A F2P Gamebreaker!

Many know I have left World of Warcraft for the time being while I wait for the next expansion.  In the meantime I have been playing Runes of Magic.  I am enjoying it more than I thought I would until I the cash shop and real money exchange issue have presented itself as highly disappointing.

On Sunday, June 27th, I purchased two Ultimate Game Cards at $20 each from GameStop.  I redeemed them that afternoon jumping through many hoops and steps only to be taken to another companies web page. I landed on PlaySpan.com.  Apparently the cards must be redeemed with a company that at first thoughts felt like I had walked into the bad side of town where all the windows and shop fronts where run by rejects for the old geocities days.  I could not help but to check the lower right of my win 7 install to make sure my security software was active.  But I digress. 

When I exchanged my two cards for the companies Up Points I then began my purchase of Runes of Magic diamonds.  Oddly enough you can not purchase the exact amount of diamonds for the money you invested for the cards.  This overage is understandable as a way the company makes a profit, but still seedy and less than honest.  With my $40 turned into points I was able to place an order for 1000 diamonds. 

Once the transaction was in process it took me to an frame that linked to the Frogster account management site, the company that runs Runes of Magic in the states.  I inputted my order and was offered with the option to apply 21 diamonds to my account.  21!  Not 1000!  21!  I thought how odd that was, but once I got into game sure enough, I had only been credited 21 diamonds when I paid for 1000. 

Then the HUGE frustration set in.  I am used to working with a company that has an actual phone number to contact, IE Blizzard.  When I logged into PlaySpan to try and resolve this issue I was only give the option to use an online ticket system, for which only automatic responsive have been issued. . And the best news it. . wait 24 to 72 hours. 

24 to 72 hours for something that should work?  72 hours!!!!   I decided to lay out $40 so i could take benefit of the cash shop in game.  To be honest the PayPal method works without flaw, but they have locked diamonds purchased with PayPal or credit card so you can not trade or gift items.  The whole reason for the two cards where so I could gift permanent mounts to my wife and daughters toons. . . Now I sit at the 1st with no mounts, no diamonds, and out $40!

But I rant. . . and sorry for such a rant.

I do believe F2P games have a lot to offer and can be very successful.  I am looking forward to LotRO’s F2P offerings and how the community will grow. . and knowing Turbine, issues like this should not be evident, I hope.

For me, I feel burned, and disappointed.  It is making it hard for me to want to log in, and that affects my guild mates.  I just hope soon something gets resolved.

Thanks to you all if you made it this far in this rant.  If anything can be taken from this, if you use cards to purchase items use only company cards and not these third party cash cards which in the end make you feel as if you should wash your hands after handling them.

GearScore + Anon = Net Bullies or Skill > GS

Back in the good old days of Burning Crusade I began to get discouraged when I hit 70 on Paravel, my resto druid.  Why? Because I would look to join a group doing a heroic or raid and they would demand that you had a magically determined bonus healing stat.  Often time this stat was pulled out of the “wow forums floating cloud of trolls”. No real science or crunching of numbers determined what made an effective player. And more times then not it would be a number that could only be reached by already being one of the few who have cleared the highest content at the time.

I mean really, does it make sense to demand gear from Sunwell for a Kara run?  Does it? O.o

Fast forward to Wrath.  We no longer rate a player on spell power, healing power or AP but instead on something even MORE mystical, Gear Score.  It started with sites back at the close of BC that would guess at an items gear score and create a data base to try and rate your characters place on a progression bar.  Site like http://be.imba.hu/ were tools where you could look up your level 70 toon, see missing enchants, gems, get suggestions for your class and build.  All and all a very helpful tool if you used it to work on your progression.  However things changed

The problem started when competing sites raised up on the net using different formulas for coming up with their base score.  Remember, the scores at this time where a mystery, and value that enhancements, set bonuses, mixing and matching for stats, were all guess work. With this arose no standard of a “gear score”.  One group would ask for a GS of 1000 when another would ask for 750.  The issue being that depending on what site they used the 750 could be a better geared player than the site that provided the 1000.  Talk about a headache.

Enter a mod author who, more than likely had good intentions, that released an in game mod that would make a GS based on a math of his own.  His statement was that it was not the end all to be all, but DOWNLOAD AND USE MY MOD!  Drama can be so fun to watch in the mod community at times, especially when someone wrote a mod to break this mod and the rumors and flame wars flared.

But, I digress, so what else is new.  Issue is back.  If you don't have a GS of XXXX you cant come and you get kicked out.  This problem and mod leaves out some important information, like player skill.  I have said this before, but I would take an under geared skilled player over a noob or jerk in gear any day on a run.  The argument that you must have a high GS to clear the highest content is negated by projects like clearing ICC 10 in all blues!

If you know how to play your class and work with others you can and will be successful.  If however you expect to be carried through a run to get better gear but have not a clue how to play then you are more than likely the one who stands in the fire, misdirects onto a clothie, or taunts the boss off the tank at enrage.  It does not matter if you have the highest gear in the game at that point, you still fail at the game and cause issues within your group.

I know you are probably wondering where the bulling part comes into this argument, and well you should.  If you have a slightly lower GS than the “floating cloud of trolls” have determined for that hour, and you end up in a random LFG group, you could be exposed to behavior you would never see in a face to face social environment.  Just stop it people, treat others with respect please.  How much more enjoyable our gaming life would be if we could just learn to get along and not be jerkwads.

