I've not done much in Patch 4.1 so I was bored this afternoon and while thinking of ideas for a post I decided to take a look through some of my oldest blog entries when I stumbled across my first post. After reading through my eyes fell onto the date it was published - 28/11/2010. Which makes Slash Two more than a year old...I talk about getting to 'parties' late but this one takes the piss!
But yeah, it's been an interesting one year of blogging. I've read some fantastic blogs, met some great people, joined a guild made by bloggers for bloggers (which sadly, isn't as active as it once was anymore...), got a lot of support from people in the blogosphere through a pretty bad few weeks and had some cracking times online!
Thanks to everyone that has read and commented on the blog so far, hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it - see you in Azeroth!
Friday 6 May 2011
Friday 22 April 2011
omgwtfbbq personal post lulwut?
Personal post Incoming, if you were expecting WoW related I think I mention it about once ^^
I'm some what of a hidden nerd and have suddenly come to the realisation that I need to find some 'nerdy' RL friends. I love the friends I've made up in Newcastle to bits but I really need to find some folks up in Newcastle that like gaming, be it shooting each other on the 360, or running around in Warcraft or something...
What's brought this all on? Well, this morning I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (which I LOVED btw, amazing film) for the first time. I remember wanting to watch it in the cinema for ages when it was out but I didn't know anyone else who'd want to go with me, in WoW all of /g was banging on about how good it was but none of my mates would get it, especially the geeky references. It's lonely being the only nerd in the village (or city...)
Now if I was to sit and think about it, the guys I'm friends with all love sports - I'm not the exception, I've played rugby for most of my life, I like a kick-around with the boys and there's almost nothing better than sitting in the pub with a pint, going mental with your mates when your team score.
Now, notice I said 'almost nothing', my friends would have said 'nothing' seeing as they've never killed a raid boss after a night of wiping on the last try before calling it, headshot two guys with one bullet or got that weapon you've been farming that instance for about a month (which I got yesterday! wooo!).
I don't hide the fact I like gaming with my friends. Infact, one of the girls that hangs round with us that does Art was drawing us based on what we do and I got drawn in rugby kit but with thick rimmed 'nerdy' gigs and a gameboy in hand. (It's actually a pretty freakin' good drawing, I'll see if I can get a hold of a digital copy of it...) It's also something I get a bit of stick for...I've had to mute/deafen myself on vent during raids before because there's been a dog pile in my room of people.
Sometimes, a few of the guys will join me if I'm playing Call of Duty of Bad Company 2 but the only game they really like is Fifa and I fucking HATE Fifa. I'm sorry, but if I wanted to play football with my mates, I'd get a ball and go down the park...I know you could say that about any game but I really don't like sports video games...
I can't really complain, I like having both sides of it. I like going for a drink and talking about how good X's goal/try was against Y but sometimes, just sometimes, I'd love to chat to someone about how annoying it is to wipe on the same boss all night and not get anywhere, or how annoying pugging is without there being a computer screen and a keyboard infront of me...
I'm some what of a hidden nerd and have suddenly come to the realisation that I need to find some 'nerdy' RL friends. I love the friends I've made up in Newcastle to bits but I really need to find some folks up in Newcastle that like gaming, be it shooting each other on the 360, or running around in Warcraft or something...
What's brought this all on? Well, this morning I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (which I LOVED btw, amazing film) for the first time. I remember wanting to watch it in the cinema for ages when it was out but I didn't know anyone else who'd want to go with me, in WoW all of /g was banging on about how good it was but none of my mates would get it, especially the geeky references. It's lonely being the only nerd in the village (or city...)
Now if I was to sit and think about it, the guys I'm friends with all love sports - I'm not the exception, I've played rugby for most of my life, I like a kick-around with the boys and there's almost nothing better than sitting in the pub with a pint, going mental with your mates when your team score.
