play a new character and finally see all those zones and quest lines that everyone said were so epic. I had to stop myself from rolling another mage…I could have, you know. I do love me some mages. I looked through my various characters and decided that I should bring Robster out. Again, the name just makes me giggle, and he’s the only male character I have. The challenge of RPing a male character could be fun!
Yes, I find playing and RPing a male character a challenge. I just have a hard time getting into their heads. The personalities don’t come as easy for me to play out. This was the perfect chance to try something new and different…but not TOO new and different. I still get to play a clothie, at least.
So first, I had to come up with a “real” name for him if I wanted to RP him seriously. Sure, his displayed name (registered with the game) is Robster. With some help from Leo, his “official” name is Roh’bareth Felsworn. “Lock Robster!” is a nickname, and people who know him call him Rob. For his personality, I really didn’t want to make his last name so obviously Warlocky, but decided that he could have changed his last name upon initiation. He likes the irony of it, because he’s “Felsworn” in the loosest sense of the word.
I chose to take Robster Affliction. Destro was a little too close to Fire Mage. Demo felt like it could be “Spell-Casting Hunter” and since I just rolled a hunter for our Alliance-side Team Level Appropriate group, I wanted to get away from that. Despite what I’m hearing in regards to the Warlock specs in the end game content, Affliction appealed to me because playing a DoT caster would be different enough from my experience with a Mage or Shadow Priest, but similar enough that I’d still be within my comfort area of leveling AND roleplay.
Voila! Robster began to take on a bit more depth than just “Lol, I got a funny name for a character!”
I really wanted to avoid a couple warlock cliches: The “I’m scary and dark and spooky, FEAR ME!” warlocks, the “I’m so emo and misunderstood!” warlocks, and the “I’m hearts-and-rainbows NICE! and we should be BFFs!” warlocks. The first type are the ones who claim to be all-powerful that most of the ones you meet are the worst god-modders imaginable, not to mention just mean and not fun to be around. The second type are the ones who can NEVER HAVE A GOOD DAY and are prone to drama–beloved peasant village was killed, they were horribly disfigured, their pet fish ran away, and no one likes their poetry. You’ll usually find them in the middle of a populated area lamenting their most recent death in the family or suffering a wound or disease that no one can heal. The third type are the ones who overlook the fact that warlocks are not sweetness and light, and while it CAN be done well to have a perky-happy warlock, it rarely IS done well. A warlock’s magic is not gifted from the Light, and while YOU might be a nice person, you rolled a fairly despised class and you should expect people (ICly) to look at your minions and think you’re either untrustworthy, looking to harm others, or are just batshit insane.
My character plan: Robster IS the type who comes off as a bit of a Nice Guy(TM), but you wonder later if he’s a con artist. I like to think of him as having a personality similar to Crowley from Good Omens, especially from the line, “He didn’t so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards.” He’s very aware of the reputation that Warlocks have, particularly those interested in the Affliction school of magic. But he’s not the type to try to become the MOST POWERFUL Affliction Lock, nor is he the type to try to convince the rest of the world that Affliction Locks are all really Nice People(TM) and you should get to know them before you judge.
Truth is, he’s just a curious kinda guy, and if you tell him he shouldn’t do something without giving (what he believes) a convincing reason, he’s going to do it anyway. If you told him as a child, “Don’t go near the edge of that cliff!” and didn’t say why, you’d find him trying to free climb down it every day until he either fell or made it to the bottom in one piece. But if you tell him, “Don’t touch the stove because it’s hot and will burn you and you’ll be hurt and scarred for life!” he’d get close enough to inspect it, see that it is indeed hot, and leave it alone.
Magic is the same way to him. In his past, he studied to be a mage (where many warlocks get their beginning), and got the usual lectures of fel magic being taboo. When he asked why, the answers never satisfied him. He thought that if the Burning Legion ever returned, it would be smart to know as much as possible about them and demonic magic in order to fight fire with fire. SURE, some people became twisted with power. SURE some couldn’t control the demons they summoned. SURE some people were corrupted and had to be hunted down and killed. But to Rob, those were problems with the individuals who were drawn to becoming warlocks, not a problem with the school of magic itself. He’s well aware he could become corrupt or possessed or worse too, but believes that if that happens it’s his own damn fault and will face the consequences. In the meantime, the potential harm is not going to prevent him from studying the ways of a warlock because there is too much potential GOOD to let go to waste by locking the information away.
