Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Somewhere in the world...


The Helm of the Fierce Bison: may she protect you!


Happy New Year!
feliz año nuevo
bonne année
glückliches neues Jahr
明けましておめでとうございます
с Новым годом

While you all enjoy your kisses, hugs, or /kisses and /hugs all around the world, know that somewhere out there is a shaman who's rooting for you, who wishes you love, fun, creativity, and a deep rich life, full of experiences and friendship. Thank you for making this a wonderful year for me, and here's to many more.
You have my heart--Matty

Sunday, December 29, 2013

My Precious….


My next suggestion for Blog Azeroth are those things that spawn our personal kryptonite in Azeroth, things that may or may not be obvious. They are the events, the items, the game style, whatever, that causes even the strongest resolutions to dissolve. I have so many it's hard to choose, but one of them that I really need to examine is my love of changing guild names.

Poor Señor (I swear, I should change my friend's pseudonym not to just Señor, but Poor Señor). I have changed our little cottage guild name about six times. I was watching Lord of the Rings over this holiday, the director's cut, HD, etc., and let me first tell you it's worth it. Watching Peter Jackson's vision is worth every minute. It's become somewhat of a holiday tradition for me, I suppose. Anway, so at the end, where Saruman is on top of his tower after the Ents, Merry and Pippin vanquish him, and King Théoden tells him to shuddup and the line, 'gibbets and crows' is bandied about. A gibbet is a hangman's pole, a special kind, (see Darkmoon Faire outskirts), and a crow, well a crow is a bird. (I'm funny, huh?) So succumbing to my romantic Renaissance-y way I spoke out loud, "What a great name for a guild!" To the Internet!

So Gibbets and Crows it is for now, to remind me of that for all our glory, for all our work, there are some things that simply bring us to our knees. I'll try to keep this guild name for a while, unless of course Señor insist that it change: which is why he's one of the best guildmates ever - he just goes with the flow.

OLRG: The good, the bad, and the Fading Twilight

Prinnie tried to warn Kellda the Warlock, but did she listen?! NoooOOOooooo….
Before I type one more keystroke: Thank you so much PlaidElf for talking your hubby into tanking for us. I am offering my apologies, because I am sometimes one of "those players," and he really should send me his gold repair bill. I'll have my minions take care of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you - I hope he joins us again.

And YOU, yes YOU FANDRAL. You are a TERRIBLE DRUID AND ARE BAD AND SHOULD FEEL BAD…oh, ahem, sorry, sorry! Just drop the damn staff already, all right? Please? For Tome, and then for Momokawa? Come on, man! Pull it out of your, you know, druid pockets, the one where you keep your leafy greens and kitty shapes and let it go! There, Tome, that should do the trick. Yelling always helps.
Fandral, I shall crush you! DROP THE STAFF.
Now, the good: Cymre joined us on a level 90 Alliance Disc Priest she had tucked away…poor thing, all good and blue and Stormwindy and stuff--but came along she did, and of course took awesome screenshots! (Which reminds me, I really need to figure out this UI crud…) I could only greed on a gorgeous dagger, but since Cymre didn't know and thought since no one needed on it no one wanted it, it was disenchanted. *sob* so pretty…my precious….so pretty….Oh well, over it. Because it wasn't her fault: we all agreed that Blizzard, when content is this passé, should really take away the class/spec requirements on mogging loot. Just sayin.' And we would all love to do old stuff on either Horde/Alliance side, and get over this us/them thing. I know it's important for lore in current or recent content, but for real id and battle-tag friends, we're just not that interested. I think it would be kick-ass to play alongside a troll priest while my draenei shaman chops stuff up, because I know under the pixel is a friend, not foe. That could even be a whole new era of achievements, the "Let's Just Get Along" boon.

But wait…there's more! Because I learned the greatest thing of all, that these meta-achievements, these cross-all-characters, account-wide awesomesauce includes…wait for it…chieves for mounts! So, if I take one character in there for say, oh Only the Penitent (which is a royal pain in the toukas), it will count! I took Kellda in there last night, not Mataoka, and we did the Bucket List one, which was grand fun!

Do you realize what this means?!? My time leveling 90s means more chances to check off the last two! Have you all not figured out as much as I love pets, the mounts…the mounts….must…have…more…ponies….my precious ponies….

This is a screenshot from Repgrind's blog (used with hopeful permission):


And there's more!
Look - look at all the potential ponies out there:

So, talk about a checklist for OLRG. Let's get those staffs and ponies! All your ponies belong to us!