GearScore is a tool, and measuring stick, not the end all.  What we really need is a mod that will take gear score provided by Blizzard, enchants, gems, set bonus and all into account, along with rating and notes into account so its not about a bottom line number but more.  Oh wait, their is *smile*

Enter Elitist Group (used to be Sexy Group, from the same author who did Sexy Map and Sexy Cooldown)

Again, EG is just a tool.  I will write a review and tutorial soon covering its usage and how to maximize the information gained from it without being a jerk.

Just remember that we play World of Warcraft for fun.  So does the person on the other side of that avatar, treat them as you would face to face.

[Video] Aion Siege Tutorial

Found this very cool video showing the cut scenes for the siege areas.

Pay to Play and RTM MMO’s is the Future. I think. . Maybe.

Ok, first I know its been a LONG time since I have put anything on the pages of my blog here.  Well get ready, lots of game stuff going through my head as well as updates into the pastor side of my life :)

Ok, everyone knows that several new MMO’s are trying to knock the indisputable heavyweight champ, World of Warcraft, off its pedestal.  Out of the handful, and I am a BIG fan of Aion right now, I think that only one really has a chance of doing it.  Free Realms. Yes, you heard me right, Free Realms, the latest MMO that has been sent down the shoot from Sony Entertainment.

In brief here is why I think they have a shot.

1. Its free to play.  Ok, so not if you want more than one toon and perks.  But you can play it for free.  The install is amazingly smooth and accessible to every day computer users.
2. The game plays very well and smooth.  My youngest daughter likes to play it and can even show up her old man, who has several years of MMO experience under my belt, up.
3. They have 3 million subscriptions already!  This is an amazing number and will only grow.  First it is interesting that Sony has opted to share this data. They are not afraid of what other will think and have no problems flaunting it. 

3 Million players after a couple months is HUGE.  And just think what will happen when they release the PS3 client of the game.  Talk about an explosion of players into a MMO world in a short period of time.  I am not afraid to go out on a limb and state that FR has a chance of knocking WoW off the high horse.  At least for player base and money made.

Money?  Are you kidding?  It’s a free to play game, how in the world will they make money?

Glad you asked.  The gang over at Massively have reported on the 89/10/1 rule.  It simply says that 89% of the games player base will not pay anything, 10% will pay the minimum subscription and 1% of players will pay well beyond that.  The speculative math done over at Massively comes up with a grand total using the "89/10/1 Rule" of $2.4M revenue per month.  O.o  That is a lot of income for a free game.

And when the PS3 client comes out those numbers have a great potential of going up.

It will be an interesting thing to watch.  I only wish a few of the other contenders would consider a pricing model like this.

Mike’s Week in Review

Well, as you have noticed it has been a little while since we have posted anything on the blog.  Moving and then the family getting sick can really toss a wrench in things.  So . . what has been going on over at Pastor Playz this week?

Computer Issues

This has been the week of computer nightmares.  First I decided to erase my Vista partition to go 100% Win 7.  I decided to dump Vista all together because, well, frankly, it stinks.  Next morning I changed my mind after doing some tweaking in graphics settings and trying to get the best look/performance out of LotRO.  So I went back to Vista to see if DX10 would work smoother.  That and I was getting a terrible Windows Experience Rating in 7, which is due to a bug I have since discovered.

Well, long story short, in the process of moving things around, and trying to set up my firewire camera, I sort of blew up my firewire external hard drive. 

So here is a tip: Do not unplug your external hard drive while its powered on and connected.  *head desk*  All that data now lost.  Oh well.

Church Stuff

What an exciting week in regards to church and ministry.  Tuesday morning I had breakfast with Tom Stringfellow, our associations new director of missions.  To make this a short story as well, cause I could go on forever on this topic, Tom wanted to know what I would need and thought about starting a new work.  A new church plant that would not only reach a local group of people, but use the Internet and social networking/media for touching peoples lives.  Needless to say after the past 9 months this was a very uplifting conversation.  I have sent him the proposal and will write more later.  But we are VERY excited about what God is doing.

Family

Seems like this was the week to get sick.  Tanya has been feeling under the weather, but its so hard to know how bad she gets.  We call her Shira because of her extremely high pain tolerance.  I'm such a wimp compared to her.  Rachel then got sick as well as Bethany, and as I write this I am going down hill rather fast myself.

We have been unpacking boxes trying to fill our new residence.  It is such a blessing to be out on our own again.  God is really good, and we have some awesome friends.  Even with temporary situations, we have had the best 2 weeks of our last year.

Game

Many already know that we have taken an extended leave of absence from World of Warcraft.  Our financial situation is the majority of reason for this break, but also a lack of enjoyment in game was part of it.  I had max leveled 4 of my toons and sort of just. . yea. . ran out of things to do, or motivation.  The hardest part about the break is leaving our wonderful guild mates and friends behind.  But we do have Twitter and social networking to keep in touch.

I started playing Lord of the Rings Online again.  I am a founder with a life time subscription, which makes the money part a lot easier on us.  That and I LOVE LotRO. It is a visually stunning game with great game play and Lore that you CAN NOT BEAT.  Its Tolkien for crying out loud.