He is still cocky, flirtatious, thinks he’s a ladies’ man (whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, as I haven’t really had a chance to RP with him much), prefers learning by experience rather than book-studying, has no problem sending his minion (or others) in to do his dirty work, and he has a low tolerance for anyone he considers “an insufferable idiot.” So far he’s been a fun, balanced, grounded character to play.
As for actually playing Robster while out in the field, I’ve found a downside to going Affliction. I never have any downtime, but by following the quest chains in the zones I’ve been wanting to see the questlines and lore in, I’ve usually been just slightly higher in level range than I should be. Most of the time the mobs are green-to-yellow cons, so they die pretty easily. I put up my DoTs on a mob, usually via Soul Swap, and since I have Soul Swap glyphed (leaves the DoTs up, but gives it a 10-second cool down) I basically have to sit there and do nothing while my pet chews on the mob so I can hopefully grab the DoTs back off with Soul Swap. Most of the time I can do it, but sometimes the mobs are dead before I can grab the DoTs again. The mobs often die too fast to do a Drain Life or Drain Soul, so while I’m fighting, I’m also spending a lot of time doing nothing.
I did get through most of Tanaris by the time I hit 50, so I scrapped the rest of my quests there and have started fresh in Un’Goro Crater. Hopefully higher level mobs will mean I’ll have more to do than wait for my Soul Swap to come off of cooldown. I plan to hit Outland as soon as I reach 58.
Rob is also an alchemist/enchanter. I’ve been working on his enchanting, but his alchemy is still level 1 since I’m dreading the idea of going herbing these days. I should also level Tay’s enchanting before I cap Rob’s. Not sure how I feel about having 2 enchanters, though. Meh, we’ll see.
In any case, I’m having a lot of fun playing Lock Robster. Again, the name makes me giggle, the personality is fun to play, I like having a class that I’ve never really played before, and I’m enjoying going through the content at an appropriate level. It’s nice to do something “new” again. Keeps the game fresh for me. I just can’t wait until I get him into some real RP!
Cataclysm
I usually post when I have something to say. Admittedly, I HAVE had things to say, but between the holidays, school work, and–duh–Cataclysm, I haven’t had the time to say it.
So. Cataclysm.
So far, I’m loving it.
Ktok and I did a marathon run to get our characters to the cap within a day. We actually took about 25 hours to do it, and considering I was fighting a glare-induced migraine through much of it, that wasn’t too bad. I believe I was 4th mage Horde-side to reach 85, and Ktok was second warrior Horde-side. We learned a few things from that run that will make leveling alts easier, and I’m pretty sure that one of the things we had working against us was the fact that neither of us was in the Beta so we didn’t have any previous experience telling us where to go and what to do.
Since then, we’ve been working on gearing for raids. We’re both pretty well solidly geared, but there are a few more upgrades that we can get. Raiding started this week, and while we have over 25 people who are at the level cap and looking to raid, there are several who need to continue gearing to make 25′s viable. We’re going to continue pushing for 25′s, though. We have too many interested raiders and don’t want to get into the politics of having to break into 10-man teams.
I will say that there is definitely a gear progression that must be done through the dungeons: Do quests, then normal dungeons, then heroics. Expect to wipe. We have some guildies who want to see the Cata dungeons, but they are still thinking in terms of Wrath content: Go in, gather mobs, AoE everything down, laugh, collect loot. I’ve heard horror stories of PuGs who think the same way. NEWSFLASH: Cata is NOT Wrath. Crowd Control is needed, tanks and healers NEED to be geared, and DPS can NOT jump the gun on their attacks before the tank establishes aggro.
Personally, I’m glad for these changes. I’m glad it’s making people stop and think before running in. I’m glad it’s making the tanks aware that they need to maintain their threat, that DPS can’t just go balls-to-the-wall, and that healers have to triage their group. I’m glad I’m a DPSer who still bears battlescars from EverQuest. (Take aggro from the tank, even via a few lucky crits? The mob, even trash, will yell, “YOU SHALL NOT EVADE ME, AILINEA!” and I’d be summoned to the feet of the mob and tent-pegged into the ground. And then? Suffer XP loss. Yeah, it was a harsh training ground.)
