Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Tale Fifty Five: A Letter To Grimm

Grimm:

Okay! Well you know that I’m a “blogger” now, which basically means I have to spend HOURS upon HOURS of reading other blogs.

And I ran across this on Keredria's blog: The WoW Spouse.

I laughed. Before, at one point -when I used to play more- I would have agreed to more than half of these.

Here we go! The purple is my own little thoughts, because you know… I’m awesome like that.

1. You and your WOW spouse regularly share mats or food buffs.
Okay, we didn’t really share stuff because you had everything. But you shared stuff with me! I guess I shared when I started to put down Fish Feasts…

2. There are inside jokes that you and your WOW spouse share. You and your WOW spouse may also joke and kid around by giving each other a hard time about certain things.
Well, we had the whole “Littlevoice” inside thing going on. And you even made up the ******AnAss channel so we could joke, kid and give each other a hard time. You know that a whisper would have sufficed right?

3. You can be bluntly honest with each other about raid performance, gear choice, or whatever. You're comfortable enough to point things out and ask what the heck they think they're doing.
I’ll never forget the day when I was tanking on my pally, and I kept loosing aggro. I was annoyed beyond reason, and ever so gently with a hint of laughter in your voice you said, “Hon? Righteous Fury.” You still are my go-to Guru for everything.

4. When something eventful happens in an raid, your WOW spouse is the first person you start whispering frantically. Or over vent in a raid, one WOW spouse may yell to the other to do something, to which the other responds, "Geez, I'm doing it already!".
Haha! Yes! Of course, you’d be the first person I’d start whispering, if Fara wasn’t on. Sorry, but sometimes gossip can only be shared by girls first. But if you were in the raid or group and someone pulled an asshat move, I’d start bitching to you.

5. Your WOW spouse knows exactly what type of elixirs, potions, or flasks you consume.
I’m pretty sure this one is standard, right? Fish Feast with a Flask of Frost Wyrm on the side.

6. You can finish each other's sentences over vent or find that you are thinking the same things at the same time.
I don’t think this one rings true to us… I think I’d be slightly scared if I started to finish your sentences because then that would mean I know what you’re thinking. And that right there is a scary scary thing.

7. Your WOW spouse knows almost as much or more about your real life as your best friend or real life spouse does.
Maybe as much as my best friend but not as much as Shock. He does hang around me all day long, after all.

8. You and your WOW spouse may have disagreements or minor spats. But you know these spats aren't the end of the relationship, spouses are bound to disagree at times! The WOW wife then waits for the WOW husband to come back with flowers and apologies.
Hmm… I don’t know about this one. Usually it’s you and Shock disagreeing over stuff. I’m just kind of in the background, rolling my eyes at Shock and nodding at you with sympathy.

9. No one else knows how to push your buttons or guilt trip you as well as your WOW spouse.
I totally agree with this one. I remember when I transferred Littlebark over to Alliance, and left a note on the forums. And when I went to check if you’d read it, you said something like “maybe I’ll see you when I PvP.” I turned to Shock, tears STREAMING down my face and wailed “I’ll never get to see him because he never PvPs!!!”

Yeah. You made cry!

10. Your friends and your real life spouse know about your WOW spouse.
Shock knows about you, obviously. I think he got sick of you at one point in Ulduar, where I would start 70% of my WoW conversations with “Grimm says that…” or “today, Grimm and I…”

The only friend of mine who knows about you is Rak-something. She was in our guild briefly, and I’d talk to her about you a lot. What can I say, you influenced my gaming!

All my other friends don’t care about WoW, and therefore, don’t care about you. Sad, isn’t it?

PS: I actually thought about this, and since you're all buddy buddy with Apadwa, "WoW Spouse" isn't really the right term is it? WoW Accomplice?

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Tale Fifty Four: This Is It.

As of tonight, I am a guild master. I don't have the tittle yet, but this is what happened:

I blame Avatar.

Yes. You read that correctly. AVATAR.

Something about the blue Neytiri or whatever chick sparked something in Mr. Littlebark and he decided that
enough was enough. Apperantly, he wasn't having fun in WoW anymore and he wanted to be carefree, and all that hallmark crap.