Now, notice I said 'almost nothing', my friends would have said 'nothing' seeing as they've never killed a raid boss after a night of wiping on the last try before calling it, headshot two guys with one bullet or got that weapon you've been farming that instance for about a month (which I got yesterday! wooo!).
I don't hide the fact I like gaming with my friends. Infact, one of the girls that hangs round with us that does Art was drawing us based on what we do and I got drawn in rugby kit but with thick rimmed 'nerdy' gigs and a gameboy in hand. (It's actually a pretty freakin' good drawing, I'll see if I can get a hold of a digital copy of it...) It's also something I get a bit of stick for...I've had to mute/deafen myself on vent during raids before because there's been a dog pile in my room of people.
Sometimes, a few of the guys will join me if I'm playing Call of Duty of Bad Company 2 but the only game they really like is Fifa and I fucking HATE Fifa. I'm sorry, but if I wanted to play football with my mates, I'd get a ball and go down the park...I know you could say that about any game but I really don't like sports video games...
I can't really complain, I like having both sides of it. I like going for a drink and talking about how good X's goal/try was against Y but sometimes, just sometimes, I'd love to chat to someone about how annoying it is to wipe on the same boss all night and not get anywhere, or how annoying pugging is without there being a computer screen and a keyboard infront of me...
Monday 18 April 2011
My two cents: Call to Arms.
Okay so there's been a lot of chatter about the new Call to Arms designed around dungeons. I'm sure you've all seen numerous blog posts about it, each with it's own views on the positives or (mainly) negatives.
Now, before I start I must remind you that my level 85 characters are all dps. Granted, my shammy can heal but his gear is pretty crappy and is ungemmed and unenchanted, so I'm currently not healing and I dont fancy spending money on getting it sorted seeing as I like melee.
I'm a bit late to this here party so I'm sure you're all well aware of what the Call to Arms gives as an incentive to make queues shorter by giving rewards to people choosing to tank instead of dps, etc.
My opinion of this is extremely simple. I'm totally against this for two reasons - people should tank because they enjoy it, not because someone's waving a mount shaped carrot infront of their greedy little faces and two, some people just need to stop being spoilt.
Y'see, before the Looking For Drama tool was introduced getting a group meant having friends, (which in turn required you to be a nice person towards other players - something with LFD has pretty much destroyed, and with it, part of my happy-go-lucky soul) or spending a while advertising in trade.
My first point about friends - 50% of the time, I'd run in an all guild group but the other half, I'd be with a group of friends I had, be it old guild members, old friends from vanilla or just people I'd grouped with randomly who knew how to play their class and were friendly.
The second, is self explainatory, infact you still get people doing that to find more members to speed up their queue time - which I'm all for, lets get a bit of human interaction when getting our daily valor points instead of entering a group with Arthás the DK 'tank' who doesn't know his arse from his elbow. The latter part of this also doesn't fill me with confidence for the new system, seeing as you'll probably get everyone that's class can tank or heal attempting to tank and heal without a) adequate gear or b) experience.
In all fairness, the wait on some servers can be ridiculous and I feel for those people that have to wait an hour or so if they're a pure DPS class but if you're queuing do something else while you wait instead of moaning about the wait time. Do some dailies, go gather some stuff, duel outside Orgrimmar, play the AH or even read a book and wait for the dungeon to pop. Just don't moan about the queue because it could like the old LFD system, where you didn't just click a button and wait, you had to go find the group - which would either accept you or not, which then had a 60% chance of collapsing before it was even fully formed.
Now that my rant's over, I'd like to share this little gem I found on Youtube before, it's not WoW related but it's very...Eastery (if that's a word!)
Battlefield Heroes: Easter Treat
Now, before I start I must remind you that my level 85 characters are all dps. Granted, my shammy can heal but his gear is pretty crappy and is ungemmed and unenchanted, so I'm currently not healing and I dont fancy spending money on getting it sorted seeing as I like melee.
I'm a bit late to this here party so I'm sure you're all well aware of what the Call to Arms gives as an incentive to make queues shorter by giving rewards to people choosing to tank instead of dps, etc.
