Ted, you know my rule about personal problems. I'm not interested unless it involves my loved ones. Or possibly my wife.

-UPDATE ONE OF MANY-


Check that out. I'm not just Gronogg, I'm Gronogg The Wise.
I logged on today at about 7:30 AM...it's now 10:18 and I am level 5. It's a combination of low-rate experience gains (yay!) and how awesome just running around touching stuff is.
Remember Mythic's big "if you kill a ton of things and then a quest guy wants you to go kill those same thing, the game will remember what you do" claim? Yea, that's not in here. I was a little bummed, but not enough to start freaking out and uninstalling the game or anything.

Group Quests and RvR stuff is awesome. I've been in one where we fight waves of dwarves and one that involves killing tree monsters and choppin' trees. The Dwarf one was a little frantic and I didn't get any loot from killing the main badguy, but when there's 20 other Greenskins all attacking 1-4 dwarves, I guess that's too be expected. I can only imagine it'll be like this until a couple months after the game is released.

I've been playing a Black Orc so far, I might roll a Chaos something-or-other shortly to get the most out of preview weekend. Black Orcs have this weird combo points/stances/Angry-O-Meter thing (It's the little green Orc symbol above the action bars in the screenshot) that requires you to use small attacks in order to use the big attacks. It's kind of interesting, but it makes me realize how bad I suck at playing Warrior classes. I've actually died a couple of times so far (One time was my own fault, I got curious about fall damage), but so far there hasn't been any de-levelling or rez sickness or duration penalties or anything.

I've yet to hear if WAR will allow addons, but you can fully customize your UI in game. I haven't fiddled around with that much yet because I'm still learning what buttons do what, but just having the option there is awesome. Also, I have seen a few graphical screwups in the game, such as magic attacks hovering over a corpse long after they're dead, shields/swords dissapearing into people's backs, freaky slow-motion squigs, etc. There are a few framerate problems as well . It's pretty funny to watch people walking around all jerky, like old Doom/Wolfenstein sprites though. In Mythic/EA's defense, I'm still in the Orc starting area and it's fucking CROWDED.

One last thing: This little blocked off portal/cave/instance thing piqued my interest. Maybe a starting dungeon for Orcs? It's probably nothing, but the glowy WAR symbol and it's placement in the Orc starting area makes me speculate...





More pictures:
(NOTE: The fuzziness is due to me trying to condense these down into little .JPGs. Everything is MUCH clearer in game)

Wot da Zog?

It's been quite a while, has it not? I've been out of the MMO scene for about a year now...since then, I've gotten a new computer, got back into Dungeons and Dragons, got a worthwhile job, developed an odd obsession for all things WALL-E, and I've been following the slow-and-steady progress of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Long story short: after months of not getting into the closed beta I went out and pre-ordered the damn thing last fall, insuring that I'd get to play in open beta.

Well, open beta will FINALLY be starting shortly, with Preview Weekend taking this place this Friday (got my invite; can't wait). I'll be logging my WAR progress just as I did my WoW characters. That'll be fun, right?
Right?

So you're not coming back to WoW?

• Not at the moment, no. Idachi didn't even have a piece of T4 gear; she'd be useless nowadays. Also, I'm a little burnt out at the moment.
  

But that isn't logical, is it? It must've been one of them "Unidentified Flying Cupcakes".

OTHER:

• 'nother Kara run on Wed. Did Curator - Chess Event and tried Prince twice, but it was just too late in the evening to go on. It was my first time doing the Romulo and Julianne thing in the Opera House. Since we didn't sync up their death right (augh), we actually had to do the whole event TWICE. I was going to get on Thursday to take on the Prince that night and maybe maybe maybe get my T4 helm, buuuut.....
• ....Blizzard has stopped accepting my credit card and frozen my account! Yep. Quite an unusual predicament. The card expires next month, which is probably the cause of it. I mean, what else could it be? Mad hax? A replacement card will come in soon, so if I can't play for a week or two or something I won't be too bummed out, as long as I can play before the next attempt at Gruul's. Maybe this is a subtle sign from the people at Blizzard: "Becca, focus less on your epics and more on your DEGREE". I just hope that's the cause and it's not anything more serious than that because...
• ...the guild has moved the Kara runs to Saturday and Sunday, which means I could be raiding as often as I was in the summer! Go figure; as soon as I get the chance to raid more often, all this card crap happens. It's like raaay-ee-aaaaaain on my wedding day, or however the song goes.
  

Yeah, but John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't EAT the tourists.

OTHER:

• Shen got two pieces of the Wildheart set the other day; the gloves and the belt. Cost a bit from the auction house, but much better than her previous crap. Also, what are the odds of getting a Stratholme/Scholo group in these zany post-BC world of ours?
  

Grood! ...I mean good. And great. ...Great and good.

OTHER:



What is THIS!? Shendir? OH LAWD A BALANCE DR00D?!? MADNESS!
No, it's not madness (or Sparta), I just wanted to give the ol' balance tree a go for a few levels. You know, spice things up. At the time of writing, she's 45% through level 53. Shen's gonna finish the level as a moonkin so I can see how it goes. I'm using this talent tree at the moment, because I just don't think I can give up Omen of Clarity and Nature's Swiftness.


If you'll excuse me, my wind rider just landed in Felwood; I've got some work to do.


EDIT:

LEVELS:

• Just finished leveling Shen to 54 and I LOVE YOU, MOONKIN FORM. Seriously.
  

Don't listen to him. He's trying to lead you down the "path of righteousness". I'm gonna lead you down the path that ROCKS!

SUPER SPECIAL GRUUL'S LAIR VERSION!

And there it is.

Seriously though, we tried Gruul's for the first time today and obviously met with little success. Between the lack of DPS and fact that we were short six people, it was kinda obvious we weren't going to one-shot the dungeon any time soon. While it may not sound like we really accomplished anything, I think we learned a lot about the correct positioning and who tanks what and such. I'll be crawling all over YouTube in the next few days seeing how other guild have been doing it.

I'm not against some "monkey catching." But I'd rather be collecting pants.

Oh, wow. Remember when I used to play WoW? Good times.
Seriously, though, school started on the 27th, and I've been busy with that and homework and buying books and such. I've only got MWF classes this semester, which means I'll still get to raid a few nights a week, but only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Since Tuesdays & Thursdays are my off days, I can stay up all Mon/Wed/Fri night and not have to worry about accidentally sleeping through my alarm and/or first class....anyway,

LEVELS:

• Nol is now 41, woot woot! I honestly didn't think he was going to level today, but after going from 15% to 50% in less than an hour, I couldn't resist. Nol also got a swanky new [Icefury Wand] today from that damn mage quest I've been meaning to get to. Beats the hell out of my crappy [Goblin Igniter], plus I can't say no to anything with frost damage! Now all I need is [Whitemane's Chapeau] and I will be a happy little mage.

OTHER:

• Also, I've considered rolling another dr00d; an Alliance dr00d this time so I don't blatantly follow in Shendir's footsteps. I've wanted to go full balance with Shen for SUCH a long time, but I just can't give up healing because that's just how I roll (ba-dum-pssh). My only qualm is that I don't like replaying classes and this new druid might not go very far, which would really bum me out. Of course, the only class I've ever replayed was a hunter, and hunters are kinda dull no matter what spec you choose.
  

Now, like all great plans, my strategy is so simple an idiot could have devised it.

LEVELS:

• Remember Hanryn? Of course not. Last time he saw the light of day was -- yeesh -- April? Anyway, he's 80% through 24. I would have spent the extra five minutes to level him, but a group of Alliance jerks razed Camp Taurajo (...again...) and killed the guy I was supposed to talk to to complete the quest. Upon seeing Taurajo's NPCs scattered along the ground, I figured it would be an opportune time for pizza and logged off.
  

OTHER:

• Yea yea yea, another Kara post. Did Shade of Aran and Chess Event today flawlessly (except for that nail-biting two person victory on Shade), but Prince didn't want to be a good sport and roll over and die for us today. It was probably just poor luck, but between the infernals and wacky line of sight/out of range issues we couldn't get him past 65%. My theory is that he had my tier four token and just didn't want to give it up. Speaking of gear, Shade of Aran FINALLY dropped [Pauldrons of the Justice-Seeker]...and I lost the bid. Ah well, Ten won it and it apparently was his birthday tonight (I'm always the last to know about these things), so grats! Your shoulders have more armor than my chestpiece...all the more reason I need to be there for the Illhoof fight!
  

