So again, very sorry folks, and please disregard the random 10 posts all published on June 13, 2010 if you happened to receive them.

Random level 40-ish druid: nice mount
Me (on Niqora and riding around on her black war wolf): Thank you
Druid: can i hav sum gold 4 mount?
Me: Sorry, you’ll have to go farming just like I did
Druid: ok
Druid: were do i lern farming?
Me: (insert facepalm here) Farming is where you go and kill lots of mobs for items that you can sell on the auction house
Druid: ok thanx

I’m all for making this game easier for new people but is this really the way to do? You know what I’d like to see? A mentoring program. I’ve seen it before in another MMO and I think WoW should have one. Just give higher-levels an incentive to do it and they’d be all over it. Hell, I do it for free right now, just because I like teaching people about the game.

Stay tuned for my next lesson where I attempt to teach these people how to spell properly. It’s an up-hill battle but I’m going to try my hardest!

The other day a member of Carpe Jugulum (a guild that Bloodriver has an alliance with) was leveling an alt and asked in our common channel is anyone had a character that they wanted to take to RFC. I remembered my dragonling pally Sarauku so I logged onto him and we both got started gathering the quests for that dungeon. In the end the group fell apart and I didn’t get my run that night but I rediscovered how much I love playing Saraku. So since then, I’ve basically been doing dailies on Niqora and then logging onto Saraku for the rest of the night.

While questing with him one of these nights, I got into LFG for Ragefire and merrily checked all the role boxes (even though he’s specced Prot, he can still heal and DPS at level 14, right?) It wasn’t very long before I was invited into a group of a warlock and a druid healer, who asked if I could tank. Which was perfect because I want to learn to tank on the dragonling. A rogue joins and then gets his shammy friend invited as well.

First pull in the instance…is not by me, but the rogue. Okay, whatever, maybe he stealthed a little too close. Only the next pull is the same. And the next. And the next. Not only that but I’m fighting for aggro with the shammy as well. This is my first time tanking and they’re not dying so I chalk it up to my inexperience. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong as I’m using Righteous Defense whenever I can but I keep going and don’t say anything.

Then the shammy yells out “AM I ONLY F***ING TANK IN THIS GROUP?” Which wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t iterated several times that I was going to be tanking. As I’m remembering why I don’t like pugging, I calmly respond with “I’m tanking but I’m having some trouble holding aggro against you.”

A couple minutes later, the rogue and the shammy are still pulling aggro from me but not as often. Well, I’ll take what I can get. Then the shammy has to leave. The rest of us decide to try and 4-man it. Now the rogue is really pulling everything, even if the healer has no mana. Does no one watch their healer’s mana bar? Then the rogue manages to pull a nice big group when neither the healer or me are ready. He takes a couple good whacks that bring his health way down and has the nerve to call for me for help. He manages to survive thanks to the quick thinking druid but I give him the warning “You pull it, you tank it.”

Of course that doesn’t stop him from pulling anyways but by this time, I’m getting pretty good at figuring out when to taunt and use my other abilities so I’m tanking most of the time. Nonetheless, I’m still getting really irritated by him.

We kill Bazzalan with only my poor dragonling dying (it was no one’s fault, the healer just had a lag spike) so I get rezzed and as I’m drinking and eating, I see the rogue sidle up to the ledge right over top of Jergosh. Oooooh, I can just see the tiny gears in his brain turning. He wants to jump right on top of Jergosh. Saraku’s bars are all full up so I walk over beside the rogue to peer down as well, and the rest of the group joins us.

Do you think the rogue asks if we should do this, or even asks me to go first? Nope, of course not. He stealths and jumps off the ledge. He’s lucky and lands without the boss noticing him. But he doesn’t wait for the rest of us, oh no. He attacks Jergosh and his two cronies all on his own. The druid and the warlock aren’t moving an inch so I’m not moving either. Then finally, right before the rogue dies, he asks for some help. Only then do I jump down and try to get aggro off of him but of course it’s too little too late and the rogue dies. And releases because he’s certain it’s a wipe without his pwnage.

We kill Jergosh and his pals. And between frantically clicking on mobs to make sure that the rest of us didn’t die, not only did I not notice that the rogue had released but I accidently right-clicked Jergosh’s corpse (in all honesty, I did not mean to).

All in all, Saraku got Subterranean Cape and quite a few greens which was nice. Personally, I had my first tanking experience…and got some first hand knowledge of what it’s like to be the tank of a crappy group. Oh well, tis life.

P.S. If all my references to “dragonling” are confusing, I roleplay Saraku as the humanoid version of Niqora’s netherdrake. He doesn’t have any uber powers or anything (just noting that for you RP natzis ) and he can’t transform back into a dragon while in Azeroth due to the lack of nether energies (although he amusingly turns semi-transparent at the most inopportune times. Makes for some great RP)

So it seems that my assumption was incorrect. The GM, seen here as “P”, thought that if he invited random strangers into a guild, we’d start being buddies immediately…or something. I responded to him only because I felt bad that no one else was talking to him. I did not however feel sorry enough for him to give him 10g, even though Wolfrider had given Tkasha a good bit of gold. I’d also like to point out that “P” was level 62 at this time. If you cannot farm 10g at level 62, something is very very wrong.

