The Big Bear himself asked people to give stories of jackassedness they encountered whilst levelling.  Quite happily, I thought to myself at the time, I had managed not to encounter this kind of behavior whilst levelling but it seems I was to be dissapointed.

This one merits mentioning only because it was so similar in spirit to B3’s tale. The following is transcribed word for word - italicised words are my own.

CluelessWarrior: why u kill him noobi?
CW: No need to kill them noob!!!! (yes, four exclamation marks!)
Me: Charming…
CW: jesuss
Me: Ever think I might be on a different quest?

After which he stopped replying…

It’s one thing to whisper someone to mention they’re doing it wrong and feeling smugly superior, it’s another to call someone a noob and continue to whine at them when you’re wrong.  Ah well, it amused me for a few minutes - would have liked to have seen his reaction when he got about two steps down the same quest chain and had to kill the same mobs he had whined to me about.  Aherm.

Besides that one example, though, I’ve found the whole server to be a generally nicer place these past few weeks - lots of people doing quests together and instancing groups where people don’t mind you messing up here or there as everyone is doing it.

I hope everyone else is enjoying their levelling or raiding in Wrath so far - normal service at /hug shall resume shortly.

Back in my livejournal days, at new year, I used to always write up a little post detailing the cooler things that happened in that year - as many people did.  I thought that, at the end of the Burning Crusade era, I’d also like to do a little post detailing the cool things I enjoyed throughout the game these past few years and what memories have stuck with me.

Unfortunately I have a terrible memory and I only started to record my wow experiences around 8 months ago or so and thus my memories will be biased towards those I have easy access to, as it were.  There are some things, though, which have stuck with me from way back then…

To the Sporeggar(EU) community, I thank you.  You showed me that an RP server could be lots of fun and not just all of the bad stuff you hear about Goldshire…  It was the first server I hit 70 on and where discovered my love for druids!  Particularly, I fondly remember Maun, Zaédin and Wicoth whom I spent a lot of time with and whom I did my very first forays into the raiding world.  Maun for teaching me ‘how 2 durid’, Zaédin for being fun to RP with and Wicoth for helping me get my epic flight form first time ’round as well as running instances with me at 3am in the morning!  I know they’ll never read this but if you are from that server and bump into any of them say hi from Mharai.

Whilst I’m thanking people I can only give my deepest thanks to Lightwalkers for taking me in, letting the nublet come along with them, teaching me how to not be a complete nublet and inviting me to become an admin.  I love Lightwalkers, the people in it and the atmosphere.  If you /dkplist me one more time, though, -50 dkp! /hug

I will always remember dying at least four times after a boss has been downed to DoT damage - the first time being in Auchenai Crypts after already being combat rezzed by another druid and being the last one standing.  I ran around in joy and then hit the floor.

Other memorable deaths include our first kill, I think, on Kaz’rogal.  He resisted another rogue’s distract, that rogue vanished but put me into combat and I was swiftly splattered and had to watch the whole fight from the other side of the camp.

I will never forget another first kill, my first ‘first kill’ in fact - A’lar on the first night I’d ever seen him.  I was terribly under-geared and under-skilled and didn’t dare run after the other rogues onto the platform as I didn’t think I could react in enough time to jump off (I didn’t 100%  understand exactly how his abilities worked back then).  I think I managed to cheekily sit right in the centre-middle of that screenshot. *grin*

I remember my first run in Slave Pens - it was Heroic back in the days when heroics were still a challenge for non-hardcore raiders (no easy pvp gear, no badge gear etc.).  I absolutely hated the place and that one run shaped how I felt towards Slave Pens for a looong time.  Even now I’m not a huge fan of it!  I hope to avoid the kind of terrible introduction to an instance which puts me off it for the future.  I think being more adventurous about instances will probably help in this regard - my first Burning Crusade instance was when I hit level 70.

I remember rolling a teensy, tiny shaman and a similarly pint-sized druid and only a few months later taking both through their first raids - motivation to level them coming from all sorts of places.

The Burning Crusade brought changes which meant I could get one thing which I’d hankered after for quite some time - a ’saber mount!

[The Helm of the Claw] or ‘that bloody hat!’ has been a headpiece which has plagued me throughout TBC - from my druid, to my rogue, to my second druid.  I will never, it seems, be completely rid of that hat until Northrend!

Shamans were a much-scrutinised and visible part of this expansion and I have some awesome memories concerning shamans doing insances in multiples and even one where we had a shaman tank!

When Quel’Danas was launched, myself and a few other guildies logged onto vent together and spent most of the afternoon running the instance over, wiping repeatedly on Delrissa and having a blast.

Some ‘quickfire’ memories.

