Maybe Something Good Will Come of this Silence?

I might have something in the works. Actually, I do. Actually, I am not sure I want to  unveil it. Actually, I am  not sure if anyone even cares anymore.

Wait.

Wait just a damned minute.

This is me we are talking about. Of course you still care. 🙂

Over the course of the next randomly unspecified period of time I might  be changing  the looks of the site. Maybe recoloring. Maybe a new theme. Maybe nothing.

Maybe nothing good will come  of this  silence.

 

I actually had a 75% win rate yesterday.

Ok, so.

Tuesdays are raid nights. We raided BWD. We cleared to Nef, then called it for the night, I finally got my tanking weapon and a DPS chest. That is pretty much it for WOW.

In Starcraft 2 though. Well. Lots of fun. I played 4 games. I won 3. Here is some background.

I want to make sure everyone remembers at all times; I suck at this game. I am a really new player. I opened in the Bronze league at 80, have clawed my way to 20 and generally flex between 20-30ish (it seems a ten point flex is pretty common?). There is a lot I don’t know about this game, but I am learning every day. I play Terran.

Why did I pick Terran? The answer is a simple one (if any answer is indeed simple). Terran is the race you play in the campaign. Also, I am human and I have more experience being human than a zerg or protoss IRL. Just saying, these are the things that went through my head whilst deciding which race I was going to choose.

I knew at the beginning, I would be staying with one race until I was really good at it. I have played a few games v AI as both zerg and Protoss, but that was so I could see tech trees, timings and abilities. I have to say, playing those races against the AI was really beneficial, and I should probably do more.

Ok, so 2 of the games I played were 3v3. A couple of my old guildies (neither of whom play WoW anymore), wanted to run some games, I am not placed in a ladder, they are both Gold for 3v3, 2v2, and 4v4. I was pretty much carried through the games. I got good at providing them with troopies, we had one person handle all the micro, the other two took care of small skirmishes, base defense, and macro stuff, kicking monies at the Micro player when he needed it, so we could maintain a strong assault on the enemy forces. It was good fun. I could definitely get into playing 3’s more often.

1v1, this is my baby. I really enjoy playing these games. I generally grab gas at about 11-12 supply and try to do early harass. I have had the best luck with Air Dropped BF Hellions, but have tried reapers, Siege Tanks, Air Dropped Thors (that one was funny), Marine and Marauders, Bunkers at their front gates (ooh, just thought about building bunkers at their supply lines, that would be fun). Raven harass is a good time too, though not so effective early game, as there are generally marines to kill turrets.

Anyway, this game was vs protoss. Historically TvZ gives me a hard time, and I usually end up going heavy Marauders mixed with Marines, until I see evidence of a Stargate then I push more marines. I wanted to start the game with some Reaper harass, which ended up saving me.

Around the time my Second Barracks was done building and my first reaper was completed training, I see a toss probe come in to my base. Everyone knows the toss probe is the single greatest threat early game, they open the way for cannon rushes and Warpgate rushes. Those bad boys need to be killed ASAP.

As suspected, he came in did a quick circuit of my base and proceeded to drop 5 or 6 pylons. At this time, my reaper finished, I killed the probe, then took the reaper a distance away, allowing the pylons to finish. I figured this way he wouldn’t cancel the buildings and once i blew them up he would have lost some serious dinero.

My plan worked, when they all finished, I had 3 reapers, I sent one to scout close to the base for another probe, and the other 2 to kill the pylons. Thereby destroying all the minerals he spent to build them. Early game, losing that kind of cash is tough on a guy.

Once those were done, I pushed the reapers out to begin scouting for his base, I had scouted 2 of the other 3 bases to no avail when I heard the ominous “Your base is under attack”. I pushed my reapers back to the base only to see he had snuck in another probe and had build 2 pylons and 3 cannons.  My reapers dropped the pylons, completely ignoring the cannons. Once they were dead, the cannons become useless, by this time, I had a handful of marines and 2 marauders, who I sent to take care of the inert cannons, while I pushed my now fairly heft force of 5 or 6 reapers to his front gate. Right as I threw my first volley at his forge, he quit the game.

