My Kingdom for a Um, Horse?

I hope Cat’s having a good time with her mount. She spend a lot of time saving up for it. I have not left WoW but I did change from a 6 month subscription to monthly and thought I’d see how things go. I’m afraid they will just do the “let’s just hunker down and see if things calm down and we can ignore it” method of dealing with their internal problems.

What I didn’t see coming is that every time I logged in I sat there staring at the screen either mad or sad. I couldn’t play the game. I think the employees need a union but then I always think that as I worked for one for years and actually, really believed in it.

But back to mounts. I was trying to think of places to go on my WoW vacation and I remembered I had tried Final Fantasy a few years back. Yike! I first registered in 2013, I didn’t think it was THAT far back. All I could remember was I liked it but got tired of getting hopelessly lost all the time.

Yeah, so, things haven’t changed much. I wanted a mount so bad. I read that you got the quest around level 20. Level 20, no quest. Level 21, 22, nope, 23, 24, 25, AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH! I consulted the encyclopedia of Google again. Ohhhhhhhh. Don’t ignore your storyline. I think I had a quest for it and it was too high a level for me at the time and I went on my merry way. Forgetting about it. Don’t do that if you want your mount around level 20.

So, ta dah! I am the proud owner of not one but two mounts now! Thanks to Belghast’s Tweet about an in-game event!

I had thought I read you didn’t need to do dungeons in Final Fantasy. Wow, not true if you want to do you story line. Eeeeuuuuuwwww. Not for me. I don’t want ugly spoiling my play. But I wanted to advance my story so I thought I’d give it ONE TRY.

I have now completed 5 dungeons with a group of strangers and the extent of chat uglyness was, gg ty. The only problem at all is that I assumed there was something in those treasure chests to roll on but only the fifth tank waited around long enough for people to click on it. THAT WAS THE ONLY NEGATIVE! Okay, I’m in.

I’m having fun but I’m still lost most of the time. And melding materia??? And even change to amount of things to buy at the market. I think I played WoW so long I didn’t remember having to learn stuff. Never mind, it’s good for me.

I will continue to check in on how things are going at Activision, well, until my husband comes up to see why I’m screaming obscenities.

Well Crap

I think I said I wasn’t going to do anymore whining or complaining. Yet here I am about to whine. In all fairness to me I wouldn’t have time to whine if maintenance wasn’t lasting until at least 6:00pm. So yeah, there’s that.

I’m not going to complain about anima. I’m not going to complain about my Hunter wasting so much time on the Kyrian Covenant. I don’t know how long it was but it was a while before I found out to complete Campaign Chapters I’d have to do a dungeon. That’s on me. I should have researched that. What was I thinking, jeeeez.

I’m not going to complain about world quests that are so agonizing I no longer do them.

I’m going to complain about one of my very favorite World Quests. Flight School: Falling With Style. I love that quest. I love falling for 2 minutes and floating over beautiful Bastion, it’s so scenic and peaceful. Until yesterday. WTF. I get shot up about 2 miles as always and I reach the top and start to descend. Wait. What. This can’t beeeeee HELP HELP where are my wings?!

Help! Help! Nothing, nada. All these angelic beings hanging around and not one would help me. I think I heard snickering. The ride down was horrifying. I should have closed my eyes but no, I watched my demise speed towards me with horror. Dead. Dead. Dead. I lost my glasses on the way down too. The whole thing was very suspicious. I think the Kyrian on duty at that temple were bored and joking around at my expense.

I’m still recovering. I think I need a patch to cheer me up.

Don’t Say Anything

“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” So yeah. I guess I really took those words to heart. I think the last post was in November. I am not feeling Shadowlands at all. It is, as always, beautiful. But anima? Really? I can’t take it.

I downloaded Blade and Soul to try but haven’t looked at it yet. Cat is at iLevel 201 or something and that is about as high as she can go right now without participating in group content. I REALLY don’t want to do that. I was not confident about my prowess before and now I know I’m a mess. I kept waiting for my computer to die to replace it and it would not die. The guys who made it for me kinda shot themselves in the foot. Being so good.

But when Windows 7 was no longer supported for like a year and still no failure, and I think they made it in 2008, I finally got a new computer. That’s not a problem, the keyboard is the problem. I had a weird Wolf King keyboard that looked like that. Perfect for left handers.

No matter how hard I tried Windows 10 and that ancient keyboard won’t communicate. So my skill using a normal keyboard is zip, zilch and none.

Cat is STILL constantly fighty fighting to no avail and then I realize I’m hitting a heal key instead of scratching his eyes out. I know, pathetic.

Then, because I changed computers and refuse to pay Adobe monthly fees, I feel lost without Photoshop and Illustrator. So I’m trying to learn Affinity and it’s slow as I just want it to work like Photoshop cause I’m lazy and I can’t not have the pictures, just can’t, so there’s that.

