MIA

I am sort of missing in action at the moment as I am just having so many issues going on in my RL I can’t spare the time or the motivation to blog.  Although I have a fair few posts I could write about all the things happening at the moment, I just can’t find the energy.

Life sometimes beats you down so much that you can barely find the will to stand, we have all experienced it at some point.  We all deal with (or not as the case may be) it differently and have very different coping starts.  However I am way beyond the ability to cope with everything at the moment.

I still love blogging, and I love my WoW, I love my readers and my commenters and everything the blogosphere has brought into my life this year, but unfortunately it does not solve the real life issues that crop up and so my focus is now on other aspects of my life. What is pathetically horrible is that all it boils down to is my inability to find a job.  I am not unemployed at the moment, but I am not in a job that suits – aside from me travelling for just over 2.5 hours to get to work each way, I am working with my parents which brings a whole swag of issues, plus the huge pay cut I took doing it to help out when my mum had her nervous breakdown thinking – stupidly as it turns out – that I could get another job with a snap of the fingers, I spend most days bored out of my mind because I complete things 3 times faster than my mum does.

Anyone who has been job hunting or constantly rejected knows how horrible it can feel, and after 18 months of not even having one interview and redesigning my resume over 5 times, I am in a very bad mental place where I cannot hope to even be a good blogger – not that I was ever good per se.  I do not want my feelings to spill over into my wow life and so I will still be reading your posts and looking up blogs, but you will not likely see me comment much because I just don’t have the capacity right now.  Job hunting in NSW as well as VIC is going to take its toll on me and I cannot think of anything worse than making harsh or snippy comments and risking friendships because I am grumpy.

I am not sure when I will be back blogging again, it may never happen, but for those who want to add me and chat in game Dragonray 1445  is my battle tag.  I am still in game fairly often so more than happy to have a chinwag with people.

Quick update

I have been extremely busy this last week, so haven’t really had a chance to update or indeed even play very much.

So I was appalled when I finally caught up on some wow news to find out the shattering was/is/had happened!! OMG I MISSED IT!!!

So I hastily jumped online late last night when i got home decided to just have a fly around the new areas – some of them – and start on my pilgrim’s bounty stuff before the weekend kills my chances of getting my damn turkey pet 🙂 GOBBLE GOBBLE!!

I have to say I was a completely confused by orgrimmar…I LOVE the changes – but I was so lost 🙂 It was exciting to be in the same world but not in the same world 🙂

I got most of my achievements done, I just need to do the instance, find some rogues and…I can’t remember i think I have one more…can’t remember what though. I have to do the dailies every day because I was stupid and didn’t realize the turkey shooter only had one use…yeah I just wasn’t paying attention, so I am hoping like hell I get enough of them before the end of the festival..I kept taking the clothes as rewards….<—-RTARD!!!

I have to actually do some work now, so I will post again later 😀

Hyacinth macaw and renaming my waterboy :D

Trying to get my rep back up from the Bloodsail Admiral title, and i decided to farm myself the Hyacinth macaw.  I go out to STV every few weeks and farm for a little while.  I would say I have farmed for maybe 9 hours in total down there, and that’s probably more than.  But I scored my Macaw today!!

Then after deciding to see if a rename worked, I changed by water elemental to Nereid, which is a water elemental spirit, in Greek Mythology they often accompany Poseidon and are associated with the Aegan Sea 😀

To change his name :

/run PetRename(“Goose”)

Obviously change Goose to whatever name you actually want to use.  This is also a permanent change and cannot be altered later 😀  Here he is with his wonderful new name 😀  Better than just “Water elemental” if you ask me!!!

Shared Topic: Home is where ur rump rests :D

With the advent of Cataclysm and its attendant pre-expansion patches, Azeroth is (as has been said thousands of times) undergoing a dramatic change. Over the last few weeks it’s got me thinking, and the result is a topic suggestion:

What does ‘home’ mean in your book? Do you have a particular home in Azeroth – a place you feel you belong, that you know like the back of your hand, or that you feel more comfortable in than anywhere else? Would this be different for different characters or different factions, or is there just a place that really resonates with you? Do you think Cataclysm will prompt you to find new and different turf, or will you be heading back there first thing to see what might have changed? If it is destroyed, how do you think that will affect your experience of the game, or your characters’ lives? Or do you think the whole idea of having a home doesn’t even really apply to a game?

And here’s mine, sneaking in just before the end of the week: http://eightpaws.wordpress.com/2010/11/ … -desolace/

I have lef tthis topic to the last minute and have re-written it over 15 times.  I just can’t find one spot that i call home on any of my characters.  I think one of the pitfalls of having played this game since vanilla is that everywhere is home in my eyes.  I have done the Loremaster achievement and the exploration achievement, which also adds to my knowledge of the lands…

I can’t call affinity with one area anymore.  I have been through most places so much on so many toons.  SO what I am attempting to say, is that I feel at home in Azeorth.  I will be honest and say I am not a fan of Northrend, it has not given me the joy the other areas has, so I will be very glad to see the back end of it, killing the Lich Kind Aside of course 😀

I know this post is short and sweet, but I just couldn’t really pick one spot, I had to pick them all!!

