Absent, but not quite…

No I didn’t get a Beta key, or anything of the sort, I did however get some MAJOR work done around my guild and personal wow-life.

First things first, right?

I’ve, finally, conviced a family member to try out Wow. After months of debating about “childish graphics”, “poor gaming experience” and “gaming atmosphere”, he finally craked and promptly started the Painful track to install/Patch wow.

He asked me to start a character with him so we could “dual” our way trough content. Help him I shall, and it will be great. I wont be bothered about class selection, since it’s his first ever wow character, but also because, no mater what he chooses, I will choose a good solid complement to his character so we can blaze faster and safer. Hopefully we will have 2 high level characters (maybe not 70 yet) to play with before “The Rash” comes out!

But not all of this are sweet news, oh no…

• My country isn’t eligible for Recruit-a-friend program ( /sadpanda) so no Zebra mount/free levels for me
• He’s reluctant on account fees (Means I’m paying for is account – actually my 2nd account)
• Another Alt (this is going 4thehorde very fast)

On guild News….yay!

I’ve started recruiting into <Star Shards>, Dranzig is level 50, Black rock is an inch away, so it makes sence to start gathering players to fill the roster!

Long term goal form <Star Shards> would be to get enough guildies to be able to do outlands instances with the minimum of pugging possible. Let’s see…

Just three things

It’s 1am….

It’s freaking late….

What, the h7ll, am I doing up?

Oh, right…….Had this to show you

Watch more WoW Videos and 3 more things!

That’s Freaking awesome!!

I think I’ll start doing a “mandatory” weeklly post, be a Videos (media) show.

What do you guys think?

who me, nah… it was some other tank

Did you ever did something in a Raid/instance that you’re not particularly proud of? Did you ever left someone on the ropes, because the thought of watching him twist and turn in agony, felt good?

Well, I kinda may have probably did that last night. I’ll explain….

Leeroy ?

First of, I’ve meet a great night elf hunter, Tox****, he´s good. he’s not only willing to listen but also shares is thoughts in a very clear way. Hell he even call’s out trap resists in instance runs.

I’m out-&-about last night, getting my last quests done in Stranglehorn Vale, you know favors for the goblins and such, when Tox**** whispers me and asks me if I what to tank Zul’Farak. I’m Fury talented, but I have good gear, my tanking is decent, and I did clear Maraudon and Scarlet monastery with him before while tanking. So I’m thinking that I’m up to the challenge, right?

I answer back with a big thumbs up and get an invite almost instant. We’re only missing a healer, not to bad right?

(of course, I’m like, jumping in my chair, because he actually recognize me as a tank, and instead of looking for a group, it came to me….I’m thrilled really)

The group starts talking and we’re really interested in Gahz’rilla. So we need the mallet to summon him. By now we’ve signed a druid (a balance one) to heal (interesting). The group set’s out to Southshore, to help out the Party leader (the rogue) get the mallet so we can take down “Gahz”, talk about team effort, right!!

The group is now composed of:

• warrior 46
• Rogue 46
• Druid 47
• Hunter 42
• Mage 50

I’m thinking we’ve got a good group..everyone is talkative enough in Party chat, we’re all getting out of our ways to help one member get a quest item. that’s really nice…by the time I get to Southshore (all the way from booty bay) I check the map to realize that they didn’t wait up for me, in fact, they almost got to the Altar to craft the mallet …oh well, less pain for me I guess….

In party chat, I ask if they need help, the answer: No, it’s ok. Wait for us in there, so we can all ride down together.

ONE hour later….I’m still sitting by the Flight amster (I ran out of rabbits to kill) and the guys finally return after getting three more quests done down there. (they actually completed 3 of the mage’s quests in the area, you know, since they already in there right!?!)

I remain calm and didn’t, I repeat, DIDN’T say anything….but I wanted to !!!

They get to Theramore (mage portal???), and say that they will summon me to instance. Ok, I answer, while I lit a cigarette, and pour some chocolate milk in a glass. After a few minutes, there it his, a summon to ZF.

/greet

Ask if anyone needs stamina/mana food (yes, I do it). we’re all okay, and ready to go. we jump inside the instance, now the troubles start.

The mage (who shall remain anonymous) has a trigger finger issue! a severe one. so Severe he single-handedly made us wipe. three times.