So here we are. Cat is of course one with the Night Fae. There she is in her blue kitty form. I tried to make the excitement last about her new form but no. I was totally bummed when I saw how much anima to get all the outfits she wanted and mounts I wanted. Seriously, are they trying to get rid of me?

Cim who’s one with the Necrolords is showing off her Battle-Bound Warhound. The excitement lasted only so far. But when she thought of anima, blarg.

So. you might have guessed what I did. The first image is my Void Elf, Rap, she’s a Rogue. What expansion is nearest to our hearts? Yep, Wrath. I so loved that expac. Yeah, my old computer was new when it came out. It doesn’t seem that long ago. I am having a great time there. Aside from the occasional sniffles when the music and an area trigger memories, this is a fine way to combat anima. Oh yeah, and the horrible Maw.

So ha, ha, Shadowlands. You and the Maw WILL NOT DEFEAT ME! I will be here for the next expac! I will just live somewhere else. Stupidhead anima, jeeeezz.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Let Go of my Hair!

What is up with these Kyrian. Enough of the dragging me here and there by my hair. Bastion is incredibly beautiful but the Kyrian so far are not my favorite people. Pretty pompous actually. Cat was ready to turn feral on them a time or two.

Where was everybody? I expected lag and horrible competition for kills and nope. In fact I see very few people around. That was handled well except the phasing that was used seems to have made forming groups harder.

I enjoyed the Wrath event, I got addicted to hunting rares with Cat, my Hunter and Sasche and Cimmeria the Warlocks. Turns out it was a good thing as they upped their iLevel enough to survive the Maw. I loved a reason to hang around one of my favorite expacs.

So yeah, I’m girding my loins so to speak to return to Bastion and endure those sanctimonious Kyrian. I DO NOT see ANY of my guys wanting to join forces with them, we’ll see if that changes. I’m positive Cat is going to join up with the Night Fae Covenant not because of abilities but the nature thing is definitely Cat.

Cat’s first few days in Shadowlands has been great, except for the hair thing. She wants to work on skinning and leatherworking but the animals in Bastion are too cute. Honestly, not surprising for a Druid who stealths around because she doesn’t believe in needless killing. Between you and me she’s so funny sometimes. She was so happy to find a beautiful fishing spot so at least she could start on that.

Okay, I’m going to go see if I can figure out how much longer I have to hang around with these overbearing Kyrian ninnys, jeeezzz.

Is it just me?

Hi Hi Hi! I have to get away from the TV and Twitter for a bit today before I explode. Thought I’d see if anyone else does these things in WoW.

I tend to go to beautiful locations and, well, do nothing for long periods of time. Depending on the expac and location I might also get all sniffly and emotional if it’s Wrath or Pandaria.

Oh hi Farmer Fung, how are things? So good to see you again!

Kind of the same thing but I fly around looking for music I like and then stop and Cat just hangs around for five or ten minutes. You know, grooving. Hahahahahaha, you go girl.

I know that my latency lately has been driving some of this. It spiked the other day around 1400 ms. Not a lot you can do with that kind of latency.

I looked up finding what’s causing your latency and they gave a lot of reasons. Which one? I don’t know enough to figure it out. It started around when the pre-patch came out. Is my computer too old? If I turn off the computer and then reboot the router it will go down from 3 days to a few hours, don’t know what that means.

I even did a this thingy:

Tracing route to 137.221.105.2 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms 10.0.0.1
2 13 ms 12 ms 882 ms 96.120.104.101
3 13 ms 12 ms 1215 ms po-104-rur01.manassas.va.bad.comcast.net [68.87.143.29]
4 * 13 ms 13 ms 162.151.60.102
5 2512 ms 16 ms 14 ms 162.151.60.157
6 205 ms 15 ms 12 ms ae-16-ar01.capitolhghts.md.bad.comcast.net [162.151.60.233]
7 1225 ms 16 ms 1089 ms be-31411-cs01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [96.110.40.17]
8 2822 ms 274 ms 18 ms be-2111-pe11.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [96.110.32.122]
9 430 ms 228 ms 56 ms 50.208.235.6
10 1761 ms 74 ms 72 ms ae1-br01-eqdc2.as57976.net [137.221.72.33]
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 1492 ms 230 ms 74 ms et-0-0-0-pe01-swlv10.as57976.net [137.221.83.81]
14 71 ms 71 ms 71 ms 137.221.105.2

Trace complete.

Aha! Just as I suspected, it’s Comcast’s fault! Figures. Yeah, I don’t know what any of that means.

I’ve been trying to complete Pandaria Raiding with Leases which works with lag but just takes a while. I got back to Boralus one day after doing Heart of Fear and sold all the stuff I’d acquired that wasn’t a pet. Logged out.

