Monday, 10 November 2008
Location, location, location
Thank to the wonderful efforts of Leafshine (who does such things for a living) the Witching Hour is relocating from Blogger to its own domain, http://www.andromache.co.uk/ and future postings on the run-up to Wrath of the Lich King - and adventures in Northrend - will appear there. The old content should be available at the new site which I hope - thanks to the wonders of MT4 - will offer even more flexibility and power. Please join me there - the brewfest pony key is tapped and there are fishsticks on the table ... but steer clear of the seal whey!
Friday, 7 November 2008
Oops
I wanted to do a "last huzzah" run to Kara and arranged one for next Tuesday. We also had a Kara run last night. Can you say "oops" given they're both in the same week.
One day I will learn to read a calendar properly!
One day I will learn to read a calendar properly!
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Gear upgrades
With wrath a little over a week away, young Buliwyf isn't making too much effort to gather gear, knowing he'll soon be picking up new kit in Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord; he's gathering money for his birdie, but that's about it so far (and WotLKs initial ground emphasis gives him chance to raise the cash for the epic bird given his planned route - finishing up the Outland zones - will revert to XP-giving quests I imagine).
Andro, on the other hand, is curious as to what the expansion holds for her kit. She's entirely in Epics - a mix of Kara and badge kit with the odd ZA item thrown in - which should last her a while. In Burning Crusade, the PvP spellblade lasted her until the mid 60s, and I'm expecting similar 'legs' for the kit this time around. Spicy tuna agrees, saying its unlikely that S1/T4 kit will be replaced until 72-72 and S2/T5 (which is more or less Andro's level) until 74-76, or possibly a little higher. Some individual items may go, but it doesn't seem likely that there'll be a repeat of BC's "greens better than purples" issue.
Andro, on the other hand, is curious as to what the expansion holds for her kit. She's entirely in Epics - a mix of Kara and badge kit with the odd ZA item thrown in - which should last her a while. In Burning Crusade, the PvP spellblade lasted her until the mid 60s, and I'm expecting similar 'legs' for the kit this time around. Spicy tuna agrees, saying its unlikely that S1/T4 kit will be replaced until 72-72 and S2/T5 (which is more or less Andro's level) until 74-76, or possibly a little higher. Some individual items may go, but it doesn't seem likely that there'll be a repeat of BC's "greens better than purples" issue.
Onyxia
Being a small guild of friends, the Ravens never had much chance to do the old Azerothian 40-man content. Having hit level 70 (and with various attunements being removed) we decided to pay Onyxia a visit last night.
It all startout out carefully, playing by the book, but within seconds it was apparent that the patent Windmill approach was going to be much more effective for the 18 attendees (a good chunk of whom were in top end Kara/ZA/Badge kit) and basically we blasted her into dragon-snot.
It took less that 4 minutes, which Leafy videoed in its entirity.
In fact, looting her took considerably longer than killing her (the temptation to simply trash the loot was offset by the fact we had some high-50/low-60 characters who could actually use the kit). There were 3 casualties - 1 disconnect and our level 58 mage who got lava'd ... and our other level 70 mage (not me!) who somehow got whelped on the way out (to the great amusement of the rest of the raid).
It all startout out carefully, playing by the book, but within seconds it was apparent that the patent Windmill approach was going to be much more effective for the 18 attendees (a good chunk of whom were in top end Kara/ZA/Badge kit) and basically we blasted her into dragon-snot.
It took less that 4 minutes, which Leafy videoed in its entirity.
In fact, looting her took considerably longer than killing her (the temptation to simply trash the loot was offset by the fact we had some high-50/low-60 characters who could actually use the kit). There were 3 casualties - 1 disconnect and our level 58 mage who got lava'd ... and our other level 70 mage (not me!) who somehow got whelped on the way out (to the great amusement of the rest of the raid).
Monday, 3 November 2008
Ding
Andro's been my wow main for the last 2 1/2 years, but she wasn't my original character. When we started out on Argent Dawn in February 2005 my original character was a dwarven Paladin, Buliwyf (whom Leafy just dug out an old picture of). Andro didn't appear on the scene until a couple of weeks later and only became my main when Buli started to bog down in his 40s (way back in 1.x, Pallies weren't the best damage dealers in the world, leading to teh joke that Buli bored his targets to death). In the latter stages of our time on Argent Dawn, and throughought our sojourn on Steamwheedle Cartel, Andro's been in the spotlight and I've pushed Buli on a few steps when I needed a change of pace.
