We Followed the Directions...We Swear!

First off, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Blessed Be. So far I've gotten just about everything I wanted or needed for Christmas. Dinner is still cooking as I type this, but I'm already pouting. The Guy and I decided on a pineapple and Coke glazed ham for dinner... hey I followed the turkey's suggestion this time!

However, the recipe never said that you needed to add water, or warned that the coke and pineapple would caramelize, removing all moisture from the surrounding enclosed roasting pan. Guess we should have remembered that... oops. Caught it about an hour into cooking. Just charred the outside edges and turned the pineapple into charcoal. Ah well, live, learn, and remember what happens when sugar and heat are applied. The rest of the ham is fine, the potatoes are almost ready to be mashed, the crescent rolls should be coming out of the oven soon, the sweet potatoes are done, and the pie is ready to be cut.

My favorite gift this year has to be the the crochetted shawl that my mother-in-law gave me, or the fingerless gloves she made for me. The Guy got a Horde Scarf, which he grinned over... maybe I can talk him back into playing for a bit? We shall see.

In WoW related news, my newest hunter horde side over on Moon Guard got Dishu the level 13 Cheetah last night. I couldn't have done it alone. I got her with the help of my guild leader, who came over on his Shaman, dropped a healing totem for me and took out the cubs as they spawned. Thank you again Mysthowl! Now I just need to come up with a name for her. I think that was possibly the best present I could have gotten, help when I needed it. ^_^

Thanks again to Bloodriver for being an awesome guild to run with Horde Side, and League of Shadows Alliance Side when I don't want to deal with Deathwing for a bit.

Have a safe and happy holiday, and a happy new year. I'll see you guys later, because the potatoes are done, and its time to eat. Bye!

Bloodriver Winter Veil Extravaganza

Well, I know I haven't been posting much lately, for that I'm sorry. I've not been playing any of the hunters much. Actually I've been splitting my time between a new Paladin and a new Death Knight. I'm still playing on a pre-established server (Moon Guard) but I decided to create a few horde characters over there, just to bug Fae aka Niqora from Petoholics Anon. Her guild is a great group of people and surprisingly has gotten used to me very quickly. We've got a druid that has me sighing and laughing in equal measure, a great officer core, and a great guild leader who notices when new people log on and takes the time to personally welcome them to the guild.

Last night Bloodriver threw a little party in TB around Cairne. I showed up on the Death Knight. I had a few glasses of Eggnog, nibbled on some spicy beef sticks and sipped a bit of tea (in game and in RL) once I was a bit tipsy from the eggnog. I danced with a living flame, became the flame - that was cool! I saw so many cool little pets, an azure whelpling, a captured summer flame, a tree druid with a tree frog, the phoenix hatchling, a clockwork robot; and many, many more. I even started my DK's pet collection with a prairie dog. ^_^

I danced, watched a few snow ball fights, and once Niqora showed up, I even got into a few of the snow ball fights! Poor Niqora, at one point everyone was pelting her with snow balls! I also "accidentally" threw a snow ball at Cairne. I swear I was aiming for Drush... but he moved! It was one of the more enjoyable hours I've spent just fooling around with guild mates in a long time.

And for your enjoyment: PICTURES!

The First Comment

As Cait over at One Among Many has so kindly kicked the ball into my court today, I've got a post on the first comment I ever got on the blog. It was a comment in response to me disagreeing with another hunter over whether or not a 58 hunter was ready for Outlands -"Hunter, money and some hunter blog"-

The first person to comment was Troll on a Powerbook, who unfortunately is no longer playing the game or blogging. The second person to comment, and welcomed me to the blogging community was Cait. She commented a few times in the first weeks, which lead me to her blog. That caused me to read her, and through her I found Hunter's Mark, and eventually Blog Azeroth, and Kestrel's Aerie.

Cait? All I have to say, is thank you for being a frequent responder which lead me to so many others... you even led me to Aspect of the Hare. And I guess, a quick thank you to Pike, who has fueled so many Spark Posts over the last year!

Without all of those who read at least once a week :p it gives me a reason to keep on writing.

Now for me to pick people to tag... hmm. I can only think of one person.

Niqora?

Tag, you're it!

One Among Many on her First Comment.

Kestrel on The First Comment

Blacksmithing 298

Well, part of the reason for not having too many updates on the blog is, well, I'm not playing any of the Tzia's very much. Nope, I've been playing my now level 66 paladin, Dione on Quel'dorei.

I started playing her again to keep my awesome original CC guildie, Rivey, company while he leveled his paladin towards 80. He did make a post saying that I was the reason he didn't get anything done before he left for Washington state. I deny that accusation. I was on a QD character fumbling my way around Hillsbrad. That hunter is 26, I couldn't remember what the heck I'd been doing, its been several months! But I would have been happy to just figure out which quests I was doing, load up on arrows and kill things with the black lion while chatting with Rivey as he leveled. He instead decided to go back over to Deathwing, and I followed him over and logged into Tzia. Not like I'm doing much there either, since The Guy and I are leveling those two together. The guy was at work, so Tzia sits, and well... I didn't want to play the DK either. So, Rivey leveled his lil rogue and he and I talked. And talked. He got a few quests done, I got a bit of rested XP under my belt.

Once Rivey logged off to pack, I went back over to QD and tried to figure out just what the heck I was doing with Di, because I figure if I can talk him into questing together, then I can help keep him on track with Jaska. I figured I'd try and level up my blacksmithing to something remotely useful... I don't have to level the paladin all that fast, she's not a main character, so I can dink around on her to my heart's content.

Anyways, did a number of runs through EPL. Got thorium until its coming out of my ears. Then I remembered something... I hadn't chosen weaponsmithing or Armorsmithing yet on her... oops. Rivey obviously wasn't on at the time, and since I needed a bit of advice, I flipped back over to Deathwing to see if any of the blacksmith's I knew were on and could point me in the right direction with a potential tankadin.

Ran into somebody from Vane in our friendly group channel, and he pointed me in the right direction: Armorsmith. So, I returned to Quel'dorei and found that I have to do a LOT of work just to get to the point where I can break the last few points and get to 300.

I've done The Old Ways. Now I need a ton of Mithril and even more Iron. I guess Its back to Arathi for a few stacks of Iron, then on to Ungoro and Tanaris for Mithril and a bit more Thorium.

I'll give you a blacksmithing report when I've broken 300! And I might just have some hunter news by then too!

Chens Champions Reborn

Well, yeah, um... Hmm. Tzia on Deathwing is now running a guild. Its not a major guild or a fancy guild (we do have our tabard though!) or even a guild with a bank tab yet... (I'm working on it!). However, its my guild and The Guy's guild. And I am happy.

We resurrected the old name : Chens Champions. We also dug out and dusted off the old black and white Drunken Pandaren inspired tabard. And that's about it. I'm working on making enough cash for the intial bank slot purchase... does anyone remember what that costs again? *scratches head*

Anyways. The Guy missed the tabard, and the name, and if truth be told, kinda misses Quel'dorei, but we can't get his friends to seriously consider playing over there. So, its Deathwing and dodge the Plated Featherkin that are currently turning my hunter into a pile of blue troll goo... yes, Tzia got nuked by a laser turkey. I only had time to go Red? Hun... wtf was- *dead*. Not too pleased with that experience. I'll figure out how to turn the moonkin into soup later - I'd need egg noodles. Back to the shiny new guild!

The Guy and I have our own guild. I happened to be running around the web reading various blogs... Altis I think got me started on reading DK related things- I do have 3 at last count, which lead me to a Matticus post, which got me thinking about recruiting again... *shudder*

But Matt did point out that you should start with Trade Chat *cringe* and work from there. Once I have that first bank tab, I'll start considering recruiting... as well as snap up any newbie hunters that seem to need a bit of help figuring out just what goes where while trying not to shoot themselves or their new fanged companion in the foot (Been there, done that, my cat Lilith was not amused). If I can help at least one hunter not make most of the blunders that The Guy and I made, they will start out well ahead of their non hunter savvy competition.