Tree Bark jacket

I have vague recollection of hearing about this now that I am thinking about it, but honestly….I have never ever come across it 😀

Awesome 😀

FINALLY!!! Hallowed Event done :D

I have been running that silly horseman event every day and doing the trick or treat thing as often as possible to get my “hallowed helm”  it was the last thing I needed for my meta achievement for the hallowed events.

I am now only two yearly events off getting my drake…here’s hoping they leave it in for another year.

I have a few bits under the childrens’ week and some under winter veil to get completed.  Mainly all the PVP ones…which I hate…I really dislike that there are PVP requirments for the meta achievements.  I hate PVP, well no i don’t hate it…I suck more than you can imagine at pvp.  You know those matches where you head in and there is always one person you kill 800 times….it’s probably me 😀  I do them for fun and just to have a play – but to have to actually suceed in there is something I am not good at…..

I noticed the pilgrims bounty stuff is on next week, I missed out on it last year so will complete as many of them as I can…free pet for that as well 🙂  Can’t complain !!

Have also discovered the awesomeness which is champion seals…you get them now when you open the money bags from the exalted argent tournie quests, so that is bringing me much closer to obtainign all the things I need to obtain…I just have to keep battling at it….I will probably be doing them well into cataclysm as well….Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before I get exalted with the sunreavers and start doing those quests as well which will bump up my stash…Sucks to change factions coz you lose all the rep with them 😦  CRY!!

Hero of Zandalar

This is a backdated post 🙂

I forgot to mention I finally got my Zandalar rep to exalted!  I really would like ot farm ZG for the mounts, but I have no one who wants ot help me and I can’t do it alone sadly…

is it just me?

OK, so patch night sucked fo rme, I only finally managed to get online last night.

I had to reinstall my game twice and download a whole bunch of crud to effect that as well.  For some reason it did not like me at all.

So after finally getting into the game and playing with my toons and ooohing and ahhing over all the changes I was amused by trade chat and all the arguments going on about gear, gems, dps etc.

I was amazed at how many people are up in arms over some changes and complaining about their DPS etc.  Seriously….wtf are you complaining about?  We are like 2 months away from a fucking huge, MAJOR, MASSIIVEEEEE, expansion…why are you even worried about dps or anything at this point.

It has been stated so many times that everything is tuned for when you are level 85….and since no one in the worlds is at level 85, except for the games developers – Shut the fuck up!!!  HONESTLY!!

Just chill out, play with your new spells and learn to play your class all over again, then, once you have hit level 85 start complaining.  Until then just relax and enjoy the game.  Wrath is over….The lich king’s time has passed.  Stop living in the past man!!!

Anyway that is my little rant 🙂

Gives me hope :D

I should really post about this to keep my faith in humanity alive.

Not that the people I am writing about are likely to read this post, however I was questing on my mage yesterday, doing my dailies in Jotenheim and noticed the Valk in the centre of that ring had quests for me.  I was under the impression I had completed them, but with not a moment to lose and 100g in the making, I decided to spam general for some help.

I asked a couple of times for some help and a DK by the name of Phamine whispered me.  He offered his assistance and came past to help me out.  The two of us had a little trouble with the kills but did manage to do the first one.  It was a very close call and I do remember a death on the first Champion.

I asked in General again for some help and a lovely priest called Dionysis whispered me, advising they had just come back to the game after 8 months off and would like to just heal and dps some stuff to get back into the hang of it.  So grabbed them as well.

We smashed through the rest of the quests and the DK advised he had some group quests as well.  So we offered to help with those.  Off to various parts of Icecrown we went – forgetting about phasing etc but we did the quests we got all his done as well.

I then had to kill Bloodbane – whilst the DK went off to hand in his quests and a shammy – I am sorry I can’t remember his name it was a very odd one, was lovely, came and helped we killed and all went well.  My DK friend came back just as we killed Bloodbane and he had just picked up the quest, so we killed him again.

My new friend Phamine and I were chatting for a little while about the game etc and added each other to friends lists.  It was just a really nice experience to quest with people who were not getting aggro at deaths or phasing etc.  We worked together and we got things done.  There was no swearing, name calling, or horrid chat 🙂  Was such a nice experience, I thought I would put it out there, to just remember that some people enjoy the game not for the prize loot at the end, but just to run with new people and make friends.  It was a very enjoyable in game experience 😀

Shared Topic – Secret places :D

I really wanted to write on this topic as I have a few things that I enjoy in the game according to this original post :

I’ve written a post on how some small and unexpected things in WoW can delight you and be something you will remember forever. not the big questlines and NPCs blizzard makes sure nobody will miss or every guide makes sure to mention, but the more hidden places or special characters in the game that still offer something unique or entertaining to those that can find them. I would absolutely love to read about more such secret places or NPCs in wow, I have a feeling that there’s quite a few I’ve missed! this could be a very interesting topic more bloggers might enjoy(?)

