I Ate the Worm & All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

I did a quest today that was probably one of my least favorite so far. I had to kill those underground worms that pop out in Hellfire Peninsula. West of Honor Hold, near where you get the quest, is a fairly good spot to find these, and this is here our story begins.

To slay 15 of these beasts is the quest I am charged with, and I make haste to do so. I am not feeling well so my daughter is at my sister-in-law's house. My time to sit and play today is short and this quest is but one of many I intend on doing. I tell myself that I will be level 60 before it is time for me to log out, and I have brought all necessary materials to my side to ensure an uninterrupted session.

Bottle of Lemon-Lime Gatorade, lemon Ricola "throat" drops, box of tissues, Chloraseptic spray. All set, let's rock.

I like being able to control what is going on in the game. I delve into this quest completely unaware that all sense of control is about to fade. I see some stones flying up from the ground and run to it, making sure not to aggro the roaming Demons. Here we go, Firecracker is engaged and the mob is dropping health nicely. Suddenly I see more ground being disturbed near the scene of the fight, but that's no problem. I call my pet back, out of range of the approaching worm. Hmmm, why isn't the mob following my pet? For the love of God, he's standing there casting on my pet.

I Hate Casters!

I hated trying to position caster mobs in EQ1 and guess what, I hate trying to do it in WoW. Especially in the wide open where there's nothing to break line of sight rules. OK, Send Firecracker back in, burn this mob down since now we have an add. Bah, how did that Demon roam into aggro range? Where did that 3rd worm come from?!

A short while later as I sit eating and drinking to replenish my health and mana, I am proud of myself. I controled an uncontrollable situation pretty damn well if I do say so myself. As I sat reflecting on my job well done, a Fel Reaver came and killed me.

One day I am going to be stronger than they are, and payback will be sweet.

Happy Holidays

My in-law's arrive tomorrow and will be staying with us for a few days, so no WoW (The guest room doubles as the computer room) ergo, no blog updates.

Happy Holidays to everybody out there :)

Lesson of the Day

This is what makes me mad. Why does the Fel Reaver feel the need to go around killing people? Granted, I wasn't exactly minding my own business when he came strolling by, but did he really have to show me just how hard he can hit? Did killing me make him feel like a big baddie? Is he trying to build street cred?

Despite his best efforts, I was able to succeed with some of my quests and hit 59 last night. 1100-1200 xp per kill with the rested bonus made 58 go in the blink of an eye, I have to say. East of Honor Hold was giving me some great opportunities to practice my chain trapping, which was going along very well when the traps didn't get resisted. And if things got ugly, there was always FD... when that wasn't being resisted.

The take away here is that the tools you have are only effective if they work. If you swing a hammer at a nail and miss, the hammer did nothing. If your traps and Feign have failed and you are outnumbered 4:1, run. Run like a little girl.

Here endeth the lesson.

I'm On a Mission From God

There I was, running from place to place working on quests. Level 58 was rapidly approaching and I was focused. I was determined.

It was 106 miles to Gadgetzan, I had a well rested mount, half a pack of cigarettes, it was dark, and I was wearing sunglasses.

I was on a mission from, um, hold on. Is the circus in town? Why in the Hell is there a circus cannon mounted on the Theramore docks?! Is that in case you don't feel like waiting for the boat?

I'm really not sure. If anybody can answer this one, please let me know.

Where was I now. Oh, right- full steam ahead for level 58. I ran a few quests and made a nice little purchase in the AH of a Lucky Strike Axe of Agility which has a whopping 37 Agility on it. Off to run some more quests and see what kind of damage I can do with this new toy.

*Miss*Miss*Dodge*Miss*Parry

/sigh

Apparently it had been a while since I worked my Axe skill. At the end of the fight I think Omen had me registered with 15 aggro. Not 15%, just 15.

Here is where I was faced with a moral dillemma; I don't like my skill being in the double digits. Aside from the fact that it renders me virtually worthless if I need to do any close range melee, it just bothers me. So I figure I'll go work my weapon skill in Eastern Plaguelands and net some experience while I increase my skill.

The sands of time flow and I am making progress on my skill. Unfortunately it is at the expense of getting experience in any sort of efficient manner. So I did what any self respecting player who was only a hair away from a new level would do. I sought out mobs to kill as fast as I can for the quickest experience bumps.

Incidentally, if you see a small pool of blood on the ground in the Eastern Plaguelands and you get the little "gear" icon when you mouse over it, DON'T click it. Two Elite mobs hellbent on pounding you into the ground will spawn.

In the end, I walked away with a new level and some added insight into the ways of WoW: Just because I -can- do something, doesn't mean I should.

You Gave Me WHAT? Is There a Cream For That?

So today I get a private message from a friend.

Update your blog, [expletive].

I hadn't gotten to sit down and play WoW since last week, which makes material tough to come by for a WoW based blog. So once my daughter was down for her nap, I knew what I had to do. Laundry. But after that, it was time for some gaming.

I logged in and started looking through the guild tool to see who's online and not greeting me. I keep tabs on this, 5 "no-greets" gets you your very own entry on 'Yo! Scope This' filled with lies and propoganda. Ahh, the power of the interweb.

But I digress...

So there I am looking through when I notice there is something strange. Hmm, was it always like this? Wait a minute, was I stealth promoted to Officer?