Now, I don’t mind a cannon rush, they are fairly easy to deal with as long as you don’t panic, but I do have slight issue with the all or nothing approach, watching the replay, he had enough minerals to have built a warpgate and get a few zealots out, but instead he went with the attitude of “If this doesn’t work, Ima quit.”

It’s all good though, I ended the evening with my bonus pool at 2, which isn’t bad. I would have done one more, but I was sleepy.

That is all. Thanks for listening to my adventures in the World of Blizzard.

A different game?

/stands up

/brushes himself off

/clears throat

“Hi.”

“My name is doomedcow and I have been a terrible blogger.”

“Hi doomedcow.”

“It all started on an evening in November…”

“zzzzzzzz”

Ok. So clearly I have been bad about this thing. Went strong there for a while, but kind of fell off the wagon, it is easy to fall out of the habit, hard to get back into it. If only smoking worked like that.

I am still playing World of Warcraft.

I still really enjoy the game.

I don’t play as much as I was.

Blizzard has demanded my attention be given to something else. Something serene. Something beautiful.

I have been playing Starcraft 2.

Image via Wikipedia

I am no longer afraid to admit it. I am secure in my growing level of nerdiness.

I play as doomedcow. I am in the bronze league (I am not very good), and I am 20th on the ladder (going up from when I started at 80th).

I have been playing for about a month now, and I am having a blast. The campaign (though not finished) has ensured I will be playing this game for a while, and likely multiple times to get the achievements.

The real beauty of the game though is the ladder play. It took me a bit to figure out what the hell “bonus pool” was, even with velinath explaining it to me at least 3 times. (By the way, fewer points in your pool is better).

On the WoW front, I have had a good time with that too. My guild is 9/12 and we can get Cho’gal down to 30ish percent. WE should down him this week. I have been chasing all sorts of achievements, have neglected my dailies, have neglected my auctions.

Still, things couldn’t be better, my guild is still awesome (BTW we are recruiting), and several of us play SC in our non-wow time.

I actually have a couple of articles I want to write, right now. One is about an innocent enough remark I made on twitter, about Mondi (Zerg) losing in the Ro16 to a Protoss. I know these tournaments are pretty serious throughout the community, and I really enjoy watching them, and rooting for my favorites, but really the last Zerg falling seems to have really set some people’s teeth on edge.

Also, I am still researching, but I really want to do some map analysis and post those up here. I am looking to see if anyone else has done it yet.

I think that is it for now. I am still alive. Still well. Family is great. So is Blizzard!

Reputation Time

I am sure everyone knows by now, but the spirit of sharing buff that you get for eating five servings of each of the Pilgrim’s Day foods at any table is good for a 10% bonus to reputation gains.

Why is this important? Because I am a reputation whore and am working on no less than 5 reputations, in an attempt to get them to exalted (6 if you count Lower City who I am only Honored with).

• Five Sanguine Hibiscus gets you 825 rep (non-human) with Sporregar.
• Coilfang Armaments are good for 82 and 83 rep with Cenarian Expedition (up from 75).
• Kills in any dungeon in Outlands that give rep is up by 10% as well.
• Ogri’la Dailies give an additional 10%.

Now is the perfect time to be farming reputations. I am trying to get 30 before Cataclysm, I am revered or better with:

• Frenzyheart
• Sporregar
• Cenarian Expedition
• Argent Dawn
• Hmm, i think there are more, but can’t remember right now.

Hopefully I can knock these all out this week. While the 10% buff is doing its wonderful thing. Really, though the intent of this post is to galvanize those of you who are oh so close to finish your rep grinds. I have a feeling we are all going to be too busy to do so over the next few weeks.

Back to the Outlands

Lots going on, as usual.

First, I added something probably pretty ambitious to my to-do list. I really want to get the opening of the AQ gates quest line done. I know our gates are already open, but the chain is going away in Cataclysm, and I want it done on at least one of my toons. Luckily, I have the week before Cata drops, to complete it. I think the Elementium Ingots are going to be hard to get, maybe a guild run through BWL (hint hint vel, if you still read this) will be in order. For the record, I had planned on doing this anyway, but it seems there will be a Feat of Strength attached to this come Cataclysm. Apparently the lore behind this quest line is absolutely amazing. Plus, what kind of cook would I be if I did not know the only epic cooking recipe in the game?

Image taken from the now retired http://sleepypriest.blogspot.com/.

