It has been some time since my last post, and I will make no excuses for it; I simply have not found anything interesting in WoW to post about.
I have been vote-kicked a few more times for apparently being a failtank, and have been spending my time in the Draenei and Night Elf starting areas to get the Loremaster Achievement. In the process I got exalted with both factions, and the epic ground mounts that comes with it, and my Gnomer rep is inching slowly towards exalted too.
I have also tried to make a serious effort to get my Draenei priest to 80, so finished off the BT quests and am about halfway through HF now.
But isn't that what everyone else is doing? There was a big surge in players when the new LFD hit, but now that the novelty has worn off I am seeing less dungeon queues and less instances (if you'll pardon the pun) of queueing for Argent Dawn itself.
So I guess I was maybe losing a little bit of interest, as the guild has a better tank than me now, and I kinda feel... redundant, I guess. And maybe a little bored with WoW, thinking that perhaps now would be a good time to catch up on other things that I have thought about doing but not really built up the motivation to actually do.
Then, in the blogosphere I saw that Tam has set up a new guild on my server (albeit horde side), called Single Abstract Noun. Tobold has joined, as has Larísa, plus I reckon a few others whose blogs I read, so I thought I would give it a go.
I had 2 spare slots which I was saving for a worgen and possibly (probably) goblin when Cataclysm hits, but now I am thinking of transferring one of my existing Alliance characters across to join the others that I transferred a while ago when the free transfer was first made available.
My son has a character on my account, and as he plays so infrequently it makes sense to probably move him over (with some gold in his pocket), plus maybe one of my other characters that I haven't touched in ages, but don't have the heart to delete - probably some false sense of attachment, but I haven't hit 50 characters yet...!
I really enjoyed being part of a community that just doesn't stop talking! I rolled a belf mage (yes, female!), typed /who tobold and asked him whether an officer was around for an invite. He replied by telling me that anyone can invite, then shortly later, Tahliana became a member of what could be a very large guild indeed.
I hit level 8 before logging for the night - it makes things a little quicker, having done the starting area a few times before!
I think I could be happy here
Friday, 5 March 2010
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
More pug stuff
It happened again.
We wiped in Pit of Saron, horribly, a few times, then I was standing in Dalaran, with that message telling me I had left the group. Sigh, another vote kick.
So I hit the LFD button again, got straight in again, and imagine my horror, when I found I had ended up in the same dungeon as before. I had a look at the other players, with this horrible premonition that perhaps I had been given not only the same dungeon, but the very same people who just kicked me.
Fortunately this was not the case. However, I did tell my new group that this was my second visit to PoS, my first visit literally minutes before when I got vote kicked for being a noob tank.
I was expecting cries of ‘leave then’ or similar from the gogogo crowd which regularly frequent these establishments, but I actually got a good-natured ok from the top dps in the group.
Much of the instance had already been done, and we were at the entrance to the cave before the last boss – the one with the big elemental.
We wiped, and I was expecting to get kicked again, following a comment from one of the party, but the response from the others was that I had told them, up front, what the score was.
I was then given a blow by blow account of what I needed to do in my role as tank, and guess what? We cleared the whole cave without wiping! The same person then went through what I needed to do with the boss, and things were going fine until he went down, then one of the other dps went down, so it was left to me, the healer and another dps to try and take him down. We ultimately failed, but I had a much better experience in this visit than the previous one.
If there is a moral to this story, be upfront before you start; sometimes you’ll be telling a bunch of asshats who will kick you, but more often than not you’ll actually get a decent bunch of people who really want to help.
We wiped in Pit of Saron, horribly, a few times, then I was standing in Dalaran, with that message telling me I had left the group. Sigh, another vote kick.
So I hit the LFD button again, got straight in again, and imagine my horror, when I found I had ended up in the same dungeon as before. I had a look at the other players, with this horrible premonition that perhaps I had been given not only the same dungeon, but the very same people who just kicked me.
Fortunately this was not the case. However, I did tell my new group that this was my second visit to PoS, my first visit literally minutes before when I got vote kicked for being a noob tank.
