tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91773130914438939212024-03-13T12:30:19.275-05:00When Enraged...and in heat, a female troll can rant about over 80 patch changes in one post. be ya prepared?Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-50517897745766383152011-05-13T19:40:00.003-05:002011-05-13T19:51:01.982-05:00Survival of the Fittest: A Hunter Dungeon Leveling Guide<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sslskmLVwHo/Tc2mH-84TqI/AAAAAAAAAzM/CV4mf_5hFmI/s1600/frankie.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="259" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sslskmLVwHo/Tc2mH-84TqI/AAAAAAAAAzM/CV4mf_5hFmI/s320/frankie.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Who are these people and what's their average<br />
net worth? Do they even own guns?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Internet, meet Frankie. Frankie, meet the Internet.<br />
<br />
This is Agatha Francesca Biznicks, "Frankie" to friends and potential customers. She's the heir and owner of Biznicks Rifles and Ammunition, patent holder and exclusive dealer of the legendary Biznicks 247x128 Accurascope. Basically, she's an RP character that I lost my gusto for not long after creating her. But now she's going to be breathing new life into this blog, and hopefully into low level hunters everywhere, as the star of the first ever When Enraged recurring feature!<br />
<br />
"Survival of the Fittest" is going to be your step-by-step guide to leveling a baby hunter through the LFD system. It will be done sorta-kinda in tandem with <a href="http://glaivecow.wordpress.com/">the Glaivecow's</a> Adventures of Prot Cow series, which is a similar project with, er, a prot cow. Anyway, seeing as we're in the same guild with the same raiding schedule, we're going to at least be starting it off together.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Talents</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LRpYFbmgado/Tc2zIKNvZsI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/7IEAxxHg2Vs/s1600/lv15-talents.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LRpYFbmgado/Tc2zIKNvZsI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/7IEAxxHg2Vs/s320/lv15-talents.png" width="176" /></a></div><b></b><b></b>So Frankie is level 15 and getting ready to head into her very first dungeon. At this point she's got four talent points to spend. I've decided to level her Survival because it's what I have the most personal experience with in Cataclysm <strike>and it made for a cuter feature name</strike>. I really don't have much of a grasp on Marksmanship or Beast Mastery since it's been so long since I played them, and I'd hate to write a "guide" that had huge glaring errors in it.<br />
<br />
Your first three talent points are going into Pathing, for a direct 3% boost to haste. While haste at level 85 is a tricksy beast, with a single "sweet spot" for Survival and a handful of plateaus for Marks, it's easier to deal with while leveling -- more is better. Focus drain is a big problem at the very earliest levels, and haste not only directly increases your focus regeneration, but it shortens the cast time on Steady Shot, which gives you additional focus regen.<br />
<br />
The fourth (and fifth, when you get it) point is going into Improved Serpent Sting. On its own it's not a super awesome talent, at least not until you get Serpent Spread later on, when it becomes part of Survival's fantabulous AOE toolbox. But it is at least marginally useful in the sub-Cobra Shot/Chimera Shot levels, when you'll be manually refreshing Serpent every time it falls off. Constantly. FOREVER. (The fact that I am personally <i>awful</i> at remembering to refresh DoTs is a big part of why I was Marks through most of Wrath.)<br />
<br />
It's also your only viable dungeon-crawling option in the first tier. Hunter vs. Wild was kind of hot back in the halcyon days of Ulduar -- its prerequisite was Survivalist, which gave the bonus stamina that HvW does now, and HvW itself converted a percentage of your stamina into agility. Unfortunately, it's just a straight stamina boost now, and while it makes a decent PvP or soloing utility, it's not going to do us much good in the LFD queues.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Pets</b><br />
<br />
<b></b>Pets are a completely different mechanic now than they have been at any point in hunter history. The short of it is that every pet family brings a different buff (to the entire party) or debuff (to the target). These buffs and debuffs mimic those brought by different specs of other classes, so the best thing to do is see what's already being provided by your groupmates, and then fill in the most useful remaining spot with one of your own pets.<br />
<br />
A good place to start for this is <a href="http://forthebubbles.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/petflowchart3.jpg?w=744&h=684">Zee's Raiding Pet Flowchart</a> (shamelessly ganked from <a href="http://forthebubbles.wordpress.com/">I Like Bubbles</a>, where all good WoW flowcharts originate). I have this in my "Important Shit" bookmarks folder where I can get to it quickly as people get swapped in and out of raid groups.<br />
<br />
As you level a hunter, you gain the ability to have multiple pets "with you" at a time, which you can dismiss and summon at will, fitting in nicely with the whole "bring pet based on group composition" framework. However, at the very beginning, you're only going to have one pet -- <b>and</b> none of those pets gain their special buff/debuff abilities until they reach level 20. So for right now, it's not going to matter that much.<br />
<br />
If you're looking on down the road, since you don't get Call Pet 3 until level 42, the first two pets you'll probably want to keep with you are a wolf, whose <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=24604">Furious Howl</a> gives everyone in your party 5% bonus crit, and a cat, whose <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=93435">Roar of Courage</a> grants Strength and Agility. The wolf buff is going to be more useful to others in the party, while the cat's buff is the single greatest DPS boost to yourself. It doesn't really matter which one you get first (since, again, you'll have both of them before their special abilities even become available). Whichever one you think is prettiest.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>Rotation</b><br />
<br />
<b></b>So now that you've got your character all tidy, it's time to figure out what the hell you're going to do! When you first walk into either Ragefire Chasm or the Deadmines, your rotation is going to look like this:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Hunter's Mark</b> (before the pull if possible).</li>
<li>Send your <b>pet</b> in to attack.</li>
<li><b>Serpent Sting</b></li>
<li><b>Explosive Shot</b>.</li>
<li><b>Arcane Shot</b> <i>if</i> you have enough focus for it immediately after Explosive.</li>
<li>Chain cast <b>Steady Shot</b> until Explosive Shot is off cooldown and you have enough focus for it.</li>
<li>Refresh <b>Serpent Sting</b> if it falls off.</li>
</ul><div>(This is actually a modified version of the rotation I use at 85; I just sub in Black Arrow for Arcane if it's off cooldown, and use Arcane to bleed off focus if I cap.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>An important note: with as little haste as you probably have at this point, it's incredibly likely that ExShot will come off cooldown <i>before</i> you have enough focus to cast it. That's okay. Avoid the temptation to just go ahead and hit Arcane because you already have enough focus for it! You'll just be pushing your glorious explosive victory back that much farther.<br />
<br />
</div><div><b>Macros</b></div><div><b><br />
</b></div><div>The only really useful thing you can macro together right now is Hunter's Mark with your pet attack -- saves you a keystroke at the beginning of the fight, and is helpful if you tend to be forgetful about one or the other.</div><div><br />
</div><div><blockquote>/petattack<br />
/cast Hunter's Mark</blockquote></div><div><br />
</div><div>Simple as that. I keybound it to Ctrl-1, where my pet attack has been bound since I first rolled Jez three and a half years ago.<br />
<br />
</div><div><b>Heirlooms and Enchants</b></div><div><b><br />
</b></div><div>If you want heirlooms, get the mail agility ones; they auto-convert down to leather until you train for mail. The leather ones will work fine, too, up until level 50 when the armor specialization kicks in. You don't get dual wield until 20, but the daggers are fine after that. The bow is good too. Enchant everything with the highest agility or attack power enchants you can find. (Ktok pissed me off when he mentioned he was going to be doing this section, because it was more work than I wanted to do, but then I realized how moronically simple it would be for a hunter guide. Have fun with that parry-dodge ratio, little prot cow!)</div><div><br />
</div><div>And now that this post is over a thousand words, quite possibly the longest thing I've ever written on this blog, I'm going to let it go. Sometime tonight or tomorrow, Frankie will be heading off onto her first big adventures, and we'll have a post about the dungeons lying between you and level 20!</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com118tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-25028119110347055862011-05-10T10:03:00.003-05:002011-05-10T10:08:46.386-05:00A Drop in a Bucket in a Bucket Full of Buckets(<span style="font-family: inherit;">Keep reading that title and the word 'bucket' will stop making sense to your brain. Bucket bucket bucket bucket bucket.)</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So Activision-Blizzard's earnings call went out yesterday, and the big thing that all the Warcraft nerds picked up on is that WoW's subscriber base has slipped from its 12 million high point to about 11.4 million. To put this into perspective, the State of Azeroth has slipped from just behind Pennsylvania (6th in the US) in population to being tied with Ohio for 7th. <em>Oh the fuck noes</em>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Naturally, that bizarre breed of creature that likes to complain constantly about Blizzard while still paying to play their game* has pounced upon this news with great fervor. Surely their wanton disrespect for the wishes of [casual players|hardcore raiders|alt levelers|roleplayers] in making Cataclysm content [too easy|too hard|too fast|too slow] has come back to them and they're suffering for it. (And yes, I have personally heard ALL of those arguments.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So I have two points to make in response to this.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">1) <strong>This is not a massive blow to Blizzard.</strong> Guys, the 600,000 subscribers that the game has slipped from its peak is larger than EverQuest's entire player base ever was at a time. People who didn't play MMOs before WoW came around (including me, but my guild started in EQ1 and has a lot of vets from those days to offer perspective) may not understand exactly what an unimaginable juggernaut this game is. Any MMO that manages to get a million subscribers at one time is considered a runaway success on par with a <em>Titanic</em> or <em>Avatar</em>. Most game companies would shit bricks of cayenne pepper wrapped in barbed wire at the thought of having a subscription-based game with five million users. WoW is on a completely different plane of existence than the "MMO market". It is to MMOs what Windows is to operating systems. Yes, there's competition (more on that later) but it's going to take some kind of severe event to knock this game out of commission.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This goes for the people who keep postulating about Blizzard jumping on the free-to-play bandwagon, as well. If WoW goes free to play anytime in the next five years, possibly ten, then I hope one of you bastards has Will Smith's cell number because Mike Morhaime is a goddamn pod person. Despite the slump in subscribers, Blizzard actually made <em>more money</em> from WoW this past year, between sales of the expansion itself and (more likely) the craptons of premium services.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So no, they are not suffering. Not even remotely. With every expansion, new players come in and old players pick back up to see what's new. And a little while afterwards, the newbies who didn't click with it and the oldies who remember why they left peter off. Morhaime himself said it was a perfectly normal drop, it just happened a bit more quickly than it did with Wrath. That could be tied as much to old WC3 players being more invested in the Arthas storyline as anything else. Which brings us to the next point...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2) <strong>This is not because of your pet problem with Cataclysm.</strong> Sure, it might have influenced it some. It may have played some part in the erosion. But no one problem single-handedly caused half a million people to leave the game. First there are the people that leave for all the normal reasons people leave: financial burdens, RL issues, just plain burnout with the game. Then there's the aforementioned normal post-expansion dropoff. A decent number of people did pick up RIFT (heck, so did I), but most of the ones who left WoW for it entirely were people who were already dissatisfied with WoW and probably would have left soon anyway.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And you know what? For every person I've seen who did, I've seen at least one who went and tried it, was somehow disappointed, and came back. (Even more who keep playing both! Gaming isn't zero-sum, guys!) For every person I've seen complaining that the raids are too hard and it's not worth playing anymore because they can't progress, I've seen another complaining that Firelands just needs to come OUT already because they're sick to death of tier 11.</span><br />