Wish me luck will ya?

*Waves and clicks on the WoW Icon*

Happy Turkey Day!

Well, my guy got his Turkey Achievement before we head out the door to Ft. Pierre for a day of turkey, stuffing, and a cat at my mother's. No, we are not eating said cat, but it will most likely be on our laps for much of the time we are there so I include it as a default.

Shasta the most cross-eyed cat in the world... will provide pictures if I remember the camera!

May all your shots hit, the gear you want drop, and may you all have a good Turkey Day! Don't forget to include any small, scaley, fuzzy, or feathery members of the family in the feasting! Break out the live food,wet food, and bird seed, people!


And as my guy is reminding me... if you can? Head to Northrend and kill you some turkeys!

Note to Self: Repair More!

Well, I think I might remember why I should be repairing frequently. You'd think I'd know this already after having played hunter for how long?! Nope. See convo with one of my guildies below....



And I've even got a shot of the quiver as a sword! This is just a weird one in a big way. Need to remember to repair more.

Screens from 'Round Azeroth & Beyond

So, I'm betting some of you are wondering what I've been up to? Well, on Deathwing, The Guy and I are playing our hunters... we got to 71, and I've got my leatherworking up to 395. No gear yet to replace my current stuff, though The Guy has replaced a few things, with stuff I've crafted for him and some quest rewards. We've also been playing our new Death Knights. I've got a few things on the AH at the moment, one thing I severely under priced by mistake - hey, I'll still make money off it, I'm just undercutting the current market by about oh... 30g. Oops!

And speaking of Leatherworking and its partner craft, Skinning... I found this weirder than weird:




The Guy says I need a Skinning Chisel... I think I need a chain saw!


Our pets briefly glitched... more amusing for me than for him, but it proves just how long he's had that freaking pig of his! He's had that pet since level 10, and hasn't gotten a different one except briefly to try out abilities. He loves his lil piggy!



Locstock & Barrel


My glitch proved to be more amusing. Since I happened to have my core hound, Lethe, out at the time.



Lethe is a bit upset!

We also rolled two Death Knights - Hey, I try out new content just like every one else... why do you think I have a 65 paladin? ^_^ Anyways, my DK on Deathwing is name Dionea after my Paladin over on Quel'dorei. Same hairstyle and everything. I have re-spec'd three times now. Was originally Blood, then went Unholy, then went back to Blood. While I was leveling her through the starter quests to teach me how to be a Death Knight, I ran into something that I though rather amusing.

Disturbing but Cute

I took this screen shot while The Guy and I were on our DKs. We were both Unholy at the time.

The Ghoul Construction Crew


While playing DK we learned we are extremely over-powered when facing other classes or just alliance that don't know what the heck to make of us yet. Together we took out three other DKs that tried to jump us. Then we had another DK come back and die to us after he'd killed me and The Guy made me a Ghoul. He didn't realize it until 2 minutes later and I fell over dead!

I killed a 54 hunter as blood as a fresh out of the necropolis 58. Poor dwarf Disengaged himself right into a corner! I pulled him into me and just went to town. Got my honorable kill achievement, and besides, he was killing the Timbermaw... I kinda needed to turn in two quests at the time. He killed my quest turn in person. Any time anybody does that? They die.

My guy got his own happy kill moment against a level 70 resto shaman. We were near Thrallmar, and Mr. Shaman tried to kill us... after all the idiot chat we saw in Hellfire and the DK starting zone, I'm not surprised that the Shaman thought all DKs were being played by either Power Levelers or absolute idiots that just bought their account off another player. Anyways, Shammy fired a frost shock at level 58 Orc DK. He ran for the Thrallmar Mage Squad. He made it and I just watched those mages pour out onto Mr. Shaman, who tried to get into Ghost Wolf to run away... he just barely got out of the AoE range... The Guy yanked him back into it, for the kill, with Death Grip... have I mentioned I love that particular ability yet? Give a whole new meaning to pulling... does it not? ^_^

That kill also got me my /hug achievement for Make Love Not Warcraft. All in all? A productive weekend I would think. And? I'm having a ton of fun.

Kes? We had 300!

Well, I spent about an hour and a half in line waiting on getting my game. Gamestop's card readers went down after about 50 people, so it was cash or wait for them to call the company get a verification and then go. I'm grateful to my pet Boomchicken who came with us to Gamestop... he paid for both The Guy and I's games, since he had the cash on him while The Guy would have had to wade over to a Bank of America ATM. We stayed in line.

So, we got our games and got back on the road. Three hundred insane people from the area. So many servers. And I got plonked in line next to another person that played a hunter main. We chatted about various raid issues (no salvation anyone?), pets going nutty in Kara, and the issue of not having good tanks.

We were also mildly amused by the fact that a security guard had walked out and yelled up and down the line... if we were rowdy we would be tossed out of line without our game. I chuckled slightly and our Boomchicken yelled, "You go Blue!"

Its South Dakota in a line of gamers waiting on a midnight release of the most popular MMO in the history of MMOs... rowdy would be an argument breaking out about whether or not Paladins are OP at the moment, and half the line going one way with the other half going the other. I can kill a paladin right now if I really, really work at it... so far as I'm aware that means balanced. ^_^

I had fun! That's for certain. I'm glad I did it and that my guy got off work at exactly 10pm last night so we could make the drive up to Rapid. Wouldn't have missed the experience if you paid me!

Um... about that....

Well, I was taken a bit by surprise by the realms all being down today, so instead I watched Kung Fu Panda and read though Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow again. Worked a bit on my Nano Draft. Then I attempted to log into WoW again only to find



So... I guess its back to writing for a while longer?

Ding 30!

Well, its a Ding 30 moment for another Tzia on another server. This one is Alliance, on Drenden - BRK's home server. I originally rolled the character just to say hi to BRK, which I did... but then the server sucked me in. Leveling is sooo addictive! And, because its a PvE realm... I can quest to my little heart's content without the ugly prospect of stepping outside a home zone and getting my lovely ears chopped off by marauding bands of trolls running through the trees.

I also managed to get my mount tonight, after a 2nd gnomer run. Got my Triprunner Dungarees in an all guild run of 2 hunters, a priest, a warlock, and a druid. We only had one death... the warlock. Sorry Tomo! However, the priesty rezzed our warlock and we continued on.

I'm happy, I'm almost to level 31. Level 32 means one thing.... Gorilla Time! I've heard everyone else jabbering like monkeys about one, so I've got to test it out. I figure this hunter is the best because she only has one major pet : Helki, the Ghostwolf Howler (looks identical to the original Helki of Deathwing). I can stable her and take out a gorilla for a test drive. And if I don't like it, well, Helki will be ready to go wherever I lead her.

Ah well, tomorrow calls for lots and lots and lots of dead animals: skinning practice and I need to level up my leatherworking... my chest piece needs an overhaul and there's no way I can afford the stupidly ridiculous prices that are being charged on the auction house. Ah well, path set, 32 on the horizon with a white gorilla. All in all, a good night.

Run For Ezra

Well, we ran for Ezra, got past the Arena in Stranglethorn before BRK was told by the GMs to cease and desist or face a ban. We were kinda mini crashing the server. ^_^ So, we didn't even make it to Stormwind. But it still showed me that we managed to do something pretty major! Over 500 cows in the guild Run For Ezra.

I managed to get my Tzia up to level 11, and had a black wolf named InEzrasHonor. I especially loved the tabard that somebody in guild created. If I can, I may be changing a guild tabard for one of my guilds to that particular look... maybe.

My only advice after watching this? If you do a massive run? Turn off Addons and dismiss all pets, combat and otherwise, that's one less thing for the game to load. Do not yell or talk as much as possible... less data to load.

And another bit of advice... figure out what is the lowest population server out there... seriously, the LOWEST ONE... and use it for stuff like this... we may die a number of times, however, we will not crash the server.

Hard Work - Spark

This is a Spark off of BRK's post today over at BigRedKitty.net. It makes me think of having left Tzia behind on Deathwing while I was leveling Blood Elf Ranii, on Quel'dorei. I ran into a hunter and priest combo trying to kill things in Hillsbrad.