Our school had a saying: "When something smells, it's usually the Butz."

OTHER:

• We did the first half of Kara again tonight, but we kicked it up a notch by bringing some of our newer and less-experienced people there (myself included!). I was kinda nervous without having Ten or Hubb or Sines or Dip there, but we all did a hell of a job and only wiped twice...on trash mobs, no less! How embarrassing. It just goes to show that if we get a second group going for Kara, both groups should be in pretty good shape and we don't have to rely on the Crazy-Awesome-Ultra-Super-Saiyajin-Experienced Players or something like that to pull us out of trouble. Just like last time, nothing Idachi-worthy dropped. What a BUMMER. Ah well. Tier 4 helm tomorrow? Maybe? I'm about to have enough DKP to buy two helms.
  
• Apparently Limehead got in the guild the other day (yes, that Limehead) and left as quickly as he came in. Good riddance. NO doesn't need crap like him, whining all the time and asking for money and runs and such. Bleh.
  

In my language, the record just said, 'I want to sex your monkey'...which I have never done!

OTHER:

• Tonight was my first time doing the Netherspite thing, I can safely say that he is not my buddy. No sir. It's not those little laser beam things that piss me off, those just require me knowing which way they're coming from. It's not those dark circles of pain that piss me off, because usually I can bubble and run out of them. It's Netherspite's stupid netherbreath that makes me want to scream. Especially two netherbreaths in a row. I've only got like 6000 HP, if the first breath doesn't one-shot me, the second one most certainly will...and nothing sucks quite like dying in the first 3 minutes of the fight.
• In much lighter news, the [Helm of the Fallen Champion] dropped from Prince. I didn't win it (congrats to Ten), but I'm just happy to see it drop. Usually the damn Fallen Defender is the only one that drops, so seeing the Champion one (first time seeing it too) was a nice bonus. Other than that, nothing of interest dropped during this half of Kara. Bonerkill.
• When did we get on WoWJutsu? No matter, it's quite cool to see who's got what. Also, NO's the 50th best guild on the server, according to WoWJutsu. Not bad, not bad at all (read: In your FACE, Band of Pirates). I bet once we start doing Gruul's and Zul'Aman we'll be way high on the list.

You know, Smithers, I've never thought about suicide. But if you'd like to try it, it might cheer me up to watch.

OTHER:

• We did another Ony run this evening for grins. [Nemesis Skullcap], [Helm of Wrath], and [Eskhandar's Collar] all dropped. No Judgement Crown :(. That Skullcap looks awesome though. One of these days I might just roll a warlock...if I can stomach them. I've been reading several of the Warcraft novels lately....I fucking hate the Burning Legion now more than ever.
  

Yep.

That was my squeezing arm. They took my squeezing arm! WHY MY SQUEEZING ARM?!

LEVELS:

• Ah, Timbermaw Hold rep. What a simpler time that was. Shendir hit 53 today amongst the various furbolg corpses out in Felwood today. Good times, good times. I can't wait to get out into the Outlands, Azeroth nowadays just seems so...quaint. Like a Model T in a museum. It was good for it's time, but now it's kinda lackluster.
  

OTHER:

• Shen did indeed leave Death Proof without a moment to spare this morning. I'm not really looking for a guild for Shendir, mostly because she's just an alt and Idachi means more to me. Still, if I could get into a fairly casual guild with Shen just to have a few people to listen to while I'm grinding, I would have no complaints.

Kif, I have made it with a woman. Inform the men.

OTHER:

• Idachi got her first heroic key today...the [Key of Time]. I coulda sworn she was waaay far from getting revered with the Keepers of Time, but I guess not.

BLOG-RELATED:

• Yesterday's post was apparently the 100th post! Wow. Had I known about that I would have thrown something together. Instead, I present you with a list of all the previous titles and what show/game/movie/etc they come from. It'll be a laugh-o-rama!

Remember, like, a few years ago, every other boy was named Jason, and the girls were all named Brittany?!

LEVELS:

• Shendir got halfway to 53 and then was pulled away to lend her services to aid Ogrimmar from the Alliance menace. Well, she WOULD have lent her services, but by the time I got there they had all run away. Lots of skeletons and some infernal corpses, though, so it must have been one hell of a party.

OTHER:

• While grinding, Shen got a guild invite from Death Proof. I've seen some of them around before, so I figured I'd join. The next time I'm on and no one else in the guild's on, I'm probaby going to leave. You see, ever since the Horde got paladins, they assume no one's every rolled a pally before. If this was a PvP server, I could totally understand how strange and foreign these paladins might seem, but when I get some little 62 BElfadin trying to tell me that:
  
  
1. Holy paladins can't heal


2. Ret paladins have awesome DPS


3. Prot paladins are the best tanks in the game


I have to question his sanity. Of course, this was also the same genuis who refused to believe me when I said Death Knights will use runes instead of mana and no guild will ever want him if he stays Rettarded-speced.

• Sweet sassy molassy, the news pouring out of BlizzCon is NUTS. Death Knights, Northrend, level 80 cap, heroic classes, new hairstyles, destroyable buildings, seige weapons, new professions, etc. But what REALLY got me squealing like a schoolgirl was the promise of NEW DANCES.
  
  Blizzard, I know you're not going to read this, but in the name of all that is good in this world, could you change the Human female dance? Please?
  
  

Let us celebrate this agreement with the adding of chocolate to milk.

LEVELS:

• At long freaking last, Nol is 40! He's gotten his robobird (the blue one) and a couple of new portals...he could use way better gear, though; not that there's anything wrong with wearing level 23 pants or anything.

OTHER:

• Idachi went to Kara again on Wednesday and got some [Gloves of Centering] from Maiden. Yea, more shammy gear. I shouldn't really complain though, my intellect and bonus healing has gone through the roof, and the mail gear is only temporary.
• Pfft, I guess they're letting in any old schmo into the guild these days.
• Firefox is back to non-transparent mode, IE is back to transparent mode. You can't please everyone.

I'm sure that in 1985, plutonium is sold in every corner drug store, but here in 1955 it's a little hard to come by.

SUPER SPECIAL MOLTEN CORE VERSION!


Molten Core? BOO, AZEROTH INSTANCES ARE FOR NUBCAKES.

Not.

We ran MC yesterday for shits and giggles and it was mighty awesome. We got all the way to Golemagg and decided to call it a night (it was 10:00, we were sleepy). We had a single wipe when one of our rogues got the Living Bomb and blew a good portion of the raid up, but other than that it went crazy smooth.

Oh yea, and since it was our first ever guild run of MC, we got double DKP!

We may/may not be doing Ragnaros in the next few days

PEEKTURES AND PHAT LOOT:

Lucifron:

• [Cenarion Boots]
• [Lawbringer Bracers] (Tier one Pally gear...if it was judgement, I woulda bid my ass off)

Magmadar

• [Legplates of Might]
• [Arcanist Leggings]

Gehennas

• [Nightslayer Gloves]
• [Sabatons of Might]

Garr

• [Lawbringer Belt]
• [Felheart Horns]
• [Drillborer Disk]

Baron Geddon

• [Cenarion Spaulders]
• [Arcanist Mantle]

Shazzrah

• [Giantstalker's Gloves]
• [Nightslayer Boots]

Golemagg the Incinerator

• [Felheart Robes]
• [Cenarion Vestments]

Scare in his new Cenarion stuff. I wish Shendir coulda been there, she needs that stuff bad!


In other news, Nol hit 39 this afternoon, which means ONE MORE LEVEL TIL IT'S ROBOBIRD TIME!

Well, all my life I felt I was black! I've listened to hip-hop, I watch UPN and I love playing basketball!

LEVELS:

• Shendir hit 52 this evening. I wish WoW would stop crashing everytime I go into a battleground, I really want to take her to Alterac Valley.

