Did you get online yesterday, or were you caught in extended maintenance?
I got on, at 1st briefly, then later for an extended period.
When I 1st logged in it was business as usual, Dalaran full, trade “vibrant” (I’ll let you interpret the definition of vibrant).
When I logged in later it was as if Arthas or someone (maybe a Gnome Engineer) had perfected a universal vacuum.
The streets were empty, trade chat relatively quiet (i.e. readable).
Of course it wasn’t Arthas or the Gnomes, it was the Ruby Vacuum, otherwise known as the Ruby Sanctum.
Being the 1st night there weren’t any PuG groups going (although I expect that from tonight it will be “LFM RS >9000 GS pst with role and achievement”). It was just guild groups. All my friends were there, there all night in fact.
Meanwhile, on the outside I was doing the usual things.
LFD… LFA (Anyone)
It took a looooooong time to get groups for Ahune and the random heroic.
When I did get groups, they weren’t the 1337 roflstomping 8k dps groups, they were the < 1500dps, “I know how to play better than you” groups.
The kind that yell at me to dps Ahune’s core, the one I am already dpsing, the one where I am doing 2-4 times the dps on.
Needless to say, Squidly got groups instantly, heals in a vacuum are instantly sucked up.
How few people were there?
What do you think the chance is of randomly playing with the same character from a different server twice in a row?
Gnome did ToC with a Bear tank Flowerbud (/wave). A little while later, Squidly found himself healing Flowerbud through Nexus.
He was as amazed, or confused as I, yet I guess it’s no surprise that we caught up again. Tanks & Healers in a vacuum are bound to cross paths.
Wintergrasp
There were quite a few Alliance in Wintergrasp. There was just one problem, there were hardly any Horde. Of course, Aman’Thul being unbalanced towards the Alliance it’s not unusual that there are less Horde, but…
I saw 3!
They had 11 stacks of Tenacity!
The only quest completed in that Wintergrasp was Victory in Wintergrasp – there weren’t enough to kill to complete the other quests.
VoA
I’ve mentioned there was a vacuum of Horde and that LFD wasn’t throwing cream at me (with the exception of Flowerbud), but I was a little surprised at what I found in VoA.
There were a heap of LFM after Wintergrasp was won and people were a little desperate.
I was quickly snapped up and two more invites were automatically slapped down by my presence in this raid group.
10 man raid, 1 heal, 2 tanks and umm… 4 DPS. Yeah, sure there were 3 more bodies, but I’m not sure they met the definition of dps.
We wiped… we wiped?
3 dps < 1500, one of whom was < 950.
Ummm… and two of them were hunters (proof hunters need 45 blogs?).
The bit that gave me the ummm, annoyed me, was the RL started blanket bagging ranged for not being on orbs. Ranged were the two hunters and me. 45% of my damage was on orbs and I was still 2nd on dps.
We 9 manned it next attempt (or as I put it at the time, 8 manned it), I even won a completely useless item…
HOORAY!
Yeah, continuing my VoA luck streak. Actually, to be fair, after hunting VoA for months for Wrathful pieces (any piece really) for Gnome, Squidly managed to pick up a useable Wrathful piece the other day. I guess I need to really start PvPing on Squidly again.
I know people call VoA a loot piñata, but to be honest I have collected more useful rubbish out of the 2 or 3 real life piñatas than I have out of this digital piñata.
Loving my readers
Just in case you weren’t aware, I love my readers and their willingness to share, to solve my problems, maybe to stop my QQ? and occasionally ask questions
Koch (Aszune) and Peragon on Disconnecting from WoW
Koch pointed out that there is lots of information on the DCs that have plagued me (and a large percentage of the player base) since 3.3.5.
Judging by the pained comments about DCs in PuGs I have been running, Blizzard haven’t yet solved their coding issues.
The short story, or solution, is to reduce tour graphics settings. I took each one down a notch just so I wasn’t missing out on too much.
The longer (I mean long) story is here: http://www.wow.com/2010/06/24/patch-3-3-5s-out-of-storage-error/
Ironically, this is more likely to effect you if you have a higher end PC and later Windows than I’d you are playing on an old banger.
Peragon reminded me of Leatrix’s Latency Fix, which basically automagically changes a network setting on your PC so you get a better response from WoW. It is just a one registry change, you can do the same thing manually, but Leatrix’s Latency Fix will apply, remove or check for the fix with the click of a icon.
Dara – Scorchling will return
Good new for Fire Mages, the Scorchling pet will return at some point in the future, though I am guessing more likely in Cataclysm than WoLK.
