I Have a Burden … er … Bone to Pick with You Blizzard

I’m recycling my ranty face. It’s kind of a good news, bad news thing. I only make creepy faces when I’m upset and I haven’t been upset for a while. GOOD NEWS! So I don’t have a brand new creepy face for my rant. BAD NEWS! I’m not upset. I have a rip-snorting ANGRY. Yes! I KNOW! Can you imagine! I am rip-snortingly angry.

My issue probably isn’t an issue for most people, if you raid it wouldn’t be a problem at all. If you dress all your characters solely through world bosses, crafted gear and the Timeless Isle Super Store, it’s an issue.

Cat and Cim got to the Timeless Isle and were in love. Running hither and yon, spontaneously killing all they saw. Just my kind of thing. They upgraded gear with their burdens of eternity caring not a bit that they got a CRAPPY ONE SECONDARY STAT piece of gear. No matter, we’ll go ahead and use it, enchant it and then upgrade it when we get another burden.

Liwu didn’t much care either, she’s all about engineering. I mean she’s still sporting her Ghost Iron Dragonling so obviously gearing is not a top priority for her … but Sasche … yeah … she’s a RIP-SNORTINGLY ANGRY UNDEAD.

Sasche doesn’t have a support staff like her spoiled Alliance cousins. The burdens do not seem to drop as often as they did in the early days. They are hard to get other than the free ones. The first three she got produced CRAPPY ONE SECONDARY STAT gear, she vendored them after all the work they took to get. She can’t afford to pay 500 plus gold for an enchant and then replace the gear when she gets ANOTHER burden and MAYBE a decent piece of gear.

Who thought this would be a great idea! WHO! I know all y’all there at Blizzard MUST KNOW we HATE RNG!!! WHO in Elune’s name thought it would be a great idea to introduce it to the Timeless Isle gear when we just went through a SHITSTORM OF RNG HELL to get the stupid burden.

Oh, this will be fun for them, let’s make the burden incredibly hard to obtain and THEN to make it more fun, let’s put MORE RNG HELL in there, they’ll only get a chance at a decent piece. Yeah, that works for us! They’ll love it.

WHY? WHY? WHY? What were they thinking? How dumb is that! I’m not even kidding here. That was idiotic. WHAT WAS THE THINKING THERE?

Okay … happy … happy. Joy … joy. Deep breaths.

Nope … I’m still RIP-SNORTINGLY ANGRY! And what’s worse, so is Sasche. And let me tell you, you don’t want a RIP-SNORTINGLY ANGRY FORSAKEN gunning for you. No you don’t, even if she is wearing sub-standard, CRAPPY ONE SECONDARY STAT gear.

Genius who came up with that idea. Watch your back. Sasche’s coming for you.

Oh wow … Sasche’s in a really bad mood. I think I’ll visit someone cheerier like Liwu. She’s busy making her Jeeves thanks to Dahakha directing her to the drop area. She’s now well on her way … and happy in her CRAPPY ONE SECONDARY STAT gear. Oh … Dahakha … I forgot you didn’t know my middle name … hyperbole. If I say I killed ten Mogu at once it probably means 5 in Tome speak. Never believe ANYTHING I say!

Zul ‘Am … OW!

Cim did some reading and then set off for Zul’Aman where the shoulders for her trangmog reportedly dropped from Jan’alai. I’d also read that the bosses could be done in any order so yay, let’s go straight to him! After some difficulty banging the gong she finally entered. That’s when we realized our reading hadn’t covered the trash … just the bosses. OW! OW! OW!

The boss was trivial, easy, not a problem but OMG I don’t know if I did something wrong but I kept encountering roving bunches of homicidal trolls seemingly EVERYWHERE. It might have been that while trying to find my way we inadvertently aggroed more than we should have but DAMN, that hurt. Cim switched to Destruction as Sasche has done nothing but talk about how fun it is. We managed to finally fight our way to Jan’alai, thankfully get the correct drop … then left.

I really wanted to continue but it was evident that further reading was required. Maybe we need to kill certain trash first. I don’t know … you other guys … just so you know … we’ll be back!

