Jun 30

Most of last week, I was away at the annual CHUGADUG conference, and did not post very much. Things are still up and kicking around here, though, and the new theme to go with the new domain is well underway (almost finished, in fact), and I’m eager to unveil it (it’s better, in my opinion, than the current theme, and is also original, unlike the current one, which was downloaded from a template site).

Until then, happy WoWing!

Related posts:

1. New Theme. Again.
2. WWI News
3. Interesting News Regarding the Next Expansion
4. We Has a New Theme
5. Got WoW on the Mind!

Jun 25

The Part Time Druid posted an excellent post entitled “Why do We WoW?” over on his site. I’ve talked with my wife about this quite a bit, as when you think about it, it really is a good question.

PTD brings up a few possible reasons we WoW, from searching for meaning in life or being competitive, down to accomplishing goals or socializing. But, he argues, these things don’t really exist. There’s no arguing that the drops you get or the items you craft aren’t really real. You don’t get any “thing” in real life that shows that you downed Illidan. Even the more abstract WoW-reasons, such as achievement-reaching or socializing (aside from the people aspect) aren’t real. They’re just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s, which, when you get down to it, are just electrons flowing on wire from my house to Blizzard’s place. No matter how much I do in WoW, I haven’t really done anything.

Or have I?

The rewards may not be tangable, but the chemicals in your brain that make you feel good are the same as the ones you get when winning a sports game, or passing a difficult test, or any other exciting accomplishment. I’m not saying that you should seek WoW as an escape from real life; there’s no replacing experiences in the mortal plane, especially when it comes to family and loved ones. I’m just saying that just because the physical thing you get isn’t real, it doesn’t mean the accomplishment’s not. The first time I went to Kara, I was excited. My wife doesn’t WoW, but she shared in that excitement with me. It was real, most definitely real.

That’s not even counting the social/people aspects of WoW. I invited a shy friend of mine that I met in WoW to a guild, and she ended up in a romantic relationship with a member of that guild. They even told me to come to IF one day and thanked me for “introducing” them. That’s as real as it gets, folks. Look at Second Skin–they were able to make an entire documentary of just the “people part” of MMOs.

But, aside from all that, Part Time Druid hits the nail on the head–it’s entertainment. I pay my $15 a month to enjoy myself, the same reason I pay money to get cable TV or go play raquetball at the “Y” or do anything else I do that costs money. I guess, in the end, that’s what it all comes down to.

What are your thoughts? Why do you WoW? Or do you even think about that? Do you look for reason in your WoW, or are you happy to just enjoy your entertainment?

Related posts:

1. Forum Post of the Week: The End
2. So You’re Off to BT/Hyjal: A Guide by Gragnarth
3. Why Gearing for Naxx Matters to Me
4. Feeling Lonely – Stay or Go?
5. Playing with Others

Jun 24

Welcome to the first episode of Weekly WoW Bash, where I link a favorite or particulary funny (in my strange and twisted opinion) post from WoW Bash.

Today’s entry is “Girls Have More Mana.”

Related posts:

1. Weekly WoW Bash: Sounds Like a Raid to Me
2. WoW Bash Lives Again!
3. Weekly WoW Bash: Yes, You Do Need Help
4. Weekly WoW Bash: No One Listens to That Rule
5. Weekly WoW Bash: Like Playing a Hunter

Jun 24

With sincere apologies (honest) to those trying to link to me and keep up with my domain name fickleness, I am rechanging the domain name of this blog to TheAltoholic.com. The feed will update automatically (assuming you’re using the FeedBurner one), and the old domain names (wow.binarymuse.net and wowonthemind.com) will continue to automatically forward visitors to the correct place.

Related posts:

1. Got WoW on the Mind!
2. Problems with Dual Specs and Action Bars
3. Most Incredible Machinima Ever
4. News and Such
5. 100%!

Jun 23

Thanks to Nibuca of Mystic Chicanery for the awesome joke, I knew this had to be made when I heard it.

No related posts.

Jun 19

This is in response to the Shared Topic from Blog Azeroth entitled 10 Best Memories in World of Warcraft.

