Stopping the Wind

Friday night we started off at Magmaw. We had a couple of subs in, as one tank and one healer had real life obligations. Having only the one raid group to worry about getting saved to meant I was free to bring in Kerick to cover the missing heals. We had a new hunter who was able to come in and provide frost traps/kiting on the parasites. That helped so much. I think it took up about 90 mins and we were done and wondering where to go next. Since we didn’t have a third tank available for Halfus and had already spent time in previous weeks learning the Council of Wind, we headed over to Uldum.

Our hunter switched over to his prot warrior, and I was assigned to heal him on the green platform. I had only ever been on the mage for previous attempts, so it was a learning experience for me. I’m not sure I quite ever got the hang of it completely. We had some good attempts and learned a lot, and ended the night quite satisfied. After all, we’d gotten our first boss down in this group!

Saturday night we had some switching around. We had a different warrior tank, so the hunter got to stay on his hunter. Our regular healer was available, so I got to go back to the mage. After healing on the other platform the night before, dodging tornadoes and wind blasts was a breeze. (heh heh heh) I think it was once again about 90 minutes. I was impressed that we did it so fast, what with  breaking in yet another new backup and all.

Of course, this left us with more time to fill, but this time we had an extra tank available once we sweet-talked the hunter into switching again. So we went and worked on Halfus for awhile. One of these weeks, we’ll get an ‘easy’ set of drakes. We did have a decent try where we got to the enrage though. Our enhance shaman has become an expert at interrupting the shadow nova.

Next week’s lineup is sure to change again, as Ado has speed-leveled his shadow priest from 60 to 85 in a little over a week, and we drug him on his first heroic last night already.  Crazy man!

MMnO

or at least not all the time

Strange subject for today, but I’m curious. I’m wondering if I really have just become a crabby old lady, or if other people feel this way at times, too. You see, there are times when I secretly wish that I could flip a switch and make my MMO into a single player RPG. Not permanently mind you. Just for a while. Because I WANT to quest/work on professions/do achievements … which leaves out finally getting around to plugging in that Dragon Age CD I bought way back when … but I want to be left alone while I’m doing it.

I have to wonder sometimes, what my guildies really think of me. Do they think I’m a stuck-up snob? There’s always a group of them in vent whenever they are logged on (I think every guild has those, Apathy did too)  … I’ll hop in it for group activities, like if we’re going to run a dungeon or a raid … but the rest of the time, I’d rather not be on it. Having someone whisper me to ‘get in vent plz’ because they want to ask me about something is a sure way to flip my cranky switch. You’ve just proven you have the ability to type (more or less) … do I *really* need to stop what I’m doing to tab out and log into vent? For a two minute conversation??

While we’re on the subject of whispers … when I log on for the first time each day, I usually start on my bank alt to check his mail and maybe toss a few things on the AH. Oftentimes, I’ll get three people whispering me as soon as I log in. I immediately feel overwhelmed and stressed. Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know.  I’m an independent sort, I need my space and time to do my own thing. I guess that’s part of the reason I don’t want to raid 4 nights … it takes away my ability to choose what I want to do that night.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I enjoy raiding, and I have a good time running heroics with my friends. I am happy to be in a such a large, active, friendly guild. (There were something like 8 people on yesterday during the day … I have been in guilds where that would be a record to have on at the same time. Trust me, this is way more fun.) I love having the option to raid, run dungeons, work on holiday achievements together, etc. But I am at heart an antisocial introvert. Please don’t hold that against me, just keep it in mind when I fail to say grats after every achievement that pops up in guild chat or decline the offer to fill a spot in a heroic.

And get off my lawn! Geesh

BBQ Worm

Not the greatest of screencaps … no one seemed all that interested in photo ops for some strange reason. But the worm is now food.

STILL no hunter in the raid. The one we have wasn’t feeling well, so Analogue came in to boomkin. Cael, who was scheduled to be our holy priest, had a real life commitment, so we had another holy pally along. Naturally, this ensured that the drops would be a cloth helm with spirit, and hunter legs. We also happened to have an enhance shaman filling in, so at least the gear didn’t go to waste.

It was nice to get him down on my last night in the raid. I decided four nights in a row is a bit more than I want to commit to, especially since it requires multiple toons to be geared up. I don’t even have ONE fully geared yet! The other pally is geared and prepared to fill the role, so it works out quite nicely, really.

The Best Part of Huntering

… is taming and naming new pets.

Some of my pets have names before I’ve even tamed them. Turtles, for example, are always named Killian, after a snapping turtle that I once knew in real life.

Others, however, have to earn a name through their personality and behaviour. (Don’t even bother to tell me they’re just pixels and have no personalities. What part of ROLE playing game do you not understand?) Sometimes this takes awhile. My ghost saber is still Cat … she hasn’t really been with me long enough to earn a name. Hmm … apparently she’s done enough to get a gender though. I hadn’t actually realized she was a female until just now.

Last night I was passing through Loch Modan on my way to Wetlands to do some archaeology (yes, yes I am addicted to digging in the dirt … enough to do it on a level 22). As I was riding, I realized ‘hey! I need a bear, and there are some LOVELY little black bears right here in the Loch.’ So I stopped and tamed one. I briefly considered a couple of standard bear-type names, and decided to table the issue until something came to me.

We stopped in Dun Algaz to do the little orc quest. (I had picked up the Hero’s Call: Wetlands breadcrumb in Ironforge.) Bear aggroed an extra orc that wasn’t all *that* close to the one I sent him on. I shrugged and chalked it up to the orc being in range of demoralizing roar and moved on.

The first dig spot was where the ebon whelps are. I sent him after one, we killed it, and then he kept running to one WAAAAAAAYYY over there, totally far away. He tagged it, and turned around and ran back to me before facing it and engaging it fully. I’m going ‘Bear, what the heck was that all about?’

We finished that site and did a couple of others in the zone before having to return to that spot. Again, kill a whelp and he goes halfway across the zone to tag another and bring it back. I type in guild ‘wtf Bear, why you aggro random mobs like that?’ and as I hit the enter key, I know exactly what his name is.