And he told me this at Walt Mart. There I was, about to order my Double Cheeseburger combo at McDonald's and he tells me "Oh, and at 10:30 tonight? I'm telling everyone that I'm quitting WoW."

I admit: I got pissed off. The guild is doing SO well right now. We almost downed Saurfang and would have on Sunday night had it not been for our connection. We have our heads straight and we're working so hard.

And Mr. Littlebark decides that this is too stressful.

This next part is going to sound like a rant but honestly, right now? I don't give a flipping birds tail. He basically has the GM tittle ONLY to lead raids. The other stuff, I do. I fish for the Fish Feasts, farm mats for flasks, make sure there is guild repair money, update the web posts when we have new kills, I recruit when needed, check the Realm Forums, talk to other GM's from other guilds in case we need a guild alliance in the future and on top of all that, maintain this blog.

Mr Littlebark's job was: show up at 9:15 and send out invites. Explain the strats when they weren't known and hand out loot.

It's painfully obvious how his job is SOOO stressful.

So tonight, I solved it. I told him that once I bought the game card for LB's account, I would transfer the leadership over to her. He will be booted down to Member and he will be invited to raids. However, since he won't be part of the core group, to not expect a spot in the raids everytime.

I've lead raids before. I've learnt from my
mistakes. I know the fights and I am now well educated on how to reach out to all those amazing bloggers out there for support.

My guildmates especially have been great through this. All of them are stepping up to the plate. I told them that because of the enormity of this, I need till the end of the weekend and by then I'll have an action plan. Guildies... thank you. For not /gquitting the moment Mr Littlebark said he was done. For having a little faith in me and for offering your help.

This also brought up the question of expanding to 25mans. Several people are interested and though I feel a certain dislike to them due to my old guild, I'm willing to recruit and see it happen here. The worst that can happen is that the trolls troll and wreck havoc. But as a good GM its only fair to try.

I hope this holiday season finds you all well. If you can, send good vibes our way here... I might need it now more than ever.

PS: Mr Littlebark.
Oh yeah? Well I’ve got something YOU don’t have! My collectors edition Sparkle Pony. Because it sparkles.

Mr Littlebark, I do understand that a burn out is awful. Take all the time you need.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Tale Fifty Three: Petal Takes Over!

Treebloggers United


Hello everyone! I'm called Petal and I muddle around on a blog called The New HoTness http://healovertime.blogspot.com/... but before that I was known as Doodlebug on the Kael'thas server in the Big Bear Butt's guild, the Sidhe Devils. I left that guild to raid, decided raiding wasn't for me and moved to a brand new server to start all over again. Also, I was the artist and co-author of a short lived comic called Road to BlizzCon http://roadtoblizzcon.blogspot.com/ — so while my blog is kinda new, my 'pedigree' (if you can call it that) stretches back a little bit.

Saresa over at Destructive Reach http://www.destructivereach.com/ and Blog Azeroth http://www.blogazeroth.com/ has thrown together a little "Blogging Kris Kringle / White Elephant" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange where different bloggers switch around and get to post their random thoughts and so forth on others blogs and I'm honored to be posting on Littlebark's.

Something about blogging, and especially blogging about my tree druid is intensely fascinating, which is why I restarted after quitting the first time. There's a veritable forest of trees out there, blogging their thoughts, their numbers or their achievements... so I'm thinking it's just as fascinating to a lot of people. I'd love to one day see a chart or study of how many WoW-themed blogs there are and how many are druid-centric... my purely intuitive feeling is that druids would come in first, paws down.

I think it's because druids are a hybrid class (and thinking about it a little more I bet other hybrid class blogs would number high on that mythical study as well). As hybrids we have a lot to chatter about: kitty DPS, feral bear bashing, boomkins going oom, trees running and healing and hotting the place up. Any or all of those I have seen and read and been entertained by. I also love the names that druids come up with as well: Tigerfeet http://secretagentcat.wordpress.com/, of course Littlebark, the world famous Leafshine http://www.leafshine.net/ and my own little baby Tauren alt, Honeythief. See, there's just something about druids and druid bloggers that make me happy.