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Wow, this is gonna be difficult. So many memories in the couple years I’ve played WoW, a great majority of them good. I’ve tried to read as few of the other BA bloggers’ answers to keep from spoiling my own–though I’m sure a lot of them will be similar across all WoW players. Blizzard seems to work hard to make certain points in the game very memorable. A lot of them will be “firsts,” as those are my most memorable moments.

10. Logging In the First Time

The first time I logged in to WoW, I created Celidur, my mage. Finally logging in and seeing what all the hubub was all about, being able to control my own character and explore this massive virtual world with all my friends, was a great experience. This is by far not number 10 in the list of best memories, but it was the first, so it goes here.
Read more… »

Related posts:

1. BA Shared Topic: Preparing for Wrath of the Lich King
2. Moving Forward
3. Decisions
4. Welcome to Outland! Again.
5. Why Can’t I Decide?

Jun 19

A few days ago I posted in “The Shallow End of the Big Kids’ Pool” about my random invitation into the middle of a very well geared Kara group, it being my first time in there, not knowing what to do, and getting my T4 helm. Well, my guild found out that I did Kara and was thus obviously geared enough to do Kara and invited me yesterday to the weekly run. Okay, I can offtank some stuff and throw out some Kitty DPS. These guys aren’t as geared as the folks I ran with last time, so I won’t be quite so far behind.

One of the best things about this guild is that three of my closest friends, who are related and live together about 30 minutes away, are in it. Two of them I used to work with at the Geek Squad (I refuse to link to them) and one of them goes to school where I now work in IT. So, it’s really fun to run with people you know and respect and have a good time with on a daily basis.

Anyway, when we went in it was me (Kara n00b) off-tanking and a warrior main tanking. We got as far as Attumen when the warrior had to go. So, a priest logged his feral druid, and a druid who had just logged in respecced resto and headed in. It didn’t take long to do the math.

“Well, Mr. Tilley, guess you’re main tank.”

Um, what? Oh wow. Do I have to? I don’t know the pulls. The other feral druid (one of the three friends) was a bit more well geared in some areas (one thing I noticed is he had his Earthwarden) but I had the T4 helm and my pruple PvP shoulders. Honestly either of us could have performed the roll, but it fell to me.

Okay, dag nab it, let’s do this shiz-nit. Or whatever.

Read more… »

Related posts:

1. The Shallow End of the Big Kids’ Pool
2. Not Joining the Bandwagon
3. New Stuff in Kara
4. Role Consolidation, or “Great, Now I’m Useless”
5. Moving Forward

Jun 18

So Tasmyn, my druid, was feral when she hit 70. I tanked and DPSed some instances, and decided to give resto a try, as she had some resto gear laying around. It’s nice too. I enjoy both specs, but I really enjoy the soloability and versatility that comes with the feral spec (unlike, say, a prot warrior).

However, her gear isn’t the greatest. She’s still grinding away to Earthwarden, currently using Braxxis’ Staff of Slumber. She’s got the feral T4 helm, and a full Heavy Clefthoof set. She’s at approximately 23,000 armor, about 12,500 health, uncrittable, around 22% dodge and about the same amount of crit. (I’d link an armory page, but she’s currently in her resto gear and switches more often that I change my underwear. Okay, maybe not that often. But still.)

I am having serious issues tanking. Against a boss or other single mob (or a well crowd-controlled pull), I’m alright. But when there’s a few more, especially 3+, I’m having problems.

Maybe it’s my process? Depending on the pull, I’ll Starfire cross (or “X”, the second kill target), shift to Bear Form and FFF skull (the primary kill target). I’ll hit Enrage as they’re coming toward me, and queue up a Maul. When they arrive I’ll get a Mangle off on skull and then a Demoralizing Roar to get a bit of aggro on any of the other mobs. At this point I’ve tried a couple of things; sometimes I’ll get a Lacerate or two on the primary target (seeing as the DPS is going balls-to-the-walls on it) and then get a Lacerate on cross. Or I’ll get a Lacerate in and Swipe a couple times. Or I’ll Lacerate cross first and the Swipe. No matter what I try the same thing happens.

