Random Thoughts

- I'm not thrilled with the blog's layout. If I had the time, or inclination, I might consider looking at something a little darker. Perhaps a banner that didn't break the table.

- Speaking of darker, still not getting into the Death Knights. In fact, these kids are starting to annoy me. It's not the best time to be lv 55-60, because these guys are all over the place trying to power through quests. Usually at my expense. I had to kill a spawn in a crypt. One DK had cleared out everything up top, which was fine I suppose. There wasn't anything there that Marv and I couldn't handle. But the DK who ran down while I was waiting for the dude to respawn, ganked him, then took off before I could even get his name, can go drown in a lake of troll piss. Remember my last post when I talked about grouping with another hunter so we could both finish the same quest? Be more like me, and less like Dick Knights.

- Somehow managed to get 58 before I left for work this morning. Two quest hand-ins, a smattering of grinding, and all was good. I sent myself some upgrades, hence the urgency to hit 58 asap. Only a few more levels before I get my Beast Mastery, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm happy with Marv, but I guess I should look at picking up a single target tank. I'm thinking a worm. Maybe, just for kicks, I'll grab that core hound puppy in the Dranei area. I'd have to look up their specials before considering it though. For most of what I do, Marv or Dakota have been taking care of business just fine.

Wrath Thoughts

Okay, as of this writing Ruk is 56.

Thank you, thank you.

Still, that means that the expansion doesn't offer much to me. Most of the things that would have been interesting, were offered up in patch 3.0.2 with Hunter talents and skills. So I got all the goodies I knew I could use, pre-expansion. Yes there's new zones, new quests, but those are at least ten levels away before I can even think about them.

So what did WotLK provide?

Queues. Wrath has changed the way many of us play, and by that I mean waiting 15-45 minutes before we can access our Character Select Screen. Get home from work, log in, go have dinner, clean up, come back, and see how much waiting time is left.

What's even more frustrating is that I'm waiting to get into the "Vanilla WoW" zones.

The other thing Wrath offers, and it is now something I can make use of, is the Death Knight. I tried one. I did a few of the introduction quests. Then I logged off, and Ruk went out and killed Yeti. Because that's how I roll. I'll probably try DK's again, but I can't see myself giving up the toon I've spent months and months leveling with, training professions with, questing with, just because the flavour of the month has some neat bells and whistles.

If I want a tank, Marv the albino gorilla will take care of it.

In Other News

I grouped with another Hunter yesterday. We were working on the same quest, which resulted in the spawning of a level 60 kitty that had to be killed. I figured I'd be a nice guy - he was hunting for the piece of meat needed to spawn the cat, and I'd just gotten mine - and we grouped up so he'd get credit for the kill. When he ran over to me, I noticed he had a cat. The cat was in prowl mode, crawling up behind him. I know there's a bug with cat prowl, so I made a joke about it. He told me that's what cats did.

Good grief. Stereotypes exist for a reason, kids.

Feel the Wrath

Last night I briefly contemplated picking up my copy of WotLK from EB Games. It was almost midnight, and I was driving in the cold and freezing rain hoping to buy some kind of patching goop from Wal-Mart. Seems one of the windows in the sun room decided to spring a leek at 11 at night, letting a steady stream of ice cold water piddle on the carpet.

There I am, driving around, and I see people lining up at Best Buy. I see them at Wal-Mart. I think to myself, "I'm out anyway. Why not swing by my EB and grab the game?"

That's when my inner orc spoke up. "Do you NEED it tonight?"

"Need?"

"Yes, need. Can you start a Death Knight on the server you want?"

"Well, no."

"Are you a high enough level to use the content in the expansion?"

"I guess not."

"Then buy that tube of goop, get your @ss home, and let the game wait until tomorrow. Oh, and you probably won't be in any big hurry to install it tomorrow, will you?"

"..."

Fixed the leak. Picking up the game today. Installing it when I can use the content.

That's the kicker. I'm waiting for the point where, other than being level 66 or so, I'll need Wrath content. Patch 3.0 pretty much gave me most of what I'd want (aside from zones and levels) - new talents, new professions, new pet skills.

For now, Wrath will sit on my desk as a reminder to keep grinding. Keep my eye on the ball.

Crash and Burn

Yesterday, the servers were down for most of the day due to the mailboxes being emptied. Today, the servers were down because of an issue with PVP vendors.

Talk about frustrating.

Even better, I briefly reflected on the fact that I play a Hunter, and my alt that I play with my brother is a Fury Warrior.

a.k.a. Two Classes - No Love.

Not Bad...

Level 50. My second-highest character, and not by that much either. Will The Ruk step through the Dark Portal? Pfft, of course. Just a matter of time.

We picked up a fistful of quests at Un'Goro Crater. Smart money says that the quests in the south are the better ones to start with. Just bang those out, go back to the Tauren questgiver, pick up a second round of quests, and just migrate & complete. I'm contemplating starting these ones with Dakota (wolf) rather than Marv (gorilla). Marv might be the better tank, but since the mobs are all going to be my level or higher, maybe the Attack Power buff from Furious Howl would help take things down.

Only been down there once so far, and killed by a Devilsaur.

I'll be back, D. I'll be back.

Zombie Nation

Well I survived.

Last weekend marked the arrival of the Zombie Invasion, a little bit of the Warcraft 3 backstory which leads to the arrival of the Lich King. Now I haven't played Warcaft 3, so I'm going by what I've been told. No one knew this Invasion was coming, and people didn't know how to deal with it. Some embraced being turned into Zombies and spreading the infection. Some wanted to cancel their subscription out of frustration in not being able to play the way they wanted to.

I say, suck it up Princess.

Sure this affected me. The Ruk landed at a few out of the way outposts, only to have his fall broken by zombies. What did I do? I died, rezzed, and finished my quests. One of the perks of not being in the 70 crowd is that I still have plenty to do, and most of it happens in the middle of nowhere.

I can't believe so many people on my server got bent out of shape over this. I mean, it's a ROLEPLAY server! You want to boo hoo because the mean old Zombies won't let you hang out in Orgrimmar? Go play on a PVE Non-RP server kthx. I did like the way that many bands of players started grouping together to wipe out the Zombies. It was like Social Darwinism - some accepted the situation and dealt with it, and others sucked their thumbs, stomped their feet, and pouted until things were fixed!

In the end, the plague was "cured" and things went back to the way they were. Since the expansion isn't here yet, it isn't out of the question that we might have to ride out another one of these World Events.

Some will complain.

Some will deal with it.

The Ruk will simply continue onward. Nothing out there a high-powered slug to the face won't fix.