Next morning logged in and looked to see what I might be able to upgrade and found my iLevel had fallen 4 points. I had SOMEHOW equipped a pair of iLevel 40 gloves the day before and sold the good ones. Is it just me that’s this ditzy? No, don’t answer. I think I know.

That’s about it. Have to figure out something else now to keep me off Twitter. Wash the stinky dog? EAT? EAT SOMEMORE? Maybe some cookies?

Last Days of BfA

While I haven’t been able to play much this year because of real life, I WAS all about Classic. Then I got a beta invite and I was all about the beta. Then the announcement of Shadowlands coming in late October and BAM we were back to BfA to finish up things left undone.

Yes, Cat and I have very short attention spans.

There’s my Alliance Warlock Cim. For reference you can see what she looked like here. I always thought she looked too much like a soccer mom and not an evil Warlock. In person she’s really, um, kind of bitchy and it was just not coming across. So here she is looking more like herself thanks to the patch!

I must never, ever say I’m not lucky ever again. Sure I don’t have a Big Love Rocket but I now have Mollie. I was flying around Vol’dun to dig sites and saw people fighting a big bad so we stopped to help. Did not know about Mollie. How lucky is that, I love her.

I DID know about this Lil’ Donkey and we’ve been killing Overseer Krix for what seems like forever and finally it paid off. I think it’s the only time Cat was killing him alone. Yes!

Other things Cat wanted to do were make sure everyone loved her. She really likes to get exalted with whoever she can. Can’t help it. And Archaeology leveled, not yet but close!

And this. I found Cat just standing by the road in Stormsong Valley doing nothing. I asked her what was up and she said she was waiting for Humphrey’s timer to be up as she didn’t want to leave the zone while he’d been so kind as to help protect her … yeah, see what I mean about wanting everyone to love her!

Me and Shadowlands

I agreed with Cymre on Twitter that parts of the Shadowlands were pretty bleak. She replied that she hadn’t known I was in the beta. Then it hit me! Eureka! I had a blog, I’ll bet it’s still there! I should say something. So here we are.

This lovely lady is Plink, she just crash landed on Exile’s Reach and is still pretty shaken up. I wanted to see how leveling 1 to 10 in the beta felt. She wasn’t my first try. I made an Alliance Warlock first and then got stuck on The Rescue of Meredy Huntswell. Looking into the quest, it wasn’t just me, it was bugged and it was necessary to continue. Drat! Someone commented that they managed it on Horde.

So Plink was born. I tried abandoning and logging off as some suggested pretty much all day and nothing. I logged in today and gave The Rescue of Herbert Gloomburst another try and success! I don’t know if they’ve fixed the quest or we just got lucky. I’ve enjoyed her and tomorrow we get our first dungeon, it’s been fun.

Other than that I have a Character in each Covenant, checking them out. Okay, The Necrolords of Maldraxxus made me mad because I was stuck in their dreary, stupid Seat of the Primus I mean I wandered around for like a day. I hate you Necrolords! My husband walked by and said, try there. I said no, I’ve already. Oh. Jeezz. Thanks. Once out I rode around doing some quests and by the time I logged off they had grown on me.

So then on to the Night Fae. I copied Catwynn over for them as I thought she might like to join their Covenant. I didn’t get my keybinding set up, I was in a hurry to get into this and they just had a play for her to participate in, how hard could that be?

Ouch! Ow! Hey! Cut it out! I don’t know how many times the Catwynn clone died during that play. Watch out for those Night Fae!

So far Shadowlands has been fun. I should really read up on it but as usual I seem to prefer to stumble around without a clue. Why change now.

 

 

 

 

Old Friends, Frugal and Fickle

Although I tell myself I set my home in Classic to Theramore because of convenience, I’m pretty sure that’s not the main reason. Classic is about the only place in life that I can erase the bad times and go back to the good. I like hanging out with Jaina and Pained. Theramore is intact, nothing bad has happened there and Jaina has not changed. It’s a happier time for both of us I think.

I was intent on being able to buy a mount the minute I reached level 40. I was so frugal a level 20 Murloc could kill my level 35 self because I didn’t buy many spells. I see HOWEVER that Kitwynn spent what at the time was a lot on her pet cat. Apparently that was more important than staying alive to her.

In spite of reckless purchases we finally made it, whew. What a relief. I don’t remember not being able to ride bothering me but back then because I didn’t know what I was missing, this time I did. So happy to have a mount to ride back and forth in Booty Bay.

I pre-purchased Shadowlands and that came with a boost. Okay, I don’t know if anyone else is like this but the decision on who got it was so hard. I wanted to boost my Dark Iron Warlock just because. I felt guilty even thinking about it. I glanced around furtively as though Cat and the others knew what I was thinking. It was just wrong.

