Tag Archives: world of warcraft

Renewed

So, as a follow-up to my WoW respec worry post, I am feeling much better about being a prot warrior. Will, Scott and I have run Botanica and Arcatraz with some pick-ups, and both went REALLY well.

I also took charge of the marking, and felt I did a rather good job of that. The trick to all this, I think, is for me to research ahead of time, and then give the group as much of a feeling that I know what I’m doing as possible. Though Scott will tell you that I was double-checking everything with him almost constantly 🙂

Either way, I feel much less stressed about holding aggro. According to Will, we were in Botanica with two top-tier DPSers and I held aggro just fine. Hooray!

Of course, it also helps to have very clever groupmates. We’ve been lucky that our pick-ups have been really on top of things. Perhaps Heroics are not so far out of sight afterall!

In other news: Pink Door, Jersey Mike’s, and Gumbo-a-go-go have been checked off the Food Tour list.

WoW woes…

After WoWing for about a year and a half now, it’s finally happened. I always knew it would, some day, but I got by with just putting it out of my mind. But no more.

I have to respec full prot.

Now, my warrior was my first WoW character ever, so my spec is quite homemade, and probably not efficient at all. It is, as I like to imagine, held together with duct tape and patchwork. The reason I started out on the arms track to begin with was because it took me to my 30s to realize there were 2 other tabs to choose from…

So I got by with this flimsy arms/prot build that was wonderfully multipurpose. I could solo just fine, and tank just fine, and hold my own in pvp if it came down to it. My friends claim that I am a very skilled tank, and have the technique and theory down quite well. But technique and theory can only carry you so far, and lately I’ve been struggling like mad to hold aggro, even with all my tricks and a clever, cooperative group. If I have any intention of doing heroics, my homemade talent build has to go.

Will empathizes with me deeply, as it reminds him of the day he realized he would have to take his priest full holy spec. He was a brilliantly clever healer, but just couldn’t heal to kill Terrok in Skettis. I suppose it is for the best.

I am also training up to be a more responsible tank in general. My server is apparently dreadfully tank-depleted, as everyone is always needing one. I’ve been making myself to do the marking, rather than rely on Will to do it, and take more of a leadership role. I think, mostly, I just need more confidence in myself.

…but oh, I am going to miss Mortal Strike so much!!

Goodbye Purple Rocket, Hello Purple Rocket II

So, our BVW round 1 presentations were today (they went really well, and several ETC alums were there as guests to give feedback. They all work on Spore, neat!) so this is one of the few moments where I have a small break. Like, literally moments, round 2 has already started.

Anyway, I spent my celebratory time on WoW finishing the most important part of the game ever. That’s right kids, getting my Netherdrake!

“So, um, you wanna be my new mount?”

In celebration of this happy occasion, I took an Outland tour and took a bunch of screenshots of me and Purple Rocket enjoying the scenery. Those of you WoWers are probably sick of looking at netherdrakes, but I DON’T CARE! This was a happy occasion for me!

So yes, I am going to make you look at 14 screenshots. Go!

The Purple Rocket tour of Outland

Fondue is a Fon-don’t (except when it’s a Fon-do)

Today was my last day of work, how exciting! My boss and coworkers gave me the gift of two large chocolate fondue dishes at the new Coco’s Chocolate Cafe on Bardstown road. I gathered all the ballers I could and we had dinner there tonight. Delicious! SO DELICIOUS! It ended with me scraping my fingers inside the fondue bowls to get as much of the delicious chocolate as I could. It was an extremely thoughtful gift, and I’m glad my friends were able to partake in it.

Maria, you need to upload those photos you took soon, I want to see!

Afterwards, I gave away belongings to friends, as I’m trying to purge as much stuff as I can before I move. It was like Christmas day: “Who wants one of these…you? Take it!”

Meanwhile, did they make female taurens taller? Or the war raptors bigger? I swear I’m having more trouble than ever in Undercity. I used to just not be able to fit through the elevator door, but now I can’t fit through ANY doors. I have a suspicion that while they seem to have accidentally replaced male orc shoulders with female orc shoulders, they also replaced female tauren war raptors with male tauren war raptors. But, of course, no one’s going to raise a fuss about that (I did, afterall, accept the inconvenience of not being able to fit through doorways as payment for the badassery I would receive riding about on my DINOSAUR).

Lent and such

This Lent I have a few smaller goals vs. one big one. No soft drinks, which isn’t so much a drastic change as a clamp down on an already dwindling habit. I really only ever have soft drinks on Tuesdays, and occasionally if I go out to eat for lunch or on the weekend. This is a closing of the gap, so to speak.

Also, I am reducing my WoW time to 7 hours a week to be condensed or spread out to my liking. I’ve been making a to-do list a mile long of tiny tasks and odd jobs to be done this Lent, and I can also devote the extra time to applying for scholarships. I’ve sent in applications for three so far, which I feel is a pretty good pace, but there are quite a few in March and April that I’ll have to be more diligent on. So it isn’t so much a “less WoW” as a “replace one unit of WoW with one of these other tasks to do.” The distinction is important, otherwise I’d just go back to napping all the time.

Other news:
– on Friday I’m getting my hair chopped off to donate to hopefully end up on some alopecia areata-stricken child’s head.
– Brendan took pictures of the puppy last night, and I’m saying this so he’ll post them on Flickr or some such so I can share them with the world
– My great-grandmother of 104 years old finally passed away this week. More on this later.