So a week ago I embarked on the long, long daily quest grind to get Exalted with the Sons of Hodir.
There was only one reason for doing so, and it had nothing to do with the reported excellent quest line, daily gold gains, or even the quiet chuckle at the innuendo that surrounds the Sons of Hodir… Thrusting Hodir’s spear… seriously…
No, it was all about one thing, and one thing only, increasing my performance.
I am not a big fan of dailies. I am still not exalted at Sunwell, even though every man and their 2nd Alt is. Argent Tournament is one of those things to kill time. The idea of doing 40 days worth of dailies, probably 1 or 2 a week, just sent shivers down my spine. I had heard that you can “glitch” the quest line, so you can repeat a couple of one-off quests, over and over again. That will only nett you 150 rep… but if you are like me, and have more large blocks of time than frequent short blocks of time, then that could be appealing…
Always talk to the Innkeeper before embarking on a long journey!
Well, it would have been, if not for my savior… Larisa!
I note she has had her own moment of clarity about dailies, of the Argent Tournament variety at least.
What is a Gnome to do with his stockpile of TBC gold?
BUY favor with my faction of choice…. Ohh lordy, that’s just so easy.
So a couple of grand down the local Auction House, and I am exactly 0/999 Exalted with Hodir.
As an added bonus, I notched up my 15th exalted reputation.
I was getting pretty bored pressing Accept quest…. Complete Quest, so I thought I would put my Arcane, Magely powers to good use… Why do one hand in at a time, when you can do FOUR!
Ohhh, just because they may be 20% less stupid, but those Mirror Images can’t be trusted to complete a quest.
They also got bored real quick with nothing to attack…
So I let them go.. global recession and all that stuff.. I can’t maintain them AND Me.
So just as I got myself some new thread in my shoulders when the call went out…
Let’s take Naxx down!
While I am sure it wasn’t
Let’s literally take Naxx down
That was what happened…
But taking a step back… our goal
20 minute Spider wing
No screwing up guys, if we get one wipe we will call it. No need to rush, just to stay alive.
Boss 1, Wipe 1…
Well at least we can relax now, we aren’t going for the timed run.
Therefore of course we got it easily…
On to Grand Widow Faerlina.
Arrgghh.. luckily we weren’t chasing the timed achievement.
It was while Mr. Tree (as Tree Hugger Dave wants to be known as…) was looting and distributing the goodies, that we realized just how overpowered we were.
Mr. Tree: Need rolls on Watchful Eye
Gnomeaggedon: Rolls 72
PuggyPriest: pass
Mr. Tree: The winner is PuggyPriest with a roll of CRASH BOOM!
Yep, we downed Naxx.. the whole place… gone!
Actually we downed the Instance server… Yep, why get a killing blow on a single raid, when you can Overkill and take out all raids?
I realize in hindsight, it was the Loot Gods that were angry…
How angry?
Very very angry!
Proof?
Everyone (after a bit of stuffing about, and being ported randomly around Azeroth) managed to get back into Naxx….
Hell, I discovered via twitter that even Pugnacious Priest (no relation to PuggyPriest) was suffering from the Loot God tirade… even though she is far far away in another realmiverse.
Everyone…
With one exception…
Mr. Tree.
Mr. Tree was not only without an Instance server… but without an Authentication Server.
When he FINALLY rejoined us, I shot him whisper…
Gnomeaggedon: You got my off-hand?
Mr. Tree: What off hand?
Gnomeaggedon: Ohhh… we need to petition the Loot Gods!
Screw You!
At that moment in time I felt a little antsy… I was reminded of how much I have wanted to capture that one expression that Gnomeaggedon could fill 50% of his posts with. That expression alledgedly created by the French to taunt the English bowmen (OK, I knew I would get this wrong… next time must take the 2 minutes to confirm my suspicion. It was the English taunting French… see Drazmor’s comment below).
We ended up moving on without Mr. Tree for a while, listening merrily to his screams of frustration over Vent, while he copied addons, deleted directories, repaired WoW, replaced addons…
I know it was painful for him and really the only thing I can say to Mr. Tree is…
IN FUTURE, DON’T PISS OFF THE LOOT GODS!
Moving on…
So yeah, anyway we moved on, and I want to tell you how from that point onwards it was smooth sailing…
- Maexxna – One Shot!
- Instructor Razuvious – 3 shot!
Hang on, that’s not the way the story is meant to go…
- Gothik the Harvester – 2 shot!
Definitely not the way I like to tell a Naxx story…
- The Four Horsemen – 3 shot!
OK, I need to stop here for a moment…
- Once again, we needed someone to tank the back horsemen.
- Once again, I was the best candidate for the job!?!
- I did have some help in the form of a female Gnome warrior
- The PuggyPriest had many, many reservations about the chances of us doing this with only 3 healers…
- We said… like we always do… it’s will be cool. Mr. Tree can handle the back.