<br />
So no, Bitchmoan McWhinypants, the loss of six hundred thousand players is not Blizzard facing their comeuppance for wronging you. They're still making money hand over fist. World of Warcraft is still the most popular MMORPG in the world, by light years. And most of the remaining 11.4 million of us are still having a grand old time.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><em>* This does not refer to players who sometimes have complaints, or even who often have complaints. I mean the people who write long rambling screeds on the forums on how Blizzard is the worst game company in the industry and treats them like crap and they've never been so insulted in their life and they want free game time for the 20 minutes they couldn't log on because their server was longer coming up than others on maintenance day. THOSE guys.</em></span>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-74846618544240825122011-04-06T00:06:00.003-05:002011-04-06T03:27:58.696-05:00Portent Alliance Is Recruiting!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.imgur.com/2v4wg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://i.imgur.com/2v4wg.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i>Does this sound like you?</i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Is schadenfreude your middle name? When I say I have incontrovertible proof that Kil'jaeden has a fetish for draconic bukkake, do you want to know more? Do you subscribe to the radical notion that your guildmates and raid teammates are <i>people</i> as opposed to little blinky boxes in Grid? Then <a href="http://www.portentalliance.com/">Portent Alliance</a> (Sentinels-H) may have a straitjacket with your name on it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">PA is a level 23 guild, currently looking for dedicated players to fill out an "upper-mediumcore" raiding team. We raid from 8:30 - 11:30 Eastern on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with old-world mount/achievement/legendary/RP gear farming on Saturdays. Loot is distributed by EP/GP. We're 12/12 in normal-mode Tier 11, and the third ranked progression guild on our server. Currently running one 10-man raid, but we're looking to fill out the ranks enough to run two 10-mans, then move up into 25s.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Our schedule is relaxed, but our attitude is not. We need people who can commit to raiding, show up on time, be prepared, know the fights, know their class, and be ready to rock a boss's face off.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We're in particular need of raid healers, especially druids, but any class and role is welcome -- we're just in general need of raiders. Any other questions or requests for information can be directed at our guild leader, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ktok">Ktok</a>, on Twitter or on his blog, <a href="http://glaivecow.wordpress.com/">The Glaivecow</a>.</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-79576336187170648122011-04-05T22:25:00.000-05:002011-04-05T22:25:42.362-05:0020 Days of WoW, Day 2: Why A Blog?<b>Why did you start a blog?</b><div><b><br />
</b></div><div>Because Rilgon told me to.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Actually because Rilgon, Pike, probably Brigwyn and Ava and countless other people all told me to. I was friends with a ton of WoW bloggers on Twitter already, and I kicked around the idea of starting a blog, mostly because all of my friends had them and I wanted one too. I hesitated because I know how bad I am at following through on stuff, and because my biggest roadblock in <i>any</i> writing project has always been a lack of ideas -- I'm much better at the act of putting words together than I am at coming up with anything to day. But it's fun, they said; we'll keep you going, they said; anyone can blog, they said; all points of view are valid, from the deep thoughts to the fluffy trivial things, they said.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So I started the blog, and promptly quit updating it ever. Told you so. :P</div><div><br />
</div><div>But hopefully this meme thing here will help me get going. And there's also going to be a semi-more-important post coming immediately after this, so keep your eyes open, especially if you're looking for a raiding home.</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-88710904576739307552011-04-04T10:54:00.001-05:002011-04-04T10:57:06.745-05:0020 Days of WoW Blogging! Day 1.A wild Jezriyah appears!<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Yeah, so there's new meme floating about -- the <a href="http://spellbound.nu/?p=829">20 Days of WoW Blogging Challenge</a>. For those of you who <i>haven't noticed</i>, I am in fact an incredibly sporadic and generally poor blogger, mainly for lack of any idea what to write about. Much easier to just yell things at Twitter as they come to mind than actually try to create a coherent train of thought. So a challenge that actually hand-feeds me 20 days worth of things to post about may help to get me in the groove enough to blog on my own.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Or it may not, and I'll vanish again 20 days from now. Who knows.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Anyway, the day 1 challenge: Introduce Yourself! Which I may or may not have even properly done when I started this thing.</div><div><br />
</div><div>My name, for all you Internet creepers need to know, is Jezi. (I do not actually think all people on the Internet are creepers; I just have a very uncommon first name that I try not to throw around.) I live with my two unbelievably incredible parents in a painfully stereotypical Wonderbread suburb in the deep South. I'm 25 and have a marketing degree that I'm currently making zero use of because lol, economy. I'm currently working as a temp, trying to make enough money to pay off the last two BlizzCons still on my credit card in time to put <i>next</i> BlizzCon on it while also keeping my WoW account up. Next spring, I hope to go back to school and get my master's degree in accounting, so I can do spreadsheets at stuff for a living instead of just for fun.</div><div><br />
</div><div>In game, I have several characters I hop around, but my raiding main and identity is <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/sentinels/jezriyah/advanced">Jezriyah</a>, a troll hunter (currently Survival) of <a href="http://www.portentalliance.com/">Portent Alliance</a>. She's actually my very first WoW toon ever -- the one I first created on my trial account. She's changed a bit since then; I basically created her because trolls were the prettiest Horde race that I could make since a trial couldn't make Blood Elves. By the time I got her into about the 60s, I'd fallen completely in love with the troll race and was completely ashamed of how cutesy I'd made her. As soon as the barber shop went in, she got some big honkin' tusks and a mohawk, and aside from a few dreadlock phases, she hasn't looked back. My current main alt project is a shadow/disc priest who's currently bubblequeueing her way through Outland.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I am a raider, in the upper end of mediumcore. We have three raid nights a week; we were the third and so far last guild on our (admittedly not super-progressed) server to kill Nefarian, second Hordeside behind the server's progression juggernaut. The guild is currently struggling a bit, with several of us (myself included) being very dedicated raiders, who study strats, know the hows and whys of our class rotations, and are able to give and take criticism without being hurtful. And several of us... um, aren't. So things aren't perfect. But we're a super close, tight-knit guild, and I'd rather run imperfect raids with some of my best friends in the world than be a few fights more progressed with people I don't love as much.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So that's about where I stand right now. Tomorrow will be why I decided to start a blog, which will be an incredibly short post.</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-9109251988081438352010-12-23T07:38:00.001-06:002010-12-23T07:38:15.614-06:00Crowd ControlThere were three of them in the open, a priest and two fighters. Two sharpshooters lurked behind them, camouflaged. Badly. Jezriyah shot Ailinea a knowing look; she chuckled and shook her head. Humans might have gotten the hang of tracking and shooting, but they made pretty terrible hunters on the whole. A part of her really wanted to give them a hug, point out that even the mage could see them, and offer to take them home to their mamas.<br />
<br />
But they <i>did</i> have guns, and the five of them had already slaughtered their way this far into the Deadmines. Udiyvli gave a great roar, rushing forward and slinging her mace at the priest.<br />
<br />
<i>Five.</i><br />
<br />
Pomaikai rushed in behind her. The young Sunwalker spun around as she ran through, throwing one hand out and shouting a sharp word in Taurahe. Light flashed from her fingers, and a beam of sunlight materialized from thin air, striking one of the fighters blind. He clutched his head and howled, crumbling to his knees.<br />
<br />
<i>Four.</i><br />
<br />
As the other fighter lunged for Udiyvli, Ailinea raised her hands, fingers twisting delicately in midair. The soldier's muscles stiffened, weapons falling to the ground. He gasped for breath as his body spasmed, collapsing in on itself. A tortured scream leapt in pitch as he folded inwards, flesh consuming flesh until his whole form tucked into that of a panicked swine, squealing in terror.<br />
<br />
<i>Three.</i><br />
<br />
Udiyvli laughed, stomping a mighty hoof against the craggy ground. The walls of the cave shook, and the two erstwhile snipers lost their footing. Grunjin barely missed a beat, his eyes narrowing in concentration. The soft green healing mist swirling around Udi's body extended, tendrils coiling about one of the men's ankles. It coalesced into squirming vines, which dug into the ground and clenched tightly around the target's legs. He yelped sharply, trying to jerk away from the thorns digging into his flesh.<br />
<br />
<i>Two.</i><br />
<br />
Jezi smiled darkly. She ran her fingers through her quiver, quickly discerning the fletching by touch. The arrow she drew had a small, blown-glass tip, filled with venom drawn from a wyvern's maw. She notched the arrow, pressed the end against her bow to crack it open, and fired. It caught the last dazed rifleman squarely in the throat. He gasped deeply, inhaling the vapors, and was quickly overcome, slouching against the stone wall in a daze.<br />