I decided it should go to either Sasche my main Horde character or Zorakar the Hunter my very first character back in 2006. My husband doesn’t play games, I’m not sure why I asked him what I should do. I really didn’t think he’d take it seriously. He looked at me like I was bonkers to even suggest there was a contest. The Hunter it must be, so there she is.

I feel kind of bad, I told Cat I’d be right back when Classic got here and nope, didn’t do it. And now I’ve been distracted by trying to figure out Huntering as I have no idea how anymore. I’ve just been running from new shiny to new shiny. Sorry Cat. We’ll go mount hunting soon, I promise. I just need to get Zor a bow and then Kitwynn needs a …

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

I feel kinda bad about this. I sort of implied to Cat that I would be back to BfA as soon at Kit got cat form. In my defense I didn’t lie intentionally, I thought I’d be right back but it turns out not so much.

I had to take care of the really important stuff like acquiring a pet chicken.

I then set out to visit places I liked like The Wetlands where I died so much I decided to just kill things that came near the cemetery. Save some time. Unfortunately for the most part this meant Murlocs, my bitter enemy. Stupid, stupid Murlocs.

This! I had totally forgotten buzzing people! I mean Kit had to pull up her legs to avoid bonking that cow. Trips are much less boring flying that low.

Since August I’ve had intermittent latency problems so that’s been pretty much the whole time Classic has been out. I KNOW it’s Comcast but they’ve broken me. I can’t face spending the day on the phone with support being told to plug and unplug stuff. Someone in the neighborhood must have had the stamina as there was a Comcast truck in here and now latency has been around 175ms for days, it’s wonderful.

It kind of worked out okay though. Kit’s good friend Azshandra aka Red was incredibly kind and gave Kit a huge amount towards her mount fund. Azshandra told Kit she had all that money as someone was very generous to her. Kit asked me where I thought she got all that money and I said it’s best not to get noisy with Rogues and their ways. I’ve heard rumors that they might pick a pocket or two but you didn’t hear it from me.

So Kit decided to start working on her mount fund rather than leveling. She trying to do it through fishing which isn’t that affected by lag. Now if she can only get it to sell!

My husband is a snooty audiophile. Although he has CDs and players he’s always kept his turntable set up because “the sound is superior.” Okay maybe he can hear it, I can’t but he was listening to Sly & The Family Stone and all I could hear was BOOM shaka laka BOOM shaka laka which seemed like something a Rogue would hum to themselves while pick pocketing and just like that a Night Elf Rogue was born, she needs another A but never mind.

Oh yeah. You can do NOTHING in cat form. The only thing you can do so far as I know is skin. I guess I should be happy for that but look at this guy! Look at him ignoring Kit! YOU, YOU … big horse’s ass you! I mean really of all people I though he would speak to her but NO. Jerk.

I really wonder about these Classic Druids. Kit was in Moonglade and she was horrified by what could be someone’s great Uncle Henry decorating the floor. Barbarians! I’d expect this from Goblins but the Cenarion Circle?

So we’re enjoying our time here in Classic a lot even when it gets a little weird. A guy who’s half horse won’t speak to a cat and ancestors as interior decor. Who knows what’s next?

I Don’t Know Me

I was really excited about Classic WoW but more in a “I want to visit my favorite places” way than a “I want to be agonizingly poor again and have fish jump off the hook” way. I thought I would use the bulk of my WoW time with Cat and maybe a half hour or so every day in Classic looking around.

I was wrong and didn’t see that coming AT ALL. What has happened so far is pretty much the opposite. I thought I remembered the crushing poverty but nope, I didn’t. Remembering I couldn’t buy a mount until about five levels past when I could have is what I remembered.

What I didn’t remember is having to decide which talents to train cause I can’t afford them all. Kitwynn up there took a screen shot on arrival in Darkshore because she was so proud to have accumulated almost 30 silver!

She had only 18 silver twenty minutes later as she was killed so many times by Murlocs repairs ate it all up.

I forgot the immense joy of getting a six-slot bag from a Nightsaber.

What’s strange about so many things like the improvements with Fishing over the years I really appreciated them at the time and yet now I’m so happy the lovely improvements that I loved are gone.  I did not see that coming. I don’t know if it’s just nostalgia or what but I am enjoying all the bugs too. Oh yay! I remember that!

I now see why my first Druid didn’t make it, I’m not sure how Cat prevailed but man, I am dead all the time. It’s quite an adjustment from Cat pulling four or five on a quest to a Level 10 Classic Druid.

After the Murlocs murdered Kit repeatedly she came to her senses and returned to Teldrassil. Killing something her own level is touch and go and she can’t afford the amount of water she needs to get her mana back.

So everything kills her, she’s really, really broke. Killing something her own level has like a 50% chance of success, fish jump off her hook.

Good times. No really. It really has been good times so far. I didn’t know that’s what I wanted but I guess I did.