It also makes me happy when I discover new blogs and bloggers, and as part of this continuing Winter Veil link-love fest, comment below and include one of your favorite druid-themed blogs. We all know the 'big names' so link us your little ones, if you please. Someone you read who may not post that regularly and could use some traffic and encouragement. Also be sure to pimp your own blog, as I so shamelessly did above.

Thanks again to Saresa for organizing, thanks to Littlebark for letting me leave my leafs all over the place and Happy Winter's Veil to you all.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Tale Fifty Two: The Tooting Totem

I don't know why, but the tittle has me giggling.

Anywho. Putting a new blog on the spotlight! It's called The Tooting Totem by Shockbox.

AKA Mr. Littlebark himself.

Yep, he's taking a go at this blogging thing, and is going to focus on his Shammy and everything else he does in WoW.

So if you have time, go over and /wave.

PS: He has posted a horrible horrible video where he and I ganked a Horde guildie of ours in IF.... I claim insanity!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Tale Fifty One: 2009 Review Meme!

Snakedriver at Bible of Dreams post a meme at Blog Azeroth Shared Topic (I'm probably 2 weeks behind on those.)

In return, I'll tag Keeva over at Tree Bark Jacket, Leafy at Leafshine, Averna (so we can get her back into the blogging world) at Nerf This Druid , Caliban at GnomeDruid, Termenus at Whats?! In The Hat!? (not really a WoW blog -though WoW is sprinkled here and there- but a guildie from Lords) and.... how many did we have to tag again?

Anyways...


What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Considering this is my first real year of raiding, I'd have to say being ready for a patch. I've never been able to fight a new boss (raiding wise) in the first week it came out. With 3.3, I was able to go in on Wednesday and drop kick Lord Morrowgar.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?
Honestly? It'd have to be River's Heart. It's probably one of the most visited and known places in Northrend. But when I was leveling Tauren Littlebark (way back in the day), I accidently stumbled upon it while killing all those crocidiles and it took my breath away. I immediatly thought that if I were ever to have a WoW wedding, it'd be there. Scholar Bazin in general is such a wonderful place, I think Blizzard did a beautiful job with it. That, and its music.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More PvP on Littlebark, I think. Specially Resto PvP. Mr Littlebark's rogue and feral LB did a stint of PvP awhile back, and it was fun! I also PvP with my brother-in-law but since we're not in the same house, we start off together and then he sneaks off and I'm left to fend for myself. Not fun. But yes, I think I would love to Resto PvP. They seem to be annoying to try to kill.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
This is going to sound silly, but getting the Walrus-Men Fishing Pole, along with my of Darnassus and of Stormwind tittle. I have to make it very clear here: I am not one to grind. I hate rep grinding. So when I actually set a goal and stuck to it... *deep breath* yeah, I was so happy to be done with it. Took me about 2weeks, sometimes I'd log in to do just that.

What was your biggest failure?
I wouldn't call it failure, more of regret. We never got Yogg down. We got to phase 2, then it all went to pieces. Not long after, we started to focus more and more on the Coliseum, so that Yogg and Ulduar was soon forgotten.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Again, it'd have to be patch 3.3. I was silly excited. While the servers were down, my fellow guildmate and I were on Facebook looking at strategy guides and talking and speculating. I stocked up on everything! THIS IS THE BIG ONE, DAMN IT! Arthas himself! The honcho, the boss, the one who rules the Scourge!!!


What do you wish you'd done less of?
Huh. Less of. Maybe... play a little less. I'm constantly on, even if I'm just afk... but yeah. I mean, I don't regret it. But I am on A LOT.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
I don't listen to podcasts. Actually, that's a lie. I was listening to the Twisted Nether Podcast last night but it happens to clash in right with raid time. So, I had to turn them off :( a damn shame too, because they were speculating on the whole who's gonna be the next Lich King.

As for my favorite blog... it'd have to be a toss up on Tree Bark Jacket and Nerf This Druid. Keeva does an excellent job of getting her point across and Averna is comically funny in all of her posts.

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.
That there is heartache even in a game such as this.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Tale Fifty: A More Coherent Post Coming Soon.

Not what I had planned for my 50th post, but just peeking in to say: I'm alive.