As soon as I heard about the boss Anzu not needing to be summoned anymore, I wanted to go farm, what I think is the coolest looking mount in the game. Problem? Oh yeah, I am not honored with Lower City, so can’t get the heroic key to Setthek (sp?) Halls. ) I am not sure what the original location of this image is, it looks like mmochampions or something but, as I cannot access those sites from work, I poached it from the now retired sleepy priest).

Anyway, that means I have to do one of two things. Either farm instances for rep, or…OR quest.

My intent is to eventually get the Loremaster achievement, so I decided to start questing again. I figured, there would be minimal changes to Outlands, so might as well start there. For some reason, I figured the best way for me to get Lower City Rep was to grind Mag’har rep. Don’t ask me how that makes sense, but that is where I started. Thrall would be proud I think. Also, apparently the Mag’har have exalted me. So now I have all the Talbuks (except the PvP ones). Also, going for Nagrand Slam has left me 4 quests short. Which is really irritating. There are two I couldn’t do because I was already friendly with the Consortium, but that means there are still a few more quests out there I am not tracking. I think there is a chain after I do Shadowmoon Valley, but I won’t be getting to that one for a while.

After Nagrand, I decided to continue my Lower City Rep Grind by finishing Zangarmarsh for the Cenarian Expedition and Sporregar. Again, not really working out to getting LC rep, but whatever, the CE hippogriff is gorgeous. Once I finished the last few quests in Zangarmarsh, I read that there were several quests in Terrokar that gave rep. Fast Forward a bit, and I am now deep into revered with CE, and 64 of 68 in Terrokar. I have the last 4 quests, but was just too tired to finish them up. Now, and this is the important part, doing all the quests in Terrokar, has made me honored with LC. So, I did my first run of Setthek Halls on Heroic. Guess what did NOT drop. That’s right. Raven Lord Mount.

Oh well. It will drop eventually.

After Terrokar, I am going to Blades Edge, I have never quested there on any of my toons, so it should be fun, also there are a couple quest hubs that give rep with CE, so that should help the grind. I still need to farm Underbog a few times for Sanguine Hibiscus for Sporregar rep, but that is easy.

Oh, and speaking of soloing these heroics. I am really put off by the new Drums of the Wild. I like to go into these things buffed up and ready to go so I can pull, pull, pull. Drums of the Wild heals for 2k over 15 seconds? Sweet, sounds like less downtime for me (I do these all in Fury, and don’t have a lot of downtime anyway, but popping these drums would make it even less). Problem? Only usable by level 80, does not affect level 80 or higher. Huh? Let me read that again. Have to be level 80 to use, but won’t affect me if I am level 80? Wait a minute, that can’t be right. Let me use about 4 charges in disbelief while I test this out.

Yeah. So. That’s how that is, Drums of the Wild does not work on level 80 dudes. Very frustrating, the drums are pretty much worthless.

Ok, that’s enough for now.

Bombs Away!

I have to get better about taking screenshots, then uploading them so I can post posts from work.

Anyway.

Doomedcow got to scratch something off his pre-cata to-do list…I am exalted with and own all the Skyguard Rep mounts.

I started this grind before I started the netherdrake grind. The netherdrake grind took me, maybe 10 days. That was months ago. With all the reps I have done, this one, for some reason was the most tedious for me. Really shouldn’t have been, there are all sorts of ways to get rep with the skyguard. It was just painful.

When thinking back on it, the grind itself wasn’t bad. Like I said, there are several ways to get rep. I think it was just a mental roadblock.

As an added bonus, I finally got “The Rokk’s” last daily, so I got that achievement, and I got the Bombs Away! Achievement for completing the Skettis daily in less than 2 minutes and some seconds. Not difficult on a 310, I guess I had forgotten it was an achievement.

—

The quest chain where I had to join a cult, was a blast. Especially when doing it as a skeleton in a sombrero with a Macabre Marionette following me around. I had a really good time. I have yet to see a portal spawn though, I am not sure about the times they pop up, or even 100% if they are popping up now, or will do so later. Am I the only one who wants the MM as a permanent pet?

Short post today…busy busy!

Need I Say More?

Probably not, but I likely will anyway.

Doomedcow got a new Mount on Tuesday…

(hint, click for bigger, more beautiful…more MAGNIFICENT!)