Before long, I loose aggro on a mob. If I’m concentrating on skull one of the other mobs will usually head to the healer (or some AoEing mage or Seed of Corruptioning Warlock, but that’s their problem–isn’t it?), or if I take a moment to get a Swipe and/or Lacerate in on one or two of the other mobs, my primary target makes a break for the DPS.

So my question is, is this something I’m doing or not doing? Or just the fact that my AP is a little low (due to still using Braxxis’ Staff)? Or is it the fact that DPS isn’t waiting long enough, or using too many AoE attacks? In regular 5-mans, it’s usually not too bad, the DPS can take a hit or two. But in Heroics, one shot is about all it takes. Also, in places like, for example, toward the end of Steamvaults, where there are those 5-mob or so pulls, I really, really have trouble.

I’ve done a lot of reading on tanking in Bear Form, visited a lot of blogs and read a lot of forum posts, so it’s not like this is something that just started and I haven’t done any research. Any experienced bears out there that could lend me a hand? (Or possible call me a n00b and tell me to L2P, that’s okay too.)

Related posts:

1. 2 More Reasons Feral Druids should be Excited about Wrath
2. Moving Forward
3. I Love Being a Feral Druid
4. Levelin’ Like a Madman
5. Two Pugs Enter: Stupidity vs. Ignorance

Jun 18

In an effort to keep up with the rest of the WoW bloggers out there, I thought I’d post this. Unfortunately, I can’t lay claim to it, I think it originated on the official forums somewhere.

Sang to the tune of the theme of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”

Now this is the story of all about how
My spec got flipped, turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the feral prince of Dire Bear.

In West Plaguelands born and raised
Healing in Tree Form is how I spent most of my days,
Stackin’ Lifeblooms and Rejuvs and dancin’ real cool
And Swiftmendin’ some tanks takin’ damage like a fool.
When a couple of rogues who were up to no good
Pulled some extra mobs on Jahood.
I got in one little wipe and my group got scared,
They said “You’re hearthin’, respeccin’, and tankin’ in Bear!”

I whistled for my mount and when it came near
The license plate said feral and had dice in its ear.
If anything I could say this mount was fast
But I thought, “Now forget it, I’m hearthin’ to Shattrath!”

I pulled up to Moonglade about seven or eight
And I yelled to the trainer “Yo resto, smell ya later!”
I looked at my talents, I was finally there!
To go to Karazhan and tank in Dire Bear.

Related posts:

1. 15 Reasons Feral Druids should be Excited about Wrath
2. Am I Doing Something Wrong?
3. The Death of the Epic Mount Quests
4. I Can Haz BlizzCon!
5. 2 More Reasons Feral Druids should be Excited about Wrath

Jun 16

I’m desperately grinding up my Cenarion Expedition reputation in anticipation of grabbing that sweet mace, Earthwarden. I went on a heroic UB run as DPS, grabbed some rep, badges, and fell off the bridge at the second boss. Nice.

As soon as I’m out of the portal the mage created for us at the end of the run, I get a whisper from a raiding friend of mine, who I met while he was leveling an alt in Hellfire Peninsula. “How is your gear?” he asks. “Uhm, average I guess?” And I read him the stats. “You’re geared enough. Want to offtank for a boss in Kara? We’re just before Chess, gonna do Prince and Netherspite.”

So a billion things run through my mind. The first, and foremost, one is, “Holy cow, I’ve never been to Kara, I don’t know any of the enounters, I’m gonna screw something up.” I share this with my friend, he says “Don’t worry about it, I’ll explain it. Do you want to come?” So I say “Sure, I guess.”

Within moments I’m in a raid group and summoned to some room where things are going on, namely raid members are bashing on mobs. Right into the fray, it is, and I have no idea what’s going on. So I do the only thing I can think of: I switch to Cat Form and start DPSin.

Read more… »

Related posts:

1. The Slightly Deeper End of the Big Kids’ Pool
2. New Stuff in Kara
3. Even a Single Kara Pugger
4. A Day of (Mostly) Good PuGs
5. Patch 2.4: People are Far Too Optimistic