I was expecting cries of ‘leave then’ or similar from the gogogo crowd which regularly frequent these establishments, but I actually got a good-natured ok from the top dps in the group.
Much of the instance had already been done, and we were at the entrance to the cave before the last boss – the one with the big elemental.
We wiped, and I was expecting to get kicked again, following a comment from one of the party, but the response from the others was that I had told them, up front, what the score was.
I was then given a blow by blow account of what I needed to do in my role as tank, and guess what? We cleared the whole cave without wiping! The same person then went through what I needed to do with the boss, and things were going fine until he went down, then one of the other dps went down, so it was left to me, the healer and another dps to try and take him down. We ultimately failed, but I had a much better experience in this visit than the previous one.
If there is a moral to this story, be upfront before you start; sometimes you’ll be telling a bunch of asshats who will kick you, but more often than not you’ll actually get a decent bunch of people who really want to help.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Armory changes
This is probably a bit late, now that the furore has died down a little, but what do you think of the changes to the Armory?
I am not sure about the timeline of what has been done and where – this is too Big Brother for my liking, but I guess that is here to stay, so may as well learn to live with it and move on.
One thing that I have noticed though is that there isn’t a decent background to set your character against. Even the default backgrounds you get on the character selection screen would be better than nothing, as I think the current look makes my characters look a little… well, lifeless, really.
I know, I know, they are only pixels, but it was the whole look of the game that drew me in the first place, the attention to even the tiniest details and the overall polish.
Or maybe I should just get a life and keep away from the Armory! Hmmm, what else to do on a rainy lunchtime??!!
I am not sure about the timeline of what has been done and where – this is too Big Brother for my liking, but I guess that is here to stay, so may as well learn to live with it and move on.
One thing that I have noticed though is that there isn’t a decent background to set your character against. Even the default backgrounds you get on the character selection screen would be better than nothing, as I think the current look makes my characters look a little… well, lifeless, really.
I know, I know, they are only pixels, but it was the whole look of the game that drew me in the first place, the attention to even the tiniest details and the overall polish.
Or maybe I should just get a life and keep away from the Armory! Hmmm, what else to do on a rainy lunchtime??!!
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Pug stuff
I’ve come to the conclusion (several months down the line!) that I can’t keep up a daily blog, but something happened in WoW last night that you read about happening to others that hadn’t happened to me yet – I got vote-kicked.
It was in probably one of my least favourite places – Oculus. We got to the last boss and decided that I would be the first one to Time Stop when he enraged. Unfortunately, when the time came, I was on the deck as the emerald drake hadn’t healed me, so I got kicked even though it wasn’t even my fault!
I know I’m not the greatest ever tank in the world (still gearing, believe it or not) and I don’t hit the hardest (1200dps), but I do object when I am kicked through no fault of my own. It’s not even as if I could /w any of them, as they were all on different servers to me (the only one that was on my server had already quit the group!).
I just hope that doesn’t happen very often – at least I got some Ebon Blade rep while I was there…
It was in probably one of my least favourite places – Oculus. We got to the last boss and decided that I would be the first one to Time Stop when he enraged. Unfortunately, when the time came, I was on the deck as the emerald drake hadn’t healed me, so I got kicked even though it wasn’t even my fault!
I know I’m not the greatest ever tank in the world (still gearing, believe it or not) and I don’t hit the hardest (1200dps), but I do object when I am kicked through no fault of my own. It’s not even as if I could /w any of them, as they were all on different servers to me (the only one that was on my server had already quit the group!).
I just hope that doesn’t happen very often – at least I got some Ebon Blade rep while I was there…
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Naughty naughty!
I know – it’s been 2 weeks since my last post, but not much has really happened in that time, except that the kids have an inset day (teacher training) on Friday (tomorrow) so we have decided to use the opportunity as it will be the last one that is guaranteed to coincide for both of them as the eldest goes to secondary school in September.
We are taking them to Alton Towers, and I am hoping that there will not be many people there – it is the last working day before half term, so the train of thought is that most of the rest of the population will either be at work or at school, and will do their travelling Friday afternoon/evening.
