Do You Know the Fight?

This picture has nothing to do with anything, Sasche just felt sorry for Kar Warmaker because apparently he’s old news and nobody wants to fight him. She told him that apparently the word is out that he cheats with that Cracking Blow ability. If he’d stop it maybe he’d have some company.

What she really came here to say is Blizzard WTF! How dare you! What kind of crack is that? What the hell are you trying to say? Okay, you disguised my hair a little but why are you thinking that ANYONE would want to change from a beautiful Forsaken to a Blood Elf. I resent the implication that I’m less than attractive. Really, how could you.

I thought I should post today although I don’t have any of my usual helpful information to give you … HAHAHA! Yes, that Sasche said that, she’s quite the jokey Undead.

The REASON I thought I should post was because it might be my last chance to say: Hi, you guys! I’m hoping I don’t get booted off WordPress. A while back I was contacted by someone from the New York Film Academy. Apparently they have a game design program and wanted to do a guest post.

I know I would be interested in hearing what’s involved in becoming a game designer so I said sure. Hopefully since I’m getting nothing in return this isn’t in conflict with the whole WordPress no advertising thingy. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Lastly I had to add to my FAQ page. I get this a lot. I need to clarify. I get variations of, “You all know the fight.” Do you know the fight?” “Everyone knows this one.” NO I DON’T EFFING DO! I do not know one single fight! Over the years while you all are spending your time watching videos and studying strategies I have been sunning myself on the beaches of Tanaris and Thousand Needles.

What? Yes, I’m very lazy but everyone enjoys the game differently and if I think it’s fun to go back and pound on unsuspecting bosses with a bear 20 levels higher than them so that mechanics never have the time to become an issue then that’s what I’ll do. 20 levels though it would probably be my Cat pounding on them. Whatever. Cat is in a one person guild and has refused to pug since BC. Trust me, she doesn’t know the fight.

So in the interest of full disclosure. No. I DO NOT KNOW THE FIGHT! That is not why I play. I play to kick goats off of cliffs but if you still want me to come YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

JD and Laid Back Raids knows this and yet they still let me come … I know! How crazy is that!

That Kind of Week

Yes, the whole week was like this. All Cat wanted to do was take a seat on the bench and … this. Apparently accommodations at the Shrine of Seven Stars are only for humanoid shapes. And early in the week she had a horrible time with the shieldwall dailies. I don’t remember them hitting this hard, we almost died a couple of times. What’s up?

She was doing them in her Safari Hat and instant Dalaran ring … oh. We’ve been stalking Kar Warmaker and I assume everyone but me has figured out how to avoid Cracking Blow because there’s never a sign of him. Finally! There he is! There’s no one on to call for help, so let’s try this! We tried the strafe around him approach and I think we went too fast and got hit. Didn’t matter though as we weren’t doing any damage at all. We shadowmelded and went to heal up and didn’t notice the crab … who killed us.

So while returning for our body … AH HA … fishing pole equipped, could have something to do with the crappy damage and of course by the time we got back to old Kar he was dead. Oh well, let’s do some golden lotus dailies on the way to the Spirit Tamers. We finished killing the Crumbling Behemoth way down on the path, far away from the action and the phone rang. I moved off the path and left her in stealth. On returning I found someone fighting him on top of us and oops, we’re dead. So we fly over to the Shrine and try to repair but that Pera Firestone is too busy shooting off fireworks and running around like a nut to attend to us … sigh.

Okay then, we’ll go beat up the Spirit Tamers … yeah … what could go wrong there. I don’t know about your team but my teams CAN NOT miss their big money spell two times in a fight and win. Miss … miss … miss. Then FINALLY we are about to win. We are going to win! We won, he’s dead! Noooo … then we died. I hate poison.

Yup … that kind of week. So last night Amateur Azerothian whispered did I want to do OS25? Well yes I wanted to because I had missed the Laid Back Raid the night before because of poor reading comprehension but I was about to leave the house. Oh hell, let me see if I can make arrangements here, I want to go! So I did.