OTHER:

• Speaking of Kara, Idachi went again on Wednesday. We did Shade of Aran - Prince again, and Adiont FINALLY got his [Sunfury bow of the Phoenix], which was great news for him. Some nice shaman legs dropped from the chess event so I put a bid on 'em and won. I'm really fortunate to be getting all this incredible +int and healing gear, but I just wish it was plate for soloing/farming purposes. Ah well. Due to all my crazy spendings, I'm down to 7 DKP so it's going to be a while until I get some more fancy Kara loot. Doesn't bother me though, I go just for the sake of going.
• As SOON as Shen gained a level today, I got a tell asking to heal a BRD group. Now, the group wasn't horrible or anything, but my low level, leather gear, huge aggro radius, and problems healing as a druid (well, not problems...but when everyone's losing health fast, HoT spells scare the bajeebers out of me), we did wipe a few times and called it quits after everyone got their MC attunement. Shendir's now 30% through 53, and not a single leather piece dropped all while we were there...erg!

Psst! Your line is 'I'm going to free the Genie.' Anytime.

SUPER KARAZHAN VERSION, PART TWO!

Truth be told, I don't think I like the first half nearly as much as I like the second half. Maybe it's because we actually had a wipe this time. Maybe it's because my hard-earned DKP took a bit of a hit because I won a few things.

Attumen and his stupid horse weren't too hard, and Moroes wasn't that hard either. Moroes dropped [Belt of Gale Force], which Ten HEAVILY suggested I roll on...he was right, the +int and the healing equip bonus is just beautiful for a belt, even if it is mail (damn shammy gear). I died once on Maiden of Virtue, only because I lagged out when I got hit with the curse (blargh). The Maiden fight was pretty different though...it's the first time I have ever used Blessing of Sacrifice (which was part of the reason I died, but not the main cause). I got [Bands of Justice] from the stupid skanky Maiden, so I can't be all mad.

The opera thing was certainly...interesting. According to what I've read on WoWWiki, there's like 4 or 5 different scenes that could go on. We got the Little Red Riding Hood scene (is that a bad thing?), which involved one of our characters turrning into a little gnome in a red cape and running from a huge-ass

level ?? Worgen capable of two-shotting you. We wiped here once because we weren't really ready (hadn't gotten into position yet and gotten aggro and already we were getting Red Riding Hooded). The second time was a hoot: everyone's constantly moving, people are turning into gnomes....oh, and the wolf says "Better to own you with, my dear!". Great.

Did I mention before the opera there's a debuff called "Bad Poetry" that makes you fall asleep? That was honestly my favorite part of the night. Lousy beatniks. Anyway, after the opera fight we figured we'd do the Curator, just for giggles. We wiped on the curator once, only because our main tank disconnected in the very middle of the fight. According to a few guys in Kara general chat, we weren't alone; it seems a large chunk of the realm got booted and couldn't seem to log on for abot 15 minutes. Hubcapp got back on and we downed him immediately and got another tier 4 token drop. Overall, we did 5 bosses in 3 and a half hours, which isn't something to sneeze at. At all.

Phat loots:

Attumen the Huntsman

• [Gloves of Dextrous Manipulation]
  
• [Steelhawk Crossbow]

Moroes

• [Emerald Ripper]


• [Belt of Gale Force]

Maiden of Virtue

• [Bracers of Justice]


• [Gloves of Quickening]

The Big Bad Wolf

• [Ribbon of Sacrifice]


• [Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle]

The Curator

• [Gloves of the Fallen Defender]


• [Dragon-Quake Shouldergaurds]

I can't be friends with Eric. He's too... twitchy.

OTHER:

• Idachi got a bit of a gear makeover today. She replaced her [Seal of Rivendare] (level 58! WOO) with an [Alexandrite Ring of the Prophet] and got a [Crystal Pulse Shield] which is a pretty nice upgrade to her old [Saga of Terokk]. I haven't used a shield since Idachi was level 10, so it's pretty odd to see her with one again. Tentonz (GM of Nameless Order) has kinda taken me under his wing and heavily suggested I get the shield.
• We did a 7-man run of UBRS today to help Grattlemire and Vondervoman get their Onyxia attunements. That was pretty fun, even though I don't really like UBRS much.
• Idachi is also 17% away from being revered with the Cenarion Expedition and getting her Coilfang key. Tomorrow maybe I can get a Steam Vaults run going or something.

I tell my kids not to kiss other kids at school, "It might be an android... Suck your brains out."

SUPER SPECIAL KARAZHAN VERSION!

So, Idachi signed up for Kara last night. I got all ready and repaired and got my waters and symbols and flew on over to Duskwood. Stuff was going pretty good until I got into the Vent channel and overheard the guild officers discussing my gear. Now, I know my gear is a little...lacking. While everyone else has their crazy multi-gem epics, I've got...greens. And a blue mace and offhand. Woo. Anyway, they came to a decision that I should probably sit this one out, get geared up, and in about 3 weeks I should be able to do Kara again. I was a little bummed about this decision, but I can totally understand. I don't want my bullshit greens to be the cause of a wipe.

Anyway, I frittered around in Duskwood and started looking for a group for Shadow Labrynth while they tried to get two more people. Thirty minutes go by, and they still don't have a final person and are getting antsy, so I got an invite and got to go WOO!


Karazhan is FUCKING NUTS. I later learned that tonight's focus was the last half of Kara (Shade of Aran - Prince Malchezzar). I gotta say, the Shade of Aran fight is probably right up there among my favorite boss fights. All the techniques he does and how to avoid them...it was tons of fun. Oh, and the chess event! That was pretty cool, even if I had no damn idea on what was happening.


Anyway, we get to the Prince, and Tentonz gives me the lowdown on how this is going to work. No one on vent sounded very confidant; the guild hasn't downed Prince before.

I can totally understand why, it's a very LONG fight. Longer than Onyxia. I had to use three mana potions and my Divine Illumination to keep my mana as long as I could. And the positioning...guh. If all the casters don't stand in the EXACT SPOT and the tank doesn't tank in the EXACT SPOT it's a gauranteed wipe....but we didn't wipe and we downed him! WOO!



Phat Loots:

Trash Mobs

• [Grips of Deftness]

Shade of Aran

• [Shermanar Great-Ring]
  
• [Steelspine Facegaurd]

Chess Event

• [Triptych Shield of the Ancients]
  
• [Mithril Chain of Heroism]

Prince Malchezzar

• [Malchazeen]
  
• [Helm of the Fallen Champion]


• [Sunfury bow of the Phoenix]

Look, let me explain something. I'm not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude.

OTHER:

• Idachi is finally Kara attuned! Oh, and Black Morass is kinda stressful as a healer and I don't wanna go back for a while.
• Nameless Order held another Ony run this evening. We had just as much success as we did last time, unfortunately no Paladin gear dropped. We did, however, get TWO [Helm of Wrath] drops, which is kinda odd because I thought she only dropped one piece of T2 gear at a time.

I bash you in the head with my rifle, and you die! Good teamwork, you fucking noob!

OTHER:

• I owe an incredible amount of...something.... to the awesome Kazon and Immortal of Attrition who really went out of their way to help me get my final Kara key fragment and the fucking awesome [Mask of Penance]. Also, I feel SUPER BAD about saying all those bad things about Attrition being full of blowhards. Actually, the guild might just be full of blowhards, but those guys were super cool.
• Idachi is also 25% from being Revered and getting her Cenarion Expedition Heroic Key! WOO.
• Went to the WSVG today to partake in nerdly goodness, and it looks like MoB TurtleBeach has actually advanced to the finals! I have serious doubts that they will actually defeat Team Pandemic, but the very fact that they got this far deserves some respect. It must be their crazy-ass coach and his motivational screamings.

I'm a Mog. Half-man, half-dog. I'm my own best friend.

LEVELS:

• What started out as a minor addon check for Shendir eventually turned into a major grind/quest fest in Un'Goro resulting in Shen dinging to 51. This is actually a big accomplishment because now I have TWO characters who can go to Alterac Valley! WOO!
  It's just a pity that the Horde lose all the time.