My opinion of this is extremely simple. I'm totally against this for two reasons - people should tank because they enjoy it, not because someone's waving a mount shaped carrot infront of their greedy little faces and two, some people just need to stop being spoilt.
Y'see, before the Looking For Drama tool was introduced getting a group meant having friends, (which in turn required you to be a nice person towards other players - something with LFD has pretty much destroyed, and with it, part of my happy-go-lucky soul) or spending a while advertising in trade.
My first point about friends - 50% of the time, I'd run in an all guild group but the other half, I'd be with a group of friends I had, be it old guild members, old friends from vanilla or just people I'd grouped with randomly who knew how to play their class and were friendly.
The second, is self explainatory, infact you still get people doing that to find more members to speed up their queue time - which I'm all for, lets get a bit of human interaction when getting our daily valor points instead of entering a group with Arthás the DK 'tank' who doesn't know his arse from his elbow. The latter part of this also doesn't fill me with confidence for the new system, seeing as you'll probably get everyone that's class can tank or heal attempting to tank and heal without a) adequate gear or b) experience.
In all fairness, the wait on some servers can be ridiculous and I feel for those people that have to wait an hour or so if they're a pure DPS class but if you're queuing do something else while you wait instead of moaning about the wait time. Do some dailies, go gather some stuff, duel outside Orgrimmar, play the AH or even read a book and wait for the dungeon to pop. Just don't moan about the queue because it could like the old LFD system, where you didn't just click a button and wait, you had to go find the group - which would either accept you or not, which then had a 60% chance of collapsing before it was even fully formed.
Now that my rant's over, I'd like to share this little gem I found on Youtube before, it's not WoW related but it's very...Eastery (if that's a word!)
Battlefield Heroes: Easter Treat
Monday 11 April 2011
I live!
Why, hello there strangers!
It's been far too long but what can I say - I've generally had a slump in WoW time. A few good friends stopped playing, or had a mini-break so I decided I'd get some school work done ahead of time (I know, le gasp or wut?!). I've also been playing a tonne more Xbox than before but now I'm back home, where I've left my work and 360 behind so I'll be getting back to WoW and blogging as there's nothing to do in the arse-end of no-where, that is known as my hometown!
It's been far too long but what can I say - I've generally had a slump in WoW time. A few good friends stopped playing, or had a mini-break so I decided I'd get some school work done ahead of time (I know, le gasp or wut?!). I've also been playing a tonne more Xbox than before but now I'm back home, where I've left my work and 360 behind so I'll be getting back to WoW and blogging as there's nothing to do in the arse-end of no-where, that is known as my hometown!
Tuesday 15 February 2011
One question...how bad is it for melee?
So after a few months of Cataclysm, 3 different mains all geared for raiding and a tonne of Uni work, I've -finally- signed up for a raid. Infact, I've signed up for anything I can get my grubby little mits on for the next week and a bit.
I've really missed it, actually. I sometimes log onto Mumble and catch some of the guild raiding and it really makes me miss everything about it, they always seem to be having a right good time.
However, I'm a little aprehensive...just how bad are some encounters for melee? I've heard many a thing from "loleasy" to "omfgvietnamflashbacks." So yeah...just how bad is it?
I've really missed it, actually. I sometimes log onto Mumble and catch some of the guild raiding and it really makes me miss everything about it, they always seem to be having a right good time.
However, I'm a little aprehensive...just how bad are some encounters for melee? I've heard many a thing from "loleasy" to "omfgvietnamflashbacks." So yeah...just how bad is it?
Monday 14 February 2011
20 days of... Day 4: Best WoW memory
I have two 'bestest' memories in WoW. The first was reaching the level cap on my first ever character and the second was an extra special Karazhan run.
My first memory, as said, is reaching the level cap. Now, I did get Vanilla™ but my memories of the "good old days" dont stem past level 24, seeing as TBC came out about 2 weeks after I got the game, so level 60 technically wasn't my level cap. If you get what I mean.