Two minutes later, this happens…

Heh…I guess I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. I did wonder exactly what was going through his mind; did he really believe everyone was suddenly going to become Best Friends Forever? I didn’t mean for everyone to get kicked out though >.>

I brush the whole thing off and continue on my own merry way for a whole two minutes.

I guess I wasn’t that much of a jerk. Still, I really should just ignore him and go on my merry way. But curse my bleeding heart…

Obviously he’s just using me as a test subject. Whatever, I don’t really care either way. But then the funniest thing happens and of course I somehow missed screenshotting it. He makes me the guild leader which automatically kicks him out of the guild. I honestly didn’t do it. I couldn’t be that mean to someone. I don’t know how but it happened. Seeing the mistake, I offer to give the guild back.

…Well then. I guess that solves that issue. As it stands, Tkasha is the GM and sole member of Broken Bones. I decide to have a little fun with this unexpected turn of events. I set the guild information to say “I’m so lonely, so very lonely, I have nobody to call my own…” and the daily message to “Hunter Bonzai!” While fooling around with the ranks, I proclaimed myself “Empress” of Broken Bones and gave the other ranks names such as “Male Concubine”, “Jester”, “Food Tester”, and “Foot Stool”. Ah, the fun you can have when you’re by yourself.

So…is there anyone on Staghelm that wants to be Tkasha’s Male Concubine guildie?

What I find is basically a flame war (not the worst one I’ve seen but one nonetheless) and someone has posted a link to my blog right in the middle of it! A character named Drotara…wait a minute, I know that name. A few seconds later, I figure it out…you!

I’m surprised by the whole thing. Not mad or anything, just surprised and a little flattered. After all, I’m not the only hunter blog out there yet he only mentions me. So I get this idea…an idea for a reciprocal surprise …Operation Scilohotep.

Phase 1: Creation – January 22, 2008, 11:02 PM

I know which server Drotara is on and that he plays a male orc hunter. So I create an complimentary female orc hunter named Scilohotep. Nothing fancy, just something to get the job done.

Phase 2: Initiation – January 22, 2008, 11:07 PM

I log on with her and…Drotara’s in Karazhan. I may not raid but I do know that that’s a dungeon so he’s probably busy. I won’t disturb him now. Unfortunately I have to go to bed so the next phase will have to wait.

The next day, I log onto the young orc hunter, only to discover that Drotara’s not online.

Phase 2, Plan B – January 23, 2008, 5:46PM

He’s possibly playing his Alliance characters so I create another Scilohotep on that server, this time a female Draenei hunter. Because I like the Draeneis best out of all the Alliance races. She enters the world of Azeroth only to find neither of his Alliance characters online. I’m beginning to feel like a stalker *shifty eyes*

Phase 3: Contact – January 24, 2008, 9:52 PM

This time, there’s a nice queue waiting for me as I try to connect to Drotara’s server. Oh, it says 6 minutes on the screenshot but it took more like 13 minutes. I’m patiently wait through it but I’m glad that this isn’t my normal server.

Scilohotep the orc logs on to find Drotara in Sethekk Halls. Hmm…must be some part of the Outland I haven’t heard of yet. That means I won’t be interrupting him if we chat! I whisper him and strike up a conversation…

Here’s the chat that I recorded with a nifty little mod called AutoChatLog (edited for spelling mistakes >.<):

Scilohotep: Hi! I’m a fan of your blog and I just wanted to drop in and say hello
Drotara: Oh thanks. I always wonder if anyone reads it.
Scilohotep: No problem. I subscribe to the feed so I get every post. They’re a really good read.
Drotara: I am glad you like it.
Scilohotep: Funny thing is, you’ll probably know me. See if you can guess it from my name.
Drotara: Hmmm
Scilohotep: I’ll give you a hint…read it backwards.
Drotara: Oooh! Hey hey!
Drotara: Petoholics Anonymous!
Scilohotep: LOL, right on the dot, man!
Drotara: That’s awesome you came by to say hi.
Scilohotep: Well, I noticed that you pasted my URL in the WoW Forums (in that spirit wolf flame war) and it surprised me so I thought that I’d surprise you
Drotara: Yeah, some of those people. Can’t wrap their head around things that might be fun.
Scilohotep: They are entitled to their opinion but they were QQing just as much as they said we were, LOL
Drotara: For sure. Hehe
Scilohotep: Just out of curiousity, why did you post my blog of all the ones you could have chosen…like your own?
Drotara: Your blog was an example of someone who enjoys doing things like taming pets for fun, rather than min/maxing stats
Scilohotep: Hmm, I suppose so. Well, thank you for that. It was nice to get the attention, albeit unexpected as it was.
Drotara: Haha
Drotara: Your welcome. I enjoy reading your blog a lot.
Scilohotep: Thanks. I try
Scilohotep: And just so you know…this is so going in the blog, lol
Drotara: Haha awesome.
Scilohotep: Well, I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing. Have fun and see you around
Drotara: You too! Thanks for stopping by!
Scilohotep: You’re most welcome. I’ll go down in history as your first fan visit, lol
Drotara: Indeed you are!
Scilohotep: lol. Later *bows deeply before you*