Which brings me to the ridiculous part. Kamalia had kindly offered to help on my transmog journeys, I hadn’t forgotten but …

I found a humorous chart comparing extroverts/introverts once that I borrowed a part of because they really knew me. The problem with battletags is that people might think that I’d actually initiate a conversation.

You have to speak to me first cause then I know you’re not busy. I’ve often wondered if a crazed EXTROVERT serial killer broke into the house and was threatening to chop me and the dogs up would I at least THEN quickly message one of my friends to CALL THE POLICE!

I’d like to think I would but honestly I’m not sure. Navi once posted saying that she had to make room on her battletag list as she’d hit the limit of 99 I think it was. So in my little introverted mind I envision everyone of my battletag friends having 99 people simultaneously talking to them. They certainly don’t need me bothering them.

So yeah … there’s that.

Anyway, Cim got her shoulders and decided to wear her new outfit even though we haven’t found a suitable cloak yet. The trip to Zul’Aman was costly though. She had so much fun as Destro she made me re-gem, re-enchant and reforge her. What happened to DEMO FOR LIFE Cim? Sheesh, these guys will break me.

So to any introverts on my list, if you ever want to beat up trolls or ANYONE else, let me know. You’re not bothering me. I just can’t … you know … bother you.

OLRG: In The Mountains

As it turns out  the Horde did not get to come out and play. Matty was hardly late at all because she loves us that much. No, the song has nothing to do with the raid, I just like it.

I know, I  know, you’ve all done that years ago. I’d never been in Ulduar. The closest I ever got to Ulduar was this. I have been waiting for … what … four or five years for Thorim to realize he recognizes me from IN THE MOUNTAINS. Yeah … cause I was there. I’m surprised … that guy’s got a really good memory. I don’t know if I’d have recognized him except for the … you know, being HUGE thing.

What a great evening. We started out with the Trial of the Crusader where I’d never been either. I just checked Cimmeria’s Activity Feed and and it states:

Displaying the 50 most recent events for this character.

And they were all from last night, so Cim got 50 or more achievements done. Wow, you go Cim!

I was even less communicative than usual because I was busy gawking around and taking screen shots. Matty’s right, OLRG is the most wonderful fantasy tour bus.

Helke the I Will Kick Your Butt dps, Momo (Matty) the Tour Director, Neo the Wonderful Voice of Strats … okay, time out for a sec. Neo has the greatest accent ever and I can’t place it. I know it’s from west of me. Oh, well yeah … everything’s kinda to the west of me but you know what I mean. Where was I?

And Cim the Directionally Challenged were joined by Prinnie, I’m Really a Goblin in Disguise and off we set to Ulduar. I almost got lost once and it’s the first time I didn’t even care. I would have been fine with just wandering around in there because it’s incredible.

Neo told me to go up a flight of steps first. I was hesitant. Would I be attacked by a flock of chittering, flying monkeys? Snakes, I’m scared of … OHSHIT! WTF! At some point I found I had inadvertently turned my mic off so hopefully the ladies were spared my breach of etiquette. I think I made Kologarn’s night. I’ll bet it’s been a while since he’s been able to scare the bejeebers out of anyone.

So there we are posing in front of Yogg-Saron in the goop and my dog wouldn’t stop pestering me. He’d heard us talking about Neo’s dog’s preference for dining on TV remote controls. Any talk of food gets his attention. His spelling is a little off but his typing skills are spot on.

As always, a wonderful time. Thank you all!

OLRG: While the Cat’s Away the Mice Will … TURN HORDE

While Matty might be back in time for the regular 4:00pm Pacific, 7:00pm Eastern run, she thought it doubtful. I’ll be on and thought if everyone wants to we could do something as Horde until she returns … or not. Whatever you ladies want to do.

Really I just wanted to post about what a great day it was. Yes, see that Voidlord, he’s ecstatic. The Squirrels With Knives guild was born today.

I was complaining to Matty that I was simultaneously attacked by Mogu and guild invites. Since I have guild invites turned off I get the personal requests that require a polite response. Sasche’s rather rare as an unguilded 90 and sometimes the requester wants to argue my decline.

Within minutes Matty and friends saved me.  Between Matty and her guild mate Turk and OLRG raider Taik (I hope I have the shortened version of their name right or I’ll be humiliated) Sasche had a safe haven from guild invites and a bank!

