Tree Hugger

another sweet hat

2009-05-06T13:16:00.001-04:00

new hats!

2009-05-01T15:08:00.004-04:00

favorite new achievement

2009-03-31T09:00:00.002-04:00

Cooking With Style. MMO Champion has a screenshot of the hat, too. I've been doing the cooking daily pretty religiously and have a bunch of tokens stored up, and almost two full stacks of spices in the bank, so you know I'm all over this as soon as it drops.

straying

2009-03-24T16:06:00.002-04:00

I just wish I had noticed that the trial through Steam is 21 days, instead of the 14 day regular trial. It probably doesn't matter, though...I'm a week in and am seriously considering trying it for a while. I'll probably buy the box and use the game time that comes with, then make a decision if I can afford two games or not. As a friend pointed out, it is less than a daily coffee, so maybe I'll cut that out. Wait, I don't drink coffee...hmm.

/delurk

2009-02-19T10:52:00.002-05:00

/em pokes his feathered head out of the brush.
/s Howdy, strangers!
/s Your fine, alternately feathered and furry friend, here!
/s My /afk ego has had some computer issues but claims he misses y'all.
/s So, he sent me to say hello and let everybody know he's not dead.
/s And promises he'll be back soon, to help me talk with you guys.
/wave

what do I do now?

2008-12-12T12:09:00.004-05:00

I can't believe I haven't posted about this. As of last Friday, Waradwen is level 80! I had visions of a grand exploration ding, where I filled in the last bit of covered map to give myself the achievements for level 80, Northrend exploration, and world explorer at the same time but really that was too much work. And, as regular readers know, I am fundamentally lazy. Hehe. I have a screenshot but managed to miss the swirly shinyness. Oh well.

So, now what? I've been spending my time continuing to explore the content available and have opened up the Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade, and Sons of Hodir quartermasters/daily quest areas. After scanning the potential rewards, the Argent Crusade is going to be last on my list of factions to level, I think...there's really nothing there that I find terribly compelling. Kirin Tor is my main goal, so I've been doing the cooking daily quest every morning and really need to get running dungeons. I've done enough Knights of the Ebon Blade quests to hit honored and get my grubby paws on the [Dark Soldier's Cape]. Now that I've opened up the Sons of Hodir area, I've been doing those religiously so I can get to the shoulder enchants. I thought about grabbing the Scryer enchant just for the time being but people are asking ridiculous prices for each [Arcane Tome] and I'm too lazy to farm them myself. There's something about those quests that makes me feel a little dirty...Blowing Hodir's Horn? Polishing the Helm? Really, Blizz?

And that's about all I've been working on lately. I've been playing a little less now after hitting 80, but am getting ready to gear up for the winter holidays. My guild took a poke at Naxx earlier this week and got completely destroyed by the first boss, apparently. I had other plans and didn't get to go with, but the word used to describe the experience was "Mollywhopped". No, I'm not really sure what it means, but I've got some guesses based on the context. Hehe. So we've got that to look forward to later this month.

How's by you? Northrend treating you well?

return of the grabby hands

2008-12-04T11:31:00.005-05:00

As of completing the Dalaran cooking quest this morning, Waradwen is more than 75% of the way to level 80! That probably won't happen tonight (unless I forsake sleep, which is possible), but will almost certainly happy by Friday night. So, what to do post-ding? Get grabby! Conveniently, Gray Matter is posting a multi-part series on pre-raid moonkin gear (part 1, 2, 3). Let's see what he suggests, and how it fits with what I have already and what I need to do to get from here to there. From head to toes:

Head: Currently, I'm wearing the [Overcast Headguard]. Not bad, but clearly PVP-oriented. Still, it's equivalent to or better than what I've seen from quests and drops so far, and it was free, as I was leveling my leatherworking. I'd like to get the [Battlemap Hide Helm] from heroic Utgarde Keep, but I might keep an eye on the AH and my tailoring buddies for the [Hat of Wintry Doom]

Neck: [Clutch of Undying Will]. Blue, but getting old at this point. I haven't seen the quest yet, but I've got my eyes open for [Emeline's Locket]. Alternately, I'll aim for the [Necklace of Taldaram] from heroic Old Kingdom if I can convince some suckers...er...friends to go into that spidery pit with me.