The three of us teamed up to take on a guy in the mines. I was watching the hunter, Dutchess, kill things as I was taking them down from range with the pig I had next to me at the time. The hunter was running up and bashing them over the head with her nice shiny +STR axe. I cringed, we had to wait for the guy to respawn because a group of paladins had blitzed ahead, mass pulled and downed everything.

While we were waiting I looked over her gear and at her kitty. I complimented her on the cat, it was a black/white tiger from Darkshore. She fed it a piece of meat then crammed three more down its throat. I realized then she had no clue what she was doing with a hunter, so I asked if I could give her some advice.

I started out with how to feed a pet, one piece, let it finish, then give it another... saved on food bill that way. Then I moved on to working from range and how to send in a pet. Then I went on to show her why certain gear was better than what she had on, largely str and spir gear.

After I had outlined everything, I was told she'd asked somebody else in Org one day and the guy had told her everything completely jack @ss backwards. I sighed, shook my head, and the guy repopped, so I let her start off by sending in the pet, letting kitty get some aggro (thank god she'd figured out growl on her own) then sent in the pig and fired along next to her. We dropped the guy, only our pets took a beating, and she was thrilled.

I invited her and her priesty husband into my guild. She was with us for a long time then moved on to find a raiding guild. But, we kept in touch sending whispers back and forth... she even mailed me a few pieces of gear when I transferred Tzia over, which really helped me get Tzia moving. Then some friends and I were trying to gear for Kara and there were only two of us on, we found a group of people that were willing to run Black Morass, which neither of us had done before.

We join the group and I suddenly see in party chat... "OMG! TZIA!!! HI!!" I looked over at the name and realized it was Dutchess!

I hadn't physically seen her in a while, she had Lucifur, a Rak'shiri and I had my Ruka, the Frost Saber Pridewatcher. She was using her pet to pull in ways I hadn't even thought of yet. It was awe inspiring to watch her work. She was also kicking my butt on the meters.

We crawled into Vent and Dutchess and I are talking back and forth at each other, working in almost sync while the poor mage that had tagged along with me is standing there dumbfounded at how well we work together. We get through the instance I get a nice piece of leveling gear out of the entire mess, and we clear Morass.

Then, over vent one of the other members from her party, compliments me on how well I did - for being under-geared. Dutchess laughs and said "She's good, she taught me everything I know."

That in itself still makes me smile. After that run, I asked her how she did certain things in there, and she turned around and showed me how she was pulling five things with a cat, running it back to the warrior- it worked. (She'd had the cat on Stay next to the warrior, would send it at a target, the stealthed stuff would swipe at it, she'd re-call the cat, it would return to its Stay spot and a Thunder Clap would swing all the mobs to the tank.) I learned something from her, and when it came time to actually raid... I asked Dutchess for gearing advice.

She's now one of the better hunters on the server, and I smile at the small part I played in it. All I did was steer her in the right direction on how to use a pet and gear. The rest? She figured out on her own. If that's not hard work? I don't know what is.

Things to Get Done

National Novel Writing Month

It was either that or do the blogging one, and surprisingly, I will have an easier time with a novel... even if the thing is horrible - than I would with blogging every day, because honestly, I can turn out a semi-terrible novel in a month. Can't always find things to post about that interest me.

Brainstorm Big Novel Idea.

This one will not be as hard, as I have something on Fictionpress Favorited that will refresh the bulleted point in a how-to manner. And the writing insanity starts tomorrow so there will not be a chance to forget about it.

Wrath comes out the 13th.

This might briefly interfere with work / novel writing, if I let it. It probably will at some point, but I'll just write more on the days that I'm not heavily playing.

Keep updating the blog

However, if I seem to fall off the map during November, well, everyone will know where I've gone: either working, playing, or writing until I need more coffee and asking either the cats or The Guy to get it because I've gone crazy and they actually know how to brew coffee.

My Hunter Theme Song

This took me three years + to find. I started listening to Inkubus Sukkubus tonight... hey, tomorrow is Halloween! So it was good to start with them tonight, and get me in the mood for trick-or-treaters, which I will unfortunately miss out on as I have to work from 5-8 pm tomorrow, ah well, maybe next year?

But anyways, Hunter theme song... specifically MY theme song.

The Beast in Us All

We've got the fever of all of the night
We've got the pain of the dark side of love
We've got the fire that burns and more
We've got the beast in us all

We've got the storm rising high in the sky
We've got the lightning and the hurricane
We've got the thunder and the devil's own rain
We've got the beast in us all

We've got the power that we can't control
It's in our genes, body, and soul
Nations rise and nations fall
We've got the beast in us all

We've got the kiss of the holy divine
They gave us brains and they gave us the wine
Made us special so that we might shine
We've got the beast in us all

We've got desires that fill us with shame
Everyone of us a mark of pain
We're never free from our animal chains
We've got the beast in us all

We've got the future but it's lost in our past
We've got culture but it's lost in the dance
We've got lust and we call it romance
We've got the beast in us all

We've got our vision but we don't see the truth
We want wisdom but we won't give up you
We've got the beast in all of us
We've got the beast in us all

It describes hunter to me soo well.

"It's in our genes, body, and soul" Every hunter I know that plays this class as a main says its an obsession, something that gets under your skin, into your blood, and into the bone. We identify as hunter first.

"They gave us brains and they gave us the wine / Made us special so that we might shine" The good hunters use their brains while playing, instead of mashing buttons... though the button mashing can be fun, which is why I have a warrior. The good hunters shine in groups. We know how to do it all: trap, control the pet, save the healer, and do our primary job as DPS. We are also a nightmare in battlegrounds... if they don't see us? The other person is soo dead.

"Everyone of us a mark of pain / We're never free from our animal chains" How much flak to we weather as hunters, because people who don't play hunter think our job is easy. I mean "your pet does half your damage for you" is a common statement. Its roughly 35% and we've got more key bindings going than the rest of the classes put together, especially when it comes to PvP. We also are never far from our trusted companions, and hunters mark is painful... for the other guy. ^_^

"We want wisdom but we won't give up you" Common raid complaint amongst hunters. Wisdom, please, Kings, hell yes, but NO SANCTUARY. If the tank sucks that bad... get a new tank for crying out loud. A solid hunter will not pull threat, and if they do, FD wipes it immediately + Misdirection at that point usually swings it back to the tank without too much of a hitch.

Well, that's why I think this song is my hunter theme song... maybe even more than a theme song, maybe an anthem? I'll think about that and get back to you tomorrow.

Oh, Happy Halloween!

Screen Shot Humor

I'll admit, when I saw this I started laughing and had to poke The Guy to show it to him. Even the Night Elves think the Horde Rule. Hehe!

Quote of the Day

"A good rule of thumb is to comment as if the person to whom you are commenting is standing in front of you, is built like a linebacker, and has both a short temper and excellent legal representation." John Scalzi, Author.


I really think this sums up the way I comment on other people's blogs and expect people to comment on mine. And I just love the mental image that this author conjures up. Football helmet and all.

Zombies Ugh

The Zombies are driving me completely nuts. I rolled a new hunter (yes I know bad Tzia) but I rolled one alliance side on Drenden to say hi to BRK, which I did, and then the server sucked me in. The newest Tzia is level 17. I'm in Auberdine right now questing away... or at least trying to. Blizzard has Zombie issues. And when I say issues, I mean they royally #&^!ed up.

The Zombies might be okay in a major city, where there are Argent Dawn to kill them; but if you are playing an alt in a lowbie zone without any Argent Dawn...it sucks. Auberdine is frequently a plague zone with nothing BUT zombies there. No guards, no quest givers, nothing but Zombies. And the only way to "fix" that is to abandon the city until they all die & stuff respawns.

