The 90s called, they want their Chuck Norris references back...

Nothing says your product is still hip, cool and current like getting Chuck Norris to promote it... >.>

Chuck Norris' ironic popularity and jokes are older than WoW itself and when I see this commercial I just scratch my head baffled that someone thought this was a good idea. It leaves a negative impression, WoW is dated, Chuck Norris is dated and the 2 of them together just remind me of those facts. Whoever OK'd this promo should be moved to a different department.

On the flip side...

Whoever thought of putting Aubrey Plaza in a WoW spot is a genius. He/she should be promoted and given a big ass Christmas bonus. Also whoever had the idea to put her in a Horde shirt deserves some kudos. Even if the spot is kinda random and weak (mine diamonds? Yes I know there's Azerothian Diamonds, but really it's a pretty loose WoW reference) just the fact that it's Aubrey makes this one a home run. Bravo!

Problem with Raid Finder #27 - "No loot for you!"

"I don't need <insert whatever item you just lost the roll on> who wants to trade for <insert another item you didn't win the roll on>."


I've seen this comment or one similar in just about every raid finder I've been in. Players rolling need on anything everything they can regardless of whether they need it or not for the purpose of trading of another drop.

This is a new kind of ninja unique to the DF in addition to all the other forms or Needing loots that screws other players, i.e.. mages/lock rolling on spirit gear, rogues on strength trinks, warriors on agility polearms, that last being redundant since all polearms are agi based now. Eh... just observations, still better than doing nothing and rolling on no loot. RF loot rules have already and will continue to be fine-tuned so things are looking good. Just wish my computer didn't choke in 25s now days. On one occasion while on my priest I made it through the Siege and when Hagara was at 15% or so I finally DC'd, my resources being choked from this 2 hour raid. By the time I logged by in she was dead, looted and I was locked out on her. Sad indeed, maybe Greatfather Winter will drop a new PC down my hut chimney this year.

How to Gear Up for Raid Finder

Step 1. Keep running Hour of Twilight heroics until more of your gear is ilvl 378 than isn't.

Step 2. Check to see if you can queue for Raid Finder.

Yes? Enjoy RF!

No? Repeat Step 1.

It's not rocket science and I know some rocket science.

WoW 7th Anniversary Gift Package, the gift that keeps on giving... oh wait

This ones a couple days old be still high up on my irked list. You might have noticed that little present from Blizzard sent to all your toons was auto-deleted this weekend. When the anniversary started and I received this package on my first character I thought it was great. "I'll totally use this more than another dumb vanity pet", I told a friend at the time. Fooled me though, not having it's limited duration listed on the item and not catching news of this fact elsewhere most of mine just sat unused in the bags of alts I could have been power leveling or rep grinding on. I actually did a bit of rep work on my shaman, got exalted with Cenarion and Sporgarr and almost with Thrallmar, but this was pre-patch week, then patch week and I had much higher priorities at time time then going and grinding some old reps. Even if I knew of it's soon to be deleted status I probably wouldn't have made much use of them due to the coinciding time frame of the patch, which ultimately just made this a rather crappy present and I'm now wishing it was just pet of any sort, at least that's something!

The Trip Falls of Race in the Age of Transmogrification

Let it be said here and now, that NOT all races are created equal in the World of Warcraft, especially in regard to how well that epic armor set will look on them.

I have 1 toon of every class for both Horde and Alliance. Draenei shaman/Orc shaman, Undead warrior, Human warrior, Belf pally, Dwarf pally, etc... and so on. I love playing both sides, muhahaha.... I started out Horde and after reaching 8 85s I loaded up my heirlooms and realm/faction transferred one of them to start up my new stable of alts on the other side. Now that Transmogrification is here I'm being reminded about how some physical aspects of some races have always bothered me and that is not all races work well for dress up.

The undead faction are missing elbows and kneecaps and their spines split right though there armor and tabards on the back. Trolls, Taurens and Draenei go bare-foot (bear-foot lolz) leaving basically just a shinguard type piece visible from their foot armor. Goblins just like Gnomes are so small and squat that many armor sets look squished and diminished in their otherwise epicness. Orcs are blessed with godly like shoulders and practically look like bosses in some armor whereas Taurens and Worgens have long extending heads/necks that can really warp and skew the way a helm looks on them. Humans are often cited as the most balanced physique (and for the women I say hell ya!), but in my opinion the males hips are way too thick and straight and have always bothered me regardless of was class or armor they were. They're somewhat reality based, but perhaps human males in WoW would look cooler if they were modeled more after He-Man action figure versus G.I. Joes. Anyhow... things to consider while you while away the hours piecing together that perfect armor set for Transmogrification. Ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so if you're stoked that's all that matters, this is just my opinion.