Sure enough, it seems I was. Having led a guild for several years in EQ1, I really have no desire to be in a "leadership" type of role here in WoW. Don't get me wrong- I'm all about helping whoever I can whenever I can. And it's no secret that I usually make my opinion on matters known. I just don't want another job. Being a stay-at-home dad to a nearly 3 year old little girl + a boy due in February is more than enough work for me :)

So I start talking to a friend who is on at the time, and I find out Officers are typically "inviters", not necessarily "boss" type positions. Excellent, I reply. I can invite along with the best of them.

Then it hits me, I really don't know how to do guild invites in WoW. Apparently I won't be as effective as I thought :p

But with that now behind me I decided it was time to get down to business. Let me sift through my quest log and see if there is a quickie I can bang out. Ah, here we go. OK I have to head over here and then...

...and then my daughter is awake and crying. The naps are getting shorter and shorter, before long she won't need one at all. Guess I'll need to log in tonight and pick up where I left off.

Well How About That

One of my friends has been keeping an eye on things here at 'Yo! Scope This'. He's never afraid to offer up his opinion, and I appreciate that. Every now and then he comes up with something good, and the rest of the time it just gives me a valid reason to make fun of him. You know, as opposed to the normal times when I make fun of him just for the hell of it :p

Well his most recent tidbit of advice was this:

Dude, you need to check out Wowhead.

I won't get into why he justified the recommendation...mostly because he was on his cell phone at the time which kept cutting in and out and I'm pretty sure I misunderstood when I heard him say "..they..[crackle]..kill..[crackle]..chickens". But that was enough to at least spark my curiosity, and off to Wowhead I went.

Boy was I mistaken. Oh the site is really good. It's great actually- I've been able to convert some former armory links in previous entries into a mouse-over link using some scripts they have. I was just mistaken on what he said. I haven't been able to find anything on killing chickens over there yet.

Nonetheless, WoWhead is now added to Places I visit. Thanks Chypp!

Hey Kid, They Can't All Be Winners

I got a late start last night. I had hoped to be online in the late evening but after the wife got home from work I ran some errands. Then dinner and some QT while we watched a movie (Blades of Glory- good stuff if you like Will Ferrel). Ultimately I was able to hit 57, but all in all it was a fairly uneventful night.

Actually, in thinking about it now I didn't spend my talent point when I got my level. Hmmm, gonna have to take care of that ASAP before I go and do more hunting/questing with a point waiting to be spent.

Don't Eat the Yellow Snow

Back when I was still very green to the ways of WoW a friend of mine sent me a tell:

Hey! Stay there, I have something for you :)

Now, I was recently out of my trial account and into the real deal, so of course I was excited to see what she might have to offer. It was only recently that I had been flagged to allow trading between myself and others.

So, patiently, I waited. Ah here she is, let's see what *SMACK!* Whoa, WTF was That?

*THWUMP!*
*SPLAT!*
*SMACK!*

I was being pelted by snowballs, right on the pucker. She either ran out or started to take pity, because eventually the bombardment stopped. As I stood in a dazed state, everybody around had a good laugh.


Yesterday we were talking and in the middle of what she was telling me she throws out the random line, "I have more snowballs". I bet she thinks I didn't see her say that, but I did. It was just my mind's way of going into self-preservation mode and not firing off a smart-ass reply to her.

I could have retorted "So what? Do you think I'm scared of you and your little snowballs?" But truth be told, I am. Her aim is too good to chance a repeat of earlier this year.

Supplies!

So there I was, diligently plugging away in Winterspring; doing my best to get through a few quests. Ahh finally, here are those roaming over-grown Ewoks. For some reason I had no problems running across them before I needed them for a quest, but since taking on this task they had made themselves scarce. No doubt they heard of my awesome-ness, taking refuge in a place they knew I would last look for them- walking down the middle of the road.

I get the crate of supplies with relative ease. Instead of the typical 3 mobs, there were only 2. Clearly one had run off prior to the battle for whatever reason.

As I turn in the supply crate, it becomes obvious where that 3rd one had run off to. And now he was back with reinforcements. I really wasn't expecting it. I was planning on doing the turn in from my mount and just running on to my next project, but clearly my haste this night was a mistake.

In the end I was victorious, but I couldn't help to have memories of a Weird Al movie come rushing back. So, for your enjoyment and my nostalgia:

I'm High, But Not THAT High...

I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine recently. Actually, he was having a conversation with another buddy and I started to chime in to mess with him. What can I say, it's just what I do sometimes :)

The conversation was about swapping trinkets for combat vs. increased mount speed. The main part of the conversation went something like this:

Friend: You don't have the carrot on a stick yet?

Me: No, but I do have Rank II of Animal Handler which gives me an 8% mount speed increase.

Friend: Yea but you should get the carrot.

Me: This talent doesn't stack, so the carrot wouldn't do me any good.

Friend: OH well then you should get a riding crop, it has 10% on it.

Me: ...

Me: I'm 55 bro.

Friend: Yea? So?

Me: That says "Required Level 69"

Friend: That just means you need to hurry up and get 14 more levels!

I'm still not sure if he was jerking my chain, it's tough to tell with him.

Yo!

Welcome to my blog. Let's be clear on something off the bat- I use 'Yo' on a pretty regular basis as a greeting. I just wanted to throw that out there so folks know :)

With that said, this will be my World of Warcraft themed blog. I'm not going to be spouting off the nuances of the Hunter class; I will leave that for the experts. This will, however, be a place of stories. Some being of my adventures with my trusty cat, Firecracker, others of tales told to me. The purpose really is just to try putting a smile on people's face.

Updates will be as frequent as RL allows.

A quick bit of info about me: I am a 56 Night Elf Hunter on the Uldaman server and a member of The Storm Guard.

Thanks for visiting!