<br />
<i>One.</i><br />
<br />
It was only a few seconds later that the priest finally staggered back from Udiyvli's blows, looking frantically around for her compatriots. Horror dawned upon her face as she found herself alone, and her last screams never escaped the oncoming wall of light and fire.Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-69397066125917246672010-11-16T02:11:00.004-06:002011-05-10T11:43:02.465-05:00The End of the Beginning<div style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.06849853647872806" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The silence was deafening.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It struck Jezriyah suddenly just how cold it was. Granted, they were on top of the Citadel itself on a platform made of ice -- the chill was no surprise. But her vision had been so tunneled since the fall of Sindragosa that now, at the end of the long final battle, it seemed that she was standing at the foot of the Frozen Throne for the first time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The shock was beginning to break, now, and the ten of them began to grasp the gravity of what had just occurred. Qoholeth, head bowed in thankful prayer; Alessandrae crumbled on the floor, head in her hands, Ygdrasill on one knee and holding her tight to his chest. Peccator quietly healing the last of the group’s wounds. And Udiyvli, ever the leader, shaking snow and sweat from her mane as she walked towards the fallen Prince’s prone body, opening the small cache he had possessed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Jezi!” She gestured briefly, and the hunter walked over, to be presented with one of the stranger crossbows she’d ever seen. “I think you’re the only one of us who could make use of this.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jezriyah took the weapon gingerly, turning it over in her hands. It was a Scourge weapon at first glance, with all the skulls and spikes and deathly trappings they’d been so fond of. But its lath was awfully long, and made of a completely different wood than the other pieces of the weapon. She squinted, and turned it on its side. “Huh. Looki’ this, Udi. S’jes’ a longbow attached to a secon’han’ stock.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“So it is,” the warrior murmured, brow furrowing. “And look at the detailing on the front. That’s not even Scourge, it’s--”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“--elvish,” Jezriyah finished. Their eyes met for half a second, the same idea flitting across both their eyes. She bit her lip. “Linny may know... Tayllia would fa’ certain.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Know what?” Ailinea drew closer, pulling her hood back over her head and tucking her shivering ears underneath it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jezriyah reached over and brushed the snow from her friend’s shoulders affectionately. “Th’ origin a’this weapon.” She held the bow out with her other hand.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The mage’s breath caught in her throat -- Jezi was certain that was her answer, but she waited for confirmation. Ailinea ran her fingers over the lath, seeming to feel a remnant of arcane power in it. “It’s definitely quel’dorei in provenance,” she said slowly. “And... I can’t speak for <i>certain</i> of who it would belong to, but... it’s much more ornate than anything a lay ranger would have carried in battle. It must have belonged to a Farstrider of significant rank.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The three of them exchanged quiet glances. “Actually askin’ be th’only way ah kin think t’be sure,” Jezriyah murmured. She looked to Ailinea. “Would -- would you be willin’ ta come wit’ me? Ah always feel so out-a-place down there...”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Of course.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They approached Qoholeth after he’d finished his prayers and helped Peccator and Bosorn with the last of the immediately-necessary healing. “Q, dear--” Ailinea rested a hand on his elbow. “Do you think you could get us in touch with the right people to obtain an audience with the Dark Lady? We... need her advice on a subject of some import.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The priest blinked slowly, before offering a soft smile. “I find it hard to imagine you’d be able to <i>avoid</i> addressing her, considering what just happened here.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“A valid point.” Ailinea glanced between her two comrades. “We’ll all need some time to rest... and it’s much later than it feels now. The day after tomorrow, perhaps?”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Ay, tha’ soun’ good. Poor Miga’s got ’is leg nearly tore open.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Oh, goodness, I didn’t even see that. Let me go have a look...”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">---</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jezriyah did notice a few odd looks as she headed towards the Royal Quarter, but not nearly so many as there would have been were she not accompanied by a blood elf mage and Forsaken priest. She was grateful for their presence as they stepped into the imposing confines of the Banshee Queen’s throne room.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Your Majesty,” intoned one of the officials, reading from a scroll. “Priest Qoholeth of the Undercity, Dame Ailinea Phoenixborn of Silvermoon, and...” A momentary pause, as usually came from the eastern races. “Jez... rye-ay, of the Darkspear Tribe.” It was wrong, but not as badly wrong as it had been said before, so she let it be. “Veterans of the battle at Icecrown Citadel.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was at this last statement that Sylvanas’ gaze turned sharp, her jaw setting as she looked at them appraisingly. “Thank you, herald.” She looked around the room briefly. “You are all dismissed; we require privacy. You may return after our visitors have left.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The circled Deathguards bristled. “My Lady, as your bodyguards--”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“These soldiers are known to me; they pose no risk.” Jezriyah’s spine straightened uncomfortably at that revelation. “You will be told when you may return.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The varied guards and ambassadors in the room all filed out, most of them looking quizzically or suspiciously at the troll as they left. The doors were pulled shut, and Jezriyah stood awkwardly before the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Word of Arthas’ fall reached the Undercity almost instantaneously,” Sylvanas said, her voice perfectly even -- if she had any emotional reaction to this news, she certainly wasn’t showing it. “You and your comrades have won an incomparable victory for all of Azeroth, and not least the Forsaken, including myself.” Her voice softened. “It is not often I find myself in a position to offer my sincere gratitude to anyone, but you have all certainly earned it.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It be nothin’ compared ta your own sacrifices fo’ your people, Your Majesty,” Jezriyah said slowly, the words carefully rehearsed -- both for content and to minimize her heavy island accent. “But tha’ is part of why ah wished ta speak wit’ you today. We... obtained some items from Icecrown after th’ Lich King’s defeat. One of them in pa’ticular we think may have belonged to you or one of ya colleagues. An’ we wished ta return it to you if dat were th’case.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She unwrapped the bundle of linens wrapped around the weapon and stepped forward to present it to Sylvanas, her head bowed slightly. “It seems t’be an elven longbow, attached to a crossbow stock...”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The room went silent as Sylvanas took the weapon, examining it closely. Jezi searched her face for some hint of recognition, but found none, until the Queen spoke. “This is the Heartseeker,” she said brusquely, “or at least it once was. It did belong to me, though it wasn’t my preferred weapon. It must have been taken from the Farstrider base after Silvermoon fell.”</span><br />
<br />
J<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ezriyah bit her lip, unsure how to react to the matter-of-fact way Sylvanas spoke of such terrible events. “Then ah’m glad to have returned it to you,” she finally said.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sylvanas scoffed. “I appreciate the sentiment, I suppose, but I’ve certainly no need for it now.” She offered the weapon back to the troll, who took it gingerly.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jezriyah glanced to Ailinea. “Ah s’pose we could return it to th’ Farstriders fa’ safekeeping, den.” Her mage friend nodded her approval.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dark Lady’s eyes shifted downward to the stout gray wolf at her visitors’ side. “Whose companion is this?”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jezriyah smiled without thinking of it, patting her partner’s shaggy mane. “This be Mig’atali. He fought wit’ us at th’ Frozen Throne as well.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Indeed. A hunter of your people, then.” She looked at the troll for a long moment before speaking again. “What sort of weapon do you use now?”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Oh--” She pulled the bone bow she’d salvaged from Icecrown from its place on her back, holding it out for Sylvanas’ inspection. “I go’ it from some skeleton archer t’ing up nort’. It ain’ much for finesse, but it hit like an angry kodo.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Queen’s nose wrinkled. “Standard Scourge craftsmanship. Strength in numbers. Ten thousand shambling skeletons firing these and something’s bound to find a target.” Jezriyah couldn’t stifle a soft laugh -- it was just the comment she’d have made herself, and the reminder of the inviolable Dark Lady as a fellow marksman made her smile.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sylvanas caught the expression and returned it, though in a distant way that seemed to chill the room. “Silvermoon and the ranger corps have more than enough left to remind them of the scourging of Quel’Thalas. As the rightful owner of the Heartseeker, I think it fitting that you wield it. It would serve Azeroth better in the battlefield than displayed on a wall.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jezriyah’s eyes shot open. “I -- yah Majesty, I couldna possibly --”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Enough. You are both devoted to the defense of your people and capable of facing the most dire threats our world has seen. Consider it your just reward for your contribution to the war effort.” She let her gaze flick between the three of them. “Have any of you further business?”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They did not, and after another minute or so of formalities, they were escorted back onto the streets of the Undercity. A few minutes after that, Ailinea had summoned a portal, and Jezriyah found herself back in Orgrimmar under the pounding heat of a Durotar drought. She thought of visiting her parents, but instead headed to her own small rented room upstairs from Kaya’s gun shop.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Heartseeker was wrapped carefully in a thick bundle of linen, tucked under the bed with the rest of her battle gear. She might get it out in a couple of days on the training dummies, get used to firing with a trigger again -- but for now, the war was over. Azeroth was safe. It would be a long time before it was needed again.</span></div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-4201967156631255312010-09-06T23:15:00.000-05:002010-09-06T23:15:18.442-05:00We Interrupt This Dead BlogFor an important announcement.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/TIW8PXJ3W4I/AAAAAAAAAwo/GKYAmM3kLrc/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-09-06+at+11.04.25+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/TIW8PXJ3W4I/AAAAAAAAAwo/GKYAmM3kLrc/s320/Screen+shot+2010-09-06+at+11.04.25+PM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WEEEEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS<br />