Case in point The Deathbringer Garb warlock tier 8. First seen by players on Apothecary Putress in the cinematic for the Battle of Wrathgate. This set imo is one of the more awesome and iconic sets from all expansions and classes. Go figure it's looks perfect on an undead, with their rotting appendages only complementing the bird's skull helm and image of ritualized death. On my worgen though, it loses it's epicness due to their weird bodies, that tuff of fur sticking out of the back of it's stretched out helm. On a human or blood elf it looks more like a halloween costume than the demonic spine-chilling gothic garb as we first saw it on Putress. On a goblin or gnome all you can see is the big giant beak overpowering all the other aspect of the set. This specific set of warlock tier belongs to the Forsaken and nobody will be able to convince me otherwise.

Coming soon... My epic tale for putting together the perfect Blood Knight xmog set. Stay tuned!

Not a Bullseye...

You sure about that?

Void Storage aka trinket and wand storage

Void Storage is limited to soulbound items, non-stackable items and any gear you place in there will be stripped of all gems and enchants. Though implemented along with transmogrification it should not be looked at as long term storage for your transmog gear, not just yet anyway. Firstly, it's a brand new patch and everyone is getting upgrades left and right from the new dungeons, LFR and guild raiding. If like me you had your xmog sets ready to go last week on patch day and then started running the new content you'll be re-xmogging every upgrade you get to keep your set matching. If you keep putting those collected gears back into void storage you'll be spending a lot of gold just to keep your toon looking good. Just keep your xmog gear in your bank or bags for those continual upgrades you'll be getting over the next few weeks.

So what about those full sets of tier I've saved from my 3, 4, 5 or 6 years of raiding? Well I like having those old epics in their original condition with the enchants and gems from their time. They remain as they were when I raided in them and I'd like to keep them that way. I do not want them stripped of their epicness and thus will continue using 3+ bags in my bank just for my old tier and weapons.

Vanity, holiday, archaeology, miscellaneous on-use goof items. This accounts for another 2+ bags worth of slots in my bank and these are the kind of items you bust out on a whim while kicking it in town with friends or whatever. I don't want to drop a couple hundred gold just to play with some of the random toys I've collected over the years. So Brazier of Dancing Flames, you'll be staying in my bank, but Gnomish Gravity Well you'll always have a spot in my bags cuz you're just too much fun.

So what it came down to was those unmodified items that I for sentimental reasons can't delete but will never use, equip or show off again. Mostly trinkets, wands and old tier I farmed since hitting level cap and thus never chanted or gemmed. So my Dislodged Foreign Object now sits snuggly in the Void, but my Rigomortis stays in the bank.

All in all the limitations are my issue with void storage, not the cost, but still I found this to be a great addition for WoW and I managed to free up about 20 some odd slots in the bank on my main which was an absolute blessing having struggled to make due with as few as 12 empty slots altogether for the last year or so and being forced to delete items I didn't want to. So despite my initial impression (scroll down) I'm all about Void Storage just wish it was a little more accommodating.

The only problem with the new Darkmoon Faire - PvPer's

Every time I've gone to Darkmoon Island since it launched last night I zone into an epeen match between at least 2 dudes and several others that need to chime in. This results in me adding about a half a dozen new names to my ignore list. Thank you Blizz for upping the cap on the ignore list awhile back! While in a capital city I couldn't care less about the idiocy of Trade Chat and my home realm is a lot worse than others I've played on. Medium population, not a lot of capable pvp/raiding guilds, so a lot of people just sitting around bored and lonely and needing attention. We have several Trade Chat stars who've been trolling the /2 for years on a pretty consistent basis. But that's in Org or SW, this is Darkmoon Faire Island.