Gaining 3-4 levels at a time, he edged from 50-60, then 60-67 before being parked a while. This last fortnight, spurred on by the looming WotLK and plenty of undead to hunt, he's made the final push and just after breakfast on Saturday morning he finally dinged 70 (with most of Blades Edge, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon to complete, as well as a good chunk of Nagrand) and now faces raising funds for a ([flappy].
Gaining 3-4 levels at a time, he edged from 50-60, then 60-67 before being parked a while. This last fortnight, spurred on by the looming WotLK and plenty of undead to hunt, he's made the final push and just after breakfast on Saturday morning he finally dinged 70 (with most of Blades Edge, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon to complete, as well as a good chunk of Nagrand) and now faces raising funds for a ([flappy].
Friday, 31 October 2008
Bad calls
I'm not a vastly experienced raider - a fair chunk of Kara, some ZA and one trip to Gruuls is my BC experience - and I'm not fond of leading raids; I'll organize them and serve as loot master, but generally I don't serve as the leader. Last night I did on a ZA run (though as usual the tanks did the marking and organized the pulls) and for a while it went swimmingly. We beat the eagle and bear bosses to a bloody pulp and moved onto the dragonhawk.
Mid-way through that encounter our druid healer suffered a PC failure and we wiped (twice as it happened, as we made another valiant but doomed attempt to 9-man it and kill him within the timer). Ressing and rebuffing, we regrouped at the Eagle boss platform to see what the situation was with out erstwhile colleague, hoping to get him back so we could sort the loot (we'd completed two timed encounters) before progressing. My efforts on the phone failed (I suspect I have an old mobile number) and after 20-odd minutes (and news via another member of the raid regarding the computer failure) I decided we had to swap people around (one of the DPS swapping for one of their healer characters, and a new person into the empty slot) which meant sorting the loot. We promptly did that and set about rejigging the people.
Then our original disconnectee managed to get back in using his laptop, which I should've anticipated.
He was understandably peeved, particularly as one of the loot items had been a leather item he could've used and which'd been assigned to a pally healer as a last resort. To my mind the Loot issue is secondary - it may be resolvable via a GM appeal - but what is at stake is the ability to make good judgement calls and to maintain the trust of the players. I can fully understand why my friend was agrieved, but to my mind it was a choice between siting still for a long period on the off chance he was able to recover, or trying to move on. I opted for the latter, but can't help wondering if I could've been more patient, waiting another 10-15 minutes and resolving the matter without upsetting anyone.
In short, I made a really bad call and upset a friend (as well as messing others about as we had to keep swapping people around) which is going to haunt me for a while.
Mid-way through that encounter our druid healer suffered a PC failure and we wiped (twice as it happened, as we made another valiant but doomed attempt to 9-man it and kill him within the timer). Ressing and rebuffing, we regrouped at the Eagle boss platform to see what the situation was with out erstwhile colleague, hoping to get him back so we could sort the loot (we'd completed two timed encounters) before progressing. My efforts on the phone failed (I suspect I have an old mobile number) and after 20-odd minutes (and news via another member of the raid regarding the computer failure) I decided we had to swap people around (one of the DPS swapping for one of their healer characters, and a new person into the empty slot) which meant sorting the loot. We promptly did that and set about rejigging the people.
Then our original disconnectee managed to get back in using his laptop, which I should've anticipated.
He was understandably peeved, particularly as one of the loot items had been a leather item he could've used and which'd been assigned to a pally healer as a last resort. To my mind the Loot issue is secondary - it may be resolvable via a GM appeal - but what is at stake is the ability to make good judgement calls and to maintain the trust of the players. I can fully understand why my friend was agrieved, but to my mind it was a choice between siting still for a long period on the off chance he was able to recover, or trying to move on. I opted for the latter, but can't help wondering if I could've been more patient, waiting another 10-15 minutes and resolving the matter without upsetting anyone.
In short, I made a really bad call and upset a friend (as well as messing others about as we had to keep swapping people around) which is going to haunt me for a while.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
An interesting bug
We were in Zul Aman last week, running back after a 'little accident' when one of My guildies chirped up on Vent "Andro, why are you naked?" I looked down at my robes and replied I wasn't and we put it down to an odd glitch. In Eye of the Storm on Friday I heard a similar comment, and then when we were in Kara on Saturday evening, meting out some justice after defeating Tendris, my vision was seared with this:
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