Have you ever watched a female Gnome warrior? I did… well actually, at 1st I couldn’t even see her… Gnomes are small you know! Still, I found it quite disturbing that a) we had a Gnome warrior (some would suggest that that is an oxymoron), and b) that she was female. It just didn’t sit right. Nothing sexist you understand… maybe it was just the sight of a scantily clad Gnome female that had me all distracted.
Anyway..
Attempt 1: I go down like a bag of spuds.
Attempt 2: I can’t remember what happened attempt 2. After attempt 2, said scantily clad female Gnome warrior called it a night…
Call it!
Down to a 9 humanoid raid, why not… just stay… for one more attempt…
Attempt 3: So we had to get the New-to-Naxx Hunter to tank the back with me… actually, I think this is the same hunter than caused the 2nd wipe… but whatever. Once we explain again the concept of swapping when charges hit 3, and I set up /yell and /whisper macros and make sure he can actually hear me on vent, we begin.
Faster that you can say…
I am going to do more damage than you this fight Mr. Z!
… Mr.Z! was down, as was Mr Offspec.
In fact the only people left at the front are the Tankadin, the Tank (WildMan) and PuggyPriest.
Vent is filled with…
Call it!
It’s over!
Wipe it up folks!
But… we just didn’t give up…
At one point, when doing my swap, I find WildMan on my Horseman. before I can get to the Horseman he is gone.. charging back into the fray at the front of the room.
What I didn’t know, was that in the seconds prior to his charge, the Tankadin was going down… 100%, 81%, 61%, 41%, 21%, 1%
Taunt!
WildMan has saved the day!
IWIN!
Meanwhile, at the back of the room, I am pumping my IWIN! button… pumping it…
I was FFB spec for the fight, I didn’t want to risk mana issues.
As soon as the fight started, my 3 Gnomish friends joined me to start the slaughter… IWIN!
As soon as I hear the call to wipe, IWIN!
IWIN!
IWIN!
IWIN!
IWIN!
Last things I remember, on my last swap, was I had my initial horseman down to 10%. As I turned, I see bodies arriving from the front of the room.
One Horseman left… IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN!
Loot rolls..
IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! IWIN! Charmed Cierge (as shown earlier in this post)
For once I have both earned my keep and been rewarded for it… usually I just get rewarded for my conjured goods!
63% of the damage on Sir Zeliek and another 48% on Lady Blaumeux
Naxx Breaker
Noth went down without any major event… well, l except that Gnomeaggedon went down on about the 3rd or 4th bunch of mobs…
How Embarrassment!
Heigan the Raid breaker finished us off… we didn’t get him, but we were all tired.. tired of Instance server crashes, and the 30-60 minutes lost trying to get the raid going again. Tired of wiping… Just tired!
The only thing left to do before logging, was to petition the GM’s… well actually I already had… but they hadn’t shown.. and no matter how much I watched the ticket, it didn’t change… no GM whispers, no expected resolution time.. but let’s face it…
They would have been busy!
Experiments in the Arcane
I decided I would give Arcane a run for it’s money, and I thought I would start safe.. just those 3-4 minute fights. That way if I cock up my mana management it wouldn’t matter. In fact, I made sure I put in a call to raidside support (Mr. Tree) before the raid began. He would dedicate his Innervate to me, he was even prepared to name a Macro after me… I felt honored.
I made up my IWIN! Arcane macro.. placed it carefully on my tool bar.
I took some screenshots of the previous 2 weeks worth of my WWS reports… just so I wouldn’t loose them (which I don’t have on me, but I did have a quick look), and a comparison of how Arcane was comparing to FFB.
I went hard… Mana wasn’t an issue, so I guess I could have just Arcane Blasted the whole time (and maybe that would have made a difference). Arcane barrage wasn’t exactly procing every 3rd cast… but…
End result…
The jury (of one) is still out.
From memory there was only 1 boss fight where I reached 3k DPS.. the rest were either the same, or a mirror image of my FFB stats (One fight FFB better, next fight Arcane better etc.) I was definitely leaving piles of corpses on the trash.. quite insane piles really… but, I don’t know if that is enough to convert me. Admittedly I loved my PoM FlameStrike, followed by Blizzard… I always get itchy in that 1st 3 seconds of trash, knowing that Mr. Z! is already racking up the kills.
Ticket Time
This is the 3rd time in many years I have raised a ticket… I am yet to be online when a GM handles my ticket. Not sure if they check who it’s from and think…
This guy is only on for a few hours each week, if we wait a little longer we can handle it at our leisure
Or they are just really busy with important stuff like dancing and singing.
Of course to be fair, I expect there were a pile of servers that dropped dead the other night, so one little Gnome’s cries for assistance would have been drowned out by the unwashed majority.