First time was funny, by the tenth time that day alone? I want to kill Blizzard. When you see a rolling wall of yellow text saying that Auberdine is under attack and you and nine other people are bitching in general chat about how its impossible to turn in quests, and that Blizzard should have known better (how many jack-asses populate a server? Tons. Now they can all annoy the hell out of their own side) than to allow Zombies in an area where NO ARGENT DAWN EXIST.

I just wanted to get to 20 yesterday and go grab the ghost saber, which I've never had, so I want it! Couldn't do that with the zombie invasion of Auberdine killing off everything there and killing you with-in five seconds of either spawning/landing on the dock/landing at the Flight Master/rezzing.

I'm at about 17 and a half. If I can actually manage to turn in quests in Auberdine and vendor... I should see 20 by the end of tonight. Let's hope the jerks get bored early? Hey, I can hope!

Being Full BM Sans Exotic Pet

Boy is this ever fun! Writing off a blog post by Pike over at Aspect of the Hare yet again! She always has stuff that sparks a larger post from me than will comfortably fit in her comment box. Lucky her and lucky me... I don't have to wrack my brain too much for a post, and she can read this at her own pace. Thanks again Pike!

I can't count the number of BM hunters I see running around right now with a Devilsaur or a Core Hound. Yes, if you look back at my post history I DO have a Core Hound, who is level 65, stabled, and un-named at the moment. I'll figure out a name for it eventually here... yes, I haven't even settled on a gender yet. I might have to drag the pet down to the Wetlands to help me settle it.

Anyways, BM is the uber flavor of the month right now. Everyone wants to get their hands on the Exotic pets and test them as much as possible prior to WotLK coming out. I tested all of this over on the PTR already. I know Devilsaurs are big, bad, and personally kind of aggravating - hence the reason I don't have one in my stable. I wanted a Core Hound, I tested a Core Hound, so I've got a Core Hound in live, and its in my prefered skin of choice (azuremist white).

I took the time to jab at most of the exotics prior to the patch hitting live so I'd have a step up on a number of the hunters that felt the PTR was a waste of time. I know what pets I already want, I like how the new BM feels, it lets me instead settle in and focus on what I want to do, which right now is work on my Netherwing Reputation with a touch of Hallows End fun thrown in.

I'm also having a bit of fun with every idiot mage or warlock that tries to jump me while I'm Rep Farming. They see I've got a cat next to me and since its NOT an Exotic, obviously I'm NOT BM. Then my pretty purple cat goes big, red, and pissed. And there goes Mr. Mage or Ms. Warlock in a mess of blood and screaming. Blood is pretty easy to get out of chain mail... lemon and a gentle rubbing with wool does the trick every time! The screams on the other hand... still working on it!

But, I agree with Pike, BM is not the spec for everyone. Right now my guy is Marks/Survival (0/41/20) and is having a blast with it. I'm settled comfortably into BM, but I went BM for raiding originally and never changed out of it after I stopped because it proved awesome for farming too.

We, as a community, are going to see a lot of BM hunters out there that aren't really sure what they are doing, just have the Exotic because they WANT to have one... give it a few months and we might see a reduction in the number of giant stompy snarly things running around Org or Shatt... or we may just have to beg and plead for a Pet Sound Toggle, or the other 8 classes out there will force blizzard to implement one for us!

But for now? I'm just going to be an unobtrusive BM hunter that happily knows what she is doing - to some extent - and mow down anything that makes the mistake of jumping me while farming. Have fun!

P.S. If anyone knows a reliable formula to get screams out of chain mail... lemme know... :p

Everyone is Power Mad, Lactic!

This is a Spark post off Lactic Acid's over at Snake in the Grass. So go read that so you know what I'm talking about, I'll wait.

Back? Okay!

Ugh. Its not just the paladins. Ran into a Horde 3 man the other night consisting of a Shaman, Paladin, and Warrior in BB. Not only were they killing the Inn Keeper, but also the Bank, the Auctioneer, AND the Stable Master.

At first I thought the Stable Master might have been an accidental AOE via Thunderclap and/or Consecrate but once he repopped they went back over and killed him again, with nothing else near him. I'd come in off the boat to check the Neutral AH for specific non-combat pets : a great horned owl and a snowshoe rabbit. Those two will fill out my 15 Non-combat pet achievement. I want those two specific pets, but there is no way in HELL I'm paying 25g for one.

I had just enough time to check the AH and find out that there weren't any on Deathwing right then. I turned around to the sound of hearing guards aggro something and hear consecrate go off and water shield form - Hey, I have a paladin and I've played with The Guy's Shaman enough to know that sound.

I watch the paladin and shaman rip through the AH, bank, and the guards that are there without breaking a sweat. I'm obviously standing there in shock going, WTF!

The shaman turned around while I'm still thinking WTF are you guys DOING?! Lowbies NEED that AH, Bank, AND Stable Master you jack asses! If you are doing the Bloodsail thing, kill the guards, but leave the damn needed NPCs alone!

Anyways, I've got the shaman targeted, he's horde, as are his buddies, I'm horde, on a PvP realm, so there's obviously nothing I can do to these three myself, and then he puts the topper on the cake by asking "What the fuck are you looking at?"

A question phrased that way tells me all I need to know. These guys are asses and wouldn't understand logic if it hit them in the head with a ton of bricks. I got out of BB as soon as the boat pulled in, and sighed while lodging a GM ticket about the fact they MIGHT want to either A: Up the guard level from 67 to oh, I don't know maybe 87?! Or, B: ZERG SPAWN. Right now, Booty Bay is honestly screwed. I wouldn't bring a lowbie over there to quest even if I did need to. I wouldn't be able to DO anything there.

Remember how pissed off you got as a lowbie when XR or Astranaar got completely wiped out? You were mad that you couldn't do anything for a while because all your Quest Turn in People were dead and you were only 1,256 XP away from leveling so you could get the HELL out of the zone? And this was the fifth time today?

That's how I feel about BB right now. Its basically defenseless against these new talents, there aren't enough guards, and all the NPCs are dead constantly to roving bands of jerks.

Blizz needs to do something about this. They upped Cairne's guards to level 80 elites... could we please get something similar even 77 elites over in BB? I know I'd appreciate it, as would a lot of other people that are probably trying to level alts through so that they CAN play with friends once the xpac rolls around.

Hello Core Hound

Well, I'm posting this just after logging out. I'm sitting in Stillpine Hold, waiting on a hearthstone cooldown, but I've got my puppy of doom. ^_^ Thank BRK for the nickname. I'm just waiting on Blizzard to take away the BOOM, BOOM sound when it walks. Impact term was nice when the thing was trying to eat me, but now that its my pet, I don't think it should do that. I mean, really, it will get aggravating and fast... just like a croc sounding like a broken vacuum. Its the reason I've never had a croc for very long... would use them only to learn a skill then toss them. I can't stand the raspy rumble they make, and the growly sound of the green and orange Core Hounds annoys me already.

I mean, I could hear an orange one last night while I was doing dailies. I took my headphones off while it was around because it was aggravating me, and I'm a hunter! I can't imagine how well the other eight classes are handling thirty core hounds in Org or in Shatt at ALL TIMES... they've probably perma-killed their sound for the time being. And I don't blame them.

My pup will be perma-stabled until Blizzard fixes the sound issues, or even, maybe, pretty please with sprinkles and a cherry on top of hot fudge and caramel we get a pet sound toggle? I'd love to be able to have a toggle that went:

Pet Sounds
- On/Off Group
- On/Off Player

With the second one being available to all players, so if they were annoyed by any pet sound (flap flap comes to my mind) they could just turn it off individually.

That way I could kill whichever pet sounds drive a group batty but still hear my cat if I so desired. I'd have core hound set to off on both.

Good bye Truffles

Yes, you heard me right. I've decided that I'm letting go of Truffles. I'm a full BM Spec 51/10/0 atm, and loving it. Ruka is doing dailies with me. I'm testing out a turtle, and so far? The turtle I grabbed out of Hillsbrad - after visiting the Dalaran Crater - worked very nicely against the level 65-67s I threw it at. Good lil tanker pet. :D The turtle needs to be the right color, named, and leveled before I take it out with me.