There’s Turk with his descriptive and helpful name because I WAS obsessing about, “but how will I know it’s the right person?”

I think Matty knows me really well, I probably would land in a coma if I had to approach four strangers to sign a charter. Annoying to be this way but you work with what you’ve got.

So I asked Matty to come up with a good name as I loved her ideas for guild names. So Squirrels With Knives was born. Thank you all so much!

Yeah … embarrassing … my husband pointed out that … well, that’s not a squirrel. It’s a chipmunk. Geez. Thankfully I didn’t know that cause Squirrels With Knives is WAY scarier than Chipmunks With Knives. I really dodged a bullet there.

Godmother’s Year of Faff Update

As Godmother has declared 2014 the Year of Faff, I thought I should check in and see how we’re doing. The only stipulation I gave my characters was that while they could faff, they had to make some money too. I hope they listened.

Does anyone else make a character just because they want to use a certain name? I think that qualifies as full on faffage. Geez, I can’t BELIEVE that spellchecker keeps telling me that’s not a word.

Anyway, that’s Professor Pettifog up there. She’s a Mage so that’s a strike against her. I have yet to be able to Mage properly but on the other hand she came straight out of Gnomeregan, saw that level four rare … he went down.

I said, geez … rage much Pettifog? She shrugged and said, he had a bag on him. I needed it. What?

Maybe there’s hope for her.

So Cim … OMG … it’s hard to concentrate … that Voidlord is staring right at me. Okay, Cim is doing a WONDERFUL job of faffing. Okay Voidlord? U happy bro? Was I nice enough? Anyway, Cim’s down to the stretch on her transmog.

She got her Engraved Gargoyle Femur from Scourgelord Tyrannus once I learned to read and found it dropped in heroic Pit of Saron not regular. I take full responsibility. Sorry Voidlord. Next up Zul’Aman. I’d better read up on it since I’ve never been in there.

Yeah … The Elemental Shaman Project. This poor Shaman was once my main, she was an asskicking Enhancement Shaman. I remember her leveling all the weapons she could equip so she would always be prepared. Changes happened and I didn’t love playing her anymore.

Respecced to Elemental, she made herself an Inscribed Serpent Staff and I gave her a bunch of Timeless Isle clothes with no gems or enchants. Off she went to the Isle. She was immediately killed by a pink flamingo. This is so wrong.

There she is. At great expense we bought her a Mace. Something she’s used to. I’ll get her gems, enchants and she’ll go forth once again equipped to handle whatever she may encounter with her new Mace and … what … is that a fan? Yeah, okay … with her Mace and Fan of Doom. Stupid little pink flamingos BETTER WATCH OUT!

Cat’s status: Pet Faffing.

Zorakar’s status: Farm Faffing.

Sasche’s status: Trying to make money. Well, at least SOMEBODY paid attention to me.

So see, aside from the hemorrhaging gold part I think we’re doing really well. I think Godmother would be proud.

OMG! MATTY! I was given a squirrel statue as a gift. Until I read your post I couldn’t figure out why I’d come down and find that someone … or perhaps SOMETHING had placed a KNIFE in his paws. THE TRUTH IS NOW CLEAR! He’s the Squirrel of Swift Death! Thank Elune I don’t drink beer … just wine … I wonder if that counts.

Calling All Old Ladies!

Matty is battling real life dragons right now. She wanted me to get the word out to the Old Ladies’ Raiding Guild members on our upcoming battle. She’s going to have to reschedule Saturday’s raid to Sunday unless …

1. We want to wait for her.

2. We go as Horde.

3. All of the above!

I’m fine with whatever everyone wants to do, just let Matty know and if you need to contact me in game I’m TotA#1973.

Whatever the decision, I know the Old Ladies’ Raiding Guild will prevail!

Of Blogs, Drops, Snow and Love

Yeah, I’m all over the place today. I think I’m suffering from the aftereffects of a genuine REAL Tuesday maintenance. I forgot how painful they were.

Yesterday, because of snow and maintenance I was entertaining myself by browsing my screenshot folder and reading blogs. I really hate this war WordPress and Blogger have going. I mean grow up you two. I can comment on Blogger blogs that have name/url but can no longer comment using the WordPress setting.