OTHER:

• Shen's gonna have to book a trip to Sunken Temple soon because I just got a dr00d quest there with [Moonshadow Stave] as the reward. I think I speak for everyone when I say that staff is the shiz and right up Shen's ally...if only there was some +int, I'd be set for life.
• In slightly off-topic news, I'd like to give a shout out to Gweryc the Melee Hunter and wish him "gratz!" for hitting 70. I don't know if I'd be ballsy enough to make a hunter that never even touches a ranged weapon, but it's great to see that people can go out there and do what they want to do and not let morons tell them how to act and what to do.
  He's the Remy of World of Warcraft.
• Idachi got into a Steamvaults group that was just littered with failure. Which reminds me:
  
  
  BREAKING NEWS!
  Keeping mobs off your healer will actually increase your own chance of survival.
  News at 11.
  
  Long story short, the group disbanded after 7 wipes and she didn't get the final key fragment. Since no one else was looking for a Steam vaults group I decided to just call it a night. It's a real shame, especially because if I had been with a good group I could have gotten the final key out of the way, run through Black Morass, and been attuned just in time for the guild's Kara run (and they were in dire need of a healer too!)

I mean, I killed fifteen of those buggers. Now, at home they'd hang me, here they'll give me a fucking medal, sir.

LEVELS:

• Nol hit 38 today in Dustwallow Marsh trying to get to that damn Tabetha. Who the hell decides to live out there with all the spiders and raptors and oozes and crocodiles wandering about? Also, the inside of her little shack houses a wide variety of tubes and flasks and weirdo liquids and such.
  
  Can you say "meth lab"?

OTHER:

• Idachi got her third Kara key fragment yesterday in The Arcatraz, which is not nearly as bad as Shadow Lab, but still. All that's left is the Steamvaults key. I've heard it's very easy to get as long as you have a druid and rogue to sap/hibernate anything that happens to aggro.

Yes, Dexter, I can read your thoughts - and I am smarter than you.

LEVELS:

• Pyn hit 45 today doing that stupid pirate's gold quest in Tanaris. I had no idea that thing was repeatable. It makes me wonder if I should get Idachi down there farming map fragments and beating up level 45 pirates to get greens.
  

OTHER:

• Idachi got her first key fragment for her Kara attunement and GOD I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SHADOWLABS ANYMORE PLZ. No more. Not for a while. I don't even care about the damn [Breastplate of Many Graces], it's not worth the hassle of finding a competent group. And don't get me started on that fucking ogre boss.
  According to all the stuff I've read about the Kara attunement process, this is by far the hardest key to get, so I'm just so thankful I got it out of the way. After this all I need is a group of like-minded people (fuck the bosses, we're only in there for the key) and a few hours and my ass should be Kara attuned.

Just, no more fucking Shadow Labyrinth.

Calm down, Alpha. It's Rita, and she's attacking the planet.

OTHER:

• Idachi got [The Essence Focuser] yesterday in a random chest in Shadow Labs. Speaking of which, why do people abbreviate it as "Shadow Labs"? It's called The Shadow Labrynth, not The Shadow Laboratories. Where did that s come from?!
• This evening about 15 Nameless Order guildies (and meee!) went to Onyxia and ACTUALLY killed her! It was crazy awesome. To prove there is a god (and he just loves to fuck with me) the [Judgement Crown] actually dropped...and I was 2 DKP short from buying it. And then they disenchanted it. They better enjoy that Nexus Crystal! The Ony backpack dropped as well, but I lost the roll by like 40 points, so I don't really care.
• After our 7-minute bout with Onyxia (and we had four healers--all Paladins--because this guild doesn't believe in pally DPS. Suck it, Atherial. Just remember: you can't spell 'retarded' without 'ret') we attempted to down the world dragon in Darkshore...Emriss? Hell I don't remember his name. We tried 4 times and the lowest we got him to was 21%. I can help but feel that the guild leader might have been a little frustrated with me. Usually being glued to the main tank's health bar is a GOOD thing, but I got a little carried away and neglected my own health. Oh well, first raid jitters. I got an extra 29 DKP from all this, bumping my total score to an awesome 34 DKP...which isn't that bad considering I've only done two complete instances with them.

PEEKTURES!

It was dawn. I was in my robe when the ninjas attacked!

OTHER:

• Idachi got 23 DKP today for running Old Hillsbrad once and posting my Ony, UBRS, and MC attunement. 7 more DKP and I get me a [Libram of Souls Redeemed] when I go to Kara! Hell, this Sunday I might even get [Onyxia Hide Backpack] -- Only 5 DKP!
• Pyn set off to Stranglethorn Vale yesterday afternoon in search of Tethis...not to kill, but to train! Fernando 2.0, bitches!

Just... Don't talk anymore. You're like the Dalai Lama of fucking retards.

OTHER:

• Idachi got into Nameless Order this morning, woo woo woopants! It's a bit of a culture shock; NO has things that WoL doesn't. Ventrillo, DKP, 9 level 70's on at 10:30 in the morning running Hellfire Ramparts on Heroic mode.


• 
  
  Shendir got up to 300 in her skinning! This is the first profession other than herbalism that I've gotten this high on. YAY FOR SHEN!
  
  The asshole scorpid that Shen got her 300 skinning on had the last laugh. With his final breath, he poisoned Shendir, turning her all green and ruining her 300 skinning picture!

Hey, look. "Es-CA-pay". I wonder what that means? That's funny, it's spelled just like the word "escape."

LEVELS:

• Pyn hit 44 this afternoon....in other news, Pyn is mine again (which I kinda feel REALLY BAD ABOUT). She's also going Beast Mastery for a while...I know, remember when Beast Mastery was the red-headed stepchild of Hunter specs? Hell, I remember when Survivability was ubersauce for PvP.

OTHER:

• Idachi has left The Wrath of Lordaeron for greener pastures. It was one hell of a decision, and I suppose if they ever got the ball rolling I'd be happy to come back and do Kara with them, but until then I think paying $15 for farming motes (which is all Idachi is really doing right now) is kind of stupid. I've got a few guilds I've been looking into (Nameless Order, Merciless...), and I know not everyone from the Wrath will approve of me leaving, but life goes on and I hope I can keep helping Zammi and Capt with anything they need.

Transcend time and space? It's simple. I've practiced.

LEVELS:

• SHENDIR IS 50 NOW OMG OMG OMG. Yep....level 50 and still wearing 35 gear. Hey, it's not my fault that the Horde auction house is a damn ghost town.

OTHER:

• Just like King Richard and Prince John, Cptpoor has gloriously returned to his rightful spot as co-GM and the guild has sprung to life once again. Oo-de-lally!
  ...that still doesn't mean that I'm 100% set on staying in the guild, but it's so good to see us running something a little classier than Ramparts.

We have a proud tradition of failure to uphold!

LEVELS:

• Nol hit 37 today! I really need to hit Desolace with him eventually, but the walk is just too annoying.

I want to stay and mingle. Lenore, who is me, sure does love a party. Party party!

LEVELS:

• Shendir finally hit 49 out in the Hinterlands today! YAY! I promise twice as many 'YAY's when she hits 50 so I can finally use my Gift of the Wild book. Fun times!

OTHER:

Damn it, Zammi.

Hey, uh... Lord? It's not nice to shoot people when they're typing.

OTHER:

• No one leveled today. So sorry, but I don't quite feel very....'here' at the moment. Like when you've been walking for so long you temporarily can't feel anything in your toes? Yea. But that's besides the point. Patch 2.1 brought us Childrens' Week this week, which means spending time with the kiddos. Idachi has obtained both Speedy and Egbert this week, and Shendir has recieved Mr. Wiggles. As much as I want the whole set, I don't think Nol is getting stuck with Whiskers. Maybe Hanryn. Or Lyndall. I just wish I had enough high level capable of getting the other Outlands pets. Getting a one-eyed Willy is just a conversation waiting to happen.

Doc, Biff's guys chased me into the gym and they're gonna jump...me!

LEVELS:

• Lyndall hit 35 yesterday. She's doing all the quests Nol just did, so I suppose it's going pretty quickly.
• Shendir hit 48 this afternoon out in Un'Goro. Tanaris just got too boring, and there's a few level 48-49 things at the beginning of the crater to grind on. I can't wait until I hit 51...Alterac Valley, woo!

Eww. I've died and gone to Montana.

LEVELS:

• Nol hit 36 yesterday and he's only four levels away from being able to use his robobird. It's just sitting in the bank, begging to be used....
• Shendir is now level 47, and while I was in Thunder Bluff I got a quest to visit Arch Druid Runetotem and go fart around in Un'goro. Ah, I remember when Idachi had to do the same thing (but it was Arch Druid Staghelm)....oh the memories...