I’ve read blog posts where people are complaining that Blizzard “broke” WoW with Cataclysm. These posts first say that Wrath taught players bad grouping habits, but the ease made groups more accessible to new players. This brought more people into playing the game. But now these bad players who are used to face-rolling their way to the top of the damage meters or mashing 2 buttons to establish aggro so they can then get up and make a sandwich are proving that they’re bad players. The QQ is epic. They want to continue face-rolling rather than learning and adapting to playing their classes.
Again, I welcome the change. If “harder” dungeons separate the good players from the bad, and the good players continue on to be good raiders, I’m in full support. There are still those players who are only good at mashing buttons in a set order, while letting their gear and groupmates carry them, but right now people are having to step up.
Cata did bring about a surge off asshattery, though. People who still live by gear score, speccing/gemming/enchanting methods, or “It’s purple so it’s BETTER” so-called-elitists are often those who open their big fat mouths to stick their big fat feet inside. One friend’s wife was told to leave a dungeon by a bunch of jerks because her gear score wasn’t 346–she had recently hit 85 and got to the 329 heroic-dungeon gear score requirement. Despite her having played Feral Druid since WoW launched, they attacked her gear score before getting a chance to see her skill. A guildie of mine was mocked for her meta gem choice by similar asshats, even though she had done the research to pick a viable meta since the standard Hunter meta’s requirements were changed, leaving that meta virtually unusable until a future patch. Other friends and guildies have reported encounters with other bottom-feeders in PuGs. Pretty sad that people choose to act that way just because they are anonymous. I thoroughly encourage anyone who experiences such behavior to screencap it and open a ticket, even if the perpetrators are not on your server.
In happier news, Cata has also brought about another resurgence: Roleplay. At first it was a bit non-existent, and I think that’s mostly because people were so busy with leveling that they didn’t have time to pause and RP. I’ve heard that Worgen are the new Blood Elves, and many of the emo-darkity-ooh-look-at-me type RPers have switched to Worgen. These were often the types who also played Death Knights because they wanted to be dark, brooding, and tragic. From the reports I’m hearing, there’s been some really bad Worgen RP going around. That link is DEFINITELY not safe for work!
Thankfully, it’s certainly not all bad! A friend and I rolled up a pair of Worgen, and decided to RP openly while running the starter zone. As it turned out, we had some really good experiences with roleplayers, including a group in which one member was teaching the others how to RP. Since we kept bumping into them at the quest hubs, we kept RPing with them each time we paused. It really made the starter zone so much more fun than just running the quests!
My Team Level Appropriate group is going to be starting an Alliance-side group soon, so I also leveled a Draenei hunter to run with that group. Off the hook for healing! YAY! XD
Overall, I’m really enjoying the new content and progression that Cata has given us. I have maxed my tailoring, cooking, fishing, and first aid, have been dabbling in archaeology, and have barely touched my jewelcrafting. I have several new mounts in my collection, including the two mounts from Tol Barad and the [Glory of the Cataclysm Hero] drake. I’m still working on raid gear, but have spent quite a bit of gold getting my gems and enchants up to par, and have been doing my best to really learn Fire for a raid spec. (Most of the time I have been running Frost for leveling and dungeons–I highly recommend it to any mage who is going through that process, even if you fell in love with Arcane.)
The past month has been quite a whirlwind, but a fun one, nonetheless!
People! You SUCK!
If I had to build a raid team from the people I saw at the mall tonight, I’d pick them from the retail workers. Those poor schmoes are busting ass and doing a good job for the grand public idiocy every day. Shoppers? If “Real Life” was WoW I’d tell them, “Go roll LOLDARGON RPers on Moon Guard and leave the rest of us alone. We have shit to do.”
Seriously, if shoppers at the mall were raiders, based on the way they have NO FUCKING CLUE what’s going on around them, they are doing the equivalent of standing in the fire. And the only time they WOULD move out of the fire is if they were doing the Shade of Aran fight in Kara.
Example: Family makes its way toward the escalators. Then they stop in front of the escalators, blocking everyone trying to get on or off of them. Do these people care? No. Do they apologize? No. Do they give you a dirty look when you squeeze past them? Of course.
I’m used to the idea of small children being oblivious. They are, after all, a source of schadenfreude. You just can’t help but laugh when you see that brat kid at the grocery store who’s been running around and screaming suddenly turn around and clothesline himself on a sign fixture. His tears fill you with joy.