I have also been testing/trying out some other MMO’s for kicks.  Ill be writing some reviews, but lets just say that so far, nothing touches LotRO and WoW, that I have played so far.

So. . the week has been full of lots of things.  I am behind on Dev4Gamers, but have been getting ready to start a video stream of it when I record.  So look for me at 8 am Monday morning PST.  :) 

Lost and Bored – Need New Goals

I have been feeling a since of being lost of late.  I just hit another goal of mine, to get Bricklethumb, my dwarf hunter, to level 80.  This makes my 4th 80 in WotLK, which according to some would label me hardcore.  I am not so sure I am hard core, but I do like to push myself in all areas of my life to see how well I can do.  It is part of the “gamer DNA” that is in me.

I have been splitting some of my time between WoW and Lord of the Rings Online right now.  While I seek a new place to serve, resumes out, making follow ups, and finding it hard to find employment as a 40 year old geek who has been in ministry for over 20 years, I have had to much time on my hands.  So Instead of the joy and fun I have always had in my chosen form of entertainment, much more stimulating that TV, IMHO, I now face a wall I, and others, have or are facing.

What to do now?

As  I logged on WoW last night discussion started in guild chat on what to do.  This is where some frustration sets in.  We often spend way to much time just trying to decide what to do.  Added to this issue is that two of us have multiple toons to help the guild out.  I have a tank, healer, and two DPS.  Iss, a good friend, has a healer, tank and DPS.  We both do not mind playing whichever character is needed, but sometimes to put our personal goals on hold to help out. . But that is what we like to do.  On top of this, we have 1 to 2 to many for a five man group. So someone has to sit out.  Normally you would think that people would whine and complain about this, but our guild is different.  We fight over who will sit out to make sure someone else has a go at it.  *smile*  I love that in them, even though it prolongs getting things done.

So I finally bit the bullet and made a list of people who where going to go do an instance that 2 people needed for quests.  I jumped on Vent where Iss and I got a chance to talk before and after the instance.  He made a very good observation after asking me a pointed question.

“So, your getting bored with the game too?”

The answer is yes and no, and the funny thing is we have both gone through this before.  When I started playing WoW I got to a point where things became boring.  I was not in a guild that raided and I had pretty much done all I could do alone or even in the small guild we had.  So when I heard about Lord of the Rings Online I jumped at it.  We left wow, headed to LotRO and formed Redeemed, our kinship on the Gladden server.

While there we met a player who joined our Kinship named Issichar, or Iss.  Iss was from WoW and bored and came to LotRO.  Iss was the kind of guy that was helpful and giving, a perfect fit for our group.  Several others either came with us from WoW or met and joined us while there.  But after a few months we started to hit the “So, your getting bored with the game too?” wall.  Most of us headed back to wow.  New content helped, and then the promise of WotLK. 

But, I ramble.  So lets bring things back to point.  I am not the only one feeling a since of loss, or boredom.  We are waiting for our guild to catch up, and desperately need some new people if we are ever going to hit up 10 man, let alone ever want to see 25 man content.  In the mean time what do we do?

The observation that hit me between the eyes was when Iss said that with ADD/ADHD he needs goals, once those goals are hit its sort of . . hit and miss. . .roam around. . get bored.  BINGO!  He hit it on the head.  My first character to 80 was Paravel, my healer.  Soloed her the 10 levels as resto, was fun.  Valimonde, my tank, leveled with Tanya’s mage, so we would get levels when we could.  I rolled Digory, my Death Knight and while not working on Val, got him to 80.  Then Val and Tatiaana (Tanya’s mage) hit 80.  Some gearing up . . all goals. . .pvp for Dig.  Then bored. 

Ok, no problem, let me level Brick.  Pushed him from 73 to 80 in 2 days.  Hit goal. . and . . . and . . . .

/run LotRO  - work on new character  - not many people around
/run WotLK – sit at character sheet and stair at what character to play.  Log one in. . .do daily. . get bored . .

/sigh

So . . . what is one to do?  How does and can this affect other areas of our life?  If we lose our goals, or hit them, what next? 

Let me know what you think?  Are you bored?  How do you overcome it?  Game, Life, Church, Family, whatever.

Questing Together and Random Couple Thoughts

Last night Tatiaana, aka Tanya, and Valimonde, aka Mike, got  a long awaited chance to do some leveling.  With the holiday's upon us finding time to sit down and play together has been difficult to say the least.  Then it seems when we do get time to play we are so beat that we fall asleep while questing.  It is rough getting old sometimes.  *smile*  But we press on.  Why?  For a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, Tanya and I have been married for 18 years.  We enjoy spending time together, even when it is in short doses.  With all the distractions in our lives it can be hard to find a get away, or place to just run away and be silly or have a ball.  Playing a game we can afford to do that.  *snickers*  She wont let me post the pic of us running through the tunnel linking Lock Modan with the Badlands as we traveled to free one of Father Winter's deer.  Seems the tunnel was rather hot and our armor sort of fell off while we where riding through.  You know. . silly things.  *looks over shoulder hopping Tatiaana does not thwap me in the back of the head*

Another reason we enjoy it is the challenge.  Mike is a goal oriented, strive to do all you can do, learn every skill you possibly can, teach others if they wish to learn kind of player/gamer.  Tanya is a puzzle and problem solver gamer.  In the past these two styles did not always fit, but as we play and work together not only in game, but over the past 18 years of this thing called real life, we have learned how to take the differences and complement each other.  I am the one who knows how to kill a boss.  She is the one who knows how to get to the boss if its a puzzle.  It is these differences that help us enjoy ourselves even more as we play together.