MY FRIEEEEEEEND</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-45776469084740403402010-04-27T18:01:00.000-05:002010-04-27T18:01:47.464-05:00Back of the ClassMy name is Jezriyah, and I am a raider.<br />
<br />
Not a terrifically hardcore one, but a raider by anyone's standards. I have 3 scheduled raid nights a week (it used to be 4, but my raid leader is temporarily leading another group as well right now) with a random VoA/ToC run thrown in once every week or two. I crunch numbers like a motherfucker, or at least bribe <a href="http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/">Rilgon</a> with one-liners and gnome porn to do it for me. I know my role, I practice, I work my ass off. There's nothing casual about how seriously I take raiding in this game.<br />
<br />
I raid with nine other people. Warrior and paladin tanks. A resto shaman, disc priest, and holy pally healing team. One arcane mage, one unholy death knight, one balance druid, one frost death knight (occasionally swapped out for a ret paladin) and me, the hunter -- survival when I have to be for replenishment, marksmanship at heart and when I get my choice.<br />
<br />
I raid as a solid 20% of the raid's DPS if I'm doing it right, probably closer to 15% when you account for tank damage and the fact that our boomkin is god-tier. I raid with my reflexes on full twitch and every door between myself and the rest of the house shut. <i>I raid my ass off</i>.<br />
<br />
Mine is one of two ten-man raid groups in my guild. There are, in fact, 25 people in my guild who can put together a decent raid. We cleared the Lower Spire on Saturday (and I scooped <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=50362">THE TRINKET</a> off Saurfang) and could have gone a good bit further if we'd had the time. But that's where it falls apart. Our two raid teams have ten people each, and we've got three or four other raid-capable people, but putting together the 25-man involved taking one or two people who just aren't ready for prime time. We can run a 25, but we just haven't got the manpower to run a 25-man <i>progression</i> raid. And the scheduling differences throw another ugly kink in it.<br />
<br />
I raid without the 5% Rampage/Leader of the Pack buff. I raid without Mangle or Blood Frenzy, Trauma or Savage Combat. I raid with a single ilevel 277 item -- the exalted Ashen Verdict ring -- and some 264s from the Frost vendor (and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=50362">THE TRINKET</a>, which was a fluke of that one 25 we rounded up). I raid with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=50049">Quel'Delar</a> and non-heroic <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=50776">Njorndar</a>.<br />
<br />
I raid with the weight of the encounter on my shoulders. I raid with the knowledge that if I hang out in a void zone one tick too long, there's only one person watching my ass, not three, and if I keel over we're most likely going to wipe due to lack of damage. I raid with a back-of-my-hand knowledge of everyone's abilities -- whose damage will spike immediately, whose will build up, who's not good at moving and may need his name called out when he gets a debuff, whose connection is shaky on certain fights (and which) so if they don't respond for a moment they probably need extra heals and protection. And of course, the immediate recognition of every voice in the raid. (If you can manage this level of knowledge in a 25-man, good on you -- but I sure can't.)<br />
<br />
I raid. I raid my ass off. And when I get the Kingslayer title (hopefully sometime this week or next -- we've just downed Sindragosa this week), I will wear it with pride. And anyone who tries to assert that doing it with 9 other people and a 15% damage buff makes me any less the savior of Azeroth is gonna get <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=49897">my boot</a> up their ass.Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-12921797263308517152010-03-30T15:02:00.000-05:002010-03-30T15:02:03.005-05:00Sometimes, You Gotta Roll Your OwnThere's a proliferation of hunter blogs in the world. I'll wholeheartedly admit that I don't read most of them. But I do keep an eye on some of the bigger names -- especially those that I know newer or less community-aware hunters are going to flock to.<div><br />
</div><div>The one thing I notice a lot of is the use of hard limits. Numbers telling you when to do certain things with stats. If you have X armor pen, you gem for armor pen instead of agility. If you have Y amount of crit, you drop Arcane Shot from your rotation. If Z is less than A then ... you get the picture.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I understand the thinking behind it: it's simple. It's a crib sheet, and most of these rules are at least somewhat approaching correct (at least in concept if not execution). But for us crazy min-maxing motherfuckers, us people batting frantically at Arthas' heels, they... well, I don't want to say they completely fail, but...</div><div><br />
</div><div>They completely fail.</div><div><br />
</div><div>There are certain hard limits in the game for hunters, yes. Here they are:</div><div><ul><li>The raiding hit cap is 8%. If you are Marks, you can put up to 3 points in Focused Aim to drop your gear cap to 5%. If you are a Draenei, or will always have one in your raid, both of those numbers go down by 1%.</li>
<li>The hard armor pen cap is 1400. The soft armor pen cap is 1400 minus any additional armor pen procs you have from gear or trinkets.</li>
<li>The crit cap is like 104% or some shit. More than is worth worrying about. MOAR CRIT.</li>
<li>The haste cap is irrelevant. Don't stack haste. If you get some, fine, but don't chase it.</li>
</ul><div>Those are the hard numbers. Those are the ONLY hard numbers. Those are the only magic thresholds that can be crossed to change how you gear/gem/spec your character. The answer to any other gearing and gemming questions?</div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://www.femaledwarf.com/">Right here.</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Import yourself from the armory. Set up the buffs/debuffs you have in your standard raiding environment. Hit Update. Click DPS Scratchpad and write down the number. Make the changes you're considering, and hit Update again. Compare the two numbers. If it went up an amount worth the cost of making the changes? Do it! If not, stay put. (I seem to recall <a href="http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/">Rilgon</a> would gain like 60 DPS by gemming for armor pen, but it'd cost him like 1300g in rubies to do it. Wasn't worth it for him; your mileage may vary.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>This is not difficult, guys. It really isn't. If you have Windows and Microsoft Office and want it more accessible, you can download Shandara's spreadsheet (which Zeherah's is based off of) <a href="http://elitistjerks.com/f74/t30710-wotlk_dps_spreadsheet/">here</a>.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I know how tempting it is to find the easy button, but you know what? At the top levels of raiding, there's not one. It is really not that much extra work to do your own damn math if it means maximizing your performance and making your guild's kill happen.</div></div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-19185643322003392432010-03-13T11:48:00.001-06:002010-03-13T13:36:29.084-06:00Reason #2984 I Shouldn't Be Allowed To Know RilgonMaster Blueberry and myself, discussing an entry on <a href="http://www.fmylife.com/">FMyLife</a>...<br />
<br />
<b>Jez:</b><br />
Today, I bitched out my boyfriend for logging into my facebook account and deleting EVERY male (even family) off my friends list. He accused me of wanting to cheat on him and has forced me to say "sorry." FML<br />
<b>Jez:</b><br />
um<br />
<b>Rilgon:</b><br />
1) dump<br />
<b>Rilgon:</b><br />
2) bat > groin<br />
<b>Jez:</b><br />
this is the classic opener for abusive relationships<br />
<b>Jez:</b><br />
Cut her off from friends and family so she will feel you are "all she has" and not want to leave<br />
<b>Jez:</b><br />
Isolation : domestic abuse :: sap : eviscerate<br />
<b>Jez:</b><br />
... I may or may not need to be shot for making that analogy<br />
<b>Rilgon:</b><br />
I am dumbfounded by how accurate that is<br />
<br />
(Silly WoW jokes aside? Abuse is serious business, kids, and emotional abuse is just as bad as physical. If you're with someone who's trying to separate you from everyone but them, you should basically run like hell.)Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-4275976673522727042009-12-30T00:17:00.001-06:002009-12-30T00:17:54.699-06:00Inherent Trollish Superiority<i>'ello, mon!</i> Stop from <a href="http://thestoppableforce.net/">The Stoppable Force</a> here, briefly taking over Jezriyah's blog. I read somewhere recently that trolls continue to be the least-played race in the Horde ranks, and that, my friends, is a damned crying <i>shame</i>. I'm going to hijack Jezriyah's blog to remind you that <b>trolls are better than whatever <span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>race you picked</b>. Don't believe me? Let's take it race-by-race.</span></b><br />
<br />
<b>Humans:</b> Bah, where do I begin? Humans don't have awesome tusks. Humans have stupid haircuts. (Here's a drinking game: hang around Dalaran, and every time you see a male human with a blood elf haircut, drink. Spoiler: don't make any plans for the rest of the night.) Female humans have a perpetually glassy look in their eyes that kind of makes it look like maybe they've been breathing a goblin engineer's fumes for too long. Oh, and lest we forget, the men all have unrealistically buff builds when unarmored, but put that armor on and put them beside any other race and they look positively puny. Talk about false expectations...<br />
<br />
<b>Dwarves:</b> Stumpy little beard-wearing rock-diggers. They've got the hunting thing all wrong, and Blizzard buys into it - bows should totally be the superior endgame weapons, proving once again that Blizzard favors the Alliance. Plus they keep insisting on interestin' me inna pint, but I've had dwarven stout - and frankly, I'm more interested in <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=37746">some o'</a><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=37746">dat troll voodoo</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Gnomes:</b> Appetizers. Moving along.<br />
<br />
<b>Night Elves:</b> Conclusive research has proven that night elves are basically troll descendants. They're what you'd get if you took a troll, gave it blank eyes and bigger ears, manhands for all the ladies, and an irrepressible urge to dance naked on mailboxes. Trolls are learning to be druids in Cataclysm because frankly, night elves are a complete and total embarrassment to their original species. Trolls: the better night elves.<br />
<br />
<b>Draenei:</b> Now, you can say a lot about trolls. You can say that trolls remained primitive for a long time, and this is true. You can say that trolls have a nasty tendency to eat their enemies and sometimes their friends, and this is true. But can you say that trolls have ever made a deal with the fel influence of the Burning Legion, leading to the corruption of Sargeras and destroying an entire planet in the process, indirectly getting their own race wiped out by rampaging orcs, and - lest we forget - crashing an interdimensional spaceship into an island chain off the coast of Kalimdor? <i>No, you can not.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Orcs:</b> Ordinarily it'd be hard for me to say anything bad about the orcs, but they've put Garrosh in charge and seem perfectly content to leave him there. Barring that - he does seem to be growing on people - orcs could use some help with their tusks. Troll tusks are clearly superior - look at your average male troll, who could easily dig a grave with his tusks (and then put you in it with his <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=26290">bow skills</a>).<br />
<br />