Yes that’s me! That’s me on that Twilight Drake! I’m pretty sure it was a set-up as I don’t win rolls, I usually roll an 8 or 11. We did it four times but were running out of alts to switch after a while. Thank you so much for a wonderful end to a crappy week! I’m going to start a new non-crappy week right now. Mounted on my Twilight Drake I’m going to roll up on those Spirit Tamers and astound them with my awesomeness, they won’t even see what hit them!

Feral Cat’s 2013 Time Capsule

Yeah, I’m feeling really lazy today so screen shots! I just wanted to say I’ve been a fan of Jack Reacher for years so I was thrilled to learn a movie was finally being made. WAIT … WHAT? Tome Cruise is SO NOT Jack Reacher. This is Jack Reacher.

Oh and before I forget. Cain commented on the I’m In Your Base, Killing Your Dudes post.Thank you! Thank you, Cain!

I don’t use a lot of addons … what? Well yes I do have about eleventy billion pet addons but addons to improve your play, not so much. So part of what Cain said was … but other than that use your instant heals you get with Predatory Swiftness to keep yourself healed up enough to overcome his damage.

So I thought about it. I think I’m catching Predatory Swiftness. I think. Doesn’t seem to proc very often though. I reread the description and … hmmm, maybe I should try an addon that will make it EXCEEDINGLY obvious just to make sure. So I downloaded EventAlert and now I get a giant freaking visual cue and a sound to boot.

That damn Predatory Swiftness is going off ALL THE TIME, I barely have time to hit anyone I’m healing so much, lol. I HAD NOT been catching it. So thanks to Cain I finally found Ubunti one of the Horde rare elites and got him in no small part to all the healing Predatory Swiftness does. Still haven’t seen Kar Warmaker again though, must be hiding from me.

What else has Cat been doing? A picture is worth a thousand words.

That Minfernal makes Cat’s blood boil. And you want to know what’s almost as bad?

What the hell? I don’t see any damn baby dragon. I came here to level pets specifically because I knew a vet was on duty 24/7. What kind of con are you running here? Want me to up the price? Would 1 gold do? I mean it’s not like you’re doing anything else. What is this about?

Yeah … got my cooking student. Creepy. I wasn’t a fan of Li Li Stormstout either. I thought she was disrespectful and needed a good talking to. I guess I shouldn’t question Pandaren child-rearing methods because on a whole, the grownups seem to have turned out quite well. Especially considering the shitstorm problems our arrival on their fair shores has caused.

Sometimes you just want to be a level 1 again. I can’t help it. Meet Incredulor. He is my homage to that fabulous Fabulor and Reputation Grind’s Vanicus. These are characters he admires. Their perfect hair, their unrivaled manly, manliness. He will strive to … WTF! Incredulor, what’s with the Lucky Quilen Cub? Put that thing away. Geez, I mean your hair’s perfect (it’s there because I just wanted to listen to it) but you’re going to have a hard time with the manly thing with that pup by your side. Really, come on. Get with the program.

For a perfect end to her week, Catwynn attended a Laid Back Raid. If you look closely you will see why she soooo enjoyed it. All those good looking human males, mmm … she had a good time as always. And no she didn’t eat a one of them, she admired them.

That’s it! In a year I can come back to see what I was up to in early 2013. A little WoW time capsule. Now I’m going to Trader Vic’s to drink a Pina Colada.

The Year in Review … or Not

Well yeah, that’s sort of a big, fat, lie. It’s more like the last couple of months in review, and last night in review. If I think of something better before I stop writing I’ll change it.

So I asked Cat if she had something to say NON-PET RELATED. So she sent me the above screen shot. It doesn’t count Cat, you weren’t even there! That sullen Warlock Cimmeria went to Amateur Azerothian’s LBR last night. She won’t admit it but she had a good time. She was in a snit cause I made her wear a gaudy sweater and sing carols. Sheesh … Warlocks … no holiday spirit at all.