So I spent months and months slaving away, questing - as a protection warrior /facepalm. Tanking - as a protection warrior /cheer and just generally having a great time with my guild.
Now, going to Outland at 58 was HUGE for me. I'd had enough of Azeroth but that was due to me picking the single worse specc to level as a warrior and since then, I've always looked forward to Outland, infact, I still really really like it.
I spent around a month getting to 70 but my memory stems from the last half of 69 to 70. The officer core in Absolution back then was pretty small, as the guild wasn't too big, but the (at the time) GM, and 3 other officers decided they'd take me to some of the level 70 normal dungeons to give me a kickstart on loot and stuff.
Now back then, Abso had started to raid Kara and these guys were pretty well geared compared to me, in my quest greens/blues so I was just along for the ride but I'll remember the moment one of them went over Teamspeak, "fancy tanking for a bit?" Now, at the time, I shit myself. I was scared, this mobs hurt on the well geared people and I wasn't anywhere near their gear level but I said yes anyways and tanked the last trash and boss in Steamvaults. The support I got from the guys was amazing and it was then I knew I'd found a WoW home. (Yeah, I know - pass that sick bucket).
My second memory is from Karazhan. Infact, it was from one of the first times I led a raid. I was pretty well geared at this point and I actually knew the entire run off by heart as I'd done everything in there at least once. I'd volunteered to lead what was fondly known as "nug night" in which people that didn't usually get the chance to raid went into Kara to get a few bosses down and generally have a laugh. We'd been a bit late due to waiting for one of our healers to get their kid sorted and I had to pull in a more experienced raider but everything was going smoothly until we zoned in and found that none of the bosses were there...none but the last boss - the Prince! *legasp*
Now, only two of our raid had ever done the last boss in Kara before and I'd openly said "We'll give it a few goes but I dont think we'll get him tonight." Oh how they made me eat my words.
In a fantastic encounter, we killed him first time, with only 1 member dying, with /g cheering us on and people joining TS in excitement.
Now, looking back at this makes me a bit sad, seeing as only 2 out of 10 people in that raid are still in Absolution but only 3/10 still play but remembering TS erupt and me sitting there in stunned silence and then giving loot to guys that had only seen the first 4 bosses in there from the last boss was one of the best feelings I've had. Maybe better than getting the guild first LK kill last year, I dunno. It was different, because we were the definition of casual raiders back then. Plus, I didn't have to eat my words afterwards...
My first memory, as said, is reaching the level cap. Now, I did get Vanilla™ but my memories of the "good old days" dont stem past level 24, seeing as TBC came out about 2 weeks after I got the game, so level 60 technically wasn't my level cap. If you get what I mean.
So I spent months and months slaving away, questing - as a protection warrior /facepalm. Tanking - as a protection warrior /cheer and just generally having a great time with my guild.
Now, going to Outland at 58 was HUGE for me. I'd had enough of Azeroth but that was due to me picking the single worse specc to level as a warrior and since then, I've always looked forward to Outland, infact, I still really really like it.
I spent around a month getting to 70 but my memory stems from the last half of 69 to 70. The officer core in Absolution back then was pretty small, as the guild wasn't too big, but the (at the time) GM, and 3 other officers decided they'd take me to some of the level 70 normal dungeons to give me a kickstart on loot and stuff.
Now back then, Abso had started to raid Kara and these guys were pretty well geared compared to me, in my quest greens/blues so I was just along for the ride but I'll remember the moment one of them went over Teamspeak, "fancy tanking for a bit?" Now, at the time, I shit myself. I was scared, this mobs hurt on the well geared people and I wasn't anywhere near their gear level but I said yes anyways and tanked the last trash and boss in Steamvaults. The support I got from the guys was amazing and it was then I knew I'd found a WoW home. (Yeah, I know - pass that sick bucket).