• Tanking a whole bunch of things for the first time - something I never thought I’d get to do!
• Flight Form.  Instant Cast.  ‘Nuff Said.
• Kodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodokodo! *grin*
• Seeing Illidan for the first time…

I remember starting a blog and having this awesome commenter who was asking my opinion about her blog.  I loved that feeling of community and friendship which I got outside of the game but within the community.

/hug

All hell’s broken loose in Azeroth! The scourge, they’re everywhere again. Run, hide or fight, but don’t fall to them, whatever you do!

I have to admit, the first thing I did when I heard there was infected plague running around from Nibuca was…. run to Booty Bay and go get myself infected. Then spread the love to the Ironforge Auction House. There were of course a few people complaining about it, which was a shame, because all I wanted to do was spread the event…

Oh well, we had some fun before people had to go to bed.  I can imagine this would be a blast on RP severs.

Quick Tips:

• If you want to get infected and noone is about to eat your brains then head down to Booty Bay - there are boxes scattered all over with a green glow.  Click one and you’ll start craving fresh brains.
• If you have the debuff and don’t want to have it, talk to an Argent Healer - usually near Inns or in banks or talk to any classes who can cleanse disease - shammies, paladins or priests.
• The Argent Healers will cleanse you if you get too close, so if you wish to keep your debuff steer clear of them.
• If you are a mage, Ice Block seems to instantly make you a zombie if you’re infected.
• Guards will attack you when you turn, be careful to either be close to your target when you’re going to zombie up or to be away in a quiet corner if you want to get some unsuspecting passers-by.
• Most guards and NPCs (and even flight masters) can be infected but faction leaders, quest givers and the like seem to be ‘protected’.  Good thing as otherwise that might get annoying… Apparently I was wrong - a lot of them can be infected…
  
• Whilst a zombie, you can use the other faction’s portals in Shattrath.

Have fun with the event!

It’s jumpin’, there’s a buzz in the air, people are feelin’ stirrin’s deep doon and its like some sort o’ adrenaline rush goin’ aroon.  Old friends are poppin’ up, people are goin’ back to their roots… Everyone’s heard that there’s somethin’ brewin’ up north and they’re sortin’ their afairs.  It’s excitin’ but ah’m no half feelin’ that ah could be doin’ wi’ a quiet corner and a wee pint an’ a hauf.

Pets, mounts, achievements, inscriptions, new pets, new talent trees, new spells, new addons, new layouts, new everything!

On top of that, every five minutes someone asks “what’s a lexicon of power” followed shortly by “and where do  I find that?”.  Inscriptions are making stupid amounts of gold on my server (especially the few minors available) and people are asking a million questions about the who, where what and why of them. Oh and people complaining about the spam caused by people getting achievements.  Especially when you take 10 people to do the Leeeerroooyyy! one and everyone’s achievement hits the guild at once…

Things have been utterly crazy.  I know it’s all a little ‘old news’ now but, personally, I’m only just coming off of the new-content high!

And then they decided to hit us with Hallows End, too.  Evil buggers! More on that in another post.  On that note - expect a little pick-up in posting from now on.  Despite a rash of unfortunate circumstances and busyness combined with a little bit of writers ‘doubt’ I am slowly working myself back into the writing saddle (and dear god how many metaphors did I murder there?).

Coherency, right.  Well, this post is a quick roundup of the smaller things which won’t get a post of their own in the coming few days or so.

Patch went pretty nicely for us Europeans - most of our realms were only an hour late coming up and, although we’ve had a few outages, and a little experience of the mount and pet bug (where they ‘disappeared’) things have been otherwise relatively less failurefull than the usual major patch.

Oh, except the ding every two minutes as everyone completes an achievement.

Haircut Stuff

Matt challenged people to post their changed ‘do’s’ so here are the three I changed (I can’t bear to change Aurik - there’s no hairstyle which I think looks better on him).

Avarix

Went for a very similar look here but I wanted a floofier ponytail as I was sick of the current one I had ’sticking’ to my back.

Jhai

Jhai’s let her hair out and grown it out a bit.  Was getting a bit tired of her ’schoolgirl’ look - something I hadn’t anticipated when I made her (the look, not the geting tired of, ahem)

Dryn

At first I was going to leave Dryn as-is but I decided, screw it, he needed a change and, to be honest, I’m glad I did. Of course, 7gold+ seems a bit steep for getting someone to tie your hair back!