Also, Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.

LEVELS:

• Lyndall hit 34this morning because she's just that awesome. I know.
• Shendir also levelled up (level 46!) yesterday in Uldaman...and I never noticed how crappy that instance is for druids. Not a single leather item dropped, and according to the drop tables, only one or two leather things even have a chance of dropping. Crappy magicaster instance, man....

But it is becoming increasingly obvious... I can deny it no longer...I am small.

LEVELS:

• News this good deserves a SCROLLING MARQUEE HTML TAG!



IDACHI IS NOW LEVEL 70!
THAT'S RIGHT, BITCHES!


Oh hells yes. Shendir also got some lovin' and is now at about 35% through level 45. I hope to work more on her tomorrow!

She may be the hottest girl I have ever seen in my life, and I have cable!

LEVELS:

• 69, dudes! I can't believe Idachi's one level away from 70, and she still hasn't even really set foot in Netherstorm or Shadowmoon yet.

OTHER:

• April 29 has been my one-year anniversary of World of Warcraft, which means one important thing:
  
  IDACHI IS ONE YEAR OLD!
  Has it really been a year? Man, had I known that I would have bust my ass to get her to 70 on that day. Ah well.

You should write your name on your underwear, Double D. See? I'm "Hand-Wash Only"!

LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 68 on Thursday, which I kinda forgot to mention. Two more levels!
• Nol is 35 now and getting closer and closer to his robobird. Yay, robobirds!
• Hanryn hit 24 early this morning, which was awesome. Being a spookypriest not only allows me to plow through my enemies, but also my mana! I have to drink after every two fights...yeesh.
• Today was a good day for priests; Lyndall hit 33 while in Scarlet Monastery! And thanks to Berronar's crazy ass SM tactics, we did 3 runs in maybe 30 minutes and I got Whitemane's Chapau Chapaeu Chapaeo Hat.

OTHER:

• Also hooray for Jeefs and his shiny new epic mount! Way to not be slow anymore!
• It was decided almost unanimously that Kaie be booted out of the guild, which fills me with almost a little schoolgirlish delight! Sure, Zammi or Fodder or whatever might be a little upset, but she was a total mooch and one of those creepy desparate housewives just begging for some cybering, which only makes me wonder what's going on at the Bunger household. Oh sure, Bunger, I might be able to heal "Almost as well as you" (fucking prick), but you can't even satisfy your wife! HA!

And someday, when the world is rid of Manbearpig, everyone will say, "Thank you Al Gore—you're super awesome!"

LEVELS:

• Idachi just hit 67 from all this instance running mania going on. It's great to be levelling her again.

OTHER:

• We've been going to Old Hillsbrad a lot lately...and it's probably my second or third favorite instance. It's fairly short, it involves Thrall, elf characters become human, and you only have so many tries to get it right and then it's all over!
• Idachi + officer rank = PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWER!
• Illum. also did a 12-man ZG run on Thursday and obliterated everything in our path until we got to the spider boss. Got her down to 7% though...she was as good as dead. Anyway, won the [Blood Scythe], which allows me to pick herbs in ZG....woo, I'm useful!
• Speaking of useful, Idachi found a [Design: Living Teardrop Ruby], which sells on the AH anywhere between 300 and 450 gold. Of course, I'm a good person (read: chump) and it's in Tyranis' little squiddy hands.

Laugh now, lady. After a month of eating cockroaches, you will be begging for gerbster.

LEVELS:

• Nollerskates! 34! Woo!

Up yours, Zoidberg. Up wherever your species traditionally crams things.

LEVELS:

• Hanryn's at it again, now at levle 23. I feel kinda bad for not playing him in quite a while, but now that he's shadow specced he'll probably level faster (I hope). Well, he's not 100% shadow. Han's actually got a very weirdo 22/5/33 thing going on. Those 5 points in healing are mostly there to boost my Renew and make sure my healing spells don't get interrupted when I have to heal.

OTHER:

• Just messing around on the intertubes, and I found out if I sold Idachi, she'd go for at least $450. Fucking nuts. Buying and selling characters is morally wrong and for total pussies (and I'm pretty sure gold/account buyers have their very own level of hell), but if I ever was to do that she'd sell for at least $420-450. Yeesh.
• Also whilst messing around, I snagged a Burning Crusade (AKA "How to level your character from 60 to 70") guide. I thought it was going to be bad engrish and a crappy .doc file; it's actually a very, very nicely written .psd with lots of info. Who knew? I don't think I'll be using it that much (I mean, Idachi's already more than halfway to 70), but it is cool to see in what order I should be doing quests and where the super best spot to grind is.

Little fools! I am Lucifer! Beelzebub! The Reaper of Souls! The Really Angry One!

LEVELS:

• Hanryn became a spooky priest and hit 22 today. Well, Spooky/dicipline, but who's counting? When fighting beasts I couldn't tell much of a difference between going shadow or staying holy, but on humanoids I seemed to be wiping them out much faster. Of course, I only have about 20 points into the shadow tree right now, so I'm sure there's not all that much of a glaring difference yet.

... Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?

LEVELS:

• Shendir (remember her?) hit 45 today! What started out as a Whelp farming session in the Badlands (I want a whelp pet for her) turned into a full-fledged grind marathon. And what fun it sorta was!

How hard can it be to blow up a room full of gasoline?

LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 66 last night AND got some mondo fancy new pauldrons. I'd call that a good day. Also finished Underbog for the first time yesterday. That end boss is a weird dude, but I just can't complain about floating above everyone's head out of range of the boss healing everyone.
• Nollerskates (now on Staggy-waggy-helm!) hit 33 this afternoon and is learning how to Frost Nova/Blizzard grind. Sure, he's died and awful lot when I was first learning how, BUT IT'S TOO DAMN FUN. He's up to killing at least three things at once pretty well; four mobs at a time is a little more difficult, but still possible (sometimes). He needs a LOT more mana to pull this tactic off, though.

I'm having a major hat crisis. Could you steal Pikachu some other time?

LEVELS:

• Idachi went from 48% to about 62% today, which doesn't really sound like much, but it is. I mean, each quest gives about 10,500 experience, and I only went up like 20 percent! If I quest like madness today, I might even be able to level her (only 22 quests to go!). Of course, my real goal is to just get her up another 20-or-so percent.

OTHER:

• We will be attempting to transfer Nol for realsies this time. I tried on Wednesday and it seemed like it was going to let me transfer him....asking questions I've never seen it ask before (such as "Do you want to transfer this character?" and "What is your credit card info?"). Who knows, maybe he will get transferred today. I know I was going to wait until 40 to move him, but he's just too gimpy to do anything with right now.
• Hanryn, Hanryn, Hanryn. What to do with him? Actually, to spice things up between him and Lyndall, Han might go Dicipline/Holy. Or maybe even throw some Shadow talents in there. It's all speculative.

We look like bad guys! Incompetent bad guys!

LEVELS:

• Lyndall's up to level 32, woo! She finally got Mind Control, which is really more fun than it needs to be. She also got her "when I die I become a spirit healer" thing, which will be useful....eventually...but since Jeff's dr00d and I don't do a lot of dying, it's just kinda there.
• Nol also hit 32 this afternoon as well. Looks like I'll be paying for two mounts at the same time...again. Bah. Anyway, Stranglethorn Vale is a hellhole on PvP servers. Can't complain too much though...I've had my share of ganking Blood Elves.

Pen, your mind has been transported back in time! ...and to Mars.

LEVELS:

• Nollerskates is up to 30, and has graduated from Darkshore, ready to take on the wide world of Arathi Highlands, Stranglethorn Vale, or Desolace. Hm. I forsee more ganking in Nol's future.
• Lyndall hit 29 this afternoon, with no thanks to some asshole Draenei shaman. He was doing one of those "things are gonna spawn out of nowhere and GETCHA!" right as I got a little too close, the mobs aggro'd me, and he went into wolf mode and ran off. Thanks, buddy. Don't count on getting a heal, rez, or fortitude buff. Ever.

Don't let me fall into nothingness! I won't be happy there!