Gone are the days of parking ourselves in front of the television watching mindless dribble.  Now we park ourselves in front of the computer interacting with other people who are playing a game just like us.  Some may find it silly or possibly juvenile for adults to find so much enjoyment in a game.  Recently World of Warcraft has been shot at by some pretty crazy allegations from the head of the FCC to would be competators in the MMO marketplace.  The facts are that a ever growing number of adults in the United States, as well as the world population, are starting to turn to video games as their preferred means of entertainment and social interaction.  Can and should it replace going out and meeting friends face to face?  No. . it should not replace such activities as seeing daylight.  It is however just as legitimate, if not more rewarding at times, than spending hours in an activity that might otherwise be dull and boring to you.

Tanya and I love to play.  I am more into the game by far than her.  Some might even think that we are obsessed.  Honestly the nature of such games is made to keep you playing.  To keep you pushing yourself to become better than you are now.  TO achieve and reach forward.  To work together and break down complex problems.  To. . well, you get the picture.  The game reflects life.  It is what you do with it, how much time you put into it that matters.

I digress.  Back on topic of playing together.  We found time after a long two weeks of grabbing an hour or two.  Last night we helped the guild run Nexus, Tatiaana got her Red Christmas Hat.  We hit 76 and are very close to hitting 77 and getting our wings back.  She is home today and we hope to get some "quality" us time in.  

Take time with your spouse or significant other if you play with them.  One of the best words of advice I can give to help you enjoy your time together is this.  Communicate.  *smile*  Talk, discuss, work out small issues so you do not get frustrated if your partner does not play the same way you do.  After all. . . that is the best advice for couples in the "real world" as well.

Frosty the Deathknight was a jolly happy soul

Those of you who have known me for some time will understand my deep love of odd or non normal specs for a class.  I love the challenge of making a looked down upon rotation work, and I actually giggle when I can show that given the right player, any spec of any class can be useful in most situations.  With that said let me introduce you to Digory my frosty Deathknight. 

Let me take a quick step back before heading in to deep.  When the mention of the Death Knight class was introduced by blizzard I was one who . . well . . .I did not care really.  To me it sounded dark and foreboding, nothing like any of the characters I like to play.  Then they said you could tank or DPS with them.  Tank?  Without a shield?  pffft, the protection paladin side of me said.  I did not have any intention of playing one. 

Until I got my beta key.  While jumping for joy at the prospect of testing out Paravel, my restoration druid, on the beta I quickly found I had to wait and wait and wait for the character copy to go through.  So . . what to do. 

Shoot. . Ill roll a DK and see what all the fuss is about. .Ill probably hate it.

The opening quest set and starter zone I have to say and others have was . . . FAN STINKING TASTIC!  Oh my word. . By the end of my 58th level Digory, his name on the beta as well, had not only received a awesome armor set, but he had been redeemed!  W00t for character/life changing events.  But that is another story for another time, and I promise a few that I will post the RP side on the blog soon.

While playing my death knight I went with the frost tree.  Every one would cry out in /general, lrn2ply noob, every one knows blood is for dps, unholy is for pet and ice if for tanking!  I was worried at first, I had no intention of tanking with Digory seeing I have a perfectly good tankadin in Valimonde.  But, don't laugh, for rp purposes Digory had to stay frost.  And I am glad.

Frost is starting to prove itself as a viable DPS build.  I started reading articles and watching videos about frost.  The most information I gained was from a great post "Frosty DPS Discussion" over at Elitist Jerks.  You can head over and read all the discussion.  Some great information on builds and attack rotations.

Right now I am not shooting for many stats but attack power and strength.  It seems that quest rewards have been good to me and at the moment I am starting to see some fantastic numbers.  Last night my guild went into Nexus.  Our levels where all close.  DK 72, Tank 72, Marks Hunter 72, Disc Priest, 72, and a 78 Ret Pally. 

As we started the instance I worked hard to not pull agro, hit the tanks target and start my rotation of:

PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> OB -> FS
PS -> IT -> OB -> OB -> FS

And here is what I saw at the end of the night. . To say I was happy would be an understatement:



At level 72 (I dinged 73 after the run and doing the Wrathgate event.  RPFIT!) I can say I am loving my frost Death Knight.  For a person who would normally get a DPS fix from my ranged hunter or mage, doing damage up close and personal is exciting and new.

As for a spec that is not looked favorably upon by others. . Well BOOYA!  Love doing cool things with the uncool!  But I will be uncool again as I run around and find more and more Frosty DK's.  Its Awesome, and why I love this game!

So, if you want to push the boundaries, if you want to have fun, if you want to be the type of person to show those who laugh at you that you can be good, no great!  Then try a spec others say sucks.  Give it a try, if you don't like it, its only a few gold to go back to the cookie cutter.