<b>Tauren:</b> Well, <i>someone's</i> got to be the main course, right? Gnome frittata for a starter, tauren steaks for the main course. Moo!<br />
<br />
<b>Forsaken:</b> The trolls and the Forsaken do have a little bit in common: namely, terrible posture. However, the trolls have enlightenment. We long since learned to stop trying to wear shoes, whereas the Forsaken seem completely unable to dress themselves without tearing everything apart. You'd think with that much exposed bone, you'd want to be a little more careful... Then again, when you smell as bad as these zombies, and, oh yeah, <i>your leader has a traitorous plan to wipe out all living things on Azeroth, including <span style="font-style: normal;"><i>your own allies</i>, maybe you don't care about a little broken elbow or two.</span></i><br />
<br />
<b>Blood Elves:</b> After those gnome frittatas and tauren steaks, we're going to need to get <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?achievement=981">toothpicks</a> from <i>somewhere</i>. I can clearly see your blood elf's ribs from here, and it looks like those would do nicely.<br />
<br />
In short, it's time you go to WoW account management and pony up the cash to make yourself into a troll. And with that, I'll be seein' ya!Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-50421758863527838092009-12-22T17:46:00.001-06:002009-12-22T17:49:08.992-06:00Delivered to the Regent-Lord of Quel'Thalas<i>The note is written in patchwork Thalassian -- nearly fluent, but not quite -- on fine, though unpersonalized, parchment, the best available to the layman from the vendors of Dalaran. The handwriting is painstaking, the carefully-lettered work of one whose native alphabet isn't nearly so graceful. The wax seal is a plain insignia of the Horde.</i><br />
<br />
Regent-Lord Theron,<br />
<br />
I pray this letter finds you well, if it reaches your hands at all. I write to you concerning the events that transpired at the Sunwell when I arrived with the reforged Quel'Delar.<br />
<br />
While I am an outsider to your people, I'm sure you're keenly aware of what strange bedfellows a shared strife can make. The sin'dorei joined the Horde at roughly the same time that I came of age and joined my brethren on the battlefield. In that way, we somewhat joined the Horde together. I have spent countless days sharing bunkers and battlefields with your people, and count many of them among my dearest friends.<br />
<br />
It is through these friends and some bit of study that I gained what knowledge I have of your people's background and history. The Darkspear as well have suffered displacement and near genocide. I know well the feeling of uncertainty for your entire people's future on Azeroth. Despite your mistreatment at the hands of the Amani, most of your people have welcomed me as a friend and ally. Your collective loyalty and kindness remain near my heart, and I am honored to count you all as brothers and sisters of the Horde.<br />
<br />
Save for the bane of Trol'kalar, I am mostly unfamiliar with even the idea of such powerful weapons as the one that rests beside me now, but I can appreciate its historical significance to your people. I can also understand how unsettling it may have been for you to see me carrying it, and your desire to see it restored to your own people. I wish to assure you I hold no ill will towards you or the sin'dorei for your actions at the Sunwell. (Nor do I believe you deserved the scolding you were given by an ambassador who had no deserved concern for the matter, but that is irrelevant to the subject at hand.)<br />
<br />
I do not know why this weapon has chosen me as its wielder, but I do know that its mission is greater than either your people or mine. Tonight, with Quel'Delar at my side, I will be joining the forces of the Ashen Verdict in breaching the defenses of Icecrown Citadel. The sword will continue its delayed journey into the heart of the Scourge, and if the loa, the Well, the Light, and whatever other powers we may appeal to be willing, defeat the threat that has taken so much from both of us. If it should fall, then it shall fall as it did before: in the defense of not only Silvermoon and Orgrimmar, but all of Azeroth.<br />
<br />
I remain at your command as a leader and at your side as a sister of the Horde.<br />
<br />
Jezriyah, of the DarkspearJezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-27685535437873029312009-11-04T02:10:00.006-06:002009-11-04T02:28:49.589-06:00test postThis is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a spoiler warning.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div><br />
<a name='more'></a>LOL IT WAS TOTALLY KAEL'THAS<br />
</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-65497307691081248012009-10-30T23:12:00.006-05:002009-10-30T23:28:41.889-05:00I Don't Know What Your Guild Does On Friday Night...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/Suu5oHY-4tI/AAAAAAAAArk/hcJZMTxo7Is/s1600-h/Picture+2.png"></a><div>...but mine raids Honor Hold.</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/Suu5UMew6bI/AAAAAAAAArc/7Lc4zvvyybo/s1600-h/Picture+1.png" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/Suu5UMew6bI/AAAAAAAAArc/7Lc4zvvyybo/s320/Picture+1.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398612334932453810" /></a><div><br /></div><div>Okay, technically it was our weekly Friday Night Old School Raid. We'd knocked out Gruul and Magtheridon already, and neither Kazzak or Doomwalker was up, and we capped all the PvP bases, and this was just how bored we were.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43705"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/Suu5oHY-4tI/AAAAAAAAArk/hcJZMTxo7Is/s320/Picture+2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398612677163410130" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 80px; " /></a></div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-63949783197529621662009-10-22T16:13:00.003-05:002009-10-22T16:23:53.597-05:00In Her Own Words: A Brief Interlude with Ms. SparkshardOf every single reagent on this planet that this stupid human could need for this stupid explosive for this stupid Venture Company setup. <i>Urgh.</i><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Westfall. Westfall! I've yet to hear a convincing argument from anybody as to why Westfall even exists. The most miserable patch of dirt, and more dirt, and <i>corn</i>, and <i>dirt</i>, ever to -- and there's a <i>freaking</i> dust devil and I kill the thing and it <i>doesn't have any of this stuff he needs</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Collin, I told him, dear esteemed colleague of mine, I swear to you, I will go march through the Dark Portal right now and bring you back the tusks of a Fel Orc if it means not chasing dust devils through Westfall. All I'm saying is there have been generations upon generations of quel'dorei and gnomish mages who've completely ignored the existence of this place and I'm sure one of them somewhere could figure out how to blow something up at a large range.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I can't even <i>find</i> any more of the forsaken things. Ten more minutes, Collin, and then the goblins can <i>have</i> Stonetalon.</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-21462625501712619852009-10-09T09:15:00.014-05:002009-10-10T11:11:08.853-05:00For the Love of Small VictoriesSo the glut of information from the 3.3 PTR has already started rolling in. I do already have toons there (Jezriyah and Detusked on Horde, Tuskless on Alliance -- hit a sister up, I'm horrible at finding people to actually test stuff with) but I hadn't done much so far. Last night I grabbed hold of my boyfriend and demanded he copy something over so we could nose around the new content.<div><br /></div><div>We suited up our shiny new premade toons and plunged into the Forge of Souls. The group was abysmal -- a resto shaman who kept yelling at me for being too far away so his chain heals on me weren't hitting the tank, a pally tank who didn't understand the word 'kite', and another ret pally who was wearing holy gear ("For the duration increase"... duration of what, I didn't bother asking). But we were all premades in full T9 and it was the non-heroic instance, so we kind of steamrolled it anyway. I'll be getting together a semi-competent group and going in on heroic soon to get a better feel for it.</div><div><br /></div><div>The lorey bits in the beginning are awesome, at least Hordeside. Sylvanas has <a href="http://i35.tinypic.com/34fftae.png">heard of how uber you are</a> and is <a href="http://i35.tinypic.com/a3cyvo.png">glad to have you along</a>. She gives you <a href="http://i37.tinypic.com/wvub75.png">a rundown on the mission</a> should you ask for it, and sends you on your merry way. (Yes, I did run in and do the lorey bits on Jez before giving up and making a premade.)</div><div><br /></div><div>I won't go into the fight mechanics and the like, since the group comp didn't allow for much study of it. The one thing I noticed most was... well, this.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><i>We have made some changes to the way creature and character nameplates display in the game and would like to get feedback from those of you on the public test realms. There are three significant changes you should notice:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>• The range at which you can see the nameplates is now much longer.</i></div><div><i>• You can no longer see the nameplates through objects which block line of sight.</i></div><div><i>• Instead of the nameplates trying to sort themselves, they just overlap. We think this makes them more useful for very large groups (example: Onyxia whelps).</i></div><div><br /></div><div>That comes straight from Zarhym -- who is, officially, my new best friend.</div><div><br /></div><div>The overlap, granted, can be a bit questionable depending on the size of the mobs and whether you're single-targeting or AoEing them. But the improved range is <b>completely. Fucking. Awesome.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm a marksman, in the strictest sense of the word. I am ranged. I am at my most comfortable when I'm as far away from my target as I can possibly be while still sticking to the boss strategy. Unfortunately, the range on nameplates is much shorter than my maximum pew-pew range, so I usually end up either coming in closer than I'm comfortable, or frantically tab-targeting (I know, I know) to pick out my next target.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the 3.3 PTR, I can stay back as far as I want from a group of four mobs, and their nameplates are not only visible and easily clicked, but also do not take up more screen real estate than the mobs themselves. It was <i>glorious</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's funny. Of all the awesome things coming through in this patch, all the stuff I should be foaming at the tusks for -- this is what sticks out and makes me squee.</div><div><br /></div><div>So how about you crazy cats? What's been your favorite tiny, "inconsequential" change that either hugely helped your gameplay or just plain made you super happy?</div></div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-42170923869822422572009-09-10T00:31:00.011-05:002009-09-11T18:51:34.596-05:00Late To The PartyIt's been over a month since my last blog post and I still have nothing to say.<div><br /></div><div>I've been active <a href="http://www.twitter.com/Jezriyah">on Twitter</a> still. I attended BlizzCon last month. I played through the first half of the Goblin 5-10 zone, but didn't get to finish it (the third quest took FOREVER because of the number of us killing the mobs, and I never caught up before time got called). I met many fellow WoW tweeters and bloggers. Shenanigans were had. A <a href="http://www.arrens.net/">drunken zombie</a> passed out in my room. I came home with a small army of baby Murlocs and an angry black dragon on a t-shirt.