I'll be taking Truffles back to the Portal to Outlands and releasing him there. Truffles served me well, and deserves to go home, find a nice sow, and settle down. Thanks for the good memories lil one.

Once I do that, I will be headed back over to Azuremist and grab the Kurken as my Exotic. I will NOT be running around town with that thing. Believe me. I respect my fellow WoW players too much. That and the screen shake annoys me as much as it does them. Once that has been fixed? You'll probably see me with a Kurken out.

Oh, I found a bar mod that lets me do everything I wanted from Trinity. Its called Dominos and works with Fubar! And if you didn't know? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my old mod and the new one... I love it when stuff like that happens.

Brief WoW Break - Til Sat!

I think I might end up taking a break from WoW until the Weekend. Reasons:

1) Work. I'm closing tonight, my feet are going to kill me.
2) Opening I think on Friday (need to check my schedule).
3) Major Patch = Major, major -did I mention major- glitches.
4) Major Patch also = server instability.
5) I don't have a combat bar mod yet. Default is annoying me!

I'm working without ANY mods right now. Not having Fubar & guildfu is rather unsettling while being on Moon Guard. I have no clue who in the guild is on. I want my Fubar back, but I want to be able to see chat... *grumble*


Well, see you all on Saturday!

P.S. For The BoomChicken: I have the permanent Polymorph Friend spell. You are a pink flamingo and I'll level you later.

Add-On Hell

Well, its time to try and figure out add-ons after Blizzard has cheerfully gutted most of my old ones. Fubar works, yay! Trinity does not... Booo! And from Pike I know that SCTD works, which is a relief. And I know, from talking to the BoomChicken, Diamond Threat Meter still works, so that's one less mod I have to chase down. The BoomChicken will be getting his Pink Tallstrider as soon as I figure this pain in the neck out... I gotta have a bar mod first. Default drives me batty.

I know I want:

- Diamond Threat Meter
- SCTD
- Fubar
- A Combat Bars Mod (No Bartender please?)
- PetEmote
- Hunter's Helper
- Bag Mod
- Opium
- Deadly Boss Mod
- ATSW


And I will probably find a few more after a while. But for the most part the major, major one I want is a good solid bar mod that allows me to set my stuff up the way Trinity did. ie This thing has to let me move things around and then lock it down how I want it. That's the only thing I'm asking for, everything else I can straighten out.

Feel free to give me suggestions on easy to use and easy to understand mods. I've stared at Bartender before and then wanted to kill something... I could not figure it out for the life of me. I hate major patches. Gotta give mod designers a day or three to figure out how to fix what Blizzard broke.

Decisions, Decisions.

Like many hunters out there, I've been taking a good hard look at my main hunter, Tzia of Deathwing, trying to figure out exactly which pets to be carrying with me into the next expansion. I know we will get a total of four stable slots with one pet active (for a total of five usable spots), along with three pet talent trees and the exotic pets. Counting quickly, that's one pet of each type (Cunning, Ferocity, Tenacity) plus an Exotic. I'm going to be remaining BM, so the Exotic will have and maintain a spot, even if I end up switching to MM or gods-forbid I figure out how to work Survival.

My current stable contains: Ruka, the Frostsaber Pridewatcher; Truffles, the Ashmane Boar; and Dae, the turquoise tallstrider (aka Strider Clutchmother). Right now I've got a Ferocity, a Tenacity, and a Ferocity. Dae is going to be my "vanity pet" which I might add, is named after a certain Boomchicken I know... That's three of the five slots taken up right now.

Cunning
I will want a cunning pet- I'm thinking a bird of prey, specifically a bald eagle look... love the look, will figure out how to tolerate the flappy mess that is a flying bird. Heck, I'm even considering shifting the Clutchmother, even though I grabbed it today and swapping brightly colored tallstrider for the eagle, and just naming that Dae. It would fit... believe me, it would fit still. ^_^ As you can see, I'm not too attached to the Tallstrider; and I was threatening the Boomchicken with the pink version - yes, a freaking flamingo/lawn ornament named Dae. I decided to be nice and instead grab the blue-green one. But we shall see.

Tenacity
I'll put the Eagle/Tallstrider on the back burner for now and instead come to another issue that has been brewing in the back of my brain ever since the OMG Ruka Post. I said there that I wouldn't neccesiarilly need Truffles, the wonder pig anymore if Ruka is maintaining agrro. That's true, though Truffles is a super little tank, The Guy has a boar named Barrel- who he's had from level 10 onwards, seriously, no other pet. I've had Truffles since about level 49 and it took from 49 -68 for me to name the boar. I don't have the same rapport with the boar that I have with Ruka. I also grabbed a boar because boars were the only thing with Charge, and charge + growl rocked. With Charge moving to other pets, I want to break away from having a boar and instead try something different out as a Tenacity Pet.

Warp Stalkers have always held my attention, they are pretty, have a dino/lizard thing going on and if I keep fish on hand, Ruka and the Warper would both have a diet they could share - if I even need the mass qualities of food I've been taking in the past. Though, I've never really liked the Warp ability... I mean, if the thing has warp, why train dash/charge onto it? And, if I cut the family ability off the pet... why grab a warp stalker again? Eh. It would basically be a boar, minus the family ability.

None of the bears look nice enough for me to want one. Giant Bear Butt... um no. Gorilla, um... again no. Now, a Turtle? Maybe, just mabye, as long as I can get ahold of a gray one with the pink shell. I like the look of those, but the ability wasn't all that great for tanking at times, though there are hunters out there that swear by their lil turtles.

A turtle is definitely on the test-this-all-out list once the patch goes live. I will be buying an extra stable slot right away, no problem, so I will be able to test away without losing any of my current pets.

Ferocity
When it comes to Ferocity Pets? I already know exactly who will fill that role for me. Ruka. I wanted her at level nine, I aimed my hunter towards 59 and got her, even abandoning Rak'shiri in the process - yes, I know, Rak'shiri is the bomb to a number of hunters out there, but I just happened to get lucky and run across Rak while in Winterspring. Instead of killing the cat, I tamed it instead and worked with it for a while, dragging it out into Outlands with me just to see how well a cat would perform. It passed with flying colors, then I hit level 59 and abandoned Rak in Winterspring and went for my true choice. The other Ferocity pets won't even stand a chance here, there is no question.

Exotic
When it comes to Exotics of all the categories, my eye is on one type, and one type only : corehound. I don't want an orange one, or a green one, nope, I want the Kurken from Azuremist. So guess where I will more than likely be going come patch launch? Yep, Azuremist Isle after a Kurken... and hopefully I won't get killed too many times in the process of trying to get ahold of him. No clue what I'll name him though, but I'll figure something out.

Conclusion
When it comes to pets, I'll admit, I've had more than the average hunter, not counting the temp pets that I tamed to learn a skill off and then got rid of. Though, for lasting pets? Cats have been a large part of my hunter existence. I love my purple kitty. And it shows. Ruka has been the pet I wanted from the start, she'll be next to me when I step into Northrend, and probably feel right at home in all the snow and ice while my lil troll self will be wishing it was 85 degrees out and a palm tree was in sight, dang it. Arthas? You will be mine, just for forcing me to come to a gods-forsaken icy wasteland just to waste your sorry carcass!

Flap, Flap, Flap!

Well, Dae bullied me into getting my Epic Flyer for Tzia. Yep, Tzia has a Swift Red Windrider! He basically threw money at me to make sure I'd get the thing, because he was tired of having to wait for me to catch up to him on my regular one while we were doing daily quests. So, I'm now cruising the skies on a windrider that is one of my two favorite colors. And I can also now do Netherwing Daily Quests! Partially completed some of them tonight, just got a bit too bleary eyed to do quests anymore tonight and dodge the big guys on the ground + the flying ones too... getting knocked out of the air and then stomped on kinda says that's a night.



But, so far its Wheee, I'm FLYIN'! Thanks again Dae!!