Also, you might notice, when you are done drooling all over your computer screen, that I updated my to-do list in the sidebar, with things I wanna accomplish on my main (Doomed) before Cataclysm. That list was in pretty dire need of updating anyway.

We were short one going into ICC yesterday, so we decided to go play in Ulduar to get some more rusted protodrakes. I think I am tanking something wrong, I cannot hold threat off a wet noodle right now. Ok, it’s not that bad, but it shouldn’t be this hard I don’t think. I know there were threat changes, but this is ridiculous.

We still did the first seven bosses with little fuss. BTW guildies, sorry again that I forgot until it was too late to jump on Hodir’s Ice Mound…it had been a while.

I need to respec, Incite for prot is not what I think it should be, my crit is way too low to take advantage of it properly. Thinking some War Academy from the Arms tree will be helpful.

I will post more stuff on my changes, and how it affects my tanking/threat in general after this weekend.

Turning in quests can be tricky

So, the main reason for this post is I have had a lot of trouble turning in quests on my warrior recently.

I will click the quest giver, select the option (if there is more than one), then click complete. My dailies (especially Outland Fishing, and Northrend JC), have not been allowing me to turn them in. I just click and click on the Complete quest button.

I put in a ticket and was told it is an interface issue and to delete my WTF, Cache, and Interface Files. Well, if I do that, all my addons and settings disappear. That is not an option.

I did a little research, and finally found a working solution at epicadvice.com. I haven’t really played with this site much, but it looks decent. Plus, it had the solution I was looking for.

If you are unfamiliar with creating your own Macro, the steps are easy.

1) in your chat box type /m or /macro. This makes your Macro interface pop up.

2) You can now choose (at the top) if this is going to be a General (all toons) macro, or a toon specific one. I used the General tab, in case I run into problems on my other characters.

3) Click Create New.

4) Type in a name and pick an image for this macro. The image will be on your bars once you put it there, so it should be different than any spell names your character uses. For example, I used Rune Strike for the image on my Warrior since, it is not a spell I will ever cast, this way, even my dumb ass does not click the macro if i am trying to use one of my abilities.

5) Click ok.

6) In the actual macro box, copy and paste this.

/run SelectGossipAvailableQuest(1);CompleteQuest();GetQuestReward()

Make sure there are no spaces before or after, and none in between words except the one after run.

7) Drag the new Macro button to your bar in a place you can click it at the appropriate time.

Now, to use this macro, you have to actually right click the NPC to interact with him/her. Incidentally, this macro is great for turning in repeatable quests such as rune cloth and Headresses for Timbermaw, as well.

If the quest you need to turn in is the second option in a set (after right-clicking on an NPC) then change the number 1 in the macro to a 2.

Thus ends my quest turn in macro tutorial. Let me know if you have issues with it.

 

Achievements Galore!

So, I recently (or not so recently) decided Doomedcow the Warrior would be my main for cataclysm.

What does that mean?

It means, all the achievement hunting I did on my hunter is pretty much moot. As I want my main to have more points than my alt.

Hunter is at something like 5100 achievement points. Doomed, at the beginning of this weekend was at 4600ish. 500 points is a lot to make up. Especially in light of the fact I have a full raiding schedule and a family, and a full-time job.

I decided to start with the easy stuff and actually leveled my fishing beyond 50. Actually got him to 450 in only one day of fishing while playing with the kids and paying attention to the wife. All in all not a lot of work for a several achievements along the way. Picked up Northrend and Outland Angler while I was at it, as well as 1000 fish and all the achievements for the various levels of fishing. I also went into SSC and soloed the achievement for The Lurker Below. Notice I said achievement, not boss. That place would still be a bitch to clear solo, and actually, now that I am thinking about it, would be impossible to complete as Vasj needs at least 2 people. I am not even sure you could do it with 2.

Fishing up the boss actually was not as easy as I had anticipated. The fish in the water, still bite a fully T10 prot warrior for almost 800 each bite, and those fishies like to swarm. Sneaking past trash is also not super easy, being a huge friggin cow and all. After about 3 or 4 wipes i decided I was actually going to have to stategerize this. My plan was not to use any guides and figure out for myself exactly how I was going to make this work. I suppose I really should post a guide to this achievement, as any class would benefit from it. Except a priest, whose whole concern would be to cast levitate, fish, fade, and run. Silly priests.