So we are aiming to leave at 4:30am to get there in time for opening. I booked the tickets in advance on line, which gives us better prices, and also priority entry to the parks popular rides – Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita – Queen of Speed, before the park opens at 10am (we can get in at 9am).
That means early bed tonight, but even so, getting up at really stupid o’clock is going to kill me – hopefully I can get some sleep in the car, but I want to be round the M25 and a long way up the M1 before rush hour really gets going in earnest.
We are taking them to Alton Towers, and I am hoping that there will not be many people there – it is the last working day before half term, so the train of thought is that most of the rest of the population will either be at work or at school, and will do their travelling Friday afternoon/evening.
So we are aiming to leave at 4:30am to get there in time for opening. I booked the tickets in advance on line, which gives us better prices, and also priority entry to the parks popular rides – Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita – Queen of Speed, before the park opens at 10am (we can get in at 9am).
That means early bed tonight, but even so, getting up at really stupid o’clock is going to kill me – hopefully I can get some sleep in the car, but I want to be round the M25 and a long way up the M1 before rush hour really gets going in earnest.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Where is everybody?
I have come into work, it's after 8:30am and there is no one here - it is extremely quiet, which is lovely!
Anyway, back to Monday and the Fun Day - I would say that it was relatively successful - we made a modest profit (which offset some of the losses - we lost £40 on the sweets - Alan Sugar would have had steam coming out of his ears on that one!!!), and the Chairman of the Residents Association is pleased and is hoping that we can now move things forward.
Work has been rather quiet this week; my adviser is off, and I am looking after another consultant while a colleague is on her honeymoon – all I can say about that is that it is nice to feel appreciated for a change!
All I get from the regular adviser is rant rant rant, but from the one I am looking after I get ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘good work on this’. It is a small thing, but it makes a big difference, and I have fed this back to my superiors. Maybe they will come to realise that it is not all me, that some of it is down to attitudes and I would feel happier if I was treated at least half decently more often!
On the news I see Madeleine McCann is back in the headlines – 2 years after she was left by her parents in the holiday apartment. I still have a suspicion that one of the parents knows more than they are letting on about the abduction – what right-minded parent leaves 3 young children on their own while they go off to dinner? They said that the restaurant was very close by, but that does not escape the fact that she was left unattended, and with an unlocked front door. That was asking for trouble.
In happier news my son passed his Grade 2 Violin exam, and he has just been given a violin by the Chairman of the Residents Association who bought it from eBay for a prop a couple of years ago, and it has never been used. He has taken it to school to show his violin teacher to see if it is any good. If it is, we can give the hired one back, which will save us a little money!
I have just had a text from my wife to let me know that my new keyboard has arrived, so hopefully I won’t get a repeat of the problem with a sticking space bar, and I also need to try and sort out the problem with my mouse with World of Warcraft – someone in-game suggested that there may be interference from wireless networks, and, although my previous wireless keyboard and mouse didn’t seem to suffer, I will give it a go anyway if the problem persists with the new mouse.
I get to home early today as Thursday = college, so I might be able to unwrap it and get it connected before I have to dash off!
Anyway, back to Monday and the Fun Day - I would say that it was relatively successful - we made a modest profit (which offset some of the losses - we lost £40 on the sweets - Alan Sugar would have had steam coming out of his ears on that one!!!), and the Chairman of the Residents Association is pleased and is hoping that we can now move things forward.
Work has been rather quiet this week; my adviser is off, and I am looking after another consultant while a colleague is on her honeymoon – all I can say about that is that it is nice to feel appreciated for a change!
All I get from the regular adviser is rant rant rant, but from the one I am looking after I get ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘good work on this’. It is a small thing, but it makes a big difference, and I have fed this back to my superiors. Maybe they will come to realise that it is not all me, that some of it is down to attitudes and I would feel happier if I was treated at least half decently more often!
On the news I see Madeleine McCann is back in the headlines – 2 years after she was left by her parents in the holiday apartment. I still have a suspicion that one of the parents knows more than they are letting on about the abduction – what right-minded parent leaves 3 young children on their own while they go off to dinner? They said that the restaurant was very close by, but that does not escape the fact that she was left unattended, and with an unlocked front door. That was asking for trouble.