My second memory is from Karazhan. Infact, it was from one of the first times I led a raid. I was pretty well geared at this point and I actually knew the entire run off by heart as I'd done everything in there at least once. I'd volunteered to lead what was fondly known as "nug night" in which people that didn't usually get the chance to raid went into Kara to get a few bosses down and generally have a laugh. We'd been a bit late due to waiting for one of our healers to get their kid sorted and I had to pull in a more experienced raider but everything was going smoothly until we zoned in and found that none of the bosses were there...none but the last boss - the Prince! *legasp*
Now, only two of our raid had ever done the last boss in Kara before and I'd openly said "We'll give it a few goes but I dont think we'll get him tonight." Oh how they made me eat my words.
In a fantastic encounter, we killed him first time, with only 1 member dying, with /g cheering us on and people joining TS in excitement.
Now, looking back at this makes me a bit sad, seeing as only 2 out of 10 people in that raid are still in Absolution but only 3/10 still play but remembering TS erupt and me sitting there in stunned silence and then giving loot to guys that had only seen the first 4 bosses in there from the last boss was one of the best feelings I've had. Maybe better than getting the guild first LK kill last year, I dunno. It was different, because we were the definition of casual raiders back then. Plus, I didn't have to eat my words afterwards...
Thursday 10 February 2011
20 days of... Day 3: First time playing WoW
Been a little bit busy the past week, deadlines to meet, groups to work with, things to get stressed over so I thought, after handing everything in on time (just...) and having the day off tomorrow due to cancelled lectures I'll do a bit more of this crackin' meme!
The title says it all and I remember my first playthrough as if it were yesterday, but first, some backstory! Because everyone loves a bit of backstory!
I'd played Guild Wars for years before I got Warcraft. I was a young 'un back then and my parents didn't really like it, so it being free to play made it easier - as they didn't have to fork up any cash.
I was 16 when I got Warcraft, my girlfriend at the time bought it me one christmas because she thought it was something to do with Guild Wars. All I'll say is, that Warcraft was the best thing to come outta that relationship.
I remember installing it eagerly and then doing all the stuff that comes with starting a new game. My mum was happy because I was sat gleefully, chatting to her while she was cooking Christmas dinner and I was literally excited about it and was chatting about what some of the guys I knew via Guild Wars had said about it. My dad on the other hand, didn't quite understand how excited one could get over a game.
The login page was amazing. I remember shouting to my mum to come and look, to which she just smiled and nodded in agreement to everything I said - poor soul didn't have a clue what the Guild Wars login page looked like and how it looked so much better than that but bless her, she humoured me.
I was logged in and creating a character within seconds, I had a look through all the races and was intrigued by the Horde - they looked like the bad guys and the description on the creation page painted them out to be brutal and merciless. I was a bit put off by that, I've always been a fan of the good guy but after playing the same looking character for so long in Guild Wars and always wondering why you couldn't be the angrylioncatpeople (called Charr in game...) I decided I was going to see what all the fuss was about and rolled an Orc warrior.
I tried to get the name Jorg. I had a thing back then where all my character names had to start with a J and that was when Jakkru was created. However, Jorg was taken and I didn't want a different name. Luckily, I had some algerba homework next to me and decided that Jorgx was decent enough - I'm not even kidding.
I logged into Durotar and my god...it was orange. Amazingly beautiful but wildly orange. I decide to take a look at all the stuff I could do in the manual but got bored after about 20 seconds and just went about my ways. I got to level 5 soonish - I wasn't an "MMO noob" but I wasn't prepared for WoW, the starter area, I could handle but I thought that was it, I thought that I'd be zoned somewhere else. It was only when I was asked to go to Razor Hill I realised that the starter area was only, well...for starters.
I was amazed by the size of the world, the colours...everything. I was amazed by the amount of people playing and I tried to get into a guild, seeing as that's what I knew from Guild Wars - guilds mean help, help means levels and levels means more stuff to see and do.