Great fun was had and guess what? Another Greatfather Winter showed up! Yes, I know that looks like a Gnome Shadow Priest but it’s really Greatfather Winter! After we finished Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, Greatfather Huckle pulled out many glorious pets we could roll on! Wontan was the big winner, I think everyone was afraid to roll against a stabby, little, Gnome Rogue. Cimmeria won’t admit it, but she’s scared of stabby, little, Gnome Rogues. Scary guys.

Azilem of Frost and Claws was there looking incredibly good in her holiday finery. And she’s even got a strategy for Razorgore posted so since he was stingy last night I can now return with a plan!

Kamalia was there under Alliance cover. I guess she thought we didn’t know who she really was and confessed to all sorts of things! :O

I was so happy I finally got the right night and right time so I could make it to the last LBR of the year! As always, JD and the Missus threw a great LBR!

I’m running out of space for the whole year in review thing. I always feel I’m pushing my luck if I natter on too long. Okay, I’ll just ask Cat if she’s got anything to say for herself.

Yay! Take that you stinkin little Thundering Spirit! Nah nah na na nah! Who’s the woman now, huh! I did it! I did it! I got your Earth Spirit right here! And you know what? I’m not leaving you alone … no, I’m coming back every day until you give me another and another and … pssst … hey Cat, mature much? Want to move it along? Anything else?

Yeah, I’m doing dailies again. Oh good, working for the Shado-Pan and Klaxxi then? Um … well no. It’s this whole Operation: Shieldwall thing, well it’s for the King!

Really? Is that REALLY why you’re doing that instead of what you SHOULD be finishing? It’s not perhaps something else? Something like RODENT TRAPS! Oh geez Cat, really. I know, I know, you just have to have a Sumprush Rodent. I should have known it would be battle pet related.

Any final words for the year? Been up to anything else?

Um … I’ve been thinking of taking a remedial reading comprehension class in the new year to better myself.

Really Cat? Any particular reason?

Um … yeah … no. Just might prove helpful, save money on repair bills and all. I didn’t really notice that Huntsman Blake said, would WE … WE as in multiple people, like to fight that Crane … it was a costly mistake.

I see … anything else you’d like to share? No, I guess not. I’ll save my quest to get the achievement, I’m In Your Base, Killing Your Dudes for next year. I don’t want to kill the holiday spirit with too much talk … talk of death.

I see. Well I guess that’s it for 2012. I guess Cat will review it next year. Happy New Year and take care out there!

An Unexpected Gift

Yesterday I belatedly started to level poor Sasche, my Forsaken Warlock, in preparation for a LBR. Blizzard’s site said iLevel 355 was required for Firelands. She only made it to 351. She’s really annoyed all those Alliance characters are already into Pandaria and she isn’t. I promised I’d make an effort from now on, but I have developed such an aversion to Garrosh it’s difficult.

I whispered JD, master of ceremonies, that I’d be little help in Firelands but he said to of course come and to also make a character on his server. Okay, maybe his guild is having a party. Maybe they have a glut of D.I.S.C.O.s to use. It was really hard to not get hung up in the creation process but I managed to only change the character’s hair. I showed great restraint I think. And of course it was a Warlock.

So we all get to Ironforge and yay! A party! But then we were all given a wrapped party gift, what’s this?

OMG!!! OMG!!! JD in the guise of the incredibly suave persona of  Elcombe had given us all Panthers just … just … BECAUSE!!!! Those that could, mounted up! It was so exciting and wonderful! Thank you again JD! I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of auctionating that went into that!

I don’t know about the others who were there with level 1 characters, but I wanted to immediately level up so I could ride like the wind! But I’d promised Sasche so off she went to Firelands.

Notice in this screen shot my obsession with pets. There’s all kinds of great stuff going on and I’m fixating on shots of Navi’s pet. With the experienced leadership of the writers of Reputation Grind and The Crimson Hammer, even in her hand-me-down clothes Sasche got to participate in downing some of the bosses before I had to leave.

So what’s with the Padaren up at the top? Well, leveling another of many Warlocks scattered around all the servers didn’t seem special enough. No. This is a most special gift. Funny how a virtual gift can mean as much or more than something in the real world, but it does. So this morning Liwu was created. I think my first Pandaren to level all the way up should be the proud recipient of that Sapphire Panther. Nothing else seems right.  Google translate tells me Liwu means gift in Chinese, they didn’t say whether it’s Mandarin or Cantonese and I hope they aren’t being jokey with me and it’s a dirty word or anything. I don’t know how jokey they are at Google. You never know. I’m pretty jokey.