Daily Frustrations

Dae, the Kentucky Fried BoomChicken, moved from a PvE realm to Deathwing, which is PvP. He's gotten used to the idea of Red Everywhere. I'm still watching cautiously, while he's talking about ganking people. I try and leave most Alliance alone. If they don't start something, neither do I. Dae? Seems to want to jump everything that is red out there while we are doing dailies. Honestly, I just want to get the daily quests done, and get off the island.

The Outlands Daily quests on the other hand, I don't care if he occasionally Lasers-From-Space some poor NE. I'm usually not associated with it, so its not a problem. However, I wanted to kill people on the island tonight, specifically a hunter-rogue combo that killed us three or four times. The hunter IS KoS listed, so I will know him if I ever see him again... and I will do my damnedest to bring him down. I am not a nice person once you've ticked me off... as people have found out in the past. I think the hunter only finally left us alone when we had another boomkin join us group wise and helped him clear a few of the quests unmolested.

Ah well, I get to turn around and do it all over again tomorrow. Somehow, I'm not exactly looking forward to that.

Have Bow- Blog Title Revisited

When I started Have Bow, I thought it was a catchy little statement that fit the fact I was huntering quite well. Then I posted about the fact I'd run into a Can Tank, Will Travel blog. I questioned at that time changing the blog title, but never got around to it. The name Have Bow, Will Travel serves this blog well, and is much more appropriate now than it even was then!

At that time I had (QD)Tzia and Yazmin over on Echo Isles. I now have the Way Too Many Hunters list, which I might add is actually lacking a few, since I consider them Alt-alts. Yes, there is Main, Alt, then Alt-alt in my Hierarchy of Characters.

The total list of hunters is up to 8. Yes, eight different hunters on five different realms. Deathwing hosts two, Echo Isles hosts one, Quel'dorei has one, Bal'gun has one, Elune has one (on The Guy's Account from way back when), and Moon Guard has two.

Never thought I'd be spread out over so many realms! But then, the reasons for being on so many are very easy to explain.

Deathwing : The Origin Server.
I rolled the original Tzia on this realm under the name Venari. She started with a bow, an axe, and a nasty temper. The temper has smoothed out... especially after the name shift, no more being called VD... (I blame The Guy's friends for that one... particularly certain rogue). I learned certain fundamental aspects of WoW Hunter on this realm. And this is where my Horde Hunter calls home.

1. Always check your back... never know what's sneaking up on you.

2. Lay a freezing trap behind you... most people are stupid and won't check before walking into it.

3. Your pet is your life-line in hairy situations. Always keep major skills up to date.

4. Feed a pet one piece of food at a time. Shoving down its throat does nothing for happy pet.

5. Turn growl OFF in groups unless pet is off tanking. Makes for a happy tank.

Quel'dorei: Intro to PvE Servers
I originally rolled a hunter named Ranii (now deleted) on this realm to check it out. I found a nice enough guild to start off with, and then The Guy and I ended up forming our own.

We got a crash course in running a guild, luckily my guy found a few good guides, so we knew what to expect, and we knew the kind of guild we wanted going into things; we wanted what we weren't finding - informative, helpful, and a place to retreat from the rampant immaturity that was out there.

The guild was sorely lacking on healers, so I shelved Ranii and rolled a BE paladin named Dione. I ran Dione to about 62, and then the realm opened up for realm to realm transfers (yes, I'd gotten in on the ground floor of a realm starting) so I brought Venari/Tzia over as a 60 and shelved Dione. I leveled Tzia to 70 on here, had a great time with most of the people I grouped with, had a few horrible runs of various instances, and learned everything I could as a hunter with those people. Most of them earned my respect, a few lost it, but I can look back at QD with mostly good memories.

QD taught me:
1. How to deal with a guild, manage one, and deal with anything that was thrown my way.

2. How to deal with other people, even when you have lost all respect for them, and to let go of good friends to make their own mistakes, but always leave the door unlocked if they want to come back.

3. No matter what happens, you know you've done your best, and when its time to move on, you do so without a backward glance.

Echo Isles: Welcome to the Alliance
I rolled a Draenei Hunter named Yazmin here because my cousin on my Dad's side of the family had an alliance paladin, and I figured I can burn a hunter to 70 far faster than he can a paladin. Sad thought is? We never got to play together. I ran into a few guilds that were great, a few that were terrible, and sorely missed the Concentrate and Contain method of the Horde with the Barrens. Every Alliance I've played since then has made me grateful for the Barrens. I also didn't feel like I could ask a question while playing alliance, even though I'd never played the side before, but I was lucky in the fact I was playing my favorite, addictive class so I wasn't a complete and total newbie out in the world.

1. Alliance needs a Barrens Chat... somewhere specific, not in five zones across the world.

2. I love the Barrens, one chat, easy to turn off while flying over!

3. I am Horde, through and through. For the Horde!

Moon Guard: RP and what I do for Friends
Here is where my other Tzia resides, as a Draenei hunter with a as of yet un-named black wolf. I'm in a guild with a good friend of mine from back in the day of playing an on line horse simulation. She also has a hunter, her daughter has a horde hunter, and now a 65 something priesty. That priest is scary good. Ree is the kind of friend I love playing with, I can giggle when she does something goofy, confide in her when I'm feeling down, and help her destroy mobs when she needs just a little bit more help doing something on her druid. And I get to RP a bit now and then, whenever I feel like it!

1. RP not that scary.

2. Playing with RL friends makes it so much better.

3. B is one of the best tanks I have ever seen... even if I can give him grief about dying in Stockades at level 70. :p

Summary
I know I'm addicted to hunter. I try and play other classes and miss the pets, or I miss the damage, or I miss the armor. But most of all I miss the satisfaction of knowing I just killed something with my pet and it didn't even touch me. My pets are my companions, my friends, my anchor. As Cait, over at One Among Many said a long time ago, "A hunter's pet is a part of the Hunter's heart. A warlock's pet is a page in their grimoire..." Its true. Every hunter I have had has had special pets, with a personality all their own. And the best thing? Each and every one uses or has used a bow.

The name and sentiment with which I originally decided the name remains: Have Bow, Will Travel!

Policy Change - Comments

Hey guys, I know a few people at least read me once a week. For those of you that like to comment, feel free, but due to someone posting the type of commentary I don't allow (profanity laced/lewd) I will now be screening all comments. This means it will take a lil bit to get your stuff to show up, don't fret, it WILL show up, once I get around to approving it. If you disagree with what I post? Feel free to do so and tell me why you disagree, it might change my viewpoint! Just post civily and it will show up.

Fried Boom Chicken with a side of Bacon

Well, I got back into the instance running game tonight. Kentucky Fried Boom Chicken (aka KFBC) over at Will Boom for Gear, invited me along on a Heroic Bot run. I haven't run an instance in a few months, and he drags me in on a HBot with a mage, a warlock, and a priest. Yep, feathers-for-brains was tanking. I thought about that for a second, went eep! and then settled in. I was there as DPS/CC if KFBC thought he could tank, I'd be willing to try it. I brought my pig, Truffles along because he was arcane resist, and hey, its Bot... its all arcane crap. Ruka would have bought it far too quickly because she is still Shadow Resist.

I whistle up the pig, and flipped gear to pick up the two piece trap bonus. Chicken fries on the first arcane patroller, and I start giggling, the Warlock is giggling in vent too... we honestly can't help it. We rez the bird and continue on down the hall. I think we did four or five pulls before I finally got to trap something. I trap it, watch the main target die, drop my second trap, and then everyone goes for the trap target... um okay? It dies, my 2nd trap is useless, and we kill the sheep.

We get to the first bridge, FKBC alt tabs to adjust me in vent, and the arcane patroller 2 shots the birdy. I throw the pig at it, suddenly we've got ham and bacon ready to serve, and then I die, along with the rest of the group.

We rez, get back on track and I keep only being able to one trap anything in the instance because our bird tank is calling trap as the 2nd target. I swapped my gear out, grumble and just figure I'm only going to be able to do one trap all night. This happens all the way to the first boss.