After the first wipe, I asked to have a little time to build threat on the target mob, and to get at least a solid Aggro base, since the level difference from the mage makes it harder for me to hold it. A General “Yes!” sends me to the next group and we sheep and sap, moon and cross, leaving skull for me to build on…all is good all is fine none steals aggro! I move to Cross (sap) and get a solid start too, no problems there. I know the sheeped mob already has a base aggro from the mage , but my taunt is up, so I sunder the sheep and taunt the target, get working on it, and all is fine. That was the only good pull we had…

Right around the corner, the next group, was Aoe pulled by the mage’s Blizzard, I was thinking to myself….what, the….***curses to himself***, run and try to get me some attention. we barely made it.

Next pull, I manage to get to the mob first, but everyone had already started to Dps, before I landed the first hit. so much for that attempt. it was just a single mob, so not to bad. I mean, we lived.

Next pull, we sheep/sap again…no worries I get skull, draw him back and the mage starts exploding everywhere…needless to say, we wiped, again…

we go back..

same pull….

SAME FREAKING EXPLOSIONS……

I just sit down and die!

He get’s all berserk at me, saying, I’m not holding aggro……oh, if was next to me, I’d be eating trough a straw about now!!!! (yes eating **curses again**)

I say, something like, when I get to “tank” the mob, we do fine, when you start spamming needless spells, and do crazy actions, we wipe…but hey, if you wanna go for the mob first, go ahead, Tank away, just remember you have 2000 less Hp then me, even less armor, no avoidance, no shield….but hey, it’s your boat, rock it has you please…

I get a whisper from Tox**** saying, that he couldn’t believe the way the mage has acting, and saying sorry for having invited me.

“no worries mate, it’s a good trip, at least I now know who not to group with right…^^”

Call if fate or whatever, On our 4th wipe of the evening…we’re running back to where we died, and some mobs already started re-spawning, just after we kill one mob, My Internet decided to commit suicide, and left me hanging…

I try to get back, but it keeps saying that I can’t login! I figure I have to restart the router (like it or not) and the whole operation takes about 15  minutes to reboot..

I call it quits, and leave them all hanging…

I know I did a very bad thing…but the respect they showed me had it coming, I moved out of my way to help, and get stranded for over an hour, I try to do my job in the instance and can’t because some mage’tard doesn’t help, I get a massive (I know it’s level 46, but I’m not rolling in gold you know!!) repair bill.

I feel sorry for Tox**** tough.

It just keeps us going….

in the eyes of the beholder

Hi Dran,

My name is Merder (on the Baelgun server). I really enjoy your blog.

I saw one of your screenshots and I REALLY like the setup you have. Would you mind

sending me a list of the addons that you use? or maybe do a post about your setup. It’s

one of the cleanest looking UI’s I’ve ever seen. I’m a 70 Ally Pally and I have several

addons, but my screen is all bunched up and crowded. I’m always searching for a way

to tone it down a bit.

Thanks

Scott (a.k.a. Merder)

(borrowing this bit from a famous blog)

Hello Merder. It’s great to have had a positive feedback from a reader. Yes, it does feel good!

This is the “3.0 version”, if you can call it that, of my user interface. I’ve been working on it for a long time now, always trying to make the best use of space, and while trying to keep addons visible and functional, also working to make it appealing too.

Breakdown!

I tried to apply some basic self made “rules” aswell as some “hardcore” Interface design concepts.

• Has clean as possible (like you point out)
• No compromise on Information gathering (quality before quantity)
• Force the design to prevent “tunnel-vision” play
• Low on memory (tolerable at least)
• Fast access (I Press before I click)
• Five Pixels of design (1)

With this in mind, building the user interface, was like playing lego’s. Everything had to slide with minimal impact on other Add-ons.

Cowtip on the top left corner of the screen provides useful, quick and easy to see information. It works out of Mouse-over events so a quick nudge on the mouse and I have a little bit of target information.

On the opposite corner I have the mini-map, Simple Map provides more then needed information, customization and adaptability to most user interface’s. It works great for me too, all add-on buttons are hidden except for the tracking Icon and the Omen threat meter (yes, that’s how important it is!!!)

On the Left of Mini-map are my buffs and debuffs, these are stock Ui, with the time option enabled. Below it I have the quest tracker (stock). Another Design major, If it’s not broken don’t fix it!

A look at some cooldown action

Wandering to the Left bottom corner, there’s Prat and the first of two Eepanels2. The panel provides a “darker” background to my chat window, while Prat gives me a (really) never ending custom options (editbox un-docking for instance).

Above it, there’s cooldownTimers2 divided in 2 groups, one for items (left), and one for abilities (right). They are placed that way because I’m less likely to need to see my Hp pot cooldown in favor of my Bloodrage, Revenge or Sweeping strikes cooldown.