Shoulders: [Purehorn Spaulders]. Again, free from leatherworking and I like how they look. I feel fierce wearing them, hehe. I don't plan to replace these at the moment.

Back: [Shadow Vault Shawl]. Ack! A green! Get me to the Knights of the Ebon blade for the [Dark Soldier Cape] post-haste! (2248/6000 rep currently)

Chest: Still rocking the [Windhawk Hauberk]. It looks like I'm going to have to fall back to cloth to replace this, at least pre-raid, feh. I'd like the [Robes of Lightning] for the hit rating -- side note. I've killed Loken, I just didn't have the quest. Can't I have credit anyway? hehe -- but am drooling over the [Water-Drenched Robe] from heroic Violet Hold. Sexeh. Plus, that's a hella-fun dungeon, so I'm willing to run it a lot for the random boss.

Wrists: [Storming Vortex Bracers]. I got these on our awesome run through the Halls of Lightning the other night and quite like them a lot. Post-these, it really looks like a toss-up between the [Azure Cloth Bindings] from heroic Violet Hold or the [Plague-Infected Bracers] from heroic CoT: Stratholme. I suspect I'll end up with the former, if I have to farm Violet Hold a lot for those robes.

Hands: [Gloves of Malorne]. Dunno quite which to replace these with. It looks like there area bunch of tasty gloves in heroic Halls of Lightning, so I'll just aim to run that a lot. The [Traditionally Dyed Handguards] do look nice, especially with the socket.

Waist: [Windhawk Belt]. Ah, my first epic. And it still looks so lovely. I'd love the [Ghostflicker Waistband] from the Kirin Tor, but that'll be a long rep grind.

Legs: [Dark Iceborne Leggings]. I think I'll target the [Crenelation Leggings] at the moment, as I haven't any rep with the Sons of Hodir for their [Giant-Friend Kilt]. On the cloth side, there's always the [Woven Brocae Leggings] from heroic Halls of Lightning or [Cyanigosa's Leggings]. Can you guess where those last legs are from? Yeah. I thought you could.

Feet: [Bugsquashers]. The [Boots of Transformation] from heroic Gundrak look pretty nice. I haven't seen that dungeon yet, so I don't know how hard the heroic version will be. From what is becoming my favorite target, heroic Violet Hold, come the [Footwraps of Teleportation], which would be nice as well.

Weapon: [Chilly Slobberknocker], from the ring of blood-esque series in Zul'Drak. I'd like to grab the [Flameheart Spell Scalpel] from the Kirin Tor (5550/18000) to replace this, with the [Ward of the Violet Citadel] once I have the badges.

Oof. This has gotten far too long for a single post. I'll explore the constellation of possible rings and trinkets next time.

my frosty mug runneth over

2008-11-25T10:30:00.002-05:00

So, um...hey, strangers! How's your expansion going? Mine? Totally awesome. I am having an absurdly good time. In the last two weeks, Wara...
- is up to level 74
- has explored the Borean Tundra and done the questing there
- feels like he's halfway through the Dragonblight
- has run four dungeons: Utgarde Keep, the Nexus, Azjol-Nerub, and Ahn'kahet: the Old Kingdom. Those last two? Hope you're not arachnophobic...
- has leveled skinning to 450, leatherworking to 405, cooking and first aid to just over 400, and fishing to 350. Yeah, I've got skills.
- is on his way to being beloved by the Lolruses. So cute. Such an awesome fishing pole.
- ...

There's so much more to catch up on, but I've got to get something posted. I've started and re-started this one a dozen times now. Elbow and send!

gorilladins? totally awesome

2008-10-30T10:17:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned a few days back, my baby hunter got herself a gorilla pet. Last night I had a half hour to test him out. Verdict? Awesome.

We started out slow, going after the level 32-34 Bloodscalp trolls north of Grom'gol. One or two? No problem. By the end of the festivities, Bobo was holding aggro on three or four trolls and I could blast away to my heart's content. The hardest part, honestly, was picking them all up in the first place and keeping my mana up. Good times.

After tearing them up, a questgiver sent me to the Arathi Highlands, with some nice, tasty level 34-36 ogres and raptors. Again, no problem! At one point, Bobo and I tore down a level 33, 34, and 36 rare ogre. We got a nice clothie hat and access to a couple of iron nodes for our troubles. It was a little close with some of the heals, but we felt pretty proud of ourselves by the end.