LEVELS:

• Ol' Nollerskates is up to level 29. Soon he'll be leaving the wide world of Hillsbrad alone, and enter the even wider and scarier world of Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, and Arathi Highlands. Fun times.
• Lyndall is halfway through 27 and I'll probably finish it off tomorrow, whatever.

OTHER:

• It seems while I was off munching on birthday cake yesterday WoL allied with Band of Pirates, my old old old guild. I've checked the roster, and it seems that all the cool people have left BoP a while ago. Not implying that the new BoP is full of dumbasses and goldbegging morons, just saying that all these guys are new to me.

OH MY GOD!! Why are diaper deliverymen trying to kill you?

LEVELS:

• Lyndall is now 27!

OTHER:

• It looks like Ony's been spared for another week. Due to the lack of participation, the Ony run was cancelled. Bummer.

Mr. Garrison, every Christmas you suggest we get rid of all the Mexicans, and every Christmas we tell you, "NO!"

LEVELS:

• Not only did Idachi hit 65 today, she got to 65 by slaying Draenei! Fun times.

OTHER:

Herbs gathered for Ony:

• Mountain Silversage x 20
• Felweed x 40
• Ragveil x 20
• Dreaming Glory x 40

Here's hoping Ath can do some Alchemy magic with them

You know? Sometimes me conscience kinda bothers me... But not this time.

LEVELS:

• Idachi is 78% through level 64 at the time of writing, which means she should definately hit 65 by late tonight/tomorrow afternoon. After that, it's time to gather herbs for our next Ony run!

Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

LEVELS:

• Nol is up to 28, which means he's finally able to conjure Mana Stones!
• Lyndall hit 26 yesterday afternoon!

You're a loser, which means I'm a loser, which means my dad was right!

LEVELS:

• Lyndall is up to level 25, and I must say...Fear Ward is the beez kneez.
• Nol ("Nollerskates") hit 27 yesterday. Due to transferring complications, he'll have to stay on Balnazzar for a while, which I'm ok with. PvP servers build character, I suppose.
• Hanryn is up to 20 and trying to finish up some dinky quests so I can start bringing him into Thousand Needles.
• Zyre is still chuggin' along at level 15. He's not my primary concern, so he doesn't get played much, unless he's fully rested.

OTHER:

• Tonight WoL's headed to Onyxia's Lair. I think it's a guild first. Idachi's been running her epic ram ragged trying to gather enough herbs to help out with the potion-making process. Also, I wish Fel Blossoms weren't soulbound. Needless to say, pictures will be taken. Moving pictures.

For the record, I want you to know: rocks aren't people.

When we last left off...


LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 64! What the hell is Seal of Vengance?!?
• Lyndall, the priest created mostly to help out the WoL homies, is up to level 13!

OTHER:

• Nol is being transferred to the Staghelm server. I tried the whole PvP thing out...it was ok...I just am not too fond of the whole "gonna gank your squishy mage" aspect of it. There are only so many ways I can contain my frustration! I'm sure I'll give the PvP server another try...but not with something so small and fragile.

Will being teleported to our doom be fun and Christmassy?

LEVELS:

• Nol has jumped up two levels in the last few days. Now he's 25! YAY FOR NOL!
• Hanryn also hit 18 yesterday, which...uh...I don't remember what he learned. A new rank of Mind Blast maybe?

OTHER:

• Nol's talent tree has been redone. He's still a little frost mage (short and stout...), but now he's 25% more cooler.

Oh, that was a frost pun. I get it. Tee hee

Everyone has AIDS! AIDS AIDS AIDS!

LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 63 yesterday out with her homeboys in Hellfire Ramparts. She only needed one more talent point to get Blessing of Kings....so she did. Woo! Kings!
• Hanryn hit 17 today, which means I can finally start using those fancy rings Jeff made for me. Thank you Mr. Jeefs!

OTHER:

• Idachi went to the Eye of the Storm battleground for the first time today. I must say, it's quite...interesting. Not as big as AV, but bigger than AB, but still laggy enough to freak out my laptop. Fun.
• I feel stupid for not talking about this already, but:

Yep.

I'm gonna write a personal check, and in the memo line, I am writing "Unfair."

LEVELS:

• Nol hit 23, which...doesn't really mean anything. No new spells...but he got some nice robes to drop. Oh, and his conjure food/water stuff went up.

OTHER:

• Idachi went to Blood Furnace for the first time last night. Didn't get much there, but I walked away with 18 gold, so it's hard to complain.

You used me...for land development! That wasn’t nice!

LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 62 yesterday afternoon, I just forgot to say anything. Oops. Crusader Aura is truly the beez kneez.
• Hanryn went up two levels since the last update, so now he's 16! He finally got his first big heal. They grow up so fast!
• Zyre (remember him?) hit 13 today out in the Blood Elf starting area. I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone and make him grind/raise Silvermoon rep at the same time.

OTHER:

• Idachi is now a Master Herbalist! She's not too far into it yet (only 309), but she'll soon be able to pick any Outland herb out there.

It's like, 'how much more black could this be?' and the answer is none. None more black.

LEVELS:

• Lil' Hanryn hit 14 today, which means he got all sorts of goodies...mainly Psychic Scream and a fancy new Renew. I can't find any advice as to what's worthwhile in the Holy tree and what's useless, so I'm kinda flying by the seat of my robes with this guy's spec. Most people, when they hear I've rolled a Priest after the 2.0 patch, cringe and tell me there's no point now that Druids and Paladins heal for more. Of course, lots of people I talk to are shadow priests, so I don't value their opinions anyway. I don't listen to the following when it comes to healing: Feral Druids, Shadow Priests, Retribution Paladins, and one of those Shaman trees...I don't remember.

OTHER:

• Hanryn has started tailoring as his second proffession (berbalism is his first). It's nice to make robes that could replace my old 10 Armor level 8 [Robes of Ass] (I don't exactly remember the name of the robes).
• Also, people keep bugging me as to why take herbalism and not alchemy. You see, until you hit about 270 in alchemy, you're going to make more money with herbalism. When you start out, you can make crappy healing potions that sell for 2 silver for a stack of 5, or you can take all that Peacebloom and Silverleaf and sell their stacks for about 20-3o silver on the auction house, and once you start picking up Earthroot, a stack tends to sell for 7o silver to 1 gold sometimes, which is great for such a low level.

I am though if you'd listen! I'm casting Magic Missle!

LEVELS:

• Shendir hit 43 last night! Yay!
• Hanryn hit 13 last night too! Also yay!

OTHER:

• Idachi's new goal: Run Hellfire Ramparts until this drops. Best. Belt. Evar.

Actually, jazz is like the New Coke, it'll be around forever. Heh, heh, heh.

LEVELS:

• After turning in many a quest and listening to the sheer stupidity that is Hellfire Peninsula General Chat for the past few days, Idachi is now level 61! 61's good and all, but I can't wait for 62! Fancy new spells and whatnot!
• Hanryn also hit 12 today! He's a mighty cool little bugger. Already headin' up the holy tree faster than a green snake up a sugarcane! (Or whatever it is that Hermes always says).

I'm not moving again. People here grudgingly accept us. That's rare.

LEVELS:

• Hanryn's had a great start today in the fancy pants Blood Elf world. He's up to level 9 at the time of writing.

OTHER:

• Idachi was invited to WoL's first ever run to Hellfire Ramparts and won the need roll for [Heart Fire Warhammer]. My first blue drop, and it's already better than [The Unstoppable Force]! I am quite surprised that I'd be replacing the tUF so quickly, but that's what the Burning Crusade's all about.

And it may sound easy, but nothing could be harder. It will test your head, and your mind, and your brain too.

Alas, Adren had to go the way of the dodo. It was just getting too inconvenient to play him, what with being on another account and all. His awesomeness will live on in Zyre the Third, AKA Zyre...hunter version! Let's get one thing straight: I can't play a shaman for the life of me. They're cool and all, I just can't level them...but I can level hunters, and I've wanted a Horde hunter for some time now. Anywaaaay...

LEVELS:

• Zyre is a level 10 Troll Hunter with a badass bat pet! He's mighty awesome, but lacking a name...

No way. Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.

LEVELS:

• Shendir hit 42 and learned some things. Things I can't really remember right now. It was kind of one of those 'zone out and grind' situations. I think there was a new rank of Regrowth and Starfire...