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was flattered by an invitation to guest on the <a href="http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/?p=978">Blueberry Workshop Podcast</a> over at <a href="http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/">SES</a>, in which I expound upon my most recent in-game adventures. Short version: the guild has cleared the Trial of the Crusader twice now. I'll hopefully be able to drag a boss-by-boss breakdown of the place out of my ass soon here (like the one I never finished for Ulduar). We tried some hard modes in Ulduar and only managed one of them, but did decently at others. I apparently missed the "understanding armor pen and why it's cool" meeting that all of hunterdom held, and I'm just now starting to grasp it now that it's about to get nerfed. Fun times.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've kicked around PvP some, but I'm just now reaching the steep bit of the learning curve -- I'm "alright" now, but in order to progress to "decent" I have to start putting a lot more effort into it. Some of my best-beloved guildies (DK, rogue and tree) have put together a quite accomplished little 3s team, and I get a little jealous listening to them do matches on Vent. I'm just not sure if I feel like putting in the work required to make me a decent teammate. Basically, I can either do some intense study and build a PvP technique/spec/gearset, or just continue to tab-target-serpent-silence my way through Wintergrasp and the occasional BG spree, patching together a set with enough resilience to keep me from being eaten alive. Decisions, decisions.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the personal front... a lot has changed. I'm no longer at my previous job -- which, as I told Rilgon on the BWS podcast, is where I did most of my blog writing. And I'm at that sort of fuzzy young adult stage where I'm still not certain what I want to be when I grow up, and I'm completely out of ideas for what <i>kind</i> of job to look for. So I'm at a loss.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>ETA: Also, I have a pet retadin now. Who was sad that he wasn't mentioned in the "personal life" part of the blog post, so here he is. I went to visit him right after BlizzCon, and I miss him and the beach terribly. *blows kisses*</i></div><div><br /></div><div>WoW is pretty much the only thing I occupy my time with nowadays, and some part of me instinctively says the answer is to get away from it, to regroup and refocus my energy and build the rest of my life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Buuuuuut I know that wouldn't work.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I'm considering doing the next best thing: try and get deeper <i>into</i> the game. Right now it's just what I do by default, because it's where my friends are. Maybe I'll feel better about it if I make it into a legitimate hobby. I've been missing school lately, the whole studying and learning thing -- maybe I can turn Warcraft into that. We'll see. Either way, I hope to be kicking my ass into gear soon and making something more out of this blog. Stay tuned.</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-39745523336455024952009-08-06T02:21:00.004-05:002009-08-06T02:26:49.471-05:00Patch 3.2, Summarized<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/SnqFb1TPTHI/AAAAAAAAAqs/A_ry0DOCukM/s1600-h/Picture+17.png" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 290px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/SnqFb1TPTHI/AAAAAAAAAqs/A_ry0DOCukM/s320/Picture+17.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366748619176103026" /></a><div><br /></div>WHAT NOW, VEREESA WINDRUNNER.<div><br /></div><div>WHAT.</div><div><br /></div><div>THE FUCK.</div><div><br /></div><div>NOW.</div><div><br /></div><div>(My guild leader did every single level 80 heroic today. I know he's not the only one, but I wanted to reassure those of us who need to know we're not that bad.)</div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-77868944924327928702009-07-30T00:24:00.008-05:002009-07-30T07:39:50.623-05:00<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">So one of my favorite fellow hunter bloggers, Klin at </span></span><a href="http://slowwolf.wordpress.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Slow Wolf</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">, is hanging up his bow. His last post before announcing his retirement was the beginning of the </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Hellfire Ramparts Speed Run Meme.</span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div><b><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Rules and Guidelines:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">• Start the timer the second you walk inside.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">• You have to kill everything inside.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">• You have to loot everything inside. Skinning is optional.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">• Stop the timer the second you walk outside.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">• To keep costs down, no raid foods and flasks. Health and Mana potions included.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">• Bandages and plain food/drink (Mana Strudel works</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> well!) are fine though, to help with the speedy recovery of a bad pull.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">So here are Jezriyah and Micropterus, victorious, at 20 minutes, 4 seconds.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 125px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/SnEu-g4YZoI/AAAAAAAAAqU/w-SR2zAujsE/s200/Picture+20.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364120282688153218" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Klinderas himself hit 18:22, and </span></span><a href="http://www.stabilizedeffortscope.com/?p=884"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Rilgon</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> (being both 1. a bitch and 2. hax) hit 13:14. So I'm lagging behind the crowd, but I probably could have moved faster. I'm always a little gun-shy when it comes to Mikey's AOE tanking abilities, and I've always been more comfortable doing single-target damage than flailing volleys at stuff. I'd have beaten 20 minutes if I didn't have to sit down and eat before the giant demon boss dude.</span></span></span></div></b></div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-66633613881570051792009-07-23T12:42:00.002-05:002009-07-23T12:56:17.364-05:00Our Collective Impending Doom (Part 1)<em>This post is in response to </em><a href="http://holydueg.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/horde-v-alliance-lets-get-this-party-started/"><em>Horde v Alliance, Let's Get This Party Started</em></a><em> as posted by <s>Doooooooog</s> </em><a href="http://holydueg.wordpress.com/"><em>Dueg</em></a><em>. It was started the day after he made the post; it has been delayed by my writer's block, but here it finally is!<br /><br /></em>So Master Duegathalas has begged my forgiveness for suggesting that my Warchief be unceremoniously disposed of for the sake of game plot. I have not yet decided whether I am going to give it.<br /><br />Okay, so I will, because I ♥ Dueg. Trollsie be a sucker for a man with a twirlable 'stache and a great big... crit rating. But the post inspired me to think back on some vague ideas I had about upcoming events.<br /><br />It is pretty glaringly obvious at this point that Blizzard doesn't want us to like each other anymore. The "War" in Warcraft is intended to be the two factions against each other, as well as the various and sundry Scourges and Old Gods and <a href="http://www.cwsargeras.com/">Legions</a> and other assorted evil crap that occasionally tries to eat Azeroth. This whole "tenuous peace" thing they talked about in the original game trailer is, for better or worse, done with. But if we're going to turn this into all out fuck-your-mother warfare between the two sides, one side or another is going to have to fire the first shot -- either overtly, or by making it look like the other side did.<br /><br />I'll give Dueg credit for his basic point: Thrall <em>is</em> a major stumbling block to this. It's awfully hard to have war between two factions when the leader of one of those factions is staunchly against it. And I know I have, in fits of fangirl rage, demanded that Blizzard just have him assassinated already rather than continuing to water down his character in the face of Hellscream's petulance. But Thrall is one of the two most beloved leaders in the game, tied only with Sylvanas for fan devotion. Frankly, I don't think Blizzard wants this war hard enough to actually do the deed. As well they shouldn't; he's one of the strongest "good person trying to do the right thing" storylines in the Warcraft universe, and call me a sap, but that's worth hanging on to. They can't kill off Thrall for the same reason J.K. Rowling couldn't kill off Harry Potter -- to have a character the reader/player is that invested in fight that long and hard for their goal only to die in the end is just <em>too fucking depressing</em>, especially in a universe with so much sad, stressful and straight-up tragic shit going on.<br /><br />So we're left with two ways this war can happen: either Thrall somehow ends up out of power, or Varian pushes the envelope so far that even Thrall can't turn the other cheek.<br /><br />Let's look at the first option. There's not a really defined line of succession in the Horde, at least not that I've been able to see. If Thrall just randomly shuffled off this mortal coil -- hit the peace pipe too hard and took a nose-dive off Thunder Bluff or something -- the most likely successor would be Saurfang. He's still "High Overlord" to Garrosh's "Overlord" after all, and was sent to Warsong Hold to babysit him.<br /><br />There's one catch to this, though: would Saurfang take power? Unlike either Thrall or Garrosh, he lived through Mannoroth's blood curse. And we've seen, in both the 3.0 Scourge invasion of Orgrimmar and that one quest in Borean Tundra, that he can still be pushed into that bloodthirsty rage, glowing red eyes and all. This in itself isn't really a problem for a Warchief, but it's also made clear in his dialogue with Garrosh in Warsong Hold that he clearly remembers the atrocities the orcs committed from within that rage, and deeply regrets them. (If you're Alliance, or not to Northrend yet, or went through Howling Fjord exclusively, do yourself a favor and look that up. It's an incredible speech.) Given that he seems to oppose balls-out bloodshed himself, he probably wouldn't want anyone with those tendencies in charge -- himself included.<br /><br />But at the end of it... <strong>"I won't let you take us down that dark path again, young Hellscream. I'll kill you myself before that day comes."</strong> If the two of them were the only options for leadership of the Horde in Thrall's absence, Saurfang may well realize that he's the better choice.<br /><br />This, of course, is presuming that Thrall were simply removed from the picture by an outside source such as illness or battle. That is not the only way he could leave power.<br /><br />Aside from just directly disobeying Thrall, Garrosh has also insulted him to his face. <strong>"A true Warchief would never ally with cowards."</strong> He has absolutely no faith in Thrall's leadership these days; a far cry from how honorably he treated him in Nagrand. It's well within possibility that Garrosh could stage a coup -- bloody or otherwise -- and seize command of the Horde, or at least the orcs, himself. There is a common presumption among the lore-minded (though it's not been stated in-game) that the reason Thrall keeps Garrosh in power despite his insubordination is a massive amount of public support for him, partly as reverence for his father, and partly from citizens who agree with his anger towards the Alliance. If this is true, it'd be very easy for him to take power, especially if he were to frame it as 'inaction vs. action' as opposed to 'peace vs. war'. He may not have been able to best Thrall in one-on-one combat*, but a takeover would be easy enough if he could change the right minds. This speaks only to control of the orcs, of course, but Blizzard hasn't gone to any great lengths to show us how the other Alliance races react to Wrynn's grandstanding, so I doubt we'd hear much about the Horde reacting to this turn of events either. The trolls and tauren are still very reliant on the orcs, the blood elves are still very reliant on the Forsaken, and I doubt Sylvanas would particularly care. ("We still gonna fuck Arthas up?" "Sure." "OK, have fun.") And with Garrosh in full command of the Horde, it wouldn't take more than a cockeyed look from one side or the other to get a war started.