Achievements Stuff

Whilst I will write an extended post on my thoughts on later, I was quite pleased to have achieved one particular goal not long after the patch:

• Ambassador of the Alliance

Of course, I’m equally saddened that I didn’t quite get:

• Shop Smart, Shop Pet Smart

48 pets… and probably hours of grinding red whelps in the vain hope one would drop for me.  Of course, I was delighted to have grabbed a Firefly (something I’ve wanted for ages).  I’m hoping to grab myself a [Sinister Squashling] and a [Magical Crawdad Box] (another pet I utterly adore) to make up the last two.  Of course the latter requires several other achievements to come first, such as Master Fishing!

Hunter Stuff

Talking of pets, Dryn spent a whole lot of time hanging around the Barrens after the patch. I had been checking over my usual pet-lover-haunt to pick which of the nice, shiny new pets I wanted.  I picked out a nice Netherskate and went off to tame it.  When I was browsing, though, a familiar face cropped up.  Takk.

Now, Takk and my hunters (yes, multiple, I keep starting them and abandoning them around level 20-30…) have a long history.  My first ever WoW char, even before Aurik, was a Moo Hunter called Ouranosin.  He made it to his 21st level before I rerolled to play with my other half on the alliance side.  I had seen the raptors the game had and thought ‘hey those are funky, I wants one!’ and saw that Takk, a lovely, black skinned raptor, would make a perfect companion to my pure white bull Tauren.   It took me a looong time - Takk was a rare, hit hard and fast and I was, to put it bluntly, a noob.  The kind of noob hunter who is up there alongside their pet hitting with their weapons! /sigh

The next few hunters also aimed for Takk but all ended up getting something else (Ghost Cat, Tallstrider, Wolf) as they bypassed the level to get Takk.  Dryn has had a Tallstrider (Aoi) and then a Carrion Bird (Horizon) as his main pets as well as, briefly, his ZG tiger (Monsoon).  Sadly I had to let Monsoon go but I just wasn’t feeling close to him as a pet - cats aren’t really my thing.   I took him to STV and let him go before continuing on to Ratchet.

Cue spawn point camping, ala BRK. 3 days later and Dryn got himself a new companion and I’m glad I did.

The auto-level was the factor that spurred me to go after him now - I couldn’t have levelled him enough before with how little I play my hunter- but level 65 is a fine level of pet for a marks hunter who pretty much only grinds and I now have a companion who I’m truly happy with - and in a small homage to the kitty I’d had to let go I’ve named my new raptor Typhoon.

I also have to say that since the patch I’ve been enjoying my hunter immensely… He’d always been my ‘gather bot’ character whom I didn’t bother to gear beyond lucky drops (*coughspear*cough)  and I hadn’t really ‘enjoyed’ the hunter class so much but now I’m really feeling the love - I have a tonne of new toys and, I must say, misdirect, readiness, misdirect, is just insanely nice when you have a slightly lesser equipped tank and some t6 dps!

Look ma, I’ma big hunter now! *ahem* ( big thanks to those in BA chat who helped me spec him on patch day!).

Epic Stuff

No, not the wearing kind, the skill kind!  I’d been dithering for a while about getting Avarix an epic mount.  My shammy is my main now but he’s still fluttering about on a slow flyer.  He has no gathering skills, though, and rarely ‘goes anywhere’ as he’s done questing etc.  However, the last few days have shown how annoying it is to be stuck back on a slow flyer for questing and so, when I went to pick up the trick-or-treat candy in Shadowmoon Valley I couldn’t resist and spent the windfall I’d made from inscription to pick Avarix up a shiny new mount.

All I can say is wheee~~

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something I meant to add here but I’m too eager to begin a few other posts I have in mind to work on this one too long *ahem*.

Seems like an’ old friend has come tae visit… but there’s a wee bit o’ trouble when we’re tryin’ tae mesh oor goals an’ aspirations…

Recently I had the happy task of transferring my other half’s druid over to Bloodhoof - where I play.  He had been playing with some friends there but they’ve decided to go play Warhammer and so I decided we should play together *ahem*

One character transfer later and I now have someone to ’spoil’ in game.  Khi (pictured to the left with my young paladin) and I used to play together and I liked being able to gift mats and boosts back and forth or for us to simply go an explore a dungeon together.  Playing in the same room means you can react quickly and we’ve had a long-standing habit of doing instances as a pair which we should have been doing with a whole group.

Back then, though, it was a rogue and hunter we played - now we’re both druids it’s become even more fun!  Khi made it through the Dark Portal and we ran Ramparts as a pair.  Now, I know Ramparts is pretty much soloable as a feral druid but, still, it was nice to just hang out together and beat up some orcs!

So, what’s the catch?