The Making of a Junkie

Hi, everyone!  I know, who is this? Right?  Well, I am Mike's wife and playing partner.  I am probably the last person you would ever expect to play WoW.  I never thought I would play computer games myself.  I started playing WoW in order to have more in common with Mike.  He has always been into computing and computer games, and I felt that I needed to at least understand what he was talking about. :) At first, I mostly played just with Mike and enjoyed the time I spent with him, although I can't say I fully enjoyed the game at first.  For various reasons, I quit playing for a time.  When I returned, I retired my hunter and rolled a Draenei prot paladin instead.  I enjoyed playing her as I leveled.  I liked the durability and healing skills that allowed me to solo very well.  I was beginning to enjoy the game for itself, and even found myself playing at times while Mike was away.  I met some good friends that I looked forward to chatting with and the addiction began. 

Then I hit 70.  Suddenly, I found myself bored in the game.  I found out the hard way that, although I liked my prot pally for soloing, I did not really enjoy tanking instances with her.  I was not confident enough in my own skills to be able to lead a group.  It just was not my personality.  So I rolled a human mage.  After playing my very durable prot pally, I was frustrated initially with the squishiness of my clothie.  In time, I learned to keep my distance, use my crowd control skills and stay alive.  Before I knew it, Tatiaana was 70 also and I was hooked for good.

Now we are in Northrend. I still mostly play with Valimonde, although I have become a little more social with time.  I also rolled a Death Knight (a rerolling of my prot pally who is now retired on another server), but I am not sure if I will enjoy playing her as much as I enjoy my mage.  Val and I make a great team as we work to save Northrend.  With his strength and my DPS, we are a nearly unstoppable force!  (That is until we get cocky and take on a few too many mobs :)).  I love the look of Howling Fjords and am really enjoying the stories in the quest lines.  To date, my favorite part of the expansion was the achievement for killing 15 turkeys in 3 minutes.  Val and I were doing this together, so we had killed lots of turkeys.  Once I got the achievement and the turkeys became aggro to me, all those many that we had just killed respawned at the same time!  I was suddenly being attacked by a wave of like 20 angry turkeys!!! After I quickly arcane exploded them to bits, another group of about 20 attacked me!  I have not laughed so hard in a long time. While I still do not play as much as many people, I have definitely been bitten by the WoW bug.  I look forward to the times that I can play.  I am even beginning to enjoy raiding, but I think is partly due to the great guild that we have found.

Well, now you all know how the quiet, bookworm teacher became a frostbolt-shooting WoW addict.  Just remember, it can happen to the best of us. :)

79 Around the Corner and Other Fun

Tatiaana, aka Tanya, reminded me this morning while I was grumbling about server maintenance getting in the way of leveling, that I had not written on the blog for some time.  So . . .  *smile*  For all our wow readers, a wow update.

We have both been rather busy since the release of Wrath of the Lich King.  Bethany and I waited at Gamestop at midnight on the 12th in anticipation of going home with the 2 pre ordered copies we had purchased.  Unlike reports from some on well known podcasts, who obviously live in some strange places, we had over 300 people at our little Gamestop in Yuba City California.  It is always intrusting to see the people who share a hobby with you, even one as involved as World of Warcraft.

Tatiaana was already asleep when Bethany and I got home, and Bethany headed right to bed.  I cracked open the box, inserted the DVD and upgraded my account.  Blizzard put in some great lore facts and story background in the installer.  It was finished and I was ready.  But what to do?

Who do I log in?  Do I get Paravel into Northrend and start questing?  Do I get Valimonde in position with Tatiaana?  No that was out of the question as I decided that Valimonde and Tatiaana will level together.  Or do I roll my Death Knight?

I had run the DK starter zone while in the beta so . . .Digory, my 70 frost mage, had been rerolled and has become my Death Knight.  Now, for those wondering, no, you do not have to delete a toon to make a death knight. You simply must have a character that is at least level 55 on the server you start your death knight. You may only have one death knight per server.  Digory, my mage on another server, has been retired, Jadís is my new mage that I am leveling with Bethany's Shaman Benniah.

I began the quests and hit level 58 in just a little over two hours.  Was time to go to sleep.

Tatiaana and Val started questing the next day in Borean Tundra but did not like the zone.  It was drab and . . well. . blah.  Tatiaana ported us to Iron Forge and we then set of for Howling Fjord and oh we where so happy to do so!  HF is BEAUTIFUL!  The quest lines are so lore filled it is. . .amazing.  We where loving the progression and flow. 

When Tatiaana is at work I have been able to work on Paravel.  I decided to go ahead and work on the BT zone with her to give me more of a mix of things.  Leveling as a solo resto druid in the old game had issues, but I have found that I am able to survive and move along at a pretty steady pace.  Considering I am half a level away from 79 I think that Blizzard has done a good job with the reworking of talents and builds.  Just wish they would add more mana regen gear :(

I am working on getting Tatiaana to write on the blog in the next few days.  She has really enjoyed the expansion, and the two of us are having the time of our lives just spending time together.  Some may look at the two of us as strange or wierd, but when we are spending time playing a game together, communicating, talking to others, working together, we come away with a sense of accomplishment that we would never get from sitting in the livingroom watching hours of television.  If you play wow, or any other game, and your spouse does not. . even if they are not interested let them sit down and try it with you some time. . Use the guest pass. . They may not take to it but you will be surprised at how great a time you can have playing with your significant other.  I will make sure to poke her about putting in her thoughts on this topic since I am the "gamer" in the couple.

WARNING Fake Blizzard Phishing Scam!