I've caught what appears to be the cold. I sound like a chain smoker, I'm coughing non-stop, and I can barely breathe out of my stuffy stuffy nose.

Raiding last night was interesting.

"Bone spike on *COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHDYING* on LB!"

Kept going AFK to get some water, to the bathroom, to maybe kill myself.

I have not been sick in the past 3 years. This is no fun. I've done what most people have suggested too!

Peroxide in my ears? Done.

Cold towel on my throat? Done.

Tons of water? Done.

LOTS of sleep? Done.

And the list goes on and on. And I'm still sick damn it!

I have to go to work today (I feel horrible since I might get someone else sick, but my boss says that since I missed one day, I can't miss another) but tomorrow, I'll have a more coherent and worthy post. Something Druid related or something.

Until then, wish me luck that I don't cough up a lung or something.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Tale Forty Nine: With 3.3 on the Horizon...

I can actually say, "Bring it on!"

You see, I've never before been prepared or cared about a patch. EVER.

I was BC Baby and got my first level cap toon to 70 in August 08. Lich King came out in November and by then, I'd gotten bored of my hunter Thienna and started leveling my druid, Littlebark. The xpac hit -and despite having 2 level 70 toons (Thienna and Jezabeth the lock), I continued to level Littlebark who was level 64 that weekend.

So of course I missed the first weeks of Naxx. And of course, my work schedule is weird, so I could only raid on the weekends. As fate should have it, my guild did not do weekend runs back in the day. So I didn't really get any Naxx25 gear sadly and only got Naxx gear because I volunteer to start up Naxx10 runs on the weekends.

3.1 comes out, and with it Ulduar. Again, I'm not quite ready for it. I'm mostly geared in Naxx10 gear with some Naxx25 here and there. I take a break from raiding 25 mans because I am not compatible with the guild we did our joint runs with. Start leveling the dwarf Alliance priest instead of pugging Ulduar. Get the priest to 80. Start a guild with Mr. Littlebark so I raid late night weekdays and thus, After Hours is born.

Start missing the druid. Family and friends pop up in WoW... Alliance side. Make the painful decision to tranfer LB to Alliance. Start Naxx10 from stratch with the new guild. Progress to Ulduar.

3.2 comes out. ToC. After Hours is NOT ready for it. Keep doing Ulduar. Not enough people to raid. I start to get restless with no raiding. Start working on my Argent Tournament dailies instead of recruiting. A week later we try ToC10 even though our gear sucks. We down Anub on our second night.

With After Hours taking me by suprise, and finally having our core members, I truly do feel ready for Icecrown. I know the raiders like me in the guild are itching to get in there.

I've taken a few steps to actually be ready for this:
- Sold a couple of things from the gbank so that we'll have repair money.
- Stocked the bank up on Flasks.
- Made 60 Mana Pots.
- Went fishing for 3 hours today just so we'll have enough Fish Feasts.
- Bought extra head, shoulder, and leg enchants so I can put them on new gear I gear.
- Have extra glyphs to switch in and out.
- Sent a bunch of greens to my enchanter so she can disenchant mats for me. Mr. Littlebark is a enchanter, so I'll be able to have my new gear enchanted and ready to go as soon as I get it.
- Bought extra water and bandages (no mage in our raid ): )
- Bought extra reagents (for our paladins, priest and druids) and poisons for our rogue in case they run out.
- Watched and read up on strats.
- Reviewed and triple checked the patch notes.
- Almost decided on my spec/glyphs.

So yeah. This is a big deal for me. I've never ever been this crazy and ready for any raid before.

Is it slightly crazy? Yes.

But I'm totally glad I did it.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Tale Forty Eight: The Women Issue in WoW

I’ve been lurking around some blogs/posts/Trade chat the last week looking for a topic to write about – other than Icecrown and Patch 3.3.

And I stumbled on this gem:

Some people believe that girls can’t play WoW as well as boys.

What is this, kindergarten again?

Let me clear a few things up:

No, we don’t have cooties.

No, we don’t always have pillow fights topless at sleep overs.

And last but not least, yes, we play WoW.

And some of us play it pretty darn good!

The base of argument here (well in Trade Chat – Ah, Cenarius, how filled with drama you are!) was the same old thing. “Guys can physically do more than girls.”