That’s pretty cool, you might think, and some nice random chatter but where does the title to this post come in?  Well, we’ve hit a bit of a snag.  You see, I’m a raider and, casual-ish though I may be, I am an enjoyer of end-game content.  Khi has never really experienced end-game content and admitted the other night that I was maybe being a little too pushy when it came to ‘advice’ or my thoughts on pre-70 stuff.

Now, I love to help people, I love to sort them out with shinies and give what little advice I can.  I have gotten somewhat into the habit, though, of disregarding pre-end game things as ‘not as worthy’ and I’m not exactly sure when that happened…  When I levelled my own druid not so long ago I was still getting upgrades which were stupidly expensive (mats or time wise) given they’d last me only two levels so why am I advising Khi not to bother enchanting this or that - “it’s not worth it” - and essentially putting someone off the game by ignoring those pre-end game goals in favour of getting to that end-game as a starting point.

Caring too much?

Is there a point where, if you invite a friend, relative or loved one to play with you, and you actually put them off playing by forgetting what it was like to be new to the game?  In this case, too, it’s not being new to the game but simply having a different playstyle.  By trying to get them to where you are, rushing them and telling them that the endgame is the real game are we lessening their chance at enjoying the game?

I wonder, then, where one could mesh - where is the middle point which you can both go and enjoy?  I don’t want to feel like I’m dragging Khi to do things just because I want to but I also don’t want Khi to miss out on things because I wasn’t available for us to do them together.

One of my favourite wow memories is running Scarlet Monastery with Khi’s hunter.  The mutual friend who had told us about WoW and gotten us started had said we couldn’t duo Scarlet: Cathedral at level 35 and yet we decided that was exactly what we would do (I think we wanted cloth drops). That sort of teamwork is something that I crave but, at the moment, I feel like maybe I’m just doing stuff for instead of with Khi due to the level gap and as much as I don’t mind helping out it’s not the same as doing things together.

Basically, I wonder if, by playing for so long, I’ve become too ‘jaded’ to enjoy the simple pleasures of levelling and the journey, rather than the goal.  I think it may be that, for me, Burning Crusade content has become a little stale - I’ve done the same progression already on five chars and find it hard to not mentally assign things as less important because I know where the next reward will be and so on.

Wrath

Expansions are big levellers - whether people reroll, change an alt to a main or simply play ‘catch up’.  I am hopng that I’ll actually get to level somewhat with Khi and wecan actually explore some of the new content as a team again.  We will be experiencing new things together again.  Khi is a lot faster than me at picking up things, though, so no doubt my druid will be left in the dust skills-wise as Khi zooooooms off into whichever role he chooses!

Druid Addon Help

On that note - we’re looking for reccomendations for druid addons for tree type druids.  Khi likes numbers more than I do and is looking for a numerical addon for grid, or something compact outside of grid, which will tell him when his hots will run out on all targets.  As much as I enjoy the healy side of druiding I don’t do it enough to clutter up my addons with this sort of stuff (yet, anyway) so any recommendations would be great!

Tonight I went to Mount Hyjal on my shaman (more about that in another post) but when I came out I decided to go chill on my druid and grind some more Kurenai rep.  I bumped into some goblin commoners which, at first,  I assumed were for the Darkmoon Faire (which on the EU servers is in Terrokkar at the moment).  However, they looked a bit different…

I stopped, conversed and found out that something new was afoot!  Spirit of competition you say?  Tabard, you say!? Aha! I couldn’t find anything about it after a quick search but the instructions were simple:

Go compete and we’ll send you a tabard, win or lose.  If you win, though, we might send you a shiny medallion…

Cool, thinks I, I need honor on the druid anyways.  One fast, successful AV later and I visits my mailbox to find:

So what’s this spirit of competition?  Why, a Chinese dragon!  Nice one,  Blizz! What a pleasant and random surprise.

Seems tae me there’s somethin’ goin’ on around here. Somethin’ tae dae wi’ them druidic types. Well, ah told Jhai she’s tae spend a bit less time oan makin’ furballs an’ maybe spend some time lookin’ tae find oot what others o’ her type are up tae.  Seems they’re up to plenty, too.

Looks like there’s been a big ruckus involving Mr Kitty and his feathered, furred and barked(?) friends adversaries! Now, me, I loves my druids and I love the druid community - it’s one of the best class communities in wow, in my opinion, so I am furthering the cause with a little shoutout from my own two druids!

I’ll let Mr BBB explain.

Or your raid leader will send you here to learn -

Hehe just an old screenie I found laying around.  Our RL is very fond of saying ‘Don’t die to stupid shit!” (as I’m sure many are) and stupid shit often consists of whatever the boss happens to be spewing on the ground - fire, acid, poison, etc.  I could just imagine them sending you to somewhere like this to ‘learn’.