But when it’s adults who should know better…look, I know it’s the holidays and there are a lot of people out there. But they act like a deer in headlights facing oncoming traffic. You just want to get through those double doors and into the damn mall. Cue deer in headlights look from people in front of you as they look at the people wandering around inside. FFFFFFUUUU….
Anyway, yes, my Cataclysm pre-order (Collector’s Edition, because I’m THAT MUCH OF A GEEK, OKAY?!) is all paid off, and although they’re having a Midnight Madness launch, it won’t be at the mall itself. Considering the people at the mall, that’s probably a good thing…although they wouldn’t be there at midnight.
Meh. Whatever. After my experience working retail for several years and going through the stress of holiday shoppers, I swear I have PTSD. I’m going to pick up my Cata, order all other gifts online, and not go back to the mall until Spring if I can help it.
Fuck you HURRRRRRliday shoppers.
BlizzCon 2010: Can’t believe it’s over already.
I just got back home this morning after my third consecutive BlizzCon trip. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
We had 10 guildies with actual tickets (myself, Ktok, Jezriyah, Cadistra, Leo, Cervus, Callieta, Vorasi, Thuryn, and Bosorn), and then we had Entropian and Kattja visit on Thursday night, then Wernstrom and Maelyne visit on Sunday. I’ve always enjoyed meeting guildies, but somehow with this many people, it was different. I felt a stronger tug at the heartstrings when it was time to go. I think I even shed a few tears…even though I’ll be seeing these same people online within hours or days, there’s still that sad feeling of missing them deeply that hit me so hard this time. I love my guildies, and I love getting to know them even better by seeing them in person.
But BlizzCon was AMAZING. Once again, I didn’t get to do the “quest” from the bookmark. And this year I didn’t go see the Tenacious D concert because the Elite Tauren Chieftains wasn’t opening, and I wanted to watch the arena finals. I’ve been following Venruki for a while now, even basing Aili’s and Kaetryn’s gear and PvP specs off of him, and so I had to cheer him and his team (compLexity.Red) on in the arenas.
Let me back up for a bit and recap the weekend:
Ktok and I flew in on Wednesday night, and were picked up from LAX by our friend and guildie, Entropian. The flights over weren’t too bad. Ktok is pretty tall, so we managed to score a seat switch to the bulkhead on the flight to Atlanta, but the flight to LAX was full so we couldn’t move. However, the plane was bigger and more comfortable for the second leg of the trip, so we were fine. We found Jez and Cadi in the hotel, and Cervus walked over from his hotel, and we all went for an IHOP dinner. Good times.
People really started coming in on Thursday. We met up with Leo at the hotel where he and Cervus were staying, then hoofed it back to the Hilton. We met with Thuryn, Bos, Call, and Vorasi in the lobby, then Ent and Katt joined us. We headed to PF Chang’s for dinner, and really began to get to know each other in person. We waited until after dinner to pick up our BlizzCon badges and goodie bags. I have to say I’m a *little* disappointed in the swag bags this year, but I liked the “whole bunch of little goodies” from 2008 over the “one special item” in the 2009 and 2010 bags. The bunches of little goodies were always fun to give away to friends who couldn’t make it. That said, I still like my Deathling, and I finally swapped out my 1st-generation “Blizzard” authenticator for the spiffy new BlizzCon exclusive authenticator with Deathwing on it.
We turned in pretty early, because we planned to be in line at 7 am. We were a little late, but still were the closest to the front of the line I’d ever been. Bringing a couple Nintendo DSes, Twitter on the phone, and being in a group (even if we were separated from the rest of our guildies) made plunking on the cement for 3 hours tolerable and even a little fun. Leo pointed out a horrific sight to Ktok, and Ktok took a picture of it and tried to kill the entire internet (at least all of Twitter) by sharing it.
After the 3-hour wait…we surged into the convention center! You could tell the people who had never been before. They got through the doors, stopped, and stared. The rest of us had to grab them by the arms and pull them toward the main auditorium. I’m glad they got another room for the main stage, and that they changed the orientation of the seating. There were fewer overhead screens, but they were well-placed as far as our seats were concerned.