I need to figure out how to more efficiently use Bobo's energy, because that was probably the rate limiting factor in our adventures last night. Maybe cast the first thunderstomp myself, then set it to autocast? I'll bet the astute BRK has some advice in that direction. Some how-did-I-live-without-this-before macros, perhaps.

a question and a new pet

2008-10-28T11:57:00.009-04:00

Is a level 70 epic BOE enough motivation to level a new alt?

Last night Waradwen went on a midbee, early Kara fun run, to pick up a few badges and see the Scourge Invasion boss. It was fun to see a new fight and, admittedly, it was almost fun to clear all the trash on the way to him. I've never been into the scullery in Kara or in the animal boss area, so that was fun to explore. The boss fight itself was more annoying than difficult. Our tank did an awesome job kiting him around in a big circle while we blasted him between Blood Mirrors. Love the new pet, too.

After killing the new boss, we were clearing our way towards the Maiden when [The Night Blade] drops! And I won the roll! But now, what should I do? I don't have a rogue, and this sucker just screams rogue. The melee DPSers I have are a shammy and a paladin, and I don't see the point in either of them equipping this bad boy. And I don't want to just sell it to a random dude at the Auction House. Soooo...yeah. I'm probably going to start a new alt. I mentioned yesterday that the priest wasn't a great fit yet... /stabbystabby!

The last thing I did last night before bed was to hop on my hunter, push her to level 32, and get her a badass gorilla. In complete huntard fashion, I forgot to take the appropriate food for the gorilla after I tamed him. Der. Fortunately, it turns out that gorillas will eat halloween candy. And that will make him happy enough to get him back to the closest town. I'm looking forward to testing him out tonight.

Happy maintenance day!

state of the (horde) toons report

2008-10-27T11:08:00.007-04:00

On the eve of the Lich King's re-emergence (and due to my self-resurrection as a poor blogger), I thought I'd give a summary of where my toons are and what they're doing. Yay!

Waradwen - Doin' dailies, makin' money, light raiding. A few months back my Horde guild asploded and, faced with a number of suboptimal options, Wara stepped through a strange portal and found himself on a new server. Same world, just slightly shifted. He's found a really awesome guild and I'm having as much fun with him (and in WoW in general) as I ever have. Wara's primary goals right now are feeding his achievement addiction (Salty Chef Waradwen Jenkins the Hallowed, ftw) and pwning Kara for badges. Moar badges! My guild got together for an rp-inspired tear through Gruul's lair and impromptu Magtheridon raid this weekend which was really fun. I'd seen Gruul's before -- once or twice -- and it was fun to get back. My rolls sucked, or I might have been decked out in complete tier 4 this morning. And Magtheridon was awesome, too. Nerfed to hell, apparently, but a lot of fun to down regardless.

As I'm on a new server, I decided to make new alts rather than spend the money to move below-level-30 dudes. Not worth it, right? So, a new horde of my own. Maybe I can be Thrall when I grow up!

Alt the first: the hunter. My first alt on that brave, new world was a belf hunter. Female, naturally. So hawt! Hahaha. I got her to level 30 this weekend and picked up a purple hawkstrider, which still feels weird. Mounts at 30? Well, I'm not going to walk... She's a miner/engineer, mostly for the fun toys. Right now I'm having an awesome time as a beastmaster, running around with a raptor pet, rocking the crap out of mobs that are much higher than me. This weekend she took down Frostmaw, a level 37 yeti, having just reached 30, to earn a lovely new headdress. Nerf hunters!

Alt number two: a troll mage. Magey is a special toon (no, not that sort of special), running in a static group approximately once a week. He can bring some awesome dps to the instances we're running, although I'm still trying to figure out mana and threat management. He started out as an herbalist/alchemist, but I found I really wasn't spending time farming with him and he dropped herbalism for inscription with the last patch. Very fun. He hit level 21 last week and loves the crap out of blink and teleport. So awesome.