So anyway, I had wanted to congratulate Jojo for winning Mr and Mrs WoW’s competition. Then I was off to visit Altoholic Anonymous and once again was foiled … so I’ll say it here. Congratulations Jojo and I agree Sofia!

Okay. The ridiculousity of RNG. Catwynn and Cimmeria have been on that Isle FOREVER. Between them they have killed Rattleskew what must be hundreds of times. They got zip … nothing … nada. Liwu sees Rattleskew for the first time on her way to kill frogs and gets Captain Zvezdan’s Lost Leg. I think it’s safe to say I’m not getting this unless they make it account wide but Liwu can probably make more use of bodyguards than the Warlocks.

That’s how wrong the weathermen were yesterday. As wrong as that Ogre. We just got 4 inches of polite snow but they’re right about the cold. I know it’s weak but I just HAD to use my WoW Modelviewer screen shot. I kinda wish they did look like that. I TOLD you I was rooting around in my screen shot folder … expect the worst!

There were two high points in Cata for me. Both in Uldum, Thieving Little Pluckers and Gnomebliteration. I think I once spent a whole afternoon rolling around … I just couldn’t let it go. Okay I’m done with the screen shots. Promise.

So this morning Matty said to be sure to see the guest post at orcish army knife. Not only great advice but a love story too! You can sign up to receive updates and know when Death Knight Love Story Part Two is available. So that’s what Hugh of MMO Melting Pot’s been up to! Now we have two WoW films to look forward to!

Got to go, Sasche’s calling. Now that Horde isn’t so depressingly empty after the server merge, Sasche’s been out and about. She wants to go back to the Timeless Isle Target store and continue gearing up. You’d think I’d get sick of it but it seems every time a new character gets there, it’s all fun again. Weird.

Best Laid Plans

I had big plans for the week that was. I decided it was time everyone went into moneymaking mode to get ready for Warlords. Unfortunately no one paid the least bit of attention to my plans, I think we’re in the red on money for the week.

I don’t know how those world class transmoggers do it. Cim went through, I don’t know how many iterations on that outfit up there. She’d pick something … nope … dropped by someone in Siege of Orgrimmar … forget that Cim, pick something else.

Nope … that’s a piece of Horrendously Vile Lord of PvP gear … pick something else … and on … and on. And then sometimes you get the piece and it just doesn’t look as good as you hoped … pick another Cim.

LIWU! I thought we agreed that you’d go do the Isle of Thunder Scenario chain. You have elevenly billion Greater Kirin Tor Offensive Insignia that everyone sent you, let’s get on this. Liwu? LIWU! Oh … she’s gone.

Well at least Sasche is … Sasche? Seriously? Again? Really? Sigh …

Yeah … it’s not just them. I knew … KNEW that I wouldn’t be interested in Hearthstone. I knew I’d be awful at it but had to check it out when I got my invite in the last wave. I don’t know … I must be a masochist.

I so suck at this … it involves strategy, which I eschew at all costs. I start out telling myself, THIS TIME I will have a plan and then at some point I start just throwing down cards willy-nilly in excitement. Yes, then my hero dies horribly.

And yet still, at the moment, I am addicted. I even played a REAL PERSON. They THRASHED my Paladin with their Hunter. I mean really badly … embarrassingly badly. And then I found out the game has emotes. They emoted me …

Well Played! OMG! I got a pity emote! That was so nice of them! I later found this, Well Played = The Emote of Jerks. Perception is a strange thing, I’m sticking with “that was a nice person who thought they were saving the feelings of a strategically challenged ten year old … otherwise known as … well … me.”

IRL Questing …

So yeah … there are those times that real life seems awfully similiar to what happens in Azeroth. There is an objective you want to attain and sometimes … maybe because you choose an unorthodox method to accomplish it … it takes some planning. The last time I tried completing an IRL quest I failed miserably.

Over on this side I have fubared my right arm from shoulder to wrist. I kept blaming it on the amount of time I spend on my computer. I don’t know why I was so blind. I guess if you do something EVERY DAY for ten years with no ill effects you don’t think that’s the problem … well it was.

For ten years I have had ninety pounds of enraged dog with six feet of momentum launching himself at any perceived danger. His attack (not really an attack, he’s just trying to scare the scary thing) comes to an abrupt end … at the end of my right arm. I did not catch on until I started using my left arm and began having the same symptoms.