I asked in trade and this is where I made friends with my oldest online buddy, I have him on Real ID now and I chat to him nearly everyday still. He answered my noobish question, told me to hit R to reply to a whisper and then boosted me through Ragefire Chasm - which then and there got me hooked. I remained guildless until level 25, where I found Absolution. My home.
My first playthrough was amazing and it got me hooked. I loved the differences from guild wars. I especially liked the difficulty and I'm quite annoyed they made everything a cake-walk now because the first 10 levels really did seperate those that continue to play and enjoy the game for those that will just give up.
Looking back on it and it's been 4, nearly 5 years since I started playing and, even though some aspects of the game bore me, some still make me feel like a 16 year old, who wants his mum to take a look at how awesome this green guy looks. Oh and I still love shoulder items more than anything in the game.
The title says it all and I remember my first playthrough as if it were yesterday, but first, some backstory! Because everyone loves a bit of backstory!
I'd played Guild Wars for years before I got Warcraft. I was a young 'un back then and my parents didn't really like it, so it being free to play made it easier - as they didn't have to fork up any cash.
I was 16 when I got Warcraft, my girlfriend at the time bought it me one christmas because she thought it was something to do with Guild Wars. All I'll say is, that Warcraft was the best thing to come outta that relationship.
I remember installing it eagerly and then doing all the stuff that comes with starting a new game. My mum was happy because I was sat gleefully, chatting to her while she was cooking Christmas dinner and I was literally excited about it and was chatting about what some of the guys I knew via Guild Wars had said about it. My dad on the other hand, didn't quite understand how excited one could get over a game.
The login page was amazing. I remember shouting to my mum to come and look, to which she just smiled and nodded in agreement to everything I said - poor soul didn't have a clue what the Guild Wars login page looked like and how it looked so much better than that but bless her, she humoured me.
I was logged in and creating a character within seconds, I had a look through all the races and was intrigued by the Horde - they looked like the bad guys and the description on the creation page painted them out to be brutal and merciless. I was a bit put off by that, I've always been a fan of the good guy but after playing the same looking character for so long in Guild Wars and always wondering why you couldn't be the angrylioncatpeople (called Charr in game...) I decided I was going to see what all the fuss was about and rolled an Orc warrior.
I tried to get the name Jorg. I had a thing back then where all my character names had to start with a J and that was when Jakkru was created. However, Jorg was taken and I didn't want a different name. Luckily, I had some algerba homework next to me and decided that Jorgx was decent enough - I'm not even kidding.
I logged into Durotar and my god...it was orange. Amazingly beautiful but wildly orange. I decide to take a look at all the stuff I could do in the manual but got bored after about 20 seconds and just went about my ways. I got to level 5 soonish - I wasn't an "MMO noob" but I wasn't prepared for WoW, the starter area, I could handle but I thought that was it, I thought that I'd be zoned somewhere else. It was only when I was asked to go to Razor Hill I realised that the starter area was only, well...for starters.
I was amazed by the size of the world, the colours...everything. I was amazed by the amount of people playing and I tried to get into a guild, seeing as that's what I knew from Guild Wars - guilds mean help, help means levels and levels means more stuff to see and do.
I asked in trade and this is where I made friends with my oldest online buddy, I have him on Real ID now and I chat to him nearly everyday still. He answered my noobish question, told me to hit R to reply to a whisper and then boosted me through Ragefire Chasm - which then and there got me hooked. I remained guildless until level 25, where I found Absolution. My home.
My first playthrough was amazing and it got me hooked. I loved the differences from guild wars. I especially liked the difficulty and I'm quite annoyed they made everything a cake-walk now because the first 10 levels really did seperate those that continue to play and enjoy the game for those that will just give up.
Looking back on it and it's been 4, nearly 5 years since I started playing and, even though some aspects of the game bore me, some still make me feel like a 16 year old, who wants his mum to take a look at how awesome this green guy looks. Oh and I still love shoulder items more than anything in the game.
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