Alt number three: a Tauren shaman. Goddamn I love the Tauren and love adventuring in Mulgore. I'm still getting the hang of playing a shaman. He's specced enhancement at the moment, which feels a lot like leveling a pre-boomkin druid. Pull with lightning bolt, dot with flame shock, then pound to death with a big staff. I really like having a spell interrupt for fighting casters and the totems are useful for emergency situations or for fighting big mobs. By and large, I'm moving around too much to spend the mana setting up the totems on a regular basis. I haven't had a chance to run any instances, yet, but I think that's where the totems will really shine. As of this weekend, he's up to level 18. He's my primary farmer at the moment, an herbalist/miner, gathering herbs for the mage's potions and inks and ore for the engineer and the jewelcrafter and the future blacksmith and... A brief note about herbalism. I *love* the new HoT spell. It has already saved his steak-y butt a few times from the fire.

Alt number four: a Forsaken priest. This guy is probably my worst fit so far, but it's still early. Actually, let me qualify that a little. Soloing with this guy is the worst fit. I ran around with a friend leveling a warrior a few weeks ago and had a serious blast. Since then I've downloaded HealBot, which is pretty groovy. No instances, yet, but about ready to push into the WC range. He's still low enough that fights are generally smite-smite-shadow word:pain-wand to death. Hopefully groups and getting further into the talent trees will help. As for professions, he's a tailor/(dis)enchanter.

Alt number five: a paladin. Another hawt belf chica, with a big sword. Pretty fun. Looking forward to consecrate. She's a miner/jewelcrafter. The mining is fine, helping to feed engineering and provide mats for jewelcrafting, but I'm not overwhelmed with JC. Any gem I want for Wara I can either get on the AH or cut by a friend... The self-healing statues are nice (and easy skill points!) and it is nice to provide low-level rings and necklaces for the new family of alts.

Alt number six (coming soon!): a Tauren death knight. I've got the name I want reserved with an unplayed alt and am just waiting until November. My plan is for him to be a miner/blacksmith, probably making cool swords and axes for himself. I'm trying to bank a bunch of copper and tin ore prior to the expansion so I can ease his mining leveling through smelting. Exploration will be fun, but I don't really want to do have to spend a lot of time mining copper in Durotar as an uberl33t death knight. Hehe.

Alt number seven: the former Poxic warlock. Waradwenne is still hanging around on Anvilmar, but at some point soon I'd like to consolidate her with the rest of the army. I've played her for maybe half an hour since the Purples broke up (/cry) so there hasn't been much progress on that front. She's still a tailor, but she dropped engineering and isn't sure what to pick up. Herbalism, probably, so she can funnel higher-level herbs to the mage. In general, she's on hold until I have a little more disposable income.

So there you go. Lots of little alts who will, someday, be fearsome fighters. By endgame, I'll have a couple of tanks, a couple healers, and a bunch of fearsome DPS to make with the pew pew! Pew! Pew! /cast Starfall

this is hallow's end

2008-10-22T10:58:00.006-04:00

Until this past weekend, I would have told you that Brewfest was my favorite in-game holiday. Now, I'm really not sure. Between how addicted I've become to Achievements and how much I love the sweet, sweet taste of candy, I am having a complete blast with Hallow's End. And I have the screenshots to prove it!

First, the obligatory pumpkinhead-on-dragon picture:

And how about pumpkinhead-on-nether-ray?

Big! Orange! Pumpkinhead!

Spooky undead pumpkinhead...ooooh...spoooooky...

Well, at least the little animals of the forest love me.

Ghost dance!

Lastly, for this set, have you noticed that the wisps have faces? I hadn't, until this weekend!

Some guildies and I took on His Headlessness Monday night. Well, that's not news. We seem to be doing that most nights, as are most other WoW players. But, while one of them gathered the quest to summon the Horseman, I played punchfight with the Scarlet Monestary's mobs. Somebody wants a knuckle sammich...

On the next-to-last kill, the Sinister Squashling dropped and I won the roll! Woo!

I've gone trick-or-treating through Outland and the Eastern Kingdoms, but have yet to see a flimsy mask drop. Grr. Oh well. There's plenty of time left. Otherwise, I'm nicely on my way to becoming Waradwen the Hallowed.