Please pass this along!

I just received this email as well as others in my guild.  This is NOT from blizzard.  It is a Phishing attack trying to get you to log into a system which will provide your username and password to them to log in and clean your account out.

The email claims you are trying to sell your account and wants you to log in to verify you own it.  When you follow the link it does not take you to Blizzard but instead to an off shore server where they will capture your information.

 

Steps to resolve following the email.  It looks like this (URLS have been altered to prevent anyone from linking to them.)

Blizzard@ic04.XXXXXXXX
to gcfsmeagol
show details 9:54 AM (4 hours ago)
Reply
from    Blizzard@ic04.XXXXXXX
reply-to    Blizzard@ic04.XXXXXXXX,
Account@ic04.ic.cz,
"Services <acc"@blizzard.com
to    gcfsmeagol@hotmail.XXXXXXX
date    Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 9:54 AM

subject    Account Notification

Greetings,

It has come to our attention that you are trying to sell/trade your personal World of Warcraft account.
As you may or may not be aware of, this conflicts with the EULA and Terms of Agreement of Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft.
If upon further investigation you are indeed attempting to obtain monetary profit against the terms of the user agreement, your account can and will be disabled. Blizzard has the right to consider legal action if necesarry, based on the severety of the action.

If you hope to avoid account suspention you should verify your personal possession of the account in question.
We at Blizzard Entertainment take infractions of the user agreement quite seriously, and we must confirm the original ownership of the account.

Please Complete the information in  http://worldofwarcraft.XXXXXXXX..XXXXXXXXX/en/manage/loginservice.html this form to verify you are the owner of the account in question.

If you ignore this mail your account can and will be closed permanently due to suspicions of alternative ownership.
We ask that during the time of the investigation you give approximately twenty-four hours of inactivity after sending a response email. This should provide enough time for Blizzard to confirm your identity and that the terms of agreement are being followed as is necesarry.

Blizzard Entertainment Inc
Account Administration Team
P.O. Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623

Regards,

Account Administration Team
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.

This is NOT from blizzard and is very dangerous. 

If you fell for it please log into the official warcraft account site and change your password right away. If you find you are locked out contact blizzard.  Also report this to blizzard so they can follow up.

QQ More Noob – WoW and Church

A friend asked me last night. "So, you don't like emo do you?"  My answer was, "No, is it to much to want people to learn how to adjust to real life and not expect everything on a plate?"  And it got me thinking.  Right now is an example of lots of over privileged people crying that the world is ending because something they "CHOOSE" to do is being impacted by REAL WORLD issues beyond the control of the programmers.

For those of my readers who do not know what is happening, well, World of Warcraft is launching its second major expansion tonight.  In the process of getting ready a lot of changes have been made to the game system, a system that I think far to many people take for granted.  You know, the same people who have no idea the work that goes into that Hot Mocha they just ordered at Starbucks.  The same people that if you ask them where milk comes from they will answer, "the store."

In a game with over 11 million subscribers it becomes a hotbed of whiners and QQers (For those not up on the lingo, just isolate the QQ and tell me what you see.  *smile* )  Not only does Blizzard have to balance the customer support nightmare but they have to make sure things go smooth tonight with the launch. 

Ok, so some hiccups nailed them when they applied whatever implantations of the software server side yesterday.  Ok they spent all day, and even part of today with the servers down to make sure people end up happy.  I would HATE to be in the shoes of the technician who are trying to get things back up.  Especially when EMO kids are complaining.

I had a little spar with someone on the official forums.  I made a simple comment about how I would rather have the down time when it happen than come home from Gamestop tonight, load the game and not be able to enter Northrend.  The reply I got was, and I paraphrase:

"OMG Blizzard SUCKS!.  I pay $14.95 a month to play this game.  I expect my cell phone, cable TV . . . blah blah blah.  to work. . .Blizzard is the worst!"   

I would have laughed but this attitude just struck a raw nerve.  Here is a person, who thinks the world owes them something, complaining because their life is impacted for a short time.  The feeling is that his "INTITLEMENT" gives them the right to make over reaching over generalizations.  And we wont even talk about the laps of common sense.  Ok maybe a little.. . Just that morning our Comcast Cable went out. Had no Internet for the first 6 hours of the day   O.o  IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD   /slit

But I digress. 

The issue is not that Blizzard has failed.  heh, I dare anyone to show us that they could run things any better.   .  .  . *still waiting*

The issue is that people need to relax, enjoy life, go outside some times, and enjoy what is around them.  Realize that things happen and we just have to deal.  Do we always like it when a storm comes through and knocks out power for 2 days?  Heck no. . But do we look back at the quality time we had with our family when we could not hide in a corner with a T.V. or computer or . . . Oh yea.

So, to all the emo QQ'ers who are going to quit the game over this.  I have one thing to say.

There's the door. 

*smile*  I know. . mean. . But serious!

And now for those expecting something about the church, after all, I did put it in the title.  Well, just reread the article, replace the word Blizzard with your churches name and wala. . . .

Let's not be emo QQing noobs anymore!

/rant

Grr, I lied, Turning Rant back on after talking to a guild mate in Gtalk Dori, before posting this.

One thing that REALY disappoints me is that some of the very same people who where yelling the sky was falling and they where going to quit took advantage of a glitch when the servers did come up.

