Saturday, September 27, 2008

Waiting for the new talents

We've taken a bit of a break. The boys have discovered Webkinz. All their friend play Webkinz online so, of course that's what they want to do. None of their friends play WoW. Webkinz is basically old Atari games meets cuddly stuffed animals.

Mom did get on to the PTR and copied our 70 hunter to check out the new pets and talents and everything. After messing around for a bit, I decided that there is absolutely no point to doing anything other than occasionally check the AH until the new talents come out. Oh Boy! It's going to be a whole new game. I am looking everywhere to read up on everything I can about every talent and every build for everything. Plus inscription.

I'm spending today doing laundry and updating addons. We have tap dancing and acting after school. But as soon as I can, I'm off to Un'Goro Crater to tame a Devilsaur. I may not keep the Devilsaur, but I want one. And then a Gorillidan. And maybe a Worm or a Wasp or a Moth. I'll keep my old kitty because she's been with my since STV. And I love my two headed black and white bird. But I get three new pets. Yippee!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Racing Rams and other things

Theothana has a nice new guild, The Knights of Gilead. They seem very laid back and casual, but plan on raiding once we get enough members. Nice. And right now they're all doing Brewfest, so I guess I should do it, too. I don't care much about getting nifty mounts, but it would be nice to give it a shot.

And the other race, the race of characters, is off to a good start I think. Here are the standings:

Orc Warrior Tedaloo is still parked in Thunder Bluff at 29.

Troll Shaman Sampeaire just picked up her level 42 training in Orgrimmar after finishing Scarlet Monastery and Razorfen Downs.

Troll Arcane Mage Sheeshuu is a couple bars away from 34 and finishing up quests in Thousand Needles.

Undead Affliction 'Lock Rosishu is rocking along in Desolace at 38.

And I haven't even looked at Troll Rogue Terishu.

So when Next I check in, I plan to have both Ted and Teri up to 30 at least so they can get their first mounts. And maybe a new mount for Theo as well.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

BRK Podcast: Gorillas!

I just listened to the Big Red Kitty podcast for this week. And watched his gorilla movie. It's not "Gorillas in the Mist," but no one has to tell me about how nice an AoE pet is for certain things. Our number two hunter at 62 has a gorilla at 62. We send Fosse, the ape, into a big ole pack of mobs. Then wait for the Thunderstomp and unload everything we've got, including multishot. Never pull aggro.

So a slight change of plan. Hunter number two is going to 70 with her gorilla in time for the expansion.

Here's the issue. I love playing Beast Master. But I did level our Theothana part way as MM. I think I switched her to BM at about lvl 45. And it's been BM all the way to 70. But I'm thinking that I'm going to respec Hunter 2 (Danishu) to MM for the final push to 70. So I can get a feeling for it. But how different is it going to be once Wrath comes out? Need to think.

On Seeing Old Content in a new way

My newest "old" friend was telling me that he has four level 70 characters and is working on number five. We have one at 70, one at 62, and then 42, a couple in the 30s, several in the 20s and that's enough.

I need a plan.

One thing I have realized is that doing the same content we've done before, but with a completely different character is, well, fun. I love our hunters, but I just can't face going back to 62 and redoing everything.

So here's the plan. We're going to cycle through five characters: Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock this week, using up their rested experience, and focus on content we either skipped last time, or did at a ridiculously high level. And see how we like it. For example doing Swamp of Sorrows green quests and mobs with a hunter is a radically different experience than doing them with a warlock when they are all yellow/orange.

Each one will have their day, and then we will decide which one to focus on.

Here they are:
Tedaloo, the 29ish orc Arms/Fury warrior.
Sheeshuu, the 32ish troll Arcane mage.
Terishu, the 28ish troll Subtley rogue.
Sampeaire, the 42ish Enhancement Shammy.
And Rosishu, the 38ish Affliction 'lock.

May the best toon win!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Senior Citizens

I met another "old" person today. An Aussie dad playing a lvl 65 druid. Someone else who remembers 33rpm records, dialing a phone, and a time when a computer filled the entire basement of a university building. Ah, those were the days.

I wish there was a guild for us senior citizens. When I see a guild recruiting "mature" members it means they don't want eight year olds.

The bad mage and the bad hunter

I had our mage out yesterday. I am a bad mage. I'd love to be able to AoE, but I can't get the hang of it.

Anyway, I had the mage out, and we were out in that south east part of Ashenvale not dying while killing demons, when we saw a hunter who was even worse than my mage. Mid-30s, snake pet, meleeing. He'd shoot, then wait for the demon and start hitting it with his axe while the snake sort of helped by spitting at it.

Arggh! So still remembering the last hunter I helped, I whisper that I could give some hunter pointer since "main is a level 70 hunter."

The player was receptive.

Step one, send in the pet. Then wait a few seconds. Then shoot.

He does it, but the snake isn't holding aggro. Hmmm? "Do you have 'growl' trained up?"

"No, it's a snake."

"Doesn't matter. All pets can learn growl. It's how they hold aggro."

"I just tamed it."

"Doesn't matter. Growl is free. All pets can learn it right away."

Bam. Bam. Bam. I guess that was Growl being trained.

So we try again. And again. And again. Stupid snake couldn't hold aggro if it's life depended on it. Which it didn't because Mr. Huntard kept meleeing.

He was trying, though. He even dropped a trap, stepped back and broke the trap with an auto shot. I'm sitting there banging my head on the keyboard.

Being a mage sucks when you are trying to help someone learn how to play a hunter.

I think the snake was from Wailing Caverns and was probably about 12-15 levels lower the hunter. So he was trying to level it up, which didn't help.

In the end I gave up. I told him he was doing much better and that he should go to ... wait for it ... http://www.bigredkitty.net/ and watch his movies.

Now if only there was a BRK for mages.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Loving 70, neglecting everyone else.

70 rocks. Theothana just joined a nice new guild, so hopefully we'll get enough folks in to start raiding soon. Do dailies is so fun. I've even done a bit of PvP, which is still stressful and challenging, but I can see how much fun it can be it you know what you are doing.

Meanwhile, we have a bunch of characters waiting to go, all between 31 and 40. But it's just too much fun flying around the outland. /sigh.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Flying is way cool

It took me a while to be able to play again without worrying about being hacked again. But I'm getting over it. Flying helps—a lot.

Theothana finally hit 70. It took a while, like almost 18 months, but we made it. Hurray. First thing we did was hustle over to SMV and learn to fly. We didn't have enough gold for the epic training (after the hack), but we got a green wervyn and took off. And promptly died flying over the Ally town. Okay, don't fly near the other team's cities.

Then we spent a couple of days finishing up quests in Nagrand and started doing the first dailies, especially cooking and fishing. We sold some stuff in the Auction House, too. We watched as our gold slowly started increasing, and then my dear brother sent us the rest that we needed. And we rushed back to SMV to get the epic flying mount and training. My husband selected the lovely purple one.

I love it. HIt run and jump at the same time and it's just like a superhero leaping into the air. We did the Skettis egg bombing daily straight a way. Who knew a game could be so fun. I have no gold any more, but I can fly.