/cast Revive

2008-10-15T10:36:00.003-04:00

Huh. Things are looking a little neglected around here. Almost like a hurricane came through, or something. Well, time to roll up the sleeves and get some cleaning done. I wonder if there are any blood elves around...they've got those handy magic brooms...

let it begin!

2008-08-21T12:05:00.003-04:00

In the spirit of BRK's recent post:

Wednesday's damage report

2008-08-08T16:07:00.003-04:00

This is the Recount data from Wednesday night's foray into Kara. Yes, it is partly to gloat about being #1 in damage done, despite being dead for the entirety of the Maiden fight, but mostly it's to highlight the #2, my friend and guildie Linada, who just hit 70 recently and was on her first Kara run. Nerf hunters, yo!

feeling competitive

2008-08-08T08:30:00.001-04:00

rawr

2008-08-07T15:52:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned earlier today, I seriously considered respecing to feral last night to help my guild in Kara. Before offering, though, I made a frenzied tear through my bank so see if I was even close to geared well enough, because a night as tank with no practice and no gear sounded like a fate worse than death. Tanking with no practice but with adequate gear sounded painful, but in a fun sort of way. I highly esteem druids who can play multiple roles and hope to be one of those sorts someday.

So, where to start evaluating my gear? With BBB's guide, of course! And, you know what? I'm not too horribly undergeared, probably because this has always been an idea in the back of my head. As a leatherworker, I had a Heavy Clefthoof Armor set in the bank (actually, in my backpack, if you want to be specific). Similarly, I had my [Braxxis' Staff of Slumber] and picked up the [Shattered Sun Pendant of Resolve] after hitting Exalted with those dudes. Now we're getting somewhere. And take a look at the snazzy cloak that I got on a previous Kara run when nobody else had any desire for it. Quick shopping expeditions brought in a set of [Dragonhide Gloves] and [Dragonhide Spaulders], as well as a mess of gems to kit everything out. Oh! And my newest shiny, [Darkmoon Card: Madness] brings in a ton of needed health.

Phew. That was a lot of text. So what does it boil down to? 9800+ health, 398 defense rating, 95 resilience, and 17,540 armor in bear form. Not terrible...not great, but not terrible at all. This looks like a fun new avenue to wander down for a bit, doesn't it?

[Edit 8/8/08]: According to the defense rating macro listed at WoWWiki, Wara's gear is enough to make him uncritable if I respeced to feral (with 3/3 Survival of the Fittest). Rawr.

the tower? the tower! rapunzel!

2008-08-07T10:50:00.001-04:00

Last night Wara got to return to Karazhan, for the first time in months, and it was awesome. I logged in to do some dailies and fart around for a bit, and what do I see but a Kara group forming, and they need more. Woo! I actually flirted with the idea of respecing to feral, as we were short tanks, but ultimately I got to do what I do best, stand back and blast stuff. Yeehaw.

In a way that's very amusing to me, this was my first trip to lower Kara. Curator, Prince, Nightbane? Killed 'em all. Attumen? Um...quick, to WoWWiki! Heheh. The only boss fight I haven't seen yet are the animal bosses. I don't think they have anything that I want, anyway. Plus, I've heard their grapes are sour. That's just what I've heard.

It was odd at first, being back in boomkin form for a group adventure. All of my recent play as Wara has been solo, so I haven't had to think about threat or aggro or that sort of thing, and my recent group experience has been as Waradwenne, who couldn't pull aggro to save her life. Blessing of Salvation, I needs it.

The Attumen fight was quite straight-forward, as probably most of you know. Starfire, starfire, starfire, keep up faerie fire and thorns when you remember. A few minutes later, dead horse and rider.

Moroes was more of a struggle, and it took three times to get him down. The first round was one of those ridiculously close, can't believe we didn't get him fights, where we honestly got Moroes down to 1% before wiping. I got garroted early and spent probably too much of my mana trying to help keep myself alive, so by the time Moroes was at about 30%, I was OOM and very shortly out of health. The second try was just a complete mess. Among the party guests last night was the arms warrior, and he got loose early and wreaked havoc. I don't know if he really targets the healers on purpose, but it felt that way last night. It wasn't technically a wipe, because the RL saw what was happening and told us all to run out and reset the fight before we all croaked. Smart man, that druid. The third attempt was quick and efficient. We blasted down three of the guests, then were able to keep the fourth shackled while we downed Moroes himself. Fun. And for my trouble, I got a little rubber ducky! Hurrah!