Now, Prinnie worries. And rightfully so. Her adorable voice in Vent cheerfully and enthusiastically tells us fight strats and know-how I would otherwise ignore. There are some players who hate dying, who take it personally (looking at you, Turk) who wince at the grey-shadowed run-back of shame that ensues from each graveyard. And there are some players (yours truly) who treat the reincarnated spirits as if they were a never-ending gobstopper, until of course we turn big, blue, and bulbous from our impatience and grabbing the chewing gum.

Sure, I hate the time wasted from wipes and death, and yes, am resentful over gold repair costs (Timeless Isle, watch out!) but I am definitely of the "let's try it" school. I'm not sure if Prinnie knows I actually know more than I let on with my exhurberance, (okay, stupidity, ignorance, and impulsivity). It's part of my charm, mmkay? Sure! That's it! Charming….

….right…..

….and then it all came back to me.

….why so many guilds crumbled under the weight that was Cataclysm's end game….

….why so much nerd-rage and arrogance topped the player-meters (some data cannot be mined in World of Logs)*

Effing Dragon Soul.

Ugh.

My UI isn't right. Young leet druid has suggested I tear down and rebuild, AGAIN, from elvui and clean out my WTF folder and and and ugh, but I'll be damned, the cast bar for the boss was missing and my timing was HUGELY off, in fact non-existent. We gave it a shot, hoping we could simply overpower game mechanics and kill Ultraxion.  He really….
….just ugh.
Ultraxion, I shall stab at thee with dull scissors! 

Okay. Enough of that. Next Saturday, same time, same bat-channel: 4PM Pacific. If Cymre or Navimie show up, as CD Rogue says every time you hear an Aussie accent you must do a shot, and God help you if you hear about a shark attack reported with an Aussie accent: that's two. Thank you so much for joining us Mr. and Mrs. Amateur - we'll get that rogue thingy for you - just bring him from the start, no worries. We're all about making dreams come true, we here at the OLRG. And stabbing things with scissors.

Oh, and watched a phenomenal movie the other night: Sound City. Off to buy the soundtrack now.

*Note to self: figure out a magical way to track nerd rage and arrogance

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Dear Mr. Theck...

I've been poking around Sacred Duty's blog for some time. While leveling Luperci, Who Is Not A Fail Tank But Is Terrified of LFR, I would do my best to figure out the fights, add-ons, positioning, and read their information for tips and hints. They never failed to deliver, and Icy Veins recognizes Theck, the primary author I believe, as an expert in the protection paladin class. The "Lupe Project," or how to get back into tanking, has been on my mind for awhile, and this post was in the draft folder for some time. I'm not sure if I'm ready yet. Just looking at her "Ask Mr Robot" is daunting enough for any brave player:
At least I have the Windsong right...
To be perfectly blunt, re-learning this class feels overwhelming and somewhat futile. And for a paladin to feel all hope is lost, well there is nothing sadder. But is it hopelessness, or just sheer, old-fashioned laziness on my part? Paladins are where the rubber-meets-the-road: there is no hiding, no where to run, and I don't know how to bubble-hearth.  Oh crap, now I do because I read about it. LUPE OUT!

Okay -sorry. I dusted this post off because a dear paladin friend returned to the game, and I have also been thinking if I started playing again right now, what would be the first things I would do in MoP? Talk about overwhelming. I'm fairly certain he's done some of the rounds, but my advice was:
1. Clean out the bank and organize: keep gear you love, and mementos of course
2. Go talk to Varian
3. Be nice to Vol'Jin--he will be helpful.

I would also add enjoy the scenery, because it is magnificent. 

The other decision a player returning to the game will have to endure is whether or not to get to level 90 full-bore, because that is when the real "fun" begins. This is when we as players really need to decide if getting to end-game is more fun/important, or if the process/journey is. I'm at that cross-roads myself. My friend was surprised to find out that I was even still playing….STILL PLAYING? Oh Lord help me. I started tallying the Level 90s I've created, and the things I've done in game and out, and yes, yes I am still playing. My resolutions are being mentally crafted as we speak, and many of them do not include Azeroth.

In any case, onward, brave paladin. I have a few more posts in mind for this weekend, and the include one on oaths, and I have a druid story in mind. Those things I know I can keep aggro on.