In a game with War in the title that revolves mostly around a lot and a lot of killing, the new Darkmoon Faire is a warm fresh breath of dare I say, family orientated gameplay. And it's fun! All the classic midway/carnival games are represented, there's daily quests for the Faire that grant rewards like prize tickets for pets/mounts/novelty items and even profession skill up points! There's rare and exotic beasts on exhibit from all around Azeroth and Outlands, tasty treats and drinks to enjoy, a dancing bear, pony and ram rides, a fortune teller who gives a sweet +5% dmg buff, and the fishing around the island is very lucrative. All in all the new Darkmoon Faire is a grand addition to WoW and another wonderful surprise from patch 4.3 (possibly my favorite patch in years). DMF will keep new and old players alike entertained for a very long time to come, either as a small diversion to the usual questing and dungeons or for the lengthy pursuit of one of the new pets and mounts available. It's just too bad this 'other element' is also here thanks to the Deathmatch Pavilion.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Blizzard is putting an effort into 'world pvp' again. As soon as I got to the Deathmatch Pavilion I swapped in my pvp spec/gear and hopped into the fray, finally bowing out after my rez timer hit that 2 minute limit haha. My issue is that I just don't think it should be here. Put it back in Gurubashi and the other world arena's and give them their own separate chat channel once they enter the area so questers, passersby, revelers and the rest of us don't have to listen to them. Then again, its' very possible that these guys will eventually get bored with this arena just like all the others and this will all be a non-issue in the next couple months. We'll see.

The all new Darkmoon Faire is here!!!

My review coming soon, but need to get back to patch up some banners, aid some injured carnies and waste another stack of tokens on that damn canon til I get my bullseye, but so far it's looking pretty good.

Hot Tip:
Stock up on some Elixir of Water Walking and while everyone is busy with the festivities hit the coast and fish in those shipwreck debris pools. They hold the same Sealed Crates commonly found in the waters of Tol Barad which contain random selection of Cata crafting mats in addition to unique DMF items such as Darkmoon Firewater, sure to be a big hit on the AH. Very quick respawns too.

LF waist enchant

I blur names for privacy, but that's just one dude from beginning to end looking for that waist enchant. Ah noobs...

Hour of Twilight patch 4.3 - initial impressions - Thumbs Up!

It's been roughly 24 hours since the servers came back online with all their new 4.3 goodness. I've been going pretty much non-stop since last night and and after this marathon session I have to say it's (mostly) all good.

Transmogrification - 5 out of 5 Yeehaw's!
Works pretty much as they said it would and as the PTR reflected, restrictions aside. Blizzard needs to loosen the armor type restrictions so classes can xmog lower armor quality items they once used on to their current gear. There are many pallys and warriors who saved that Scarlet Crusader chain mail who sadly can't do anything with it. Me included. I'm not one of these players who spent the last several weeks grinding old raids for old tier and weapons, but I was still looking forward to this feature. First stop was the warlock and xmog'n the t8 Deathbringer set from the days of Ulduar. When I aquired this gear I was Forsaken and looked just like Apothecary Putress from the Battle for Angrathar the Wrathgate and even though I'm now a worgen it's still a great looking set. From the full makeover to the minor 1 item change such as my enhance shaman belt looking like the resto one and thus matching the Firelands tier. I hate looking like a hunter! There's no shaman tier matching belt in game for enhancement.... so 1 slot xmog'd on him and I'm a happy sham.

Something I didn't expect, but the urge to start collecting xmog gear for my alts quickly kicked in. I xmog'd a leather eye patch helm on my rogue but wanted to keep going for a full set on her, specifically trying to get the Savory Deviate Delight ninja look, it's going to be an under taking. I took my rarely played pally out to the Shatt badge vendor to start working on a blood knight set. I can already see transmogrification being a very time intensive and invigorating aspect of play for most of us. Getting people back in the old raids, doing random obscure quests from all expansions just to get that 1 cool looking piece of gear they want. Grinding more reps to exalted to buy up those old pvp sets from BC, etc... It's all a good thing and super fun.

The new 5-man Heroics - 4.5 Woohoo's out of 5!
They're fun! They're quick! They have many of our favorite characters in them! They drop gorgeous loots! That one with the Echos is great since every time you go in you'll get 2 out of 4 possible boss fights which keep it fresh and interesting. You don't have to grind through needless waves and rows of mobs/patrols. That last boss in End Time with the 5 hourglasses that reset all your CDs OMG that fight is sooooo fun for dps! I blew though these new dungeons on my prot warrior with guildies for time and it was pretty easy mode. Yet, even with the great resource of the Dungeon Journal available my dungeon finder groups struggled and had some wipes. Freaking noobs. I've run all the new instances a few times with guild and randoms on my prot warr, prot pally, hunter, rogue, but I am apprehensive about queuing up on my resto sham or disc priest... Many fights from trash to bosses are healing intensive for 'steamroll with no CC tanks' and players who don't know what's going on. But for any group of experienced raiders/players they're pretty much cake.