By this time it was getting late for a Wednesday (especially after all the arrangements it took to get the group going in the first place), so we all had enough energy for just one more boss, Maiden. Somewhere between Moroes and Maiden we lost our enhancement shaman, so we were going in a little light, but it felt worthwhile to try. It turns out we can down Maiden with only seven. Well, perhaps I shouldn't say we, because I was one of the corpses. As we were entering her room and positioning ourselves, somebody must have come too close because first our warlock died, then I died. Since we were *basically* set, the tanks were able to corral her and we were able to continue the fight. Our RL came up with a plan: he'd battle-rez me, then I'd battle-rez the warlock. Good plan, right? Well, it probably was, except the Maiden took exception to my coming back to life and thwacked me on the head before I could get my rez off. Bitch. Stoutly, the rest of the group forged ahead and brought her to her knees. Lots of work for two badges, eh? Although, it's not like I did a whole lot. Hmm. Free badges!

So that was my fun for last night. I need to get my raid kit back together, although I don't think I'm out of anything except for flasks. All in all, a most successful evening, and I'm that much closer to having enough badges for the [Crystalwind Leggings].

all good things

2008-08-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the end of the Purple Poxers. This was an amazingly fun and interesting experiment and I want to thank the other Purples for the chance to be part of the group.

To Nas, Dax, Ess, and Mr. Ess, thank you. You'll always be Purple Poxers to me. Watch out for that hole, next time you're going to the Wailing Caverns...

brief screenshots

2008-07-28T21:02:00.004-04:00

So much to catch up on, so sleepy and lazy. But, for my beloved readers, I offer two brief screenshots before I go to bed early tonight. First, Waradwen is now exalted with four factions (gotta get that Sha'tar rep up next!):

Second, in budding bad-assery, dig how cool Waradyne looks in his shiny new [Flying Tiger Goggles]. Sweet, eh?

pre-vacation update

2008-07-10T11:01:00.003-04:00

I'm heading off on vacation tomorrow, so I figured I'd give the ol' neglected blog a brief update before we go. That way I'll have a set of goals in front of me when I get back, rather than having to make it up as I go...

Waradwen: Wara's largely in a holding pattern these days, waiting for Wrath. Due to some /afk issues, I haven't had the blocks of time to commit to raiding, which really sucks. Running around with the Murlocks has been totally fun and awesome, and I'm hoping that I can schedule more time to be with them when we get back from vacation. I think we've got enough people to poke our heads into some 25-man content, but I'm not sure if we're balanced enough. Hmm...something to ponder.

Gear-wise, Wara's pretty well set for the content he's seeing. I've resigned myself to the fact that he's not going to be decked out in T6, and that's okay. He's almost entirely dressed in purples at this point, when he's wearing his inappropriate-for-a-boomkin cloak. I really need to get some better legs, though, and am even contemplating PvPing for the Season 2 version. As much as I dislike the idea of using PvP to get gear for PvE, those are pretty nice. Hmm.

Waradwenne: Nothing new to report since last time. We had to cancel our group this past week for some family issues and I'm gone for next week, but after that we're ready to keep tearing up the Old World. 'dwenne's fishing is up to 225, so we're planning to go run around and do the quest from ol' Nat next session. That should be fun.

Rotaan: The Dwarf is up to level 47 and is building up that tasty, tasty rested XP. He's been rather peripatetic lately, not being able to decide on a zone to level in and bouncing between Tanaris, Stranglethorn Vale, and the Hinterlands. He stuck his nose into the Blasted Lands this past weekend and liked it, although most of the mobs were just over his head. No pun intended. The goal for him is to keep leveling, making the most of the rested XP available. He's going to do some PvP before he hits 50, too, so he can build up enough marks to get a [Black Battlestrider] at 60. Sweet.