Once servers rolled online apparently you could purchase select PvP gear that used to require a high personal rating.  The price was messed up, most likely from a careless oversight in the rush to restore databases.  So when people found out they did they told Blizzard about it so it could be fixed.  WRONG

The took a virtual ROCK and tossed it through the window of the department store and walked off with the item, all the time justifying it by saying Blizzard sucked and made them wait to get back online.

ARGGG.  Ok. . I'm going to finish now before this becomes a novel on the social ills of idiots.

Love you all. . .its going to be a good day no matter what :)

Can't Level Past 70 without WotLK

While reading blue posts I got a conformation that you will NOT be able to level past 70 without the expansion.

Taar asks:

Will I be able to start leveling past 70 at midnight on Thursday, even if I do not have the expansion yet?
- Taar

Nethaera responds:

Unpossible.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/12454631457-level-to-80-without-wotlk.html

Midnight WoTLK Release - Ill Be There

For those of you in the WoW universe you know that Wrath of the Lich King is coming out tomorrow at midnight.  Bethany and I will be at the Gamestop in Yuba City at 10 PM 1070 Harter Rd # 102.  If you happen to be in Northern California, and by chance going to be in Yuba City, come say hi.

Is Arthas Closer? Extended Maintenance Time

Blizzards has posted a note on the log on screen.

We encountered some issues and need to extend the maintenance.  We currently estimate that all realms will be playable by approximately 1:00pm PST.  Thank you for your patience.

I am speculating that we will see the next large pre expansion event.  It only makes since after the popular plague.  I do hope so. . I'm getting bored. . Need more fun story line driven fun.

The Prot Paladin and You!

I know I have written a lot about Paravel and her lovely, wonderful, active tree form lately.  I also know that you might be wondering just what has happen to all the news about Resto Druids.  Well that will all still come.  BUT. . .I have recently dusted off my shield and mace, and brought Valimonde back into action since patch 3.0.2.  And right from the start I have to say.

I FREAKING LOVE PROT PALLADINS AND TANKING AGAIN!!!!!

Blizzards has finally given protection speced paladins the tools needed to do everything we have always dreamed of.  They have given us at least two new talents that have turned the tables on all those old stuck in the mud, this is how it has always been done, warriors out there who say Paladins can tank 5 mans but never a raid. 

One of the bigest concern and arguments used against paladin tanks on larger raids has been that. . you use mana.  A tanking situation is a careful dance of agro managment and mitigation.  In order for a paladin prior to the patch to stay ontop of the threat list he had to do holy damage.  To do holy damage he had to use his skills which would use mana, lot's and lots of mana.  When you run out of mana you are unable to do your spells and before long that mage in the back starts to overtake your threat.  If you are unfamilure with what happens when a mage, or any other class, over takes your threat on a boss, well, lets just say it looks a lot like the floor.

It was because of the mana issue that many old school raiders would never allow a paladin to tank raid bosses.  To some extent they had a valid point, however, I have seen some fantastic tankadins prior to the patch porve the sceptics wrong. 

So, what to do about mana?  Blizzard answerd our issue with this.  Greater Blessing of Sanctuary

This new spell, which is only in the protection tree, offers a wonderful solution.  What does it do?

1. Reduces damage taken by 3%.  This may not sound like a lot of damage mitigation, but every bit helps, and frankly, this is not the reason it will be the only blessing I use.  This is:
2. Gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% maximum mana whenever the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack.

O.o  Let me put this in real world terms.  The new guild I am in just did our first Kara run Saturday night.  I seldom had to drink.  When we got to Prince on the roof we had one slight misshap.  Many of our team had NEVER been in Kara and did not know the dance with the enfeble.  We ended up loosing half the raid, BUT, we 5 maned prince and got him in one shot.  I tanked him with only 5 members for more than 3/4 of the fight.  When he died I looked at my mana bar.  It was full! 

This allowed me to keep at least 1K TPS (Threat Per Second) on the boss at all times.  So mana is no longer an issue for a tankadin.  It should also be noted that Warriors, Druids, and Death Knights will also benifit from this blessing when they are off tanking to us paladins.  :)

The next tool that Blizzard has given us is our 51 point talent *drum roll*

Hammer of the Righteous

Oh how I LOVE this new talent.  This is a new AOE, err. . well 3 target Melee atack that gives the paladin up to 4 times (NOTE, tool tip is being changed to reflect the real 4 times damage with 3.0.4 as I write this) your main hand damage per second as Holy damage. This attack causes HIGH treat. 

Perfect!  What we have always needed!  In normal situations a tankadin would use his Avengers Shield to get a head start on frontloading threat.  Only issue with the old method is a very long cool down on Avengers Shield makeing it nearly useless to climb back on top of the threat list once you started to slip.  With HotR we simply nail the mob every 6 seconds to not only build threat on them, but on the mobs next to them then you are AOE tanking.

I have to admit I am aprensive to write about HotR.  I am so fearful of others crying about it. You see. . I belive this little gem has made the prot spec fun again in more areas than just tanking.  It has helped to increase tankadins over all DPS.

In our Kara run I was 4th on the DPS chart!  I have NEVER been above another DPS class no matter how bad their gear was before patch. It was just not my build or skill set.  Now I am wraking up 2.5K avenger shield pulls, 1.5K to a whopping 3K HotR crit.  Its. . its. . just AMAZING!