In happier news my son passed his Grade 2 Violin exam, and he has just been given a violin by the Chairman of the Residents Association who bought it from eBay for a prop a couple of years ago, and it has never been used. He has taken it to school to show his violin teacher to see if it is any good. If it is, we can give the hired one back, which will save us a little money!
I have just had a text from my wife to let me know that my new keyboard has arrived, so hopefully I won’t get a repeat of the problem with a sticking space bar, and I also need to try and sort out the problem with my mouse with World of Warcraft – someone in-game suggested that there may be interference from wireless networks, and, although my previous wireless keyboard and mouse didn’t seem to suffer, I will give it a go anyway if the problem persists with the new mouse.
I get to home early today as Thursday = college, so I might be able to unwrap it and get it connected before I have to dash off!
Sunday, 3 May 2009
The last few days
I can see this petering out like the blog before, but I will carry on in the meantime when I can remember!
Nothing much of note really happened on Friday, except for the final Residents Association Committee Meeting before the Fun Day (tomorrow). It seems that the Secretary has stepped down to take care of personal matters, so hopefully that might satisfy some of the residents who feel that she shouldn't be on the Committee. One day I might go into more detail, but now is not really the time.
Yesterday my friend from Peterborough came to visit, and we went to Bedgebury to try out the mountain bike trail, but I think I wore him out; apparently he hasn't done any cycling for 6 months and, living in Peterborough, is not used to hills. Me, on the other hand, cycles to work every day and tries to fit in the odd 12 mile run had no problems at all. I have to say though that I didn't realise how much difference this would make, but while he was struggling to get up the hills I was hardly breaking a sweat.
He also showed me his new car - a 2007 Mondeo with lots of bells and whistles which he was keen to show off, and his new phone which he simply had to have so he could use the Bluetooth in his car!
Today we took the children to the Bouldering Academy where they did their first assessments, and apparently they did well, but we won't get confirmation until next week.
After lunch we went to Eastbourne for a game of ten pin bowling with my wife's friend as it was her birthday a few days ago, and then we went home for dinner over Robin Hood.
There has been some friction between my wife and I, mainly over the fun day - she doesn't understand why I got involved with the committee, has absolutely no interest and has made it abundently clear that I will get no support from her with anything I do in this regard.
I would continue but the spacebar on my new keyboard is sticking and is driving me potty so I'll end it here and hopefully it will be better tomorrow...
Nothing much of note really happened on Friday, except for the final Residents Association Committee Meeting before the Fun Day (tomorrow). It seems that the Secretary has stepped down to take care of personal matters, so hopefully that might satisfy some of the residents who feel that she shouldn't be on the Committee. One day I might go into more detail, but now is not really the time.
Yesterday my friend from Peterborough came to visit, and we went to Bedgebury to try out the mountain bike trail, but I think I wore him out; apparently he hasn't done any cycling for 6 months and, living in Peterborough, is not used to hills. Me, on the other hand, cycles to work every day and tries to fit in the odd 12 mile run had no problems at all. I have to say though that I didn't realise how much difference this would make, but while he was struggling to get up the hills I was hardly breaking a sweat.
He also showed me his new car - a 2007 Mondeo with lots of bells and whistles which he was keen to show off, and his new phone which he simply had to have so he could use the Bluetooth in his car!
Today we took the children to the Bouldering Academy where they did their first assessments, and apparently they did well, but we won't get confirmation until next week.
After lunch we went to Eastbourne for a game of ten pin bowling with my wife's friend as it was her birthday a few days ago, and then we went home for dinner over Robin Hood.
There has been some friction between my wife and I, mainly over the fun day - she doesn't understand why I got involved with the committee, has absolutely no interest and has made it abundently clear that I will get no support from her with anything I do in this regard.
I would continue but the spacebar on my new keyboard is sticking and is driving me potty so I'll end it here and hopefully it will be better tomorrow...
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