I got the usual, stocko standard in game email & also real world email. But that was cool. It prompted me to refine my ticket a little.
Then, while I was slaughtering my Alien foes in Space Crusade, I got an email from Mr. Tree, which included this…
I wanted to say the response i received from Styrend this morning was excellent. He had a great sense of humor. Had read the ticket in full before talking with me and had dealt with the ticket with efficiency, politeness and a laugh.
Well done. I realize these guys are busy and to deal with it in a quick and respectful way made my day.
It was his Blizzard customer service survey response…
That sounds good… Commandeer WildMan’s PC, check my ingame mail…
Problem sorted… and Mr. Tree had some fun to boot…
Thanks Rovorril, Hanthor & Styrend!
I want a visit from a GM… I can dance too you know!
Gnome Superiority
So I had a bit of a quick mess about with my items, just to see how much I gained/lost when combined with my Flameheart Spell Scalpel.
Seems I equipped the right combination of gear… I haven’t event thought about this, it just happened..
Still, it looks like I need a new Main Hand… not quite sure where I will get one from though…
Them Gnomes are Tasty
Don’t go spreading the word to those staving Hordes on the streets of Dalaran, but apparently I might be a tasty & nutritious snack… I will be keeping my eyes on them next time I am crawling around in the filthy sewers looking for mushrooms.
Argent Tournament Revisited (or I need a new keyboard)
I was sitting on 24 Valiant’s tokens, and 24 Champion’s tokens.
It has been a big struggle to collect them. The only time I have beaten a champion before the enemies gates is when one or two others hit my champion rather than their own.
Still, when you are that close, you just have to go for one more… (it’s always just one more…)
I have developed a new strategy now…. ensure 3 shields, Spam 3 (like really madly spam 3), turn & Spam 2 (like really madly spam 2), engage & Spam 1 (like really madly spam 1), then rinse and repeat.
I actually took down everything in my path.
Then I took my tokens back to the snooty Elves, and apparently they were impressed!
Leeet’s Gooooo Shopppping…
I have an offhand without a (worthwhile) Mainhand… I have 25 Champions tokens burning a hole in my Character Currency screen.
They are flogging off cheap (Last one in stock apparently) this beautiful pile of metal, that just suits me to the ground.
Gnomeaggedon of Gnomeregan and his Gnomeregan Bonechopper!
Seriously, how beautiful is that weapon?
Gnomish Engineering at it’s finest!
Sure the stats are OK…
But, that isn’t why I bought it.
In fact all the calculators seem to tell me the same thing…
Give it back and ask for a refund!
But, to me, it’s worth 25 champions seals to have this sitting in the bank.
That’s a wrap for this week…
Tonight we tackle a bit of the Old World.
If Mr Z! is to be believed, I will be sporting achievements for Onyxia, AQ20 and MC come Monday.
A level 80 Mage and his 7 mates (Mmm did that number just creep up by one) take on 3 level 60 raids…
That will really be something to GnomEpeen about!
Gnomer and Out!
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That wonderful expression was actually created by English bowmen to taunt the French. When French captured English longbowmen, they would cut off those two fingers so they could never draw a bow again, so the expression was made to show they still had thier fingers
I know, I’m sorry, I’m a history geek.
Ahhh, that’s the whole story… I knew the bit about cutting off fingers… I actually thought it was a taunt to say:
We will cut your fingers off
not
We still have your fingers, therefore you are F@#ked!
Thank your for enlightening this little Gnome
I would give 4 of my 5 fingers for that bonechopper. I love it for the graphic alone.
Tsk Tsk Kriz… how soon you forget that you only have 4… until you are talking about using a mouse with only 1 finger left…
Only need 25 Champions seals… and a good relationship with that hot little Gnomette
Ohhh, and just in case you haven’t seen it in action…
IT MOVES!
The gear turns round, it shudders in mechanical delight…
it’s very groovy… worth having if nothing else as a city item
Gnome Powa!
how many fingers does a gnome have anyway?
@zupa – they have three fingers & a thumb :>
Gnomeaggedon, I LOVED this post in it’s entirety.
That’s it… 4 fingers (OK, one is a thumb) and 5 toes….
This has been raised a few times Zupa… don’t tell me you weren’t reading….
All the essential information and links are here: Tagged in a Blog Challenge
“The jury (of one) is still out.”
I suggest Frostfire simply because slushbolts destroy on longer fights. I think it might scale better with gear, too; it certainly seems like it does, with the DPS increases that I saw when I switched over.
I have been Arcane for the shot and curly fights, FFB for the longer fights.
I was having an off night on Friday and didn’t bother swapping specs… I was FFB all night.
Something I noticed was that although my DPS was a bit lower than the 2 – 3 above me, my damage wasn’t much below… at the end of the night across all the boss fights, each of us was separated by 1% of damage.. so I was only 1-2% behind the top, even though I was 1,000+ dps below each of them