Opening ceremonies were pretty typical. I was a little disappointed that since they already released the Cataclysm cinematic that there really wasn’t anything new WoW-related to see. The cinematic on the big screen, complete with the lighting effects DID make it more impressive and a sight to remember, but I really wish they had saved the cinematic for BlizzCon, THEN released it to YouTube.
I did enjoy the “GEEK IS…” presentation by Chris Metzen, especially when he got to the “We wouldn’t have been here without EverQuest.” Yes. Yes, Metzen. Thank you for pointing it out…people tend to forget EverQuest (and the other MMOs) or dismiss it as nothing, even though they’re still pumping out the expansions. I have a lot of pride in our EQ roots, even if WoW has become home. It was nice to see even Blizzard recognize it. Although we couldn’t help but snicker that they used a screenshot of EQ2. We guess they didn’t want to hurt people’s retinas with the graphics from the original EQ?
Thursday involved standing in line at the Cryptozoic booth to use our coupons and get cards, then the tail end of the Dungeons and Raids panel. Then food, of course. There wasn’t much wandering as we staked out seats for the costume and dance competition. I was glad to hear later that the kid who injured himself doing the Undead male dance didn’t actually break his leg, but tearing a ligament can be even worse. Of the videos competition, I liked the rise of the Forsaken one the best, even though it didn’t win. And the Costume contest…that’s going to be a blog post of its own.
We stuck around for the SC2 bout with FruitDealer. I’ve never played Starcraft, but caught the excitement from my guildies around me who HAVE played. We were thrilled to see the “I have a Zerg…shotgun…bucket…beer…” song being sung live. Ktok’s been singing it all day. (I think that’s due to the lack of sleep.)
After the convention, we met up at the Hilton restaurant for dinner. There was a big party going on in the lobby, and the loud volume was a little too much for us to deal with, but it was nice to sit back and people-watch a bit. We got the attention of Mike Morhaime, and he came over and talked to us a bit. That was pretty awesome. I mean, sure, he probably doesn’t even remember, but he COULD have been at some private party with all the various heads of the sponsoring companies instead, yet he was rubbing elbows with everyone, including us peons, in the Hilton lobby. And he spent more than 5 minutes with us…not bad, considering everyone was demanding his attention.
SATURDAY:
We got up later, ate a nice buffet breakfast, and waltzed into the convention center around 10 or 11. Ktok and I went to check out the BlizzCon store line for a few things we wanted to get but didn’t before (like the Icecrown music CD). After that, I was pretty much glued to the arenas. I had hoped to pick up a copy of the Shattering by Christie Golden to get signed (I bought it as an e-book, but thought, “Oh, I’ll just pick up a fresh copy there…” RIIIIIIGHT.) but was out of luck. They sold out the day before. Cadistra was wonderful, though, and gave me her copy and said she’d just pick up another copy at home. So thanks to the Cadi-cao, I was able to fangirl all over Christie for the third year in a row.
Arenas and more arenas! I was cheering on Venruki and Orangemarmal(ade). The fights were INTENSE. I had no problem skipping the concert, and think it was worth it. I think I picked up a lot about playing Frost Mage in arenas, just by watching Venruki. Of course, they were using 3.3 specs, so things may change. I’ll look to see what he does with the 4.0 specs.
For those who didn’t know, the arena tourney is done with split brackets. As people lose in the upper bracket, they go to the lower bracket to play. When a team wins in the lower bracket, they get moved back to the upper bracket to play. The team *aAa* was looking to be the favorite. They won all their matches 3-0, even the first time they came up against compLexity.Red. Co-Red immediately had to continue playing in the lower bracket, won there, and then had to face *aAa* AGAIN in the finals. Thing is, if the winner of the lower bracket takes the best of five against the team that remained in the upper bracket, then they had to play ANOTHER best of 5 to actually win.
The teams themselves were actually very evenly matched. Co-Red started as Mage, Warlock, Druid while *aAa* consisted of Warlock, Shaman, Druid. I have to admit, as Druids, I think the player from *aAa* was better. The locks seemed evenly matched, so the big difference was the Shaman-vs-Mage battle. Venruki’s tactic was to keep the other team controlled. The shaman’s tactic was damage (esp. Bloodlust), control, and emergency heals. The advantage went to *aAa* because if the arena timed out (20 minutes) and there wasn’t a winner, the damage was added up. The arena board was played again, and if there was no winner (by kills), then the team from the first match was declared the winner of that point. Since their shaman was playing more damage than Venruki, they often won on damage. Except there was at least one battle where Venruki kept them SO locked down that Co-Red’s warlock (Snutz) did more damage than the entire *aAa* team combined.