We wipe again because the boss patted too far over, and we got her along with a sheep, a trap, and the main target. Um... ow. Splat goes group. Rez, wait on everyone's mana, complete the pull, trap. Everything goes off perfectly.

So far the bird has been ready for BBQ Sauce four times. Now we face the boss. I hop up on a box, she suddenly goes for the bird, he drops like a rock, I throw the pig. Splat goes lock, pretty angel priest, and I FD as the pig dies, and then there goes the mage. Yep, we wiped. We rez, try again, and I some-how get stuck between the box and the wall. I can see and fire, so I get a very NICE close-up of the boss as she kills me.

Rinse repeat... Splat us all. We call it, but hey, I don't mind the fact that we couldn't do a Heroic Bot. We learned that a Boom Chicken can tank trash mobs in a heroic, just not the bosses. I had fun! And now, I suddenly want chicken....

Healer Protection : in the job description?

I'm wondering, after running with a few very, very, very bad hunters on my paladin in the past, do most hunters believe protecting the healer is in the job description?

As a hunter, I believe its part of my job when I'm in a group to watch out for the healer in case something goes wrong, a mob blind-sides us and goes for the squishy lil healer (trees and holy pallys included), or the tank has just too much on him or her at the time to deal with another threat. I believe that is where my job kicks in, sending the pet, with growl switched on to taunt the mob OFF the healer, onto the pet, which I can keep up with my heals, scaling back the DPS a bit just to make sure that the mob is on the pet, going to STAY on the pet, at least until the tank can get around to it.

I've done this in so many groups, and had so many healers tell me thank you. What the heck? I'm just doing my job. Is it because the first hunter I ever took lessons from (The Guy) was originally a warrior and that has set my stance as squishy protector? Or is it just that some hunters don't have the focus split capable to handle DPS, Pet, Trap, AND healer protection, while calling out breaking sheeps and lost saps, and Pats Incoming? Yes, I do all of that on a regular basis, while making sure I don't jump the tank in threat and my pet hasn't gone tearing off down the hall after something it shouldn't.

I'm literally tracking so many things at once that its normal for me... perhaps that's why I like trying to kite one thing, freeze another, pet on the third and fourth and something else just walked in? I feel alive while handling more mobs that I should... and I don't even have the luxury of Fear to help me out if things really go wrong.

Some have suggested its because I'm a girl that I can multi-task so well. I think that's a load of BS. My guy can track things just as well, and has slightly faster reaction times than I do. Of course, I re-arrange my keys every once in a while so I don't become completely bored and button mash happy... so that might have something to do with it. I can also split the vocals in any song down to one vocalist and sing with just that if I know the song well enough, I can also filter out all other insturments in a band to focus on just the guitar, or drums, or any other insturment, and I don't even need to know the piece to do that.

I wonder, how many other hunters do what I do, take on healer protection whenever they step into a group, its never asked for, but something you take on, because you can and because it will keep your group running smoothly?

What A Mess!

Today has been a bit of a mess. I had planned to register to vote -- maybe tomorrow if I have enough time between a job interview and cleaning up a watery mess that started my day off.

Yes, I woke up this morning to water ballooning underneath paint as it dripped through the ceiling and ran down the wall, half over, half under the paint. Lucky me... it was in my room, the same wall that my computer sits against. The Guy woke me up to a "Hon, wake up and take a look at the wall."

I woke up, looked at the wall I was facing, went "Hun?" And then rolled over to the paint puffing out oddly in two places on the wall... right above my computer. Meep! Needless to say, I scrambled out of bed and started disconnecting my computer, killing its power with the flip of a switch while The Guy went to call the landlord and get maintenance down here. We moved both our computers out to the kitchen, re assembled them, and that is now where I sit. The hallway and half my room carpet are soaked clear through, the hall closet and my shoes are a total mess. I'm so glad I'm not wearing tennis shoes to that interview tomorrow... I'd squish when I walked.

The apartment above ours had the toilet over flow while the tenant was out of the house... no clue how long it takes water to seep through floor boards, run down the wall and soak the carpet. I woke up to The Guy complaining first about the floor being wet... I figured one of the kitties had had an accident on the floor, and went back to sleep. I was of the opinion that he could clean it up for once.

Then he noticed the wall... which really got me up. We found the closet AFTER we'd called the landlord about the water ballooning the paint. His work uniform, shoes and all were hanging in the hall closet and well... laundry done, shoes hopefully be semi dry enough to wear by the time he has work tomorrow. What a mess... don't know how long its going to take the carpet to dry, and the paint will have to come off that wall... it won't dry properly otherwise. I don't like the idea of mold much.

Basically? My day has not been a pleasant one. Though, I will say this is the second weirdest thing that has happened to me... weirdest has to be waking up to a bed collapsing underneath me. But that's another story for another day.

[PTR] OMG Ruka Holds Aggro!!!

I am positively giddy right now. My purple kitty of doom, death and absolute cuteness holds aggro on the PTR! *faints* No more boars needed!!!

I took her farming after speccing a warp stalker out to try and tank and just play with stuff on the PTR. Warpy the warp stalker held aggro while I was doing a quest... which turned out to be my 1,000 quest apparently ... but it rocked my world, so I decided to go farm testing. Warpy held aggro wonderfully, and I know Truffles can tank til he turns into hickory-smoked bacon. Ruka? Hasn't been able to hold aggro for more than three seconds on a mob since I hit all blue gear from running five mans with SMT.

So, I flew to Nagrand, over to the Elemental Plateau and pulled out Ruka and the Jubling for moral support and started killing wind elementals. Ruka held aggro! I had something come for me once... but heck, I have that happen occasionally with the boar too. We plowed through an entire circuit of the wind elementals, and she didn't lose aggro aside from that one time... yay!! I can farm again with my freaking CAT! I missed my kitty-kins!

Something else I noticed, and bounced up and down over... Freezing Traps are now a Chance to Break on Damage, not an auto break any more. Ruka was killing one mob while another became interested in me, so I dropped a trap, side stepped and the thing froze... yay for 1 second arming timer ^_^. Well, the thing died and Ruka made a bee-line for the trapped mob, she swung at it five or six times, then it popped, I kinda stood there dumb-founded, wondering if it was a visual glitch or what... so i decided to try again... froze something, sent the fuzzball at it, it held for a bit, broke and the mob died. I poked The Guy, he watched it happen again, then I checked the tool tip... its no bug! Yay!

You have one very happy little PTR hunter... who may just be ditching Truffles the Wonder Pig for something else... finally.

Total Chaos

Any hunter that plays will agree there are periods of bordom followed by periods of utter chaos while playing. I can't count how many times Ruka or Xavi or Varuna has gotten me into trouble by chasing something down. Then they bring back five to eight friends. Yes, I know this is in part due to my inattention... I sometimes forget to watch where the pet is chasing or don't switch to that mob fast enough because I've got my hands full with two more.

Now? Add a warlock to the mix. Its just gotten worse, Fear + pets + more Fear + running mobs = Complete and Utter Chaos x2. The other night, The Guy and I were out and about, killing mobs on our warlock and hunter combo platter. Varuna went off after something, and I switched to his target to bring it down faster, figuring my hyena had everything under control. The Guy FEARED the thing right as I switched to it, it goes plowing off through a group of three mobs, needless to say- all mobs suddenly like him. I flip to check on Varuna... she's got four mobs on her heels + the one she had been chasing... somehow.

So we've got a total of eight mobs coming at us, my trap is on cool down, I'm almost Oom, and the pet is looking a little ragged around the edges... now where the heck is that voidy? Oh, its Dead... >.<

I blow a mana pot and make a few hasty promises to the Earth Mother and send Varuna after the one she'd previously been chewing on, just trying to kill something. It dies, I flip her to the next thing, pop Intimidation, glace at my traps as DoTs bloom on everything and fear goes off again... thanks hon. >.< My pet target goes flying off, luckily in a cleared direction... so I flip the overgrown weasel to something else that is bearing down on the Warlock, it stops pays attention to her, we kill it, the formerly feared mob is back, DoTs are still ticking, so my trap is useless and the mob goes running off again, so I pick on something else as a dotted mob drops at my feet. I hear a screech behind me, pivot, fire a conc shot, drop a trap and spin back to the mob I was previously on, the trap goes off behind me, bagged birdy.