EUREKA! Perhaps arms are not designed to be the equivalent of the device that stops jets when landing on aircraft carriers. Who knew!

I have sympathy for him, I mean people carrying umbrellas is some scary shit. ANYONE approaching from behind … I know! Who likes that. So anyway, my husband said, I must stop walking him. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA … in fairness to him I think he thought he should say it … you know, cause it’s the sensible thing to do. It’s not like he really thought I’d do it.

So here’s the really cool thing. My husband, who won’t enter Azeroth, unknowingly embarked on an IRL quest. He disappeared and when he returned he said he had the problem solved!  He found a belt that was made specifically to attach a dog to … HANDS FREE dog walking!

Yeah … so I’m thinking this is either really sweet … or he’s trying to get me ripped in half … I’m not sure which.

As it turns out, my entire body has a lot more stopping power than my arm. My husband aced the quest.

But … it’s winter, it’s been REALLY cold which means using my SERIOUS winter coat … the big puffy down one. Yeah, that’s what I look like up there. A marshmallow with a rubber band in the middle. Cars are slowing as they pass, people staring out the windows in wonder. LOOK! LOOK! Mommy, it’s a monster!

I certainly hope my dog appreciates that I’m impersonating movie monsters to make sure he gets his walk.

I shouldn’t complain. Arm can recover. Dog can walk. Quest completed! 100 Tokens of Dog Walk Awarded and a Sack of Expired Pet Food. Not a bad day’s walk’s work.

Shared Topic: Mountable Mounts

For this week’s Blog Azeroth shared topic Dragonray asks:

What are your top 5 mounts – or just the ones you go to all the time because you like the way they ride? What are the ones you really dislike and can never bring yourself to use – does it rub against your collecting nature (if you have one) to buy all the mounts even though you know you will never use them?

I’ve noticed my different characters have different favorites, so I thought I’d ask a few which mounts were their favorites. There’s Fire Cat up there being a Catbird which is the form she almost always uses for flight but she says her favorite mount is her Time-Lost Proto-Drake.

Whenever she feels sorry for herself about RNG, I remind her that she found him while reading the just published Wowinsider post on him. When I maximized the WoW window after reading about how to find him I found him on top of her flapping her head with his wings.

I asked my once main, once Enhancement Shaman who now tends a farm in Halfhill if she had a favorite mount, I was surprised by her answer. Her favorite mount is her Swift Mistsaber.

Way, way back in the shrouded mists of Vanilla and BC she very much disliked her racial mount, the Elekk. While I assured her it was only her imagination that he moved slower than other mounts she didn’t care. In a time when it was unusual to see races riding mounts other than their own, she refused to attend to any business until she became exalted with those Night Elves. She has ridden it ever since.

My Hunter the Alchemist’s favorite mount is the Sandstone Drake. She doesn’t use it often but it’s a symbol to her of my promise. Once she made it she could abandon Archeology … FOREVER! Unless of course another expansion requires her help … shhhh … I haven’t told her that part.

Sasche’s favorite mount is the Armored Bloodwing. It’s favored because it was a gift from a good friend and it reminds her of home when she travels the world … and she thinks it’s suitably Warlocky … very important to her.

The Heavenly Golden Cloud Serpent is Cim the Warlock’s favorite mount, she just doesn’t actually ride it. It’s beautiful but she gets sea sick if she rides it. She hovers occasionally on it to admire it.

Cim’s go to mount is the Headless Horseman’s Mount … again … suitably Warlocky … must keep up appearances!

So there are the five mounts that … what? But Liwu, it said five … I see … okay, go ahead.

Liwu’s very excited as it’s just ONE MORE DAY! Tomorrow she’ll make her Sky Golem. Even so, I’m pretty sure I can safely say that the Sapphire Panther will remain her favorite mount. As excited as she was about her flying machines she never mounts up on anything but Sapphire Panther. Another mount that is a reminder of great friends and good times.

It looks like all of my character’s favorite mounts are reminders of events and friends … except Cimmeria … figures … that Warlock is cold. Sometimes I think she actually IS the Big Purple Demon and just occasionally turns into that Human form.