Everybody else: Same plan as Rotaan, essentially. Leveling as much as the rested XP allows. By the time I get back from vacation, I think that everybody should be at the max amount of rested XP, so I'm hoping to get on a cycle where I level one toon one night until he's out of rest, then switch to the next. We'll see how long that plan lasts. :-D

a poxer looks at 40 (part two)

2008-07-02T11:50:00.004-04:00

As alluded to earlier, the Purple Poxers hit 40 last night following a run through RFD and two runs through the Scarlet Monestary's Cathedral (and some fire fest fun, to get Daxe and I over the hump). So, what makes this group tick? Why have we meshed so nicely and powered our way through dungeon after dungeon, week after week? The other Purple Poxer bloggers have already written their views, so I might as well add in my two cents' worth. Several of these ideas are probably redundant, and naturally many of them feed into one another, but here's my unorganized list of success factors:

1. Awesome group dynamics. We all thought about our toons for a little bit before selecting them and are reaping the rewards now. We have a pally tank, who is amazing for collecting and managing groups of mobs. We have uber-DPS coming from our fire mage. My Orc warlock doesn't bring as much DPS as I might like (I just installed Recount and am dismayed by my damage done), but I bring some decent pain. Our druid can do nice damage in cat form, then is available for emergency heals if needed. Last, but not least, our priest healer is teh awesum. There's no other word for it. We also do a lot of different *types* of damage, so if one mob is particularly resistant to fire damage we can hit him with arcane and frost and physical damage. Rawr.

2. Dedication to the group and the experiment. We've all taken this pretty seriously and essentially are taking almost a raider's eye to our prep work. We have a pretty well-defined idea of what we want to accomplish each night and subsequent "homework" assignments (set hearth in UC and meet in Camp T, for example). This mindset allows us to be focused and productive for the time that we're together, and usually that results in big wins for the Purple Poxers. Woo!

3. Maturity. No n00bs, no asshats, nobody bragging about how l33t their DPS is or how huge their epeen is. I think this goes for all of the Poxers, but I know for certain that it's true for the Purples.

4. Luck. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of this group and I think we've had a lot of breaks go our way. We managed to find one night a week for our shared adventures and have had very few weeks when we couldn't meet.

5. Limitation. I think that playing one night a week has actually helped our overall success. We haven't tried to overschedule (doing damage to our /afk lives) and haven't gotten ourselves sick of the toons (or each other) by trying to do too much. Plus, the forced slow pace has allowed us to really reap the benefits of the rested XP. I think I get a level's worth of XP for each session, so that certainly helps to push us along.

6. We haven't really been challenged yet. Let's face it. These dungeons are not the most difficult fights. It's not like we're burning through the Black Temple every week. That said, we're regularly cruising through instances that are "set" for three or four levels above where we are and constantly running into artificial barriers, like quests we can't start for two more levels or gear we won't be able to wear for another several weeks...

I'm both proud and pleased that we've come this far and am really looking forward to what adventures the next 40 levels bring. We're making plans for Zul'Farak now, but I know I'm casting the occasional thought towards Hellfire Peninsula, and beyond.

Other views of 40:
Ess
Daxe
Harisan

Other thoughts on Pox power:
Ess
Daxe
Harisan

Oh, and before I forget: Hey, Blizzard! Need a group of play-testers for your new (or old) content? We'll try out all the dungeons for you! We'd just need, let's see, five beta keys? That's not so much to ask, right?

a poxer looks at 40

2008-07-02T09:56:00.003-04:00

More to come later. In the meantime, don't miss Daxe's awesome shot of the whole group.

uldaman pictures

2008-07-01T07:58:00.004-04:00

Last Tuesday night was a Poxic Party in the Badlands! We started with a little pole dancing...

And then it was off to Uldaman! Running through the zone this time was far easier than the last time we tried it. Sure, we still aggroed some of those invisible cats ("Orc warlock? Nom nom nom!") but I think we all survived the experience.

About halfway through, dancing and cavorting. There's not a lot of exciting news to report about the dungeon...it was really the same song, different verse. We came, we saw, we conquered.

Say cheese, after killing that last boss! Oh, and the follow-up quest? You cannot has. You's too little.

Later, after turning in the quests that were available to us, we decided to waste the level 45 giant who wanders around the Badlands. Woo!

The plan for tonight is to run RFD again, so Madj and I can finish the escort quest, then decide if we want to burn through Ulda again or go farm the Cathedral for what's-her-butt's hat. Sorry, chapeau.

cough

2008-06-24T11:13:00.001-04:00

*cough*cough*botting?*cough*

;-)