Of to the far left there’s the mother of all Instance loving, group snugging wow-fans, Omen2. While providing me with CLEAR threat generation info, it still notifies me (with a quick glimpse of the eyes) of who’s trailing behind me so I can prepare for events properly.

Next to it (Left side) there’s Grid. I use it more on my healer (Niam) the on anyone else. The value of this single add-on to a healer! One click (or mouse-over) and you can pop off a heal, decurse or cleanse, faster and reliably. truly priceless! It still holds it’s end on my warrior, allowing me to see an overall picture of debuffs across the “raid”.

Parrot in Action

Center screen (besides Dranzig) there’s Parrot, Semi-circling to the left are the damage taken, health gained, blocks, parries and dodges. On the right damage inflicted, damage Dodged, blocked or parried (by the mob).

Enter the big guns, Pitbull took me days to configure. There are so MANY options!!! The config consist of left side bars (Me, Focus, Pet) and right side bars (Target, Target’s target and Party). cool things to note: It shows who has just gained Aggro. It shows if a target is CC’ed. It shows health incoming. It shows Buffs, and debuffs of the target. and that’s just a scratch at the surface.

Above my frame, sits the Swing timer and the Cast timer, via Quartz, I can also have one on my target’s frame (also right above it). Shameless Shield Bash abuse ^^

Bartender3 and Cycircled vol skin present me with buttons to mash, and this configuration has alot under the hood. The Three stances change the top bar to the according stance-bar it also changes with Shift modifier for quick use of some abilities. The middle (static) bar, has some “clicable” spells, either high cost or less used. The bottom bar shifts with Alt modifier to present professions and other abilities (like Hearthstone). The little Bar over my Pitbull frame is a “witch stance I’m in” (sometimes it gets confusing) and trinket action (it’s only six buttons across, three for stances, one for weapon swap macro and the two trinkets)

Better view of Pitbull

Finally, to wrap up, there’s fubar with some more information. It goes in order from left to right: Performance, Durability, Topscore, Experience, Mail, Bag space and Local time.

You can say it unfolds or blossoms. With some aspects of it showing themselves only in specific circumstances.

-

(1) The five pixels of design, stand to a concept of Operating systems building. It shows that independently of the users knowledge or capacity, there are always 5 Pixels on your computer screen that you will not miss to click or see! The five pixels are, of course, the four edges of the screen and the pixel immediately under your mouse pointer. These present themselves has a great source for crucial information (take a look at windows or Mac bar, your windows close button, the right-mouse button menu, and so on…)

Yay! 40, now to get my mount….Wait, what?!?

Open for business 10 levels sooner.

Actually I did get my mount at 30 and don’t get me wrong, faster leveling is “always” a good thing. It helps out on most leveling aspects.

Blizzard has implemented several re-design game mechanics to the game.

• Elites being turned to normal mobs
• Experience increase from level 20 on up
• Mounts available at level 30
• Recruit-a-friend with 3x experience for you character up to level 60, plus some more benefits.

These are all great changes, of the top of my head I can come up with “hundreds” of reasons to justify it. Most important, they provide the “new” players with a chance to reach end-game content faster, but at what cost?

Leveling faster can “make” you miss some cool quests and events, old-world content is almost always discarded, there’s no need from players  to “seriously” upgrade your characters with all the Outland gear at such a close grasp.

The last changes Blizz’ Implemented were, from my point of view, not in favor of the new player!

I’m new at World of Warcraft, I’ve been leveling a mage, quest rewards are really cool, and I’ve had some good upgrades from them, gold is  problem though, it seems I never have enough. With all the spells, abilities and cool things I find in the Auction House, there’s hardly enough for the repair bills”

I know of no New player in a server that has close to 40G at level 30, that’s even less likely to happen if you are New to the game. So much to explore and so little time (read: gold) to do it! If you have experience in the game, it’s great. If you have a higher level character, it’s wonderful. There’s just no way around it.

I grabed some gold from double gathering professions, leveling to 30 in a breeze, and getting enough Gold from Herbalism and Skinning to get my mount at level 30 (yes, it is a big difference). But I had help! I never spent a single Gold coin on repairs. Niam, who gracefully grinded for gold in Outlands provided Dranzig with a “starter fund” for gear, repairs and level 19 enchants. In short, without my “sponsor” I wouldn’t have been able to ride at 30, maybe not even at 40, since my first character ever only got is mount at around 45-ish!

I wonder what are other players perspectives on this subject. Care to share your achivements? How soon did you get the Mount gold?