Petoholics Anonymous

The Adventures of Kazimierz and Saraku: Hidden Tauren House and Jumping Off Tall Things

// April 20th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // The Adventures of Kazimierz and Saraku

I did have a post drafted up about hunter mods and macros, but due to a bunch of things happening, it’ll be postponed for a little while. After having two members of my guild hacked, organizing Ashen Verdict rep runs, and trying to deal with RL things like work annoyances and doing my taxes for the first time on my own, pretty much all of my free time has been dedicated to simply having fun in WoW.

So in lieu of a post that actually requires me to write, >.> I give you a long overdue and hopefully entertaining episode of The Adventures of Kazimierz and Saraku!

Hidden Tauren House

This first video is Kazi and Saraku’s visit to the little tauren camp that rests in the mountains between the Barrens and Mulgore. This place is of particular importance to me because when the wall-walking trick was still in-game, I discovered the way there all on my own when I was still a newbie (Niqora was level 40ish or something) and it was my very own secret spot. I was saddened when they removed wall-walking and thus removed my only way to get to “my” house. With the introduction of the zeppelin that travels between Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar, I was able once again to visit my favorite spot in-game (although now it’s less special now that everyone else can too). Regardless, it was great fun to wander around it again with my adventuring partner, Kazi.

Jumping Off Tall Things

Everyone knows the Temple of Storms in Storm Peaks, right? It’s only one of the tallest things in that game that you can get to the top of. In the next two videos, Kazi and Saraku get a bunch of their friends together to participate in an activity that in character, Saraku calls “jumping off tall things”. In the first video, we slowfall/levitate all the way to the Emerald Dragonshire in Dragonblight. In the second one, we make it to Venture Bay in Grizzly Hills.

By “we”, I of course mean the people who were lucky enough to remain within casting range of the mage/priest. Poor Kazi.

Linkback: Totems 101 and Azerothian Diets

// April 13th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Random Stuff

The other day, I offered my dear Kazimierz an opportunity to move his blog from Blogspot to a WordPress install that I would be the web host for. After seeing all the customization I do for Petoholics, he jumped at the chance, which lead to a fury of activity including getting him a new domain name and customizing a theme to exactly the way he wanted it. I’m still making tweaks here and there for it but overall, I’m pleased with the way it turned out, and Kazi is very pleased.

He has written some great posts, including a very interesting one about the possible culture cuisines that the races of Azeroth could have. For those of you interested in lore or roleplay, I highly recommend that you take a look at it.

If you have any interest in playing a shaman, he also wrote two very well summarized articles about enhancement and restoration gameplay. He is very skilled at playing both of those specs (even though he doesn’t like to admit it ) so he knows what he’s talking about.

Please give him a visit and let him know what you think of his posts and shiny new theme!

Oh my

// April 1st, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Random Stuff

Niqora isn’t quite looking like herself today. She must be feeling ill.

And I swear that I did not ninja that Dragonstalker’s Helmet.

/shifteyes

First you steal my character’s name after I had it for so long and now you do this to her?! You have completely ruined her self-esteem, Blizzard!

They call me…Lucky

// March 24th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // Hunters and Pets, Random Stuff

Screenshotted so you know that it did happen

As most of us know, Patch 3.3.3 launched yesterday and I was looking forward to checking out the improvements to Ferocious Inspiration (hooray for BM buffs!). So Kazi and I decided to queue for a random and see how well it worked. I asked my guild if anyone wanted to join us for the quick heroic but they were all getting ready for a Saph run to get someone the key for EoE. So, we queued as just the two of us and waited only a minute or two (because luckily, Kazi queues as a healer).

We ported into a heroic Forge of Souls to find that the group had already cleared some of the trash on the way to the first boss and lost/kicked their healer and a dps. The pug members were certainly geared enough for this place and competent (except for the other hunter who later stood in the soulstorm of the first boss >.<). We’re working through the trash with relative ease when IT drops.

Yes…the [Battered Hilt] dropped. My jaw very literally drops. I hear Kazi suck in a breath over Skype. He quickly types out to the party that everyone should roll need. We all do. And…I win it. I won the freaking Battered Hilt! No one in the party had seen it drop before, myself included. I never thought I would see it, nevermind win it!

This of course leads to me gushing to the rest of the guild of my fantastic luck. Kazi congratulates me, my guildmates congratulate me. One of them grumbles over it a little (understandably because he really wants it but doesn’t have the money to afford it) but says “Congrats” as well.