<br /><br />Hellscream taking power by hook or by crook seems like the most likely way for Thrall to end up out of the picture -- he could still be assassinated by the Alliance, but that would 1) leave the progression of power in too much question, and leadership likely to go to Saurfang or Eitrigg or someone else with some damn sense, and 2) make no sense from Varian's point of view. Even he has to realize that Thrall is the only reason we <em>aren't</em> at war yet, and that taking him out won't do anyone any favors. The exception to this would be if Varian had Thrall assassinated to <em>get</em> Garrosh in power, who'd be likely to attack the Alliance and let Varian have his war without having to look like the aggressor... but he's not exactly shown any qualms about being seen as an aggressor so far, and that still leaves point 1 open, that Garrosh is by no means the heir apparent to the position.<br /><br />Now let's go back to that second option from the beginning: Varian does something so completely over the top that even our peace-loving Warchief is pushed to action. While Thrall has been a celebrated soldier for his entire life, it's always been in defense of his people, so the obvious possibility would be the Alliance simply taking the initiative and starting themselves a war. But that seems terribly unlikely, even coming from Wrynn. And the only time in lore we've ever seen Thrall pushed to a true bloodthirsty rage was the fall of Durnholde -- after an arrogant human leader had ordered his feisty, blond-haired best friend executed for defying orders to help him.<br /><br />Oh, dear.<br /><br />There's definitely not enough basis for this to happen yet, no. But let's say push comes to shove. Wrynn demands that Jaina cut off all ties to Thrall and Orgrimmar, and she refuses. Or else he decides to make some action against the Horde, and she objects -- or worse still, warns Thrall ahead of time. The Horde forces are ready for them, and blood is shed. And Wrynn finally snaps, hauls off, and has her killed.<br /><br />It is debatable whether even in the face of her death, Thrall may honor Jaina's desire for peace and still avoid conflict. But for God's sake, the man has a heart. It's clear that he and Jaina are close friends as well as diplomatic allies, and Blizzard has gone to great lengths to make the parallels between Jaina and Taretha Foxton evident. In light of the threats to his authority and the crumbling peace he's tried so hard to uphold, losing her -- especially if it was <em>because</em> she was an ally to him -- would be a near crushing blow. I don't quite think he'd openly declare war just as vengeance for her death, but it would certainly make him rethink his willingness to negotiate.<br /><br />On the whole, though, the clash between Hellscream and Wrynn has been played up far too much for it to be swept aside, and I feel pretty sure that the spark that finally lights the fuse will come from the friction between those two. Whether Hellscream pushes Wrynn to action from his current position, or ends up usurping power from Thrall and starting the conflict himself, remains to be seen.<br /><br />And then we come down to the question on the minds of all who are struggling to avoid this war: if the Horde and Alliance are fighting each other, then who is fighting the Scourge?<br /><br />The simplest answer would be that we stay in this tenuous holding pattern long enough to defeat Arthas, and then some event happens at the end of the Icecrown raid or the start of the next expansion to finally tip the scales. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it? Personally I've had a vision for a while now (half-baked as it may be) of how this could work out, without any character assassination necessary. Tune in to the next post for the details...<br /><br /><br /><em>*I don't care what anyone else says about the 3.0 arena event -- call me a fangirl, but if an elemental shaman and a fury warrior are both at half health, and the shaman still has a full mana bar, <strong>the shaman is winning</strong>.</em>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-19762289708463826462009-07-14T18:04:00.004-05:002009-07-14T18:11:34.971-05:00The Broken Front (Requiescat)<em>Originally intended for the <a href="http://www.lorecrafted.com/">LoreCrafted</a>/<a href="http://www.toomanyannas.com/">Too Many Annas</a> Midsummer writing contest. Didn't finish in time, but a handful of Netherbanes insisted I finish, so here it is.</em><br /><br />~~~<br /><br />Jezriyah could still hear the proud laughing behind her as she unhitched her nether ray from the posts. She tucked the ceremonial torches into her bag and slid up onto his sleek back.<br /><br />"Brotha' Keltan?" She turned towards the priest, who cast her a curious look. She opened her eyes wide, trying her best to look earnest. "I was'na told tha' your people were among th' fallen, but... should I find any... have ya some token of th' Light or ritual I could perform f'them?"<br /><br />"Of course, sister troll," the elf replied, a bit taken aback, but appearing grateful. He gave her an amulet he'd kept around his wrist, and recited to her a simplified form of their traditional last rites. She repeated it to herself as her mount glided over the side of Orgrim's Hammer -- the name of the ship made her want to spit now. She'd never known Doomhammer; she had no idea how proper it was to do what had been done here in his name. She wished she did. If he'd have approved of this "glorious assault", she could save herself the trouble of respecting his memory.<br /><br />She'd gotten clearance to go back onto the field to provide funeral rites for the fallen. She knew her own people's ceremonies by heart, as well as those of the orcs, and the druidic rituals of the tauren were similar enough that she could wing it. The Blood Elves received the piecemeal blessing of the Light, best that she could recall it... she was still unsure by whom exactly its power was granted, but the naaru, at least, she felt confident would overlook her haphazard attempts. After some hesitation, she delivered this to the Forsaken as well, on the basis that their souls and bodies had originated in human form.<br /><br />She worked as quickly as she could while maintaining proper reverence, and kept a careful eye upwards. As soon as the zeppelin was far enough away that she couldn't be effectively observed, she slipped back onto the ray's back and headed towards the northern end of the battlefield, where the remnants of the Scourge forces were still picking over the remains of the slaughtered armies.<br /><br />Upon reaching the first Alliance corpse -- a gnome -- she hesitated. From what little she knew of them, they seemed like slightly less malicious goblins, with no real gods or allegiances beyond themselves. What would be the agnostic engineer's equivalent of a funeral pyre? A pile of saronite grenades and a crisp salute? After a few minutes of deliberation, she decided if they didn't have any gods, she'd appeal to her own. Hopefully whatever higher power judged the souls of gnomes would forgive them. It couldn't be any worse than being left to rot on the battlefield and picked up again to serve your enemy's master.<br /><br />With that confusion handled, the rest of the "enemy" rites were easy. The blessings of the Light to all of them, save the small number of night elves; she couldn't quite force herself to invoke Elune's blessing, so she appealed to Mu'sha and hoped for the best. She fell into a rhythm after some time, looking up to see which races lie three or four bodies ahead of her and mentally organizing which words and gestures came next. The slow, methodical pace of the work made it that much more jarring when the plate-clad hand shot up to grab her wrist.<br /><br />"Nether... take you," the dwarf hissed, blood dripping between his bared teeth. "Beasts!"<br /><br />"Calm yourself, paladin," she replied softly, not pulling her hand away for fear of startling him into attacking. "I am not part of this offensive."<br /><br />"You wear their colors," he growled, trying in vain to sit upright, his weakened body unable to move his plate armor.<br /><br />"They wear <em>our</em> colors, dwarf, and disgrace them," she snapped, anger flooding her. She wrenched her hand from his, rubbing her wrist. After a brief pause she leaned closer to him. "I know I speak your language poorly, but please listen. The Horde does not seek war."<br /><br />The paladin's eyes narrowed. "Then what was this? Why would you attack us instead of joining the assault on the Scourge?"<br /><br />"I do not know." Jezriyah closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "There are some among my people who think honor comes in battle, no matter what battle it is. And some are so proud of the Horde they refuse to put aside old grudges for the greater good."<br /><br />"Then they doom us all." His voice was hoarse, thickened by blood pooling in his throat.<br /><br />She was silent for a long moment before looking back down at him. "Some," she whispered. "Not all. There are still some clear minds among our ranks, the Warchief and Saurfang... and plenty who follow them. And Lady Proudmoore, and the Argent Crusade, and all of us who still love our home and want it to be safe." Her voice cracked softly. "And I swear to you we will fight until we can fight no more."<br /><br />Their gazes met for a long moment, her deep red eyes surely as alien to him as his squinty blue ones were to her. He took a few more labored, rattling breaths. "Then fight on," he whispered, barely able to force the words out.<br /><br />Tears pricked the back of her eyes as she lifted Keltan's amulet, whispering a string of Thalassian words that neither of them understood, but the paladin seemed to recognize. He closed his eyes, the pain on his face subsiding. "Light be with you, soldier," he murmured, as his breaths slowed.<br /><br />She slipped the token back in her pocket as she pushed to her feet. "Light be with us all," she whispered, before walking down the battlefield toward the rest of the fallen.Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-87320505475107511002009-07-14T00:09:00.006-05:002009-07-14T00:12:53.507-05:00The Writer's Block has completely failed to melt!Wiping on my own brain boss here recently. I promise I'm alive -- having just broken the ten thousand tweets mark should tell you that.<div><br /></div><div>I'll be back as soon as I can manage to drag something out of my poor barren skull.</div><div><br /></div><div>For now? <i>Say hello to my little friend.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/SlwTl9XeeWI/AAAAAAAAAps/PnBfSd2Irg8/s1600-h/spidar.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/SlwTl9XeeWI/AAAAAAAAAps/PnBfSd2Irg8/s320/spidar.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358179199513164130" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 199px; " /></a></span></i></div>Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-80330147526235469722009-05-19T12:37:00.012-05:002009-05-19T12:54:44.965-05:00What's In A Name?<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337165173527795522" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 89px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nhD_1107TWw/ShFrcqO110I/AAAAAAAAAe8/34KHTYrQaG8/s320/14lm3hw.png" border="0" />This past Sunday was a joyous day for me.<br /><br />Sunday was the day that, after countless attacks on Maexxna 25, Gothik 10 and Heroic Ymiron, I finally, finally upgraded my waist piece.<br /><br />It was partially a matter of pride. I'm in Ulduar, dammit! I'm a Tier 8 raider, with Tier 8 britches! I don't need to be running around in a heroic badge belt! ...except that the <span style="color:#6600cc;"><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37407">[Sovereign's Belt]</a></span> I replaced it with is off a heroic end boss. What's the difference?<br /><br />This, my friends, <em>is not</em> <span style="color:#6600cc;"><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40692">[Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt]</a></span><span style="color:#000000;">.