Friday, December 27, 2013

OLRG: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer Edition

Can't you see I'm busy killing dragons? 
All righty, Old Ladies Raiding Guild: I hope ya'll can join some brief fun tomorrow, Saturday, December 28th at 4PM Pacific Time. I have a full-on naughty/nice list going, so let's see what we can do:
Now, if we can get someone else to tank, I'd love to take a cloth-wearer to Firelands for some different moggy stuff.
  • Dragon Soul: Let's head over to visit Deathwing and shake him down for a bit next.
  • Sunwell, anyone? I tried to go in there on Mataoka the other day and still had my tail thoroughly handed to me on a platter, sushi-style. @#!!* Blood elves!
  • In the future, some Flex/Normal: One, just one Flex, not LFR: why? Because LFR stinks. I am taking my paladin. We will die. It will be okay. I'll make cookies.  From Icy Veins:
Please! Taking any requests, too -- Please let me know what you would like to do, where you want to go, and what you want to try - nothing is off-limits to old ladies.




In the comments' section of WoWHead, a player put this list together:
By Leishai (44,691 – 15·99·260on 2011/07/23 (Patch 4.2.0)Report
I made a list of gimmick items which you can use to transform your character into a different form or race or even gender to play around with. I didn't add items like weapons that provide a procc with a transform effect even though I know about them. My intention was to list all items with controlable transformations. Feel free to let me know if I missed an item!

Item Name:Transforms you into:Duration:Cooldown:
 Fandral's FlamescytheMolten cat while in cat form (Druids only)Til shifting out of form-
 Burning SeedMolten cat while in cat form (Druids only)Til shifting out of form2s
 Glyph of DisguiseAnyone you pickpocket (Rogues only)5m-
 Glyph of IllusionAnyone else (Mages only)2m30m
 Leyara's LocketDruid of the Flame5m1h
 Kalytha's Haunted LocketGhostly female Highborne30m15m
 Blessing of the Old GodQiraj20s10m
 Burgy Blackheart's Handsome HatGostly pirate gnomeTil unequipping the item-
 Orb of the Sin'doreiBlood elf5m30m
 Orb of DeceptionRace of opponent faction5m30m
 Bones of TransformationMale Naga20s10m
 Pygmy OilVoodoo gnome10m-
 Stave of Fur and ClawFurbolg3m1h
 Savory Deviate DelightNinja or pirate60m-
 Noggenfogger ElixirSkeleton30m-
 Gordok Ogre SuitOgre10m-
 Super Simian SphereGorilla in a bubble5m1h
 Iron Boot FlaskIron Dwarf10m1h
 Muradin's FavorFrost Dwarf10m30m
 Vial of the SandsSandstone DrakeTil cancelled-
 Heart of the NightwingObsidian NightwingTil cancelled-
 Potion of IllusionSomeone else2m-
 Winter Veil Disguise KitSnowmanTil cancelled-
 Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's RestBlue dragonTil cancelled-
 Dire BrewDark Iron DwarfTil cancelled-
 Wisp AmuletWisp20s10m
 Time-Lost FigurineArakkoa5m30m
 Lifegiving SeedRandom herbTil cancelled-
 Frenzyheart BrewWolvar5m30m
 Hook of the Master AnglerFishTil cancelled-
 Magic EaterBasilisk, locust, whelp, or whisp1m1s
 Underbelly ElixirWasp, Tuskarr10m-
 Rituals of the New MoonGiant wolf2m10m
 Rituals of the New MoonBlack wolf2m10m
 Rituals of the New MoonRed wolf2m10m
 Rituals of the New MoonWhite wolf2m10m
 Orb of the BlackwhelpBlack whelp15m-
 Faded Wizard HatApprentice of a different race30m30m
 Arcanite RipperGuitarist of the Tauren Chieftains10s1m
 Sun-Lute of the Phoenix KingGuitarist of the Tauren Chieftains10s1m
 Vrykul Drinking HornVrykul10m1s
 Kang's BindstoneStony appearance10m1h
 Ai-Li's SkymirrorLike a targeted player when using10m1h
 Mr. Smite's Brass CompassMister Smite30m2h
 Aqua JewelMakes you nearly invisible10m1h
 Krastinov's Bag of HorrorsDoctor Theolen Krastinov30m2h
 Hozen Beach BallBeach Clothes30m2h
 Shard of ArchstoneMogu stature5m2h
 Scotty's Lucky CoinForest Sprite10m10m
 Demon Hunter's AspectDemon Hunter5m30m


The following items you cannot get anymore. Only to complete the list.

Item Name:Transforms you into:Duration:Cooldown:
 Gnomeregan PrideGnomeregan Infantry (Alliance only)30m4h
 Darkspear PrideDarkspear Warrior (Horde only)30m4h
 Carved Ogre IdolRed Ogre10m10m
 Murloc CostumeMurloc costumeTil cancelled-
 Dartol's Rod of TransformationFurbolg3m1m
Last edited by Leishai on 2013/08/13 (Patch 5.3.0)