So I have a lot to do. Liwu is going to be leveling fast, I know. Cat just got Master of the Ways done so she’s fine with it. So if you don’t hear from us it’s because Liwu is wreaking damage and destruction across the Wandering Isle. Everyone is pretty much alright with it, because that was such an incredible gift. Thank you JD.

The River Speaks of Your Deeds

Well that’s what Jogu the Drunk tells me anyway. I hope it’s just the ravings of an alcohol-riddled mind because Cat does NOT want the river running its mouth about her. Yeah, she’s hiding behind a Tauren mask, who does she think she’s kidding. She got her feelings hurt because Navi made disparaging remarks about Night Elves on a Girls Gone WoW podcast. I told her, look Navi has to say those things, she’s Horde. You don’t want her in trouble with Hellscream do you?

So anyway, Cat’s been running around sucking up to every faction she can find. She kind of ran out of steam once she got honored with the Golden Lotus which meant the siren song of pet battles pulled her back in. Seductive little beasties.

She did stop to do a couple of scenarios. Both had the same mission, brewing. Those crazy pandas. They were both fun although I’m not sure what happened in Unga Ingoo, A Brewing Storm went fine but for some reason on Captain Ook at some point I realize my two buddies are dead but Captain Ook doesn’t turn around, which was damn lucky for me so I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

So then Cat decides, yes, it’s always Cat NOT ME when we get to the bad stuff. CAT decides that since she’s 90 she’ll go to Naxxramas with a Laid Back Raid. I mean surely at 90 she can’t be a danger to anyone aside from the whole getting lost thingy.

OH NO! She can too! She was trying to stay away from everyone, casting puny, weak, spells and the next thing you know she’s cavorting around as a giant bear dealing all kinds of death and destruction. This was puzzling to her as of course she hadn’t actually READ anything about the fight beforehand. After coming back to life she did look it up and found that stupid, stupid, Kel’Thuzad does a mind control thingy in 25 man. So yeah, that explains the whole running willy-nilly thing. But as a bear?

Yes … well, I had consumed a glass of wine by this point, and yes, my “turn into a mighty bear” key is right next to my renewal key, so maybe it was me and not Kel’Thuzad responsible for the bear part. So anyway I think I killed everyone, either that or I’m some kind of egomaniac that thinks everything must have something to do with them. Especially if it’s bad. So either way, just saying … not good. The river’s calling her Cat Jenkins.

After being the cause of all that carnage Cat headed home. Getting to see the moon did cheer her up a little. Usually she has to rely on someone else to view it. She vowed to stay off main routes and follow the back roads of anonymous pet battlers. Meeting at lonely, seedy, dives where no one knows your name. Until finally, the river stops speaking of her deeds.

Rearranging Blog Furniture and It Heals!

Yes, servers will be down for who knows how long so rather than go outside and breath that toxic fresh air, I decided to fiddle with this blog. FOR ONCE I’m not going to sneak more links on my blogroll in the dark of night. I’m going to actually tell you who they are.

These are some of my companions who I accompany on daring Laid Back Raids where we mug bravely fight evil in search of really nice looking skirts and pants and stuff. clawsofdanea does haiku! I find poets quite impressive! There’s another poet up there but she disguised herself as Alliance. Probably how the Horde got the intelligence to attack Theramore. I know that’s you Navi the Poet!

I even added a FAQ. Navi was asking me why I wasn’t talking at one of the raids and I thought, damn, what must the rest of these people think. JD brought a bot along to Laid Back Raids? So yeah! My first (and probably only) FAQ!

Tiny WoW Guild organizes Laid Back Dungeons! Check out the schedule! Reputation Grind is frequently our fearless leader in Laid Back Raids on our never ending search for glory and the perfect hat!