Dragon Soul + Raid Finder - 2.5 blahs out of 5
Only the first 4 bosses are available for now under Raid Finder. These nerfed versions of the Dragons Soul raid encounters are practically retard proof from what I'm hearing. Even my guilds worst raiders completed all the available bosses. I haven't been in myself, I'm holding off to run the regular version tonight with my 10 guild group. Our super team 10 man group who went into the real raid last night got 5 bosses down in 3-4 hours. If this is in fact that last raid content Cata it's going to be worse than ICC which didn't even have all the bosses available until a month or so after patch release. 3 gem socketed gear makes me a happy JC especially when you consider all these dudes who gem up and chant their Raid Finder tier who are only going to be replacing those slots with the real thing in the next week or 2. I've sold 50+ gems 10+ leg armors at crazy expensive prices since last night meanwhile all my toons are running around with empty sockets. Love patch day!

Void Storage - 1.5 ehhhs out of 5
Expensive, 100g to unlock feature, 25g per item you put in. Any gear you place in storage will have it's enchants and gems stripped. Yes I'm overly sentimental over my past epics, but I want all my previous armor sets and tier to be kept in their original "time capsule" condition. I earned that gear, used that gear, grinded reps for chants and farmed for hours for mats or gold to gem and chant them. I want them to stay as they were when I last raided in them. Thus my main, who has sadly had to delete items i'd rather not have in the name of bag space was only able to put old trinkets, wands other random untreated gear in void storage. This wasn't the feature I thought it would be or that I was hoping for. I managed to free up a couple dozen slots altogether, which is fantasic, but ultimately was turned off by the restrictions of Void Storage.

Tyrael's Charger - (negative) -1 ewwws out of 5
There were more of these ugly ass mounts in Stormwind and even Org today than there were the Winged Guardian when it was released. F'n noobs, either get a badass mount that you actually had to earn through rep grinds or raids or just stick with your plane ass old "I don't care" gryphons and windriders. I getting really sick and disgusted by all these rehash, reskinned zero effort mounts they just keep dumping on people. I've been in a couple dozen Bearly Made It runs and never once rolled on that pink easter egg ripoff bear. Finally i was the only one in group who didn't have one so I ended up with it... I see that thing I it just looks like a cheap imitation of the once unique, glorious badass looking War Bear. These new mounts from Darkmoon Faire with their Darkmoon Faire colors are gag inducing. We need more unique flying mounts, not ground mounts too.

There's more, but I'm le tired.

*Dictated but not read or spell-checked by Angry Raider

G.D. Zandalari's! randoms!

I've been so sick of running these 2 instances for months now. For awhile there they were great. I love the throw back instances, don't mind them being 'lazy rehashed' at all. I got a Zulian Tiger on my main last year and ZG was actually the very first raid I ever did on my main, so I'm all about nostalgia. I love the hex sticks for buffs or minor rewards, I love the mini-bosses that drop decent worthwhile stuff, but god help you if you try to get a random group to go 2 minutes out of their way to kill one! I think the reskinning of the Armani War Bear is ugly as sin tho and passed on rolling on them all until I was the only one who didn't have it. Still like heroic SFK and to a lesser degree Deadmines. They're all great and fun, just too damn long, but that's not why I have issue with the Zandalari's.

More so above and beyond my general dislike of running a random I just hate the fact that I have to run either of these 2 to get my valor points on my alts quicker. Its really maddening how they did that. Give them and the original heroics the same amount of valor points, but keep the random queues separate! I realize they're harder than the regular heroics and that's why they grant more points I guess, but when you add in the random noob variable they aren't any more or less difficult than the original heroics! This week I've wiped in regular 5-mans like Grim Batol and Blackrock Caverns to nubbishness more than I have in either ZA/ZG. They're just as difficult when you're a noob, ilevel doesn't help that. Yet lately I've opted to run the older 5-mans for points instead of ZA/ZG only because I'm so flippin bored of queuing up for 1 of 2 different dungeons. That is the definition of 'grind'! Being forced to repeat the same activity over and over again just to get your basic rewards like valor points. Until recently I haven't even bothered running randoms over the last couple months. I've had several alts who haven't earned a single valor point outside of a BH pug just because I want to run dungeons for fun, not because I have to. So for instance my rogue who has only gotten into maybe 1 Firelands alt run has pretty much all the same gear as when this patch started. I made a choice to pass on keeping it's gear current in favor of keeping my sanity intact. I like what I'm reading about alternate non-dungeon valor point rewards coming up in MoP, but I'm not one of these players that swoons over what is to come or drool over some future feature in some future expansion. That's not the game I'm playing today.