Alright, but this is WoW. This is not Real Life where a guy can lift up 100 pounds and I’m dying as I lift up 10 pounds (Yes, I’m weak. Leave me alone!)

In a game, we’re equals. Oh yes. A girl can kick your ass in PvP. She can beat you on the damage meters. She can be an amazing tank. The one that I will not buy is that we make better healers because we’re naturally nurturers.

Just go ask my friends how nurturing I am. I won’t go pick up after you, I will not kiss your boo-boo and I plain don’t care about your latest drama.

I mean, last time my two best friends had a major fight I immediately told them, “I am Switzerland. Leave me out of this”.

Pretty non-nurturing if you ask me.

Apperantly, a girl gamer is still a weird concept. I got invited to do Ony 10 the other day and when I called out the Deep Breath in vent, three guys –whose voices had not even cracked yet- said ‘Woah! A chick! And she’s totally kicking your ass on the healing meter, Pally”.

I /sighed in real life. Then the paladin healing with me made up a bunch of lame excuses such as ‘Druids are OP’ or ‘she’s better geared than me’. Yeah right.

I just don’t get it. Why is a girl gamer such a taboo?

In my guild, 3/12 of us are girls. Two of us are healers, the other dps. In my guild, we don’t get any of this crap. We’re all raiders. Then again, it’s a real family-style guild so that’s probably why.

In my Horde guild, with over 300 toons (alts included), we have a healthy dose of boys and gals. The only time I’ve really thought ‘woah, she’s a chick’ was in an Ulduar 10 run and our tank’s wife spoke and sounded more like a seven year old than 20 something. Mr Littlebark and I just stared at each other and burst out laughing. Grimm, in his ultimate glory of geniuses, changed her guild note to ‘tanks wife ‘honey, I’m seven!’ Whenever I think of her, all I see is her famous ‘Shut upppppppppppp!’ in g chat. Slightly annoying? Yes. But that’s her thing, and we love her for it.

So, I guess I myself don’t think of myself as a chick in WoW. I think myself as Littlebark. What really made my teeth grind was when someone suggested that girls play boy toons so they don’t have to go through the whole ordeal.

Why should I have to look like an ugly Night Elf Male just because you’re too immature to accept that I am a girl and I play?

I heard from another friend that there was a guy who kept harassing her after a run (Vent had been used) and he kept telling her to send him her picture, because her voice had given him a – well, gentlemen, you know the terminology.

Even /ignore did not stop this guy, and in the end she got a name change and reported him to a GM.

Alright, so guys can be pretty immature. But it does not help when girls in WoW cause unnecessary drama. A girl who snarls “If your name isn’t fucking ---- don’t fucking start the event” will leave impression of ‘man, what a bitch!’ in a persons’ mind.

If you talk and talk and talk, not allowing the raid leader to say anything, you leave the expression of ‘Jebus Christ on a Crutch. Shut her up. Girls talk too much.”

So, I can see how guys immediately think girls = trouble. But honestly, we’re not. Most of us are amazing players who love the game.

Tale Forty Seven: Have you ever looked at the Statistics Tab?

I was curious to see what I had done in my time in WoW and ran into a couple of suprises.


Doesn't suprise me. I'm a very huggy druid.

2, 435 fish and still no turtle mount. ):
Really? Only? It feels like so much more..

Oh my... whacking those poor critters in instances does add up!
*sheepish look*


I was a bit suprised at this one. That's almost a 1000g in travel!
Protest these mad taxi fares!

Vain druid is vain. And I have noticed that since I switched LB to alliance,
I do get more haircuts.

So what about you? Any statistics that suprised you?

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Tale Forty Six: Northrend where I live.

So. I thought I was literally in Northrend today. We had a blizzard warning all across the province. And by 10AM today, it was insane.






Needless to say: roads were crazy and the blizzard has still not let up. It's now 12:19 AM. More than 12 hours since those pictures were taken.

Quick, and somewhat embarrasing question. I keep hearing 'PTR' being thrown accross the boars. I know it stands for Public Test Realm... but last time I tried setting it up, my computer funked up. Can anyone help this silly tree? What goes on there?

Hope you are all staying warm!