And then!  PVP!  OH MY WORD!  Forget how over powered Ret Paladins are in BG's.  In previous days I would take Val into BG.  I could live a long long time, but kill nothing!  Now. . .Arms and Fury warriors run from Prot Paladins.  Ret Paladins end up screaming WTF when a prot nails them into the ground with HoTR and a few avenger shield tosses.   ITS AMAZING!

In conclusion, (You know, I was taught to never end a message or post like that :P )  I am so excited to play my tankadin again.  It is so much fun.  We are still having the OH WOW factor.  Just last night we took a 65 fury warrior, and a 66 Enhacment shaman into Underbog.  It was cake.  We planed to do Slave pens as well to get the quest done for them.  We where done in no time.  Tatiaana, my wifes mage, had to go at this point, but Mel, my healer and I said, why not do Steam Vaults.  When all was said and done, even with under level DPS, we did all three colfaing instances in under 2.5 hours!  WOW!  I can not wait to hit Northrend.

Here is to all the protection paladins out in the world.  Education will prevail and we will be given the chance to do what we always knew we could, or always wanted to do.

Loving, Guild, Patch, Kara, Coffee, Vent, Tanking, A Certain Mage . . .

Last night I ventured into the musty spooky halls of Karazahn for the first time since patch 3.0.2 was released with my new guild.  A little over a quarter of our raid had NEVER been in Kara up to this point.  Besides the completely new people to what many call the “entry level” raid instance, about three of our other members where on classes that they had never brought to Kara.  Typically one would hunker down for a long night, or at least a split day run of Kara when running with new players or classes that had not got their raiding legs under them yet.  But not tonight.

I am not going to take up page after page rehashing each and every boss.  However I will say that we one-shotted every boss, with the exception of Mirkblood, the new boss that is only in game for a couple more days.  It took us 2 attempts to figure out the rhythm.  When we did take him down on the second try it was a thing of beauty.  Instead I want to talk a little about the discussions and perspectives that players have concerning the expansion, and what the game will be like.

Blizzard has nerfed boss health and damage output as well as buffing player/class skill sets.  After the first pull of horses on the bottom floor a smile crept across my face.  I have dusted off Valimonde, my protection paladin, and transferred him over to be with this guild. I will be leveling him before I level Paravel, my resto druid.  As a tank with new groups I often pull the mobs to myself and zoom out my camera so I can get a feel as to how the group works and thinks.  In past experience on the simple trash pulls many a pug or new group will wipe once or twice just getting to the first boss.  Not this time.  After we cleared to Midnight, I had confidence in the abilities of our guild.  Each person filled their roll as if they where champions.  Thank you Blizzard.

I am completely in favor of the new philosophy, or at least the newly publicized philosophy to make the game about the player and not the class.  Many of us know of that guy decked out in T5/T6 gear but could not DPS/Tank/Heal a fencepost to save his life.  He may have been a charity case or carried by a guild/raid with people who just took over for his lack of skill.  We also know those players who excel at playing, have a good grasp on how the mechanics of a fight play out, but might not have the greatest gear, mainly because of that little thing called, LIFE.  If last nights run with the ease of care we cleared Kara is an indication, we will be unstoppable in our pursuit of fun and joy in a game that, frankly, sometimes can suck the fun and joy out of you when you are pushing to hard to hit that ubber skill mark.

We have 10 days until we can set foot on the shores of Northrend and begin our leveling and questing to hunt down the Lich King.  In these 10 days I plan to continue to get to know my new guild mates, learn more about the changes to my class (I WILL be posting an article on Prot Pallies soon!  THEY ROCK!) and ramping up for more fun.  Oh, and also leveling an alt or two to help with professions.

To all my guildies on The Scryers in Thought and Memory I tip my hat. Job well done friends, job well done.  Now let’s go kick Arthas’s tail!

Multibox Light Show!

Was chatting with a friend when in the middle of Stormwind on The Scryers server 5 shaman showed up to give us a light show.

[gallery]

Busy WoW day.

Its been a while, but the fun in the game we love to play is back.

Tanya's mage hit 70.  I grabed this screen shot and made a wallpaper



Let me know if you would like the wallpaper.

And the Scourge invasion was in full swing.  I hopped on Val and was able to get revered with the Argent Dawn and get a tabbard.  Great time indeed.



Great time indeed.  Now all is left is to rais the funds to move, Para, Val, and Tanya's mage to The Scryers to begin our new journey with Thought and Memory

Looking forward to the expantion.  But for now. . Sleep time.  Then. . a hard day ahead.. But all will be well.

Project Move Para - Custom Themes

/company experiment mode on

I have found a new home. . Now I need to transfer Paravel and Val, and then Tanya's mage. and . . yea I know.

In the lean times of the budget crises with Tanya not getting a contract after last years school year, and my attempt to get the company off the ground, times, as with most in the country, are tight financially.  So. . I have taken a custom theme I was doing for Deep Magic and I am offering it as  limited edition theme for 10 lucky guilds out there.

I do not know if this will work, but my normal prices on a custom drupal theme run from $500 to $2500.  These one shot themes will go for $25.  Desperate?  Hmm. . not sure.  But its worth a shot to see how it works out.

If you would like to see them you can view them at http://new.guildredeemed.com