Everything else dies around us through DoTs and Rain of Fire, then its the birdy's turn, carrion bird goes down fast, I'm completely oom and The Guy has about 200 left on his Lock. Sheer Carnage around us, nine mobs dead, my pet still alive, me oom, his pet dead. I sit down to drink while he starts destroying soul stones after summoning the blue berry back.

My mouse idly falls over one of the mobs we killed, a turtle... actually the turtle he feared a few times... its a level 35. We're level 30s. I slowly start mousing over everything else: 32, 34, 35, 33, 31... Yes, we just took on quite a few orange and red mobs... chaos and totally over powered PvE classes FTW!

Tzia of Quel'dorei... Wait, I mean Deathwing!

As I write this Tzia is currently being whisked off QD and put on Deathwing. The reason Tzia is moving from an PvE realm to an PvP realm are many and slightly confusing... since I once swore I'd never move my main back to a PvP realm (that and I couldn't at the time)!

Tzia has gone through a pretty long road to get to where she is today. My only 70 to date, originally had the name Venari on Deathwing. I rolled her after watching The Guy play his hunter, which was soon after we got married in July of 2005. I thought pets looked completely cool, and so The Guy allowed me to borrow his account and create my own little hunter to play.

I immediately tried to roll an alliance hunter (night elf to be exact) and the game chirped at me: You cannot have both a Horde and an Alliance Character on the same PvP server.

I paused, blinked, and looked over at the horde list then... Cow... um nooo. Orc? Eww. Troll? Hmm... Okay then, Troll it was. I sat there and poked at looks, tuning and tweaking until I got something I liked... smallest tusks, kindest face, blue, blue and did I mention blue? Now, what to name... hmm what to name? Off to my favorite Latin Word site it was! I wanted to know what Hunter was in Latin. Turns out Hunter is Venari. It wasn't taken, and boom, Venari was born.

I spent time off and on, because The Guy and I were leveling on one account, and sharing one computer too. We couldn't play together, but I had been introduced by someone kind to the Blizzard Hunter Forums. I read everything I could get my hands on when I wasn't playing, because I had a laptop that couldn't handle WoW, but it handled the forums! I also found Petopia.

I was about level 9 when I found Petopia, and was introduced to all the pets. I think my response was quite litterally, "Oooh! KITTY!!!" when I found my purple baby, Ruka.

I planned for Ruka at level 9. Figuring I would get to level 60 eventually. It took me about a year to get there, leveling and dying as I went through the particular hell that is a PvP server. I got sick of it one night in Febuary of 2007, and wandered off to try out a recomended PvE realm called Quel'dorei.

Let's just say I had a complete and total blast on QD, and talked The Guy over to the realm when he got back from his roadtrip from Oregon to South Dakota and then back from South Dakota to Oregon... fun! He rolled a new hunter and started playing with me. We formed our own guild after finding nothing but immaturity and a rampant lack of knowledge... hey it was a recomended server. I think we stole about 6 - 8 guildies from the guild we were leaving and then formed Chens Champions after a debate on names that lasted at least two days.

The Guy took guild lead, I took co-founder, and his brother took another co-founder position. Then we started recruiting, after having hashed out our guild ranking system : Guild Lead, Co-Founder, Officer, Officer Alt, Honor Guard, Member, Recruit. There was really no diffrence between Guild Lead and Co-Founder or Officer and Officer Alt, so we basically had a five rank system, with recruit being our two week trial period, check the guild out while we check you out.

The guild had a few rocky periods as we ironed out our leadership skills and got a great group of people together that we enjoyed working and talking with. This guild lasted for a year, I running around on a paladin named Dione, because Tzia was still back on Deathwing. I had rolled a paladin because, at the time, we didn't have a ton of healers. I missed my hunter though, and after doing a bit of checking I leveled her to 60, grabbed Ruka, and brought her over and changed her name to Tzia.

I leveled from 60 to 70 on Quel'dorei and then started running with Silvermoon Tradesmen and began raiding. After a falling out between me and SMT on Loyalty Before Loot (which ironically enough is the name of the guild the person I had the altercation with is in). I quit raiding on Tzia after that. She stands in mostly Kara epics, missing the legs,the bow and a helm. I really wanted that bow! Saw it once, lost it to the other hunter I was running with... How many hunters can say they went from Valanos to Sunfury though? ^_^

I was leading Chens Champions at the time, The Guy was on a WoW Break, and I basically passed down a Do Not Associate rule to my guildies over the falling out, and explained exactly why I felt it was unadvisable to run with any from that guild. My guildies knew I didn't make such a decision lightly and agreed with it, or at least didn't tell me they were running with SMT if they did...

Then one of my officers came back from hiatus, and started talking to SMT, thought I'd been over-reacting, (though he understood exactly why I didn't want to associate with SMT - call a woman a word that will get you kicked in the head by any male relative... begins with a C.... and you wonder why I quit raiding with them?!). The officer tried to patch up things, but I would have none of it... I'm stuborn that way, the bridge had burned and that ship had sailed.

My best officer, which I considered that mage, left us for SMT. I wished him luck, but warned him that if they could disrespect an "outsider" not to expect respect in their ranks, or to realize just how valuable a person he was. Soon after that Chens fell apart and we reformed under the name Damage May Vary. I let Tzia sit and rolled a warrior.

Warrior got to about level 35. I started playing Yazmin because my cousin had mentioned he was playing alliance on Echo Isles, and since I wanted to raid again, I burned a hunter to 60. Then he transfered. I went back to QD. I got bored, I let the account lapse.

Now its September, and I'm moving Tzia back to Deathwing. Why? Nobody but The Guy's Friends are there, they are willing to come bail me out of trouble if I get into it, and Wrath is coming up soon... they want to raid, I want to raid. Tzia is my best geared character. She's moved.

Goodbye Quel'dorei, I guess welcome back to Deathwing Tzia... its probably going to be your home for a while... Let's go visit the old stomping grounds, eh? See if Rak'shiri is prowling around up in Winterspring?

Why was the bear on the bike?

Okay, I read the Odd News through Yahoo every day between blog posts and playing WoW. There have been times when a headline will grab my attention... and then there are times when I almost want to write to the editor and ask if s/he fell asleep at the desk, just due to basic errors with subject verb agreement, tense shifts, and then there are sentences that are just worded wrong (which is how it ends up on Headlines on Monday Nights).

Anyways, I ran into an article this morning titled, Teacher OK After Crashing into Bear on a Bicycle. When I first saw it, I thought, car crash + biking bear statue... this did come out of Montana after all! But, no. Its the fact that a teacher, riding a bike, crashed into a black bear at about 25 miles an hour. Now, that in itself is a news piece. Its just the title is worded badly.

My HS journalism teacher would have asked me, with one eyebrow raised, "Why is the bear on the bike? Was it driving?!" if I'd turned in such an article headline. In fact, he'd have grinned over the idea, then gone scary serious and tossed the entire thing back at me, pages ruffling, and reach for the next article of the person that was standing in line.

I'd have scurried back to my little thirty year old wooden desk (I swear my Dad had it when it was new), feeling like an idiot, and frantically tried to find a new title, because if the title sucked? There was no way Cecil was even going to LOOK at the rest of the article. That English Teacher -who taught Comp 3, Comp 4, Journalism, Poetry, and Greek and Roman Myth- did more to teach me the basics of journalism and creative writing than any course I've taken in college to date.

I try and keep such things in mind when writing- even here, because it makes my writing better. And you'll never catch me writing about a bear on a bike, or even implying it. He taught me a lot... that gruff, barking bear of a teacher.

So, next time you are writing up a blog entry, take careful stock of your title, is it implying what you wish for it to, or is it saying something completely different from the body of the article? And if its different, which is easier to re-write, the title, or the entire article?