And yes, I realize I’m beginning to sound like a fangirl….
Anyway, I know it felt like MY head was going to explode after each bout. I can’t imagine what they were going through!
In the finals, compLexity.Red first tried playing the druid, but then the druid switched to a Disc Priest. He had more mana issues that way, but it turned out to be the winning combination. They took the first bout fairly easily after the switch, but since they came from the lower bracket they had to play a second best-of-5. Co-Red took the first point, and you could tell *aAa* was adapting to Co-Red’s play style with a priest instead of a druid. From then on, the points went back and forth, occasionally having the “arena board replay” from tied games running the timer down.
In the end, compLexity.Red won, and even then *aAa* wasn’t going to give up without a fight. With their warlock down just seconds before the board was about to time out, they played their druid and shaman in a 2v3 and held on for another 5 minutes or so. As cliche as it sounds, *aAa* did not “lose” that tournament. compLexity.Red definitely won it, but it was a long fight. I am really proud of both teams…although I’m glad that the team I was cheering for won. 
EDIT: So we left too soon. Apparently *aAa* called out the judges to go over a technicality in the rules, drawing out the “win by doing more damage” rule. This forced another game, which they then won again by doing the arena equivalent of a turtle. *sigh* Shenanigans.
The arena tournament went well beyond the time the convention was over. We didn’t stick around for the awards ceremony, but we all needed to eat. We gathered back at the Hilton, pushed through the throngs of people, and decided to hit the IHOP again. While we were in the lobby, we came across Ghostcrawler and managed to get a guild picture with him. After dinner, some guildies had to head out (early flights), while the rest of us headed back to the Hilton.
We didn’t party in the lobby, but crashed out on the couches on the second floor where we could see what was going on. We also bumped into and chatted with (for a LONG time!) Oxhorn, Clint Hackleman (of Myndflame–makers of Zinwrath, Illegal Danish, and others), Daewin (of Polygamerous), and Brigwyn (of Brigwyn’s Corner). I’d met Brigwyn before, and Daewin and I were tweeting back and forth as he was looking for folks he had talked to but hadn’t met yet, but it was also kind of fun to run into Oxhorn and Hackleman. I remember seeing their videos when I was just starting to play, and sharing them around with other people…and there they were just talking with us. I love WoW cewebrities…so very down-to-earth!
We finally broke for the night, slept in a bit, and got up for our last day. Jez had a meet-up with some other folks, but Ktok and I ate lunch in the hotel lobby, were met by Cadistra, and then met up with Cervus and Leo to go have an “official” lunch with Wernstrom and Maelyne. After lunch (I just had drinks) at Joe’s Crab Shack, we went over to Dave and Busters and got our game on there too. There was a child’s birthday party going on there, which blew my mind, but there were also a TON of people sporting Blizzard-themed shirts.
We spent a lot of time there, until it was time to head back to the hotel. Ktok and I had to catch a shuttle to the airport, but I don’t think either of us wanted to leave. We hung out in the Hilton lobby again, enjoying the last half hour with our friends. When the shuttle arrived, there were plenty of hugs and even some bittersweet tears…no wait, it was raining. Yeah. That’s it.
The flight home was rather uneventful. We took a red-eye straight home, so it was a nice change of pace to not have a layover. However, the 737 we were on was the most uncomfortable seat I’d ever been in. I KNOW I’ve been in 737′s before, but I don’t recall ever being in a seat that narrow. Also, the flight was fairly bumpy thanks to late-fall turbulence. I managed to get some sleep, but was still wiped when we got home.
I still haven’t unpacked yet. I now have some laundry to do. I need to upload the few pictures I took (I didn’t take many this year), and I have a few other posts that I want to make. But as usual, BlizzCon was an amazing, fun, and wonderful trip. The convention itself was great, but the best part was seeing everyone. We have some funny stories (and video >.>) to share with those who couldn’t be there, but all I can say is that I hope next year we can get an even bigger guild turn out. It’s so worth it, and already I’m beginning to plan for next year.