Meanwhile, have Squidly or Gnome seen the frost pet…. lol, yeah that and the Scorchling – NOT!
Thanks Dara for bringing this old Gnome some hope.
LFM comments.
I was approached by a Gnome Fire Mage (bless his European heart) looking for a Fire Mage Spec for his level 70 Mage that he’s going to xp-cap and run old raids with mates.
I very generously provided him with a 53 point talent tree to blast the Arcane and Frost competition out of the water with.
Of course, he can’t have 53 points at level 70, only 51. I have supplied him with a new 51 point spec, but my question is…
What would you suggest?
For The Horde
I got asked today where For Teh Horde are. My answer was simple…
They faction transferred to Alliance and are too ashamed to admit it.
When I told the FTH folk they had been asked after, they responded that they had been asked the same question of me.
Their response to the query…
Fikkle: That is so ironic, someone asked me how come you haven’t posted in a week. I told em to google warlockmaggedon.net
ForThePie: http://puntinggnomes.wordpress.com is also a place he posts.
My response to their response…
Always good to take a break from www.pickingthehordebonesclean.nub and www.satedgnome.lol and www.wherehaveallthehordegoneohhinmytummy.yum
The Gnomer Vacuum
So where have I really been?
I’ve been spending most of my time at:
www.youwantmetoworkanother18hourday.crap
and
www.wowisstillsomuchfunihavenotimetoblog.damn
Gnomer and Out!
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Voa is a loot pinata, but yea random is random applies as well as anything. Hunter got double 264 a couple of months ago, couple of alts have 251+264, main has ret and prot 251 for both slots and zero holy pve or pvp( I run it for the pvp) But overall I dont have a single character that has never had a drop from Voa. Even my dk tank who is 6 or so weeks @ 80 has 264 pvp gloves and pve dps legs.
But last night was very quiet. I queud for a random as dps on my 75 and got a instant queue.
Squid has had a couple forced down his throat as the token Heroism bringer.. but they were for enhancement.. which I believe involves being up close and hitting things…
Gnome is good at that, although people don’t appreciate my 7 damage per swing.
Still, at least I won one thing of value.
I intend to finally buy 2 tier 10 pieces for Gnome… so how much you want to bet I get the a drop from VoA next time he is in?
I sat on 2pce t10 waiting for resto gloves for 3 months on my druid. I won a token last reset and had no 251 drop to use it on so I finally bit the bullet and brought shoulders and gloves. It did not magically produce 264 gloves, mind you I have yet to run a 10 so their is still the chance.
You need to hit more things to get your weapon skill up. You should be hitting for 200 or so, a 300% increase!
I’m at max weapon skill… I’m a melée Mage and I’m ok… But I guess my arm is weak
“3 dps < 1500, one of whom was < 950.
Ummm… and two of them were hunters (proof hunters need 45 blogs?)."
Oh snap!
Do I need to clarify that “Mr. < 950" was a hunter?
Hey! Glad to see you’re still around. Was getting a tad worried.
WG has been such a bizarre situation on my server. We used to own it >75% of the time. Now I’ve seen it in Ally hands maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 2 weeks. I got my first WG in over a month last night. Of course I couldn’t get into VoA for some reason.
I’m going to put up a post about Ignomeminy and my attempt at fire magery, so if you have any comments/etc about how to play a lowbie mage, it’d be appreciated.
I would love to hit RS, but my guild doesn’t think we have the required gear/players to go there. I’m not sure. This is one case where having a feel for a reasonable “minimum GS” would be useful.
i have a story that will make you (hopefully) feel better:
one of my guildies was at work the other day, taking phone calls from customers, and one she got on the line he said, “hang on a second, i need to close out my warcraft window…” — so they started talking WoW. turns out, this guy plays a mage. my guildy said, “oh? what spec?” (thinking of me and my one-mage unwavering cheering squad for fire)
he said, “honey, if it ain’t fire, it ain’t worth the time.”
whoever you are, mysterious customer, you made my day. and i hope it makes yours, too, Gnomey.
My day was made about 30 seconds before you posted your comment in the for of Wrathful Silk Trousers of stickiness (well they weren’t sticky till I put them on)
However, this is both the icing and the cream on the cake.
Fire Mage is Love like no other
I took out word verification.
I coulda taken it out myself, with one hand tied behind my back!
Actually I think it was WordPress and Blogger refusing to talk.. Or my pc.
It wasn’t you… It’s me.