I also maxed my cooking, which surprisingly only took a couple of hours from 71 to 450. Having maxed fishing really made this quite easy. The only issue I ran into was the fact that every goblin in Azeroth thinks i am a homicidal maniac, mostly because of my Bloodsail Admiral title. At 225 there is a quest you can pick up in Gadgetstan that will give recipes for getting your cooking to the magical 300ish mark. I traversed Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimidor on my druid (the more peace-loving toon) picking up recipes that allow me to fish and cook to level 320 or so, then off to Garadar for the last 4 recipes I needed. Once I hit 350, it was all cake. I still need to get the Northern Stew recipe though. By the way, anyone know why i didn’t get the Dalaran Cooking Award Achievement after I did my first cooking daily? It never popped, and I am irritated.

I threw in a few exploration achievements, and a couple old school dungeons while I was out exploring, topped it off with “the Hallowed” and I am now sitting at 5035. Not too bad for a casual weekend of playing.

In other news, I should get my 10 man drake from ICC tonight. Only have to kill heroic Rotface.

So excited.

 

How to not quit blogging!

Image via Wikipedia

I know, I said I was done. I really meant it. Luckily in my farewell post I said I might be back. Michael Jordan said the same thing like 45 times before he actually retired.

I have kept writing here and there, mostly about non-wow stuff. Some blogging, mostly fiction stuff that I have alwasy enjoyed, but will never publish. I wanted to stay away, I really did.

There is just too much awesomeness going on.

Also, for some reason Keeva‘s recent issues with copyright infringement have really motivated me to write publicly again. I don’t know why, but while I was reading these posts, I was really missing blogging for myself.

So, on to important things. I have specced (and sometimes respecced) all 5 of my 80s and have done differing amounts of raiding/heroics on each of them. Below is my impressions, and feelings on each of the classes I play at max level. Not all of this is good though.

Sfcnez – Hunter – Beast Master: First, let me say, I am happy to be able to be a Beast Master again. I think one of the main reasons I was put off of raiding with my hunter is that I couldn’t raid as my preferred spec and remain competitive or as useful as other hunters. I am happy to be BM again. That being said, I don’t like focus. Really don’t! For some reason it feels like i am spamming buttons now, more than ever. At the end of the day though, the hunter who raids with us is still pulling many k of dps, so maybe i am doing it wrong.

Vanddora – Warlock – Demonology: Ok, obviously soul shards are gone. I have done limited things with this toon, but she seems like a lot more fun to play. I went with demo for the simple reason of…wait for it…I Like Demo! I have always had fun changing into a magnificent demon, and hellfiring my way to glory. Now, it is better since i can move while channeling Hellfire. BTW, for you warlocks out there who love hellfire the way I do, be careful, just because you jump does not mean Hellfire is not still ticking down your health. The change where Summon Stones, Soul Wells, and demons don’t cost anything but mana is nice. I also really like the two temporary demons that I can cast down to wreak unholy vengeance upon my foes. I will be doing more with her in the near future.

Phlam – Death Knight – Blood: I specced blood. I admit, getting rid of the defense stat really made this choice a no-brainer for me. I am tired of 15 minute queues while trying to gear up. Insta Queue is much better. Tanking with a DK is really pretty easy. I will admit, there have been a couple of oh-shit moments when i went to utilize one of my Warrior talents that wasn’t there, because, well because my death knight is not a warrior. I really cannot compare pre-4.0.1 to post, as I have not tried DPSing with the DK. I can make observations about the rune system, though. It seems I often have more runes on Cool-Down than I used to, for longer periods of time. Since threat, and especially AoE threat is kind of scary right now, I think I prefer the old system better. However, I also understand that the changes were made in order to set us up for Cataclysm, and I believe at higher gear levels my runes will be on CD for shorter periods of time. I am keeping Phlam Blood for the time being, and will probably gear him for DPS once I am of appropriate gear and am ready to start raiding. Yes, that will likely be after Cataclysm comes out.