The only reason I started up random dungeons again is to get valor to sell BoE bracers while they're still worth something before our points get converted in the soon approaching patch.

Another sub bites the dust... hey!

300,000 more subscriptions lost this quarter? 1.6 million since Cata launch? WoW dying?

Yes, yes and yes...

My BC era realm is a deadzone late night/early morning. There used to be enough Australians and New Zealanders around to pug a 10 man at 4 in the morning. We also used to have a lot more accomplished raiding guilds in Wrath. Lower subs + serious/hardcore players constantly xfering and converging on the same half dozen realms leaves their previous home servers neglected and vacant in regard to the voids they filled.

The biggest indicator for me tho is good ol channel 2, Trade chat. I've been playing consistently for years and at all hours of the day and night and I've never seen so much time go by without a peep out of trade like it is now. It really illustrates low population and inactivity imo. I can't recall trade being 'silent' for more than a couple mins at a time at any hour before Cata.

Demo back in force for Firelands? Blood Pact @ WoW Insider sucks

This was a comment I was leaving on the latest Blood Pact over at WoWinsder. Whoever has been writing that column for the last year or so has absolutely no idea about locks and I've been vocal about this fact in their comments before, but I'm just done pointing out how useless those "warlock" features are. So a simple copy n paste and now it's here.

How about a write up on why Demo locks are resurfacing in Firelands as a force to be reckoned with, in 10 mans especially? I'm guessing it's due to the trash heavy fights, having a mage for Timewarp instead of a shaman so the lock is still adding that +10% spellpower buff, but is there anything more to it?

After doing subpar performance in the ToC days I switched to Demo for ICC figuring I'd go for the spirit/spellpower stacking to uber-buff my raid and still be a vital member for my guild. Little did I know how impressive Demo dps would be during that last year of Wrath, not only was I providing a huge +spell buff, but I was always top 3 dmg/dps in a guild that ended Wrath 11/12 in heroic 25s. I fell in love with being the badass purple pew pew machine. Then came Cata and at 85 Demo fell to the wayside and was only busted out in the last tier for Maloriak when that instantly awesome aoe was needed. Mostly though, nobody was raiding Demo in Cata and for good reason.

Demo has been clunky, sluggish and performing poorly in comparison to Affl/Desto, in addition the numerous changes made to the spec in Cata. There was the whole Improved Soul Fire interweaving, then that was taken away. Our Felguard, Hellfire and Immolation Aura nerfs, Molten Core procs are few and far between whereas back at 80 they were consistent and plentiful. Mastery was (still is?) Demos main stat, but the least desirable for your main spec whether Affl or Desto so unless you held up your raid to reforge all your gear before you pulled Maloriak you still weren't performing as well as you could be. So no wonder most locks abandoned Demo in Cata.

But here I am seeing a resurgence of them in Firelands? Especially for 10 mans which is what most people are running these day. So I'm curious, beyond the obvious why is that?

I have a lot of toons

I used to have more. My lvl 83 Troll warrior had to go because Troll just didn't seem like the right race for a warrior. I never felt right playing him. Deleted. Went Forsaken for the new one, which I know has crappy racials for tanking, but something about this curved-spined, decrepit, rotting husk of a toon being a badass, smash your face tank made me smile. That and the Forsaken are my favorite race. Had a DK at 80, was my only Alliance toon on a realm full of Horde and needed that 10th spot for a reroll. Deleted. Had a hunter who sat at 30-something for a long time. Was my 3rd toon, but coming right after my lock, a range class with a pet seemed too similar. She became my banker for years. Grinded her up to 40 and bought her a Mechano-hog with all the perfect 'banker' gear to make her shine. But I wanted her name for my new paladin, which would be my 2nd paladin, never got into that first one since I mostly power-leveled him for proffs. Now that first pally is my banker/inscript/alch. Sometime he tanks stuff. I've rolled several locks. Just love the class. My very first toon was a Human rogue. I abandoned him within a week and rolled my actual main, a Forsaken warlock (who I recently faction/realm xfer'd into a Worgen, worst idea ever, love the new guild, totally lost connection to this foreign character with some new weird name). He's not the toon I got 50'000+ HKs on. He's not the toon I cleared Ulduar on without a single raid member dying, then defeated Yogg in 226< gear. Nor the toon I "Seek"ed out massive quantities of "Lore" on. Nor the character I not once, not twice, but thrice nabbed the grand prize at the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza on. Two weeks in a row for the first 2. Won it a few other times on my alts. My realm should hate me. But I digress back to that first toon.