It was awesome talking with Drotara and I hope I get to do again sometime…maybe with another unsuspecting reader or blogger. *flashes a big toothy grin as she surveys everyone*

Of course, he beat me to the punch on posting about this but that’s alright because I know I’m slow on these things. However, I found out that Sethekk Halls is actually a dungeon and that I interrupted him in the middle of it.

/headdesk

I can be such a n00b sometimes. Sorry, man!

No no no, I don’t mean that I was hugely mistaken by rolling 7 hunters. I love my hunters and always will. I’m talking about my first every character: Tiama the night elf druid.

I was brand new to the game, on one of those 10 trial things. My Mr. Paladin had convinced me to try it out so I figured what the heck, I have 10 days to try it out. He was Alliance on Nazgrel so I pretty much had to roll that. The night elves looked good because I liked the elves in Neverwinter Nights. The druid class looked good because I liked the druid class best in NWN. As you know, NWN is my all-time favorite game (up there with WoW) so I compare pretty much every other game to it. Anyways, Tiama was born.

She appears in this beautiful forest and I take a moment to absorb the sights. As Tiama’s standing there, a male NE runs up to me, /licks me, and runs away. Even if I had known any emotes at this point to respond with, I was too stunned to get a response in before he disappeared. Mr. Paladin whispers to me that he’s on his way to meet me. I whisper him back about the weirdo. He finds it hilarious.

While waiting for him, I run about trying to kill things and dying often. It takes me a couple minutes to figure out which spells are instacast and which take time. In the meantime, some other random NE male walks up to Tiama and asks if I want to cyber. This time I’m prepared and give him a hearty slap across the face. He laughs and challenges me to a duel. I decline it without a word and run over to another spot to kill something. He follows me and starts killing my mobs. Great way to start off a game. I also learned that by rolling a NE female, you automatically attract every pervert in the game.

Mr. Paladin finally shows up, helps me with a couple quests, and then takes me to Darnassus. I’m completely lost in here and just follow him everywhere he goes. He’s giving me the grand tour of where everything is but I forget it all as soon as he’s told me. Then he tells me to take the tailoring/enchanting profession combo. Well, I really don’t want to. But he manages to convince me to take them and then hands me a bunch of crap to disenchant. He then scoffs at the horrible enchants I can do. Of course, they’re all low level so of course they’re of no use to him (I believe he was in the level 20-30 range). He then runs off to do his own thing, leaving me all along.

Over the next couple days, I log back onto Tiama and struggle through leveling. I know that I can change shapes once I get to level 10 so I’m really eager to get there. This whole process might have been a lot easier if I had known about WoWHead or something at the time but I didn’t.

Tiama is covered with old scars by the time she gets to level 10 but she made it. She runs off to Darnassus as soon as possible. I rush through the required quest to get my shape-changing abilities…oh, a bear. Um, okay. Where are all the other forms? …Oh, I have to wait until level 16 to get my seal form, level 20 to get my cat form…

I stare for a long moment at the frail Tiama, wondering how I’m going to get her all the way to those levels. I try Bear form out on a couple mobs…great, melee-only form. I picked a druid to be a caster/melee hybrid like in Neverwinter Nights! You know, where you can do both at the same time.

In my frustration, I log off, find a random server, and decide to create a character of my very own. Not this has-to-be-Alliance-tailor-enchanter crap.

The taurens appeal to me for some reason. They’re not your usual playable fantasy race and I like the look of them and the gentle-giant appearance. I choose the hunter class because it seems like a good choice, sort of like how ranger was always my second favorite class in NWN. The random name generator comes up with ‘Nicora’ and I like it. I press the Create button…

Suddenly I’m this giant yet graceful creature. I can kill things from a distance and I can stand up to more than a night elf ever could. Mulgore is no pretty forest but something about the open plains calls to me. Nicora is looking a lot better than Tiama.

With Nicora, I plow through the first 10 levels with ease. Then comes the time of greatness for a hunter…to venture out into the wild and tame a companion for my very own. It was then that I knew that I loved this class. No amount of shape-changing could compare to having a beast at my side, fighting next to me tooth and claw, playfully chewing on the food that I fed to it. And heaven forbid that any unfortunate creature would slay my companion, for then the last thing they would hear is a mighty tauren roar in anger for the loss of her friend, and the last thing they would see is the barrel of her gun or the blade of her axe.

I am Hunter. Hear me roar!