Sublimation – Druid – Restoration: What can I say? Healing feels…weird. My druid has always been a Healer first and a feral kitty (or the occasional bear) second. I haven’t even filled in the dual spec on this toon yet. Actually on any toon except doomed. Probably because all my gems are now intellect, everything feels bulky and heavy. Nourish, which historically has been my favorite heal to help out anyone taking more damage than I was comfortable with is now something like 2.2 seconds or so. THAT IS FOREVER! I actually started casting, prepared and fully roasted a turkey, and the cast went off right when I got back. I still have enough mana to blanket a five or 10 man with the appropriate rejuvs and not run into mana issues, Lifebloom on one target bites. I continually forget to turn into a tree because I am a creature of habit and it hasn’t ingrained itself to my memory yet. And I dumped Grid in favor of Vuhdo. Do I like my druid better? Meh. I like my druid but in a different way now. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is weird, I am going to put together a 10 man ICC this weekend and plan on healing it. We will see.

Doomedcow – Warrior – Protection/Fury: This one is my baby (AKA Main). Protection (main spec) is giving me a little trouble. By that, I mean, DPS not waiting is giving me some trouble. First, if you haven’t read Panzercow’s post today, then you should. Vengeance is there with a vengeance. Seriously, if you are DPS, please understand that any tank needs ramp up time. Ok, that is done. Tanking is still a blast, I love it, and my raid killed Lich King again last night, with the 30 stacks achievement, so it can be done (I died, thank goodness for a good bear tank being there with us). Also, a GREAT observation made by the Panzercow, if the fight is a tank switching fight (Festergut, DBS), then the OT does not have any stacks of vengeance and can easily be overtaken by the other tank (this happened on the dogs, twice before we realized that is what was going on).  Snap aggro, especially AoE feels clunky, I am getting back into the habit of tab targeting, but it still is causing some issues. Though I do love me some blood and thunder. I have 2 points in incite right now, but will be taking those out soon. My crit just isn’t high enough, and i can’t spam Heroic strike enough to make it worth while. Oh, getting out of the Heroic Strike spam mind frame has taken some time too. Still, though I am saying negative things, I love what they are doing with tanking and the whole raiding scene as a whole. Fury is a blast too. More cool downs to watch, still decent DPS (27% hit?), lots of fun stuff to do, all the while cleaving faces off. I really am having a good time as fury. I don’t even miss single target whirlwind anymore. Doomed will stay my main through cataclysm, i just hope for a little bit more AoE aggro generation. Also, I am one achievement away from the Blood Bathed Skeleton Bony Drake Thing for 10 man. CANNOT WAIT! Heroic Rotface is the last one I need. Don’t ask me how I got all other achievements except that one…I really don’t know.

Buffs: The only thing I can say is this, while it is taking some time for me to remember what buffs overwrite other buffs and such, I really like the idea that different classes/specs provide the same buffs. Makes it easier to ensure the raid is fully supported, and not stymied because we are missing a priest (for example).

Auction House: Other than auctioneer broke for long enough that I had to start using AuctionLite, and QA developer shadowed quit making addons and I had to go to Auction Profit Master, I am loving what is happening in the AH right now. I don’t talk about it too much here, but I am a big AH PvPer. I love playing the Auction House, and I have almost all professions maxed out and able to provide me with something or another to make money. I think Auction Profit Master probably has 50 or 60 rules in place helping me post lots of auctions. People are spending money like crazy right now.

Overall Impressions: I really like most of the changes. Sure, there is a learning curve to all classes and specs right now, but still, learning new things makes old things fresh. 100g dual spec is making me really happy, though I haven’t actually purchased it yet, since 4 of my 5 80’s already are dual specced (and honestly, nobody wants a resto warlock anyway), but I will definitely be taking advantage of that. I am bummed that the ICC mounts are not 310% anymore, as I still think most people are still not going to be able to breeze through the achievements, but I guess since you can now buy 310% it is ok. Thank goodness I have a 310 from 10 Ulduar.

Wow, wall of text I guess.

Related Articles

• Scattered Shots: 4.0.1 hunter gems, glyphs and stat weights (wow.joystiq.com)
• Blood Pact: Soul Shards, talent specs and the 4.0.1 warlock (wow.joystiq.com)
• Raid Rx: Tell your raid to stand in glowing circles (wow.joystiq.com)
• How I’m playing Protection in 4.0 (spinksville.wordpress.com)