If you want to be a non-conformist, you have to look like us, think like us, and listen to the same music we do.

LEVELS:

• None of my characters leveled yesterday, I'd just like to point out that January 6th, 2007 will be known as the Day of a Thousand 60s! Elyssia, Zammi, and Rebelmage all hit 60 only a few hours apart from each other. Many huzzahs.
• Shendir is also halfway through 41. Still haven't bought her respec, though, but Restoration sounds tons o' fun.

OTHER:

• Did I mention I got The Unstoppable Force? Oh, well, it's quite cool. Sure, the DPS isn't too different than the spear, but it sure hits for a lot more.

Once I take care of the humans, I will begin my war against... the bees!

OTHER:

• Idachi was in live Strat from about 10 to 2 in the morning yesterday (er...I mean, this morning). First group consisted of Me, Atherial, Zammi, Foddermike, and Shaped, and we wiped about 4 times. Second group was Me, Atherial, Zammi, Foddermike, and Warholl and we never wiped. Atherial and War got mad at Shaped (tee hee hee!) because she couldn't control aggro to save her life (...literally). Oh well, for putting up with Shaped's bullshit I was rewarded with...[Lightforge Boots]! Yay! They're so clunky, but now I have +40 attack from the set bonus.

We're dead! We're dead! We survived but we're dead!

LEVELS:

• Nol hit 21 last night while in Deadmines (I was too tired to write anything last night). Also, Nol is my first ever character other than Idachi to go to Deadmines! How slighty exciting! I look forward to taking Shendir through Deadmines someday...while I'm messing up everyone's Defias Traitor quests. Tee hee! Nol unfortunately didn't get and phat lewt, because there was a bitch-ass priest that needed on EVERYTHING (Even Smite's Reaver. Huh?), but I was only there to level, so I'm quite content.

OTHER:

• When I got Idachi to 60, I thought I wouldn't be playing her much anymore, but there's just so much crap still to do with her! I got my Timbermaw rep up to neutral, I'm 2% from being honored with Darnassus, and I got enough PvP tokens for my Lieutenant chestplate and....my [Stormpike Battle Charger]! Now, I can't really use my charger yet...I'm still about 200 gold away, but as soon as I get all that, it's ram time!
• Idachi's also about 1000 honor from getting [The Unstoppable Force]. I originally was going to overlook the 'Force and try for my GM polearm, but it's just taking FOREVER to get it. Sooo, I'm going to get this and spend some more time getting PvP gear to get prepared for the Burning Crusade (consarn you, Illidan! Why are you so right?), once that's all done and such, I'll focus on getting my GM polearm. Besides, my [Ice Barbed Spear] is 38 on the list of best Paladin weapons, but the Force is number 20. Oooh.

No new news, just some resolutions:

• I will get Idachi to 70
• I will get Shendir to at least 60
• I will get that GM polearm for Idachi
• Idachi will get at least one piece of Judgement gear
• I'll level my Blood Elf priest to 60
• Idachi will get revered with some other faction
• Idachi will also get her epic mount
• Adren will hit 60
• Nol will at least hit 40 and get his robobird

Jesus was born, and so I get presents

LEVELS:

• Took a little break from Idachi's level 60 hootinanny to level Shendir. She still rocks hardcore. Also thinking about respeccing her, but since she kinda spent all her money on her fancy new Kodo, she's got a whopping 2 gold and can't afford the 5g respec fee. How sad.

OTHER:

• Since it's Christmas, Idachi's written a letter to Sant---I mean, Grandfather Winter. She doesn't ask for much, sir. Just some tier gear.

With my last breath ... I curse Zoidberg!

LEVELS:

• After...what..8 long months of playing, Idachi has finally hit 60! I would be a litte more excited, but the Burning Crusade expansion is just around the corner. Nah, I'm plenty excited to have a character capable of going to all the fun-tastic high level instances and getting tier gear and stuff like that. Speaking of which, Idachi started getting her Lieutenant PvP gear. I got the shoulders first, just because they look so cool.

I just bamboozled Chandler! ...Which isn't a sexual thing.

LEVELS:

• Idachi just keeps leveling! She hit 59 yesterday right at the very end of a UD Strat run while fighting the Baron. Actually, if she hadn't leveled and gotten all her health/mana back, we would have most certainly wiped. She's 79% through 59 right now, but I'm unusually tired, so tomorrow will probably be her big day.

Ah! I see you have the machine that goes 'Ping'!

LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 58 whilst in Scholomance with more WoL guys. Many thanks for the run! She was also fortunate enough to get her [Lightforge Helm], which is mighty cool, but it reminds me of Whitemane's little cylendar hat. I guess that's not really a bad thing.

Also, we're probably going on another UD Strat run tomorrow night (like 8-ish), this time it's a DE run. Well, it's a DE run until some more Lightforge gear shows up. Then I'm totally allowed to need it. Huzzah! And by helping the guild farm more shards and dust, I am now entitled to one free enchant of my choice.

...Does my Ice Barbed Spear need Lifestealing? Probably not, but it's free!

I mean, she casts magic, I cast magic. She's cute and I'm not entirely hideous.

LEVELS:

• I forgot to mention this last last night, but a couple of the guys (Atherial, Warpriest, Burney, and some drunken warrior guy whose name I don't remember) from WoL and I all went to UD Strat and had tons 'o fun! WHEE! We were originally there to get me some more Lightforge armor, but some crummy druid tier 0 armor dropped, so we were outta luck. Oh well, it was worth it for the experience (and experience points!). Anyway, Idachi is now 75% through level 57! Huzzah!

ADDONS:

• WoWEcon is back up! Yay! I never realized how much I missed that addon until I was grinding in Winterspring with a full inventory and just didn't know what to keep and what to toss.

Hey, that monkey's got a Ross on its ass!

LEVELS:

• Oh dear me, it was like Christmas today. Firstly, Idachi spent at least 3 hours farting around in Blackrock Depths with some dudes. What was the outcome? Oh, maybe dinging to 57! Three levels away, and now I can start on a little trip we like to call 'Scholomance'. Glee.
• In addition to the fun times, Shendir finally gets to spank level 40. Yes, spank. It's the new 'ding'. 40 holds a lot of awesome for a druid: Innervate, Hurricane, Dire Bear, Feline Grace, a god damn Kodo Mount. You know, the essentials.
• Adren also hit 44 yesterday, but I was feeling lazy and forgot to say words about it. The Phantom Blade looks awesome as hell, and it hits good too! Methinks Adren's ready for the funtastic world of ZF.

I come for the wuggas, but stay for the jiggy juggas.

LEVELS:

• People can say what they want about the new LFG tool, but in the past 2 days Shendir has gone to Razorfen Downs, Razorfen Kraul, and Scarlet Monastery (Armory), which is actually a pretty busy instance schedule for me. Because of this, she hit 39 today! Her mount and other level 40 priveleges is only a few grinding hours away, which may or may not be accomplished tomorrow.

ADDONS:

• Most of the FuBar mods we've been using are back up and running...except for ExperienceFu, which doesn't want to be like all it's brothers and sisters and insists on acting up! RestFu is also driving me nuts...according to the Addons window in WoW, it's compatable and everything, but it just seems to be wigging out.
• X-Perl Unit Frames please me with every little thing they do. I wish there was a teeny bit more custimization to it (bar-shape wise), but it's still an incredible mod.

But don't genius come from a lamp?

ADDONS:

• All of our favorite FuBar addons have been updated, such as LocationFu, AmmoFu, PerformanceFu, EmoteFu, etc.
• I gave Ag_UnitFrames a shot this evening to see how it works. Not too bad, very very simplistic and easy to mess around with. I suppose I'll keep it for the time being.
• I finally figured out how to get Auctioneer to actually check/keep track of stuff, and now I feel stupid for not knowing how. Also, since Auctioneer doesn't tell how much you could get for vendoring an item, I added PriceCheck. Quite useful.

There were funky China men from funky Chinatown

PATCH:

• Oh frabjous day! Callooh, callay! The 2.0 patch is finally out! And it only took maybe 45 minutes at most to download (the lappy had only 35% of the pre-patch done).
• Idachi's new holy talents rock hardcore. She's now a million times more humble than thou art.
• I'm actually considering making Shendir all Restoration, but I have my doubts. Balance/Resto has been working pretty swell for me. I mean, c'mon. Mages that can heal (and heal well)! Still, that treeform is VERY tempting.