This rogue languished at 20-something for years, I just couldn't bare myself to delete him considering he was the toon I first discovered Azeroth on. I had him wearing a 'dress' with intel and spirit because I didn't know any better. I managed to gain 2 or 3 more levels on him in just as many years. I rolled another rogue in this time, and having to deal with the 10 toon limit per realm I realized I had to sacrifice one soldier to help keep the army growing. I have even more toons than those listed above. I just got bored filling out the form-page to add them.

This wall o' text started out as my introduction to the current start of class while leveling and their unbalanced OP-ness in the BGs. Since The Shattering I have rerolled every single class mainly to kick ass in the BGs and I've yet to fail at do so on any of them. My disc priest, currently... 30 something is still getting top damage and top heals in every BG. Putting those huntards to shame. My 51 hunter has only ever been beaten out, by another hunter. My rogue, fugitabotit. My frost mage... well you know how badass they are in the bgs, don't need to got there but just fyi, she was doing 2k+ at 65 on BC dungeon bosses. Remember when Wrath launched and 2k dps was the standard required when pug'n heroics in trade? "LFM HoL pls do 2k+"... lol. I have her parked at 70 now, thinking about xfer'n her to a BC raiding guild. Could really use that 2nd alch xmute though... decisions, decisions...

Anyhow, perhaps my next post will actually delve into the fantastic and frustrating (depending which side you're on) world of low-level BG OPness amongst (F.U. Blooger spellcheck!). Lord know it's been one of my most favorite parts of this expansion. 

GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE...

Moar Maintenance = Moar rage!

Maintenance is nothing new. That regular Tuesday morning downtime is something that's been going on probably since the original launch. I know it's been a weekly staple as long as I've been playing. What's new, or actually what's changed is these "Breaking News" messages and how much later in the day Blizzard has been posting them at log in. I seem to recall whenever I would start playing on Mondays that this prompt was always up. Whether that be 10 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, etc... But in recent months I haven't even been seeing them at all and often times I don't even log in till late in the evening. 

So yes, somewhere unacknowledged in the back of my mind I know that servers will be going down, typically at 5am PST, but when I don't see that message at log in there's this bit of hope that no maintenance is required for that week and I can just keep joyfully playing on my abnormal nocturnal schedule. I can recall a time when some weeks there was no maintenance and even when there was my realm would be back up hours earlier than the standard 11am estimation given. When I rolled a toon on a brand spankin new realm some time in the middle off 3.3 I was delightfully surprised as it seemed to go a month at a time with no maintenance. Maybe I'm remember this one wrong, but that's what I seem to recall.

So, I'm going off target here, mostly I'd just like to see those 'Breaking News' messages nice and early, especially considering this week when Mondays regular maintenance started 2 hours earlier and this rare mid week maintenance just came out of the blue. I mean, I have shit that needs to get done in game! If I know the server is going offline for a few hours I might just hold off on running that guildie through another heroic on my tank or perhaps choosing to do these dailys over those dailys or like tonight, I didn't even get a chance to hop on my banker and I know I got a full mailbox from everything that didn't sell in the last 24 hours.

But mostly all this downtime just grinds my gears because I speculate that all this "maintenance" is really just Blizz's way of saving a few bucks by just turning off the whole infrastructure for several hours. =D Makes sense, imagine if all companies could just turn off a large part of their networks for a 3rd of a day every week. Verizon would probably save a few million every Tuesday morning! I could prob switch to a crappier MMO if I didn't have to deal with paying to transfer characters, or weekly downtime, which from what I hear a lot of other MMOs don't have nearly as many shutdowns or for as long. I'm guessing it's because they're nowhere near the size of WoW, but eh... What was I talking about?

My !#$% in a box, in a box, in a box

My mage is so Awesome!

Think I got 6 acheesements in this one, including the EoE Victory since it was my first time in and dinged 58 at the win. I am so awesome!