So here we are on the brink of Patch 5.0.4. I’m sure everyone else is handling the … you know … information so I’m free to talk about whatever. That’s Anesthetica the Discipline Priest. I have never healed, ever. My Druid doesn’t even heal herself. I don’t have a nurturing bone in my body so making a healer seems like a bad idea, yes?

A friend wanted to start a new Pally tank but has issues with LFD so I said, “Oh, I could roll a healer and go with you.” I’m not sure what came over me. So yeah, Goblin was born.

Fearlessly, (I’m kidding) we queued for Ragefire Chasm and were in immediately. I think I rolled a Discipline Priest because I saw they have a shield thingy and I could just put it up and go about my business, looking around and stuff, but apparently I need to DO other things too. Not much really, as I only had four spells at fifteen.

Wanting to be a responsible Priest, I made a macro telling the group I was a NOOB healer and they were all going to die horribly, to get out while they could. No reaction. But no cursing, racial slurs, sexist remarks, so to me, things were looking good! We commenced running around like squirrels on meth. I know the tank had problems with everyone but me pulling, I might have pulled too. I think I shielded a boss once if that’s even possible.

On queuing two more times we got it again and again so finally quit. We only had one horrible death scene which was totally my fault. This drunk Hunter joined the group and kept asking to kill one more Warlock. The tank was busy chasing the pulling dps. The drunk Hunter said, “Please, can we kill another Warlock.” OMG! He said please!

I looked back and he’d decided to go it alone and was about to die. The tank and dps didn’t seem to be engaged so like an idiot, yes, I’m a sucker for please, I went back to save the drunk Hunter. Results were EVERYONE died except … well … me. That shield thing is handy. I know, I TOLD you I don’t have a nurturing instinct! I’m sure letting everyone but yourself die breaks the priest code of ethics. They might not issue her a hymnal. She might have to be a backstreet rogue healer and stand in dark alleys going, “Pssst … pssst, get your heals here.”

I know the tank and I have differing opinions on how successful our first go at LFD went. I thought it was a great success as WoW pickup groups go. It’s possible that we have differing expectations about WoW groups. My standards are unhappily very low as a result of past experience, he must be more of an optimist.

No insults hurled and a please? Excellent! And well yeah, that Goblin really liked that belt upgrade in her bag of goodies, she’s a little mercenary. So Anesthetica’s probably a keeper. You’ve been warned. If you have a low level alt doing LFD you might want to be careful who you’re putting your life in the hands of … yeah … could be her. Be afraid … be very afraid!

I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie

Last night was Sunwell Plateau with Amateur Azerothian’s Laid Back Raids. Not only was it beautiful, but satisfying. I can’t even begin to count the times I flew over this big, fat, stupidhead on the long grind to get the Shattered Sun Offensive to love me. All I could do was hurl insults down at Brutallus then. Finally, some closure. Might go back today and take a flyover just to rub it in.

Also Shoryl of Tiny WoW Guild has Laid Back Dungeons for those looking for a specific dungeon. Some people in JD’s raids are looking for transmog gear, some are sightseeing, I’m a sightseer for the most part.

I should have known better, because Cat really can’t handle her liquor. But I wanted some wine. This has no effect on the Warlocks, but Druid soon lost the ability to read chat and stumbled around taking screen shots. She did notice she’d acquired a lovely green glow so I guess she decided to show it off, infecting everyone with some type of horrible communicable disease. Her brave companions were probably cursing her in chat but thankfully she couldn’t read it. She was totally oblivious from ONE WINE COOLER.

Anyway, that’s okay, so she can’t hold her wine coolers, big whoop. The other problem is more serious. Druid is definitely my main, she is my favorite, all of them know it. But I hate melee. I had this epiphany some time ago, but it reared it’s head again last night or I should say reared it’s stupid butt. Or didn’t. WHATEVER!

The problem is butts. See this picture? There’s a visual cue there, a tail. If every boss were a manageable size with a tail maybe she’d have no problem. She’s supposed to be biting them in the butt but she can rarely tell where it is. They’re generally 20 feet tall and if they have a butt it’s way up there somewhere above her head, she can’t see it. Sometimes she has to resort to trying to see if the boss is wearing pointy-toed shoes for a clue.