</span><br /><br />I spent what must have been a month and a half raiding Naxxramas with a quest blue belt out of stubborn refusal to buy that piece of armor. No way in hell, I said time and time again, was I going to have the name of an enemy of the Horde and embarrassment to the Dark Lady's bloodline wrapped around this proud troll's waist. At some point, though, my thirst for big numbers managed to win out over my loyalty to Silvermoon, and I handed over the badges.<br /><br />I've worn the damn thing ever since. Fuck.<br /><br />Let me go into this a little deeper. My co-guild leader, Ailinea, is one of my best friends, and her toon is one of Jez's nearest and dearest as well. While Jez is perfectly aware that Aili outdoes her in damage 98% of the time (homegirl hit nearly 7k DPS in heroic Azjol-Nerub last night!), there's still a bit of tribal instinct that sees a tiny little girl elf wearing cloth robes, and is intensely protective of her. That's most of the reason she was so gung-ho in defeating the blue dragonflight -- yeah, trying to destroy all mortal magic users, bad thing, whatever; but going after her Linny? That's a killin' offense, right there.<br /><br />Anyway, Ailinea was actually studying in Dalaran before the razing of Quel'Thalas and had to rush home when the Scourge steamrolled her city. So this random elf chick, who's banging a human of all things, trying to keep the sin'dorei out of the city when Aethas Sunreaver himself, y'know, <em>is one</em>... not to mention hating all over the Horde when they've shown her sister (you know, Sylvanas? The national hero who <em>died defending their city</em>? Yeah that one) more support in her people's time of need than the Alliance ever did...<br /><br />You know, I think one of Jez's big problems so far is people judging <em>her</em> based on what some ancestors of her friends did before she was ever born. All she did was show up. Her people joined the Horde because their other option was to go extinct. All this crap that the elves and the orcs and the Forsaken did in their distant pasts? She doesn't give a damn. She's allied with these people because they're the only ones who ever gave her the option of allying, as opposed to trying to kill her.<br /><br />Ahem. Anyway. I am not fond of Vereesa Windrunner. And given that it's a hunter(/enhance shaman) belt, I think we all know Sylvie's the better shot anyway. And it pissed me off for a long time to be wearing gear with her name on it. What sense does it make to name a piece of cross-faction badge gear after a character who openly hates one faction, anyway?<br /><br />Doesn't matter now. It's gone! And I'd much rather wear a belt named after a dude I killed than some bitch the game won't <em>let </em>me kill.<br /><br />So what <em>is</em> in a name, or in an armor slot? Have you ever had a piece of gear that just would not get upgraded to save its (or your) life? A single blue that you just couldn't get rid of, or an off-spec piece that you could never find an appropriate alternative to? Feel free to discuss among yourselves.Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9177313091443893921.post-76602223764139717932009-05-06T09:50:00.097-05:002009-05-07T11:50:27.404-05:00"Where we port up to? Antechamber?" "No no, the Unclechamber." "... 50 DKP plus. That one HURT, Jez."(Alternate title: "Hey look! It's a lock pocket!" I was a punning <em>machine</em> Tuesday night.)<br /><br />So I guess some talk about actual gameplay is warranted here, no? I'm running out of lore musings, fits of RP and pointless memes to toss up here -- I might as well discuss what I'm <em>actually doing in game</em> most of the time these days.<br /><br />Which, right now, is Ulduar. After some stops and starts early on due to bugged fights and personnel shake-ups, <a href="http://www.portentalliance.com/">my guild</a> has finally started getting into the place regularly. It's been loads of fun so far -- difficult as crap, but once we got out of the Naxxramas steamroller mindset and back into the familiar "wipe, study, fix, try again" rhythm of true progression raiding, the majority of it has been completely doable.<br /><br />So here be my impressions of Tier 8 raiding so far...<br /><br /><strong>Emalon</strong> was surprisingly simple, mostly due to the utter face-pwning of our DK offtank. She's a newish member who's turning out to be one of the best /ginvites we ever spent. With a few exceptions (mostly guildies) I've had very sketchy experiences with DK tanks, probably due to a lot of them being DPSers who got a level 55 tank for Christmas. Anyway, with a good offtank , there's pretty much nothing to this little punk. It requires <em>just</em> enough coordination and communication that your average post-Wintergrasp PUG will probably fall apart on it, but a friends-of-friends "people that you know don't suck" pickup should be able to handle it just fine. If your guild is good at keeping track of changing situations, he's cake.<br /><br />Of course, being the only one of your class in the raid and having your T8 PvE pants drop doesn't hurt either. Those were a MASSIVE upgrade from my T7 -- I'm much more impressed with this tier than the last. Ready to wear, too; with just the leatherworking leg enchant and no gems, they were <em>still</em> an improvement. Plus, the socket bonus is just +hit, which I'm drowning in, so I just put two straight +agi gems in them. In MM spec (which I'm admittedly not in for raiding often, wtb retadin/spriest PST) I'm now over 4700 AP and 35% crit, self-buffed. Very, very sexy. I do still need to regem a lot of my stuff from AP/Crit to straight +agi, between my "main spec" getting better benefits from agility post-3.1 and the fact that I'm in my "off spec" most of the time for raid utility reasons.<br /><br />Anyway. Trollsie gives new VoA boss an 8/10. A fun, simple fight with tier drops... hard to beat that.<br /><br /><strong>Flame Leviathan</strong> is simultaneously an incredible drudge and fun as crap. I wish there was less trash leading up to it, because it really does wear thin after a while. By the time we're to the boss, I'm half asleep... but getting to blow away dozens upon dozens of mobs is pretty much always fun. Most of my experience has been on a chopper; this week I got to pilot a demolisher, but aside from being a lot slower the trash wasn't much different. I didn't actually get to do the <em>fight</em> in the demolisher, because we were in the middle of pulling the boss when the sky fell open over my house, we were suddenly getting frequent lightning and quarter-sized hail, and the tornado sirens started going off. By the time that was done with and I logged back on, they'd pulled someone else in to get the kill. Anyway, it's somehow simple and confusing all at once, but it goes by quickly. Trollsie says: 6/10.<br /><br /><strong>Razorscale</strong>, I'm proud to say we got down before she was recently nerfed. Back in my day the mole machines popped on opposite ends of the terrace from each other! *shakes cane* But seriously, it's a fun little fight. I generally enjoy alternating adds-boss-adds mechanics (dear, sweet, darling Curator, how I miss you...) and trying to ground the drake in as few passes as possible is fun too. An intial problem we had was being dot-heavy -- we'd get her to around 52% in the second pass, she'd fly off, we'd get adds, then the dots would tick down and she'd hit 50 and come down. Chaos ensued. We've streamlined things since then; barring any hiccups in the transition, we can take her pretty easily. Trollsie says: 8/10.<br /><br /><strong>Ignis the Furnace Master</strong>. Please divert the ears and eyes of any children under 16.<br /><br />...<br /><br />OH MY GOD I HATE THIS BASTARD WITH SUCH A PASSION. The main reason he's so frustrating is that we've, so far, just had tremendously bad luck on him. We have the technique just about down. We aren't making any huge mistakes. He just tends to eat our healers. Badly. As in, "One healer is in the slag pot already and he hits Flame Jets right as the OT needs a massive heal, so the OT goes down, the add goes after the MT, and while the lone remaining healer is trying to keep the MT up through all that, the healer in the pot gets thrown out directly into a scorch and dies." It is absolutely bananas. The RNG has it out for us on this bitch; apparently Ambrosine of <a href="http://forthebubbles.wordpress.com/">I Like Bubbles</a> and her guild are not faring much better.<br /><br />The fight itself isn't that bad. It feels a bit gimmicky for me, and I am personally indignant at not being able to shatter the golems myself... although it's nice to have a fight where I'm not on add duty for once. Trollsie says: 7/10 on paper, FUCK YOU/10 in practice. The above-mentioned pun was the only good thing about this stupid fight.<br /><br /><strong>X-002 Deconstructor</strong> is fun as hell. He was a massive bitch until we figured out that if you tank him near enough to a scrap pile, he won't spawn bots from those piles. Tank him in between two piles on one side and you only get two streams of scrapbots to deal with. We went from calling a wipe mid-fight because he'd healed back up to 80% halfway through the enrage timer, to getting [Nerf Engineering] on both of our first two kills. We do have a tendency towards bad luck with light bombs hitting right before tantrums (often on the healers... noticing a trend here?) but once we got the new tanking position down, we've been able to drop him fairly reliably. And the mecha-Majin-Buu voiceovers don't hurt, either. Even when your priest gets squashed, it's hard not to giggle when he gets all "I DUN THINK IT BENDS DAT WAY :(" about it. This is hands down my favorite fight so far. Trollsie says: 9/10.<br /><br />Oh, and before Tuesday's kill, we accidentally pulled both of his add groups at once. Downed them handily. "Damn. Is there an achievement for that?" "If there was an achievement for surviving your own stupidity, we'd all have it already." My guild leader wanted me to note that these two groups pulling together was the "too hard to deal with" bug that led them to pull the Decon trash from the instance altogether early on. Therefore, the fact that we downed the two pulls simultaneously makes us uber.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Kologarn</strong>. Urgh. We've downed him twice, but both times by the skin of our teeth. I <em>hate</em> it when progression kills are that close. The first time, we ended up at like 4% with no tanks alive, flailing helplessly at all our cooldowns. The second was a little better, but it was still on the verge of going completely out of hand when he dropped. The fight mechanic is neat (and thank God that damage done to the arms actually damages the boss, otherwise this would have been insane) but we're just plain having trouble dealing with all the focusing and refocusing and moving around that we're having to deal with. Trollsie says: 7/10 when properly executed, 4/10 so far with guild.<br /><br />And we managed to knock down <strong>Auraiya</strong> a single time. It's just like everyone's said -- it's all about the pull. The fight is frantic as hell, but in a fun way. I had no damn clue whether we were doing good, bad or otherwise until my Kill Shot started proccing. That Pounce move is an absolute mess. It is a little bit overwhelming, to be perfectly honest, but at least below the overwhelming is a fairly easy kill (we basically one-shotted her, not counting a false start where the offtank didn't break line of sight in time and got eaten). Crazy cat lady falls to berserker wolf lady. And I got [Ironaya's Discarded Mantle] -- which I'd link, were I not at work right now. Suffice it to say they were a solid upgrade from my T7 shoulders, and they have a nice bluish-black version of the T8 shoulder graphics. Still a bit disproportionally ginormous on a troll chick (as most epic shoulders are), but dead sexy nonetheless.<br /><br />That's Ulduar so far. We got as much down Tuesday as we ever had at all, not counting Auriaya. She's on notice for tonight, along with the Iron Council, Hodir and Freya. The Portents are raiding again -- at top-level, cutting-edge content, for the first time in WoW -- and damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.Jezriyahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02363831151422747353noreply@blogger.com0