Maintenance blows

Am I spacing out at log in or is Blizz putting these shutdown maintenance messages up later in the day than they used to? This one totally caught me by surprise. Really sucked too since I just finished my Rockstar Punched, the official drink of angry raiders. Mtn Dew is for newbs and tweakers.

= FTW!

Nothing to do with WoW

I don't care how many commercials you force on me for all of your original programming, I'M NEVER GOING TO WATCH ANYTHING ON YOUR NETWORK BESIDES HOUSE RERUNS!!!

Another WTF Blizz moment

Updated!!1 A few couple days after 4.2 dropped.

Your new honored status with the Avengers of Hyjal grant you access to their vendor to purchase... what.... ? ? ?

That's right, a brand new cloak!!! To replace that one you just got yesterday from saving Thrall which replaced that one you got last week from killing Ahune!!!!

Really wish I read patch notes, I would have flooded the AH with chants and mats for engineering chutes.

Original post...

Yay, 4.2 is here and with it the new epic questline to save Thrall from damnation. It's epic because it's a great story with love and action and you get to take part in helping Thrall, the coolest cat in Azeroth.  It's even more epic because it's not very long. Two thumbs up!

My gripe comes with the final reward, your choice of ilevel 365 cloak. Hot damn, everyone gets a new piece of leetness from the get go. So why the frak did I bother putting up with long queues and ninjas for Ahune to get a cloak that would just be replaced this easily even before the seasonal event was finished? Oh, I didn't, not on any of my toons, but I know a shit ton of y'all did. Well at least that Ahune fight was fun and memorable...

Drunk NPC's

Edna Mullby wished me a happy Brewfest today. I guess when you're a drunk everyday is Brewfest.

Happy Midsummer Fire Festival! (aka *S.S.D.D.)

*Same Seasonal, Different Day, er year I guess.
So yes, Midsummer Fire Fest is here again! Whoopie-freakin-doo! I used to love the world seasonal events. I was chasing after them on alts for more than a year after my main had the What Long Strange Trip it's Been. Most recently I earned 'the Noble' title on my lvl 40 pally. At first I didn't care, then I realized this is one of the few titles obtainable at pretty much any level, with the help of some 85 guildies. I'd have that violet proto-drake on my main alt shaman as well, but I lagged on the dailys during last year's Brewfest and didn't have enough tokens to buy the Beer-of-the-Month subscription. Eh, who cares.

So this year everyone is all up in arms (again, btw) about the crappy stats on the Frostscythe of Lor Ahune. Hey noobs! Guess what!? It's been like that every flippin year since the damn thing came out! Last year everyone, including myself who got it on my priest was QQ'n about the lack of crit/haste secondary stats in comparison to other 5-man/older raider 232 ilevel caster staves. It was a bit under-budget, yet still a viable option for the ilevel.


What irks me more so about it this year is that instead of just being grossly under-budget for it's item level is the obvious auto-stat-update to level 85 treatment that Blizz gave it and their completely dismissive response to why it is the way it is: "Making it ideal (stat-wise) now and it would stomp all over ZA/ZG weapons. It's fairly trivial to obtain so we're just not really willing to do that."


It's a trivial item because you made it trivial, but nothing about getting one is trivial. It's such a rare drop and it's so freakin' cool looking what's the harrm in making it useful? I say make it a 359 with stats on par with equivalent current raid drops. Oh, but wait! THERE IS NO CURRENT CASTER STAFF ANYWHERE IN THE GAME! Well, if they couldn't bother to actually create a staff for their brand new expansion, then what the hell are we doing bitching about the lack of attention given to this recycled piece of eye-candy?

My biggest bitch is that my level 22 hunter couldn't get a flippin BG queue to pop all afteroon. Those brackets take no more than 10 minutes even at 4 in the morning server time. I was in queue for 15 minutes, dropped requeued for another 15, dropped again and waited almost 40 mintues in that last queue before giving up. Didn't do a random on any 85 today (actually haven't done hardly any randoms in months, on any toon) but from what the WoW websphere says it's been f'n up dungeon finder and arenas as well.

Those are several bitches thus far, but I haven't even gotten into my main complaint regarding Midsummer. This like most other seasonals have gone mostly untouched for years. I'm not asking for a full overhaul or new multi-questline chain, but how about you just throw something new in that vendors inventory to at least try and motivate the vets to go out and wrangle up more Burning Blossoms. A reskinned/recycled vanity pet would do the trick, always does... "But this one's green.