I mean look at this picture of Kel’Thuzad. First he’s wearing a dress and then he doesn’t even have any feet for pity’s sake. WTF! NERDRAGE! NERDRAGE! NERDRAGE! OH AND WAIT! Here’s another, they give dragons tails, yay! She knows where their butt is now. But wait! Stop, Cat, Stop! Don’t go toward the butt, don’t go toward the butt! Tail Swipe! Oh, too late. Don’t you think that’s just the least bit sadistic?

What is she supposed to do. No butt, no feet, I mean come on. And usually she’s so engrossed in trying to find a butt that noticing crap on the floor is a pipe dream.

She usually starts out with good intentions. But after shredding away and noticing she has no combo points building up and realizing she’s been doing squat all because whatever she’s been shredding IS NOT HIS BUTT she usually gives up and starts spamming WHATEVER THE HELL WILL HIT HIM.

Blizzard, really, couldn’t we take the “Must be behind the target” off of shred? Why do you torment her this way? She’s a lovely girl, okay she chases human males but I don’t see that as being a serious enough character flaw to justify torturing her like this. Take the FREAKING BEHIND THE TARGET CRAP off of shred … um … please?

She will always be my main and she knows it but, do you see why she drinks? Do you see? Melee sucks. Warlocks rule. I need another wine. Hold the cooler part.

Laid Back Raids, Men of Iron and Stuff

Yeah, I started writing a post about something specific and then all these things I wanted to mention kept popping up so I’ve kind of abandoned the initial post. Don’t want to try people’s patience with a wall of text. I just get all these things and ideas in my head when I’m walking the dogs. I have no idea why.

The only thing different that happens while I’m walking the dogs, as opposed to the rest of the day, is that I get repeatedly hit in the back of the leg by a big bag of dog poop that’s filled with smaller bags of … yeah you know, that’s hanging off a belt loop on my jeans. So if you need ideas, I guess you could try it. It works for me AND the neighbors appreciate it when they have to cut their grass.

Last night I attended another of Amateur Azerothian’s Laid Back Raids. As always it was an incredible amount of fun and I just wanted to say thank you to JD for thinking it up! I see next week is Horde week so Warlock will be pleased.

And OMG!!! Ironstevo rocks! He did it! And even the way he did it was unique. Okay, I’m getting dirty looks here from my Warlocks, they said, “Well of course he did it he’s a Warlock isn’t he? There was never a doubt in our minds he’d do it silly rl human.” Ironstevo is now a level 85 NO DEATH Ironman, grats you handsome devil. I know Euphyley has got to be pleased with him. Now she can play without listening for footsteps behind her, but somehow I think she’ll miss it just a little bit.

Ironyca has an interesting post about our in game avatars, but what really caught my eye was her comment about a WoW Factor Event on Earthen Ring-US. Not one troll showed up. How is that possible? A whole server of nice people? Next alt I make I know where I’m going. The best part of the post though was that I now know what Ironyca looks like while she’s judging events, she’s so cute I want to pet her! But then I knew she would be.

While on the subject of cute just look at that. I figured Navi’d be cute and so well dressed too.

I keep checking Matty’s blog because in this post she mentions planning a Road Rally. I really would love that, I have my car ready! I’ve got my fingers crossed!

And oh, I’m now under a lot of pressure on Twitter. As a result of tweeting my Biker Jacket. Bears are Really Smart post, Bold Leather.com is now following me on Twitter. I’m bound to be a great disappointment to them. I feel I should do something to justify their confidence that I’ll come through for them. I could do a post on grinding savage leather or something but that’s just not that interesting to do, let alone read about. What to do?

I’m trying to come up with some suitable titles for a post.

Savage Leather Codpiece

Heavy Leather Bikini

Deviate Scale Camisole

The problem is that while I’m sure Bold Leather.com would be happy with those titles, I can’t for the life of me think of a post to go with them. I’ll have to give it some thought. Maybe if I login something will come to me, or maybe I should just go on another dog walk.