A little later on in the evening Jorgy, a guildmate and close friend of Kazi, logs on. Kazi and him have a friendly competition going over gear score, with Jorgy having the lead for the last little while. So they’re always linking this and that in guild chat to poke at each other. (The following is paraphrased.)

Jorgy: Wanna see how much I love you, Kazi?
Kazi: …how’s that?
Jorgy: [links yet another piece of gear that he bought with frost emblems]
Kazi: …I hate you
Jorgy: lol
Kazi: I mean…congrats, man

Having witnessed this time and time again and having fallen behind in said gear score race, I simply cannot resist this perfect opportunity.

Me: Hey Jorgy, wanna see how much I love you?
Jorgy: Sure
Me: [Battered Hilt]
Jorgy: Well, I’m off now /wrist

Luckily he has a good sense of humor and wasn’t actually depressed about it.

So now that I have this thing that I never in my wildest dreams thought I would get, I need to decide what to do with it. My two options are to start the quest chain and get a cool ilevel 251 sword, or sell it. If I look at it as another piece of gear, it would be an upgrade but for how long? I know that Cataclysm is not that far down the road, which will surely make it obsolete rather quickly. I could wave it around in people’s faces and exclaim “Look at me! I’m special with my special sword!” which might earn me some jealousy for a while…again, until Cataclysm comes out.

Remember when having titles like “of the Shattered Sun” was cool? It means little to nothing now because of all the “better” titles in Wrath, which of course will become lackluster in Cataclysm. And what if I do end up in ICC and a similar weapon drops that I could have used? After all, Niqo is geared enough to go in there if it ever struck my fancy. But really, what is gear in the end but shiny pixels that make us ooh and aww, until the next best thing comes along?

On the other hand, I could sell it and make more gold than I’ve ever seen in one spot. A guildmate was also lucky enough to have the hilt drop a month or so ago, so she sold it for 13000g and bought herself a mechano-hog. With that amount of money, I could do so many things. I could buy dual-spec for all my characters on Wyrmrest Accord, or pay for the epic flying on 2 more characters. I could get a mechano-hog (like Jorgy says I should), or a traveler’s tundra mammoth. I could finally start working my way into pet tanking without worrying about the cost of gems and enchants. And who knows what sort of wondrous things they’ll introduce in Cataclysm, that I will now be able to participate in because I have the gold to support me? It just feels like I could do more by selling it.

I’m certain the quest chain involved in restoring the sword is as epic as it sounds like it is. But isn’t one missed opportunity worth who-know-how-many others that are just waiting to be discovered? Isn’t that the reason I play this game, for the sense of discovery? Or am I just going to wave around my epeen in everyone’s faces?

>.>

/trade WTS [Battered Hilt]. PST with offer.

I have a dream

// March 22nd, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Random Stuff

Ladies and gentlemen…I have a dream. I dream of a world where new players are not completely confused by the talent system. Where they will know that being a tank is more than wearing plate, or being a healer is more than having a mana pool. Where the new DPS will know what the words “rotation” and “priority” mean. And most importantly of all, where they…will know…not to stand in the fire!

Klepsacovic’s post that I linked to up there has given me the inspiration for this. Should Blizzard make the talents more informative? Oh yes, it certainly wouldn’t hurt. How about the knowledge of what spells to use in what situation? Or what on Azeroth is making their pet attack every killable mob in sight? (Pssssst, I think he’s set on aggressive.)

Regardless of what Blizzard should or should not have done, the present situation is that World of Warcraft can be a little bit of a hard place to comprehend. Heck, every time I try out a new class, I look for guidance. But some new players don’t know where to look for help. They don’t know about all the wonderful blogs and databases and wikis out there that are more than happy to explain these things to them.

So bring the information to them.

Become a mentor to someone or many someones. In the very least, teach them how to help themselves. Point them in the direction of wowhead, thottbot, or wowwiki. Give them a site where they can learn a good leveling spec and what abilities are useful for them.

If you know their class intimately, tell them all you can about it. Analyze their gear and talents, and what abilities they use. Are you an RP or PvP pro? Offer to show them the ropes.

Don’t just let them convince you to run them through a dungeon. They may gain a level but they learn nothing in the end. Don’t let them hound you to help them with every quest either, that will do neither of you good.

So make a mentor macro and use it in a lowbie zone. Optionally include your blog URL (or favorite blogger’s URL if you don’t have one) if you want the extra visitors. Or find a single player who looks like they’re pretty new and offer your services.

So spread the words to other bloggers and readers and just about anyone you want. Blizzard may have made this game, but we are the ones who make up the community, the core of the WoW world. So let’s make it a little better.