ADDONS:

The following Addons are up and running in 2.0:

• Atlas
• Atlasloot Enhanced
• FuBar
• MetaHUD (a replacement for DHUD)
• MoveAnything!
• Equip Compare
• Monkey Quest
• Monkey Buddy
• Scrolling Combat Text
• Bagnon (a replacement for OneBag)
• Auctioneer (a replacement for WoWEcon)
• Auto Respond (a replacement for AutoIgnore)
• Paparazzi

I just wanted you to know: I always hated you. I always hated you the most.

LEVELS:

• Idachi hit 56, which means only 4 more levels to go! Woot woot. She's could also start going to Dire Maul if she really really wanted to. And maybe she will.

OTHER:

• Shen's been out and about trying to get her rank to rise before the last patch. I'd prefer to be called Sergeant Shendir for the rest of all time rather than Grunt Shendir, but if I can't make it in time, it's all good.

Hey man, Gandhi is anti-violence, not anti-comedy.

LEVELS:

• AT LONG LAST! SHENDIR IS LEVEL....38. Yea, cram it. I've been waiting for 38 on Shendir for quite a while. I got her a new chestpiece, new hat, and new healing touch!

You can't just find cake. Cake isn't naturally occurring.

LEVELS:

• Nol has jumped from 16 to 18! He's also started to trek out into Redridge, which is apparently contested territory. Anyway, he's owning various amount of ass.
• Idachi's halfway through level 55. Maybe one or two more BRD runs and I'll be there.

OTHER:

• Due to my slacking, Nol was removed from Forus of Meretrices. Actually, I did a /who search and couldn't find anyone in the guild. Maybe it disbanded? Who knows.

ADDONS:

• Nol's slightly-altered "new" UI is lookin' quite nice, if I do say so myself. Nothing too fancy, I just like looking at my crits while I'm talking to people. Idachi doesn't crit very often, so I probably couldn't use it on her. Maybe Valarin, though.

Band-Aids aren't going to work in this situation. Please, don't try Band-Aids.

LEVELS:

• I really can't believe Idachi would ever get as high as level 55. I didn't know I'd still be playing long enough to get her to 55, but sure enough, she did. Can't wait to go on those ca-RAZY endgame instances!
• I logged onto Adren and found that he only needed 20 more reps to level! Sure enough, he hit 42 today!

OTHER:

• It is with not a lot of sorrow that I dismiss Pyn from the Becca WoW family. I say not a lot of sorrow because she's not being deleted, it's all a part of the big tradeoff! Much like a professional baseball game, Pyn has been traded with Adren just for the heck of it. Both Adren and Pyn seemed to be teetering on the cliff of deletion for quite some time, and I'm glad neither of them finally got the boot -- both have an awful lot of potential! Their crits bring Idachi shame, but Hunters are just damn powerful like that (ranged-wise, of course).
• Now that Adren is mine to control, I have started him off with Herbalism. He's already up to 63, and I'm sure tomorrow he'll go up some more!

Hey, a laser! How come YOU don't have a laser, Woody?

LEVELS:

• Somehow I forgot to mention Idachi hit 54 on Friday. It's been kinda hectic with all the....nothing going on.
• Shendir also hit 37 today, which calls for some wootles.

Is mayonnaise an instrument?

LEVELS:

• Pyn hit 32 today and finally gets to use her fancy new 1H axe and hat that Shen sent over the other day. Yay!
• Sheldon hit 30, which means it's time for him to relax in the stable while Fernando tries to catch up
• Valarin hit 21 a day or so ago, I just forgot to mention it. Sorry!

OTHER:

• Apparently, Desolace is a haven for blue drops. Whilst grinding Pyn today, she got a [Harpyclaw Short Bow]. Shendir got one of these about a month ago, also while in Desolace! After a few minutes had gone by, Pyn got a [Gnarled Ash Staff]! I remember back when Shendir was in her 20's trying very hard to get this staff. Oh well, it's off to the auction house these blues go!

SOCIAL:

• Fusion's total member count went from about 240 to 189 while I was asleep. What happened? From what I've heard, a great number of the level 60's in the group were tired of running ZG all the time (it's just about the only instance Fusion ever does), so they all left, including 2 of the 5 main officers. Crazy stuff. The guild isn't too bad (at least they talk), so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I thought this week's e-mail was entitled "Teddy Graham Memories."

LEVELS:

• Idachi is now a level 53 paladin! This is actually quite exciting, because now she's of a high enough level to party in Blackrock Depths!

OTHER:

• Idachi left Blade and Magic today to join Wrath of Lordaeron. Why, you ask? Well...I've always wanted to join Blade and Magic because I heard they were all awesome and dedicated to being awesome. As it turns out, one of the main awesome guys left BaM and most of his buddies went with him. Weeks later, I join BaM. It appears that the BaM I joined was just a mere shell of the original. The original BaM was about 300 people, most of which being level 60. The new BaM was struggling to get over 135 people, with most of them below 30. It's a shame I couldn't have been a part of Blade and Magic in their prime, but I suppose it's for the best.
• Idachi also capped her Herbalism skill! That's right, she hit the big 3-0-0! Now there's no herb, weed, or pretty flower out there that Idachi can't pick!
• Idachi got another7000+ honor hanging out in Alterac Valley yesterday! What's even more surprising is that the Alliance WON both times!
• More good times for Idachi! For the slightly-low price of 4 gold, she snagged herselt the Lightforge Belt, part of her tier 0 Paladin set! If I had just been a few seconds earlier, I could have gotten the Lightforge Bracers (for just 3 gold!) AND the belt, but someone beat me to it, only to resell the bracers on the auction house for 15 gold. Ah well, I'm happy with what I got!

Excuse me...You're sitting on my body, which is also my face.

LEVELS:

• Zyre is level 12 now, huzzah!

OTHER:

• Shendir's been racking up the honor kills in Arathi Basin this weekend! She's up to about 600 honor!

It's a show about nothing! ...How do we know when it's over?

LEVELS:

• Pyn leveled up to 31 today and Sheldon hit 28! Next level she'll get a cool new axe and some nifty new armor, not to mention the fancy new abilities!

Is your...is your wife a goer? Eh? Know what I mean?

LEVELS:

• With the aid of Arathi Basin, Shendir has hit level 36! She also got a Prairie Dog pet! Aww, he's just so cute!
• Sheldon, Pyn's pet, is now level 27! Soon he'll be high enough to match Pyn in level and be a good tank!

And you are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity. Farewell.

LEVELS:

• Guess who hit 35 today?! Shendir did! Yes indeedy. She also made about 4 gold, all of which has gone to the GottaGettaMount Fund.

God Jackie! We can do that for the rest of our lives! Star Wars is a limited engagement!

LEVELS:

• Zyre is level 9, good for him, but the real news of today is....

OTHER:

• Idachi got her Ice-Barbed Spear! WOO! It took about 6 Alterac Valley runs before the Alliance finally won the stupid thing, but I don't care! I got my spear!! And. It's. AWESOME.

No, Bobby, Kahn applied the legal way. Sometimes the system fails us.

LEVELS:

• A certain Paladin hit level 52 today. Yep. Want to know the best thing about level 52? Greater Blessing of Might, baby! Sure, it requires material components...but it works on EVERYONE of that same class in the raid group! Can't wait for Greater Blessing of Wisdom, though.

OTHER:

• Why didn't anyone tell my my favorite polearm in the game can be obtained at level 51?! I always heard you had to be level 55 to snag it! Tomorrow my goal is to own this spear, hell, maybe even tonight. OFF TO ALTERAC I GO!

Oh, a giftcard for fashion, how did you know?

LEVELS:

• Shen is 6 levels away (and about 40-something gold) from getting her mount! That's right, she's level 34 now! Wootles!

OTHER:

• Shen also ran her first part of Scarlet Monastery today. Awww, they grow up so fast! She got the Illusionary Rod and some sort of really nice blue shoulderpads. Hooray for Shendir!

I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the Wookiee win.

LEVELS:

• With the aid of Jeffy, Valarin has hit level 20! She has no money whatsoever, so all her new abilities will just have to wait.