For reference, my latest topic: http://raging-monkeys.blogspot.com/2010 … arans.html

i wouldn’t want to restrict the topic to NPCs only, but ask generally: what wow secrets have you discovered on your long journey through the world of warcraft? what unexpected, surprising or delightfully ‘pointless’ things have you chanced upon that add something special to the game for you?

A post or so later though it changed slightly to:

I think it’s important that the topic sets itself apart from general “places i like”-type of posts – but if it’s something like a ‘secret spot’ thats hard to get to in some way or really unknown because its located at the end of the world or something, then I sure think it fits.

So I am not entirely sure any of mine fit into the second category all that well, but in the spirit of the post in total, I have taken some images of the NPC’s and places that I really enjoy in the game.

I have to be honest, most are in BC and I had real trouble thinking of many in Northrend, maybe I just haven’t noticed them this time round…not sure, however due to the image intensity I have added it behind a cut for you 😀  Enjoy.

Shared Topic – Online persona/Names

What takes the longest to choose, is the first thing people see, and is the one thing they always remember about you and your character?

Your name.

How did you decide upon the name for your character(s)? Did you delve into Norse, Greek, or Roman mythology? Did you choose a name from one of your family members? Did you mash the “Random” name generator button in vain until you stumbled upon something you liked? Is your name a play on aspects of your class, using spells or other traits? Did you play around with syllables, vowels, and consonants until you found something that you loved?

How long did it take you to come up with your name? Do all of your characters share the same ‘theme’ or naming convention? Have you ever run into someone who had a similar name? How did you feel? Does your character have a partner with “the other half” to your name (such as “Salt” and “Pepper”). Do any of your characters have a “themed” guild that goes along with your name? Do you have a nickname that your guild, friends, or significant other has given your character?

Has your character name become your online persona, or maybe the other way around?

Do you have any tips for naming your characters in WoW, or any other game? Resources, name generators, mythology websites, sources of inspiration, etc.

If you are an avid roleplayer, how was your name decided upon by family/friends? Did your character choose the name later in life or were they given it at birth? There are whole stories behind naming/birthday celebrations that I am sure are floating around out there.

So much can be said about names. What does yours say?

 

I like this as a topic, so have decided I must write about it 😀

My in game names generally try to revolve around dragons in some fashion…I say mostly as sometimes I have deviated.

My main nickname – dragonray – was developed back in the days when mIrc was the hip thing to do, before facebook,  twitter and even blogging and heck before I even understood what “being online” was 😀

I am a dragon obsessed individual who was once told I had a smile like a ray of sunshine, so I combined the two and dragonray was born for me.  Since then all of my handles have been dragonray, so chances are if you see dragonray around the traps it is me.  I used to even have a website which I maintained religiously, but gave that up once I found WoW!

My first toon was called named after an author just because I couldnt’ get dragonray and I never really thought I would be playing WoW for the next 5 years.  Consequently my name has evolved since then with every move and alteration.  Since that initial name though most of them have been dragon based – failing that they have been based on obscure goddesses in various mythologies, but that has only been twice I think.

Funnily enough a friend who has come back to WoW as well was going through his macros and with all my name changes we knew exactly what period of time he was playing with which addons etc.  Quite funny to be able to monitor your game play with just a name change.

Everytime I change a toon, race, faction, server etc – I change their names. Not because of any bad history, but because my toon is changing their life and so they need a new name to move into that life.  Perhaps a little odd, but I really do see my toon as an extension of me and every new chapter needs a new heading – so hence the new name  😀

The only other toons which I have not given draconic names to are my taurens, I tend to give them very tauren names – well what I think to be tauren names, like Stormhoof for my warrior.  My pally is prismatique like the scales of a dragon, but also for the holy spells they cast.  My mage is currently dragonfyre, I have a couple of low level alts which are dragonray or onyxiia.

I spend more time trying to find a name for my toon then anything else, considering the amount of time spent playing on the characters you have to enjoy being called some variant of the name you have chose.  Since I have been dragonray for so long, and even sometimes been called that IRL, I don’t mind my mage being shortened to dragon in game if need be during raids etc. 

When deciding on a name I generally have a list of the full name and the short name that is likely to occur, and I make my decision based on that – and of course what is available 😀

I personally really dislike names that you can’t pronounce straight off the bat, if I can’t pronounce it then chances are neither is the gaming population.  I also never put in funny characters because it just makes it too hard to type in game, send mail or whisper unless they are on your friends list.  So I avoid them like the plague, there is a also a little part of me that thinks it slightly unoriginal to add a character to the name because it is already taken…just think of another one!!! 

Since Wow, I have been finding I am using onyxiia more as well, she is after all my favourite ingame dragon and it is nice to have a different name to play with 🙂

So there you have it, an indepth look at my naming conventions 😀

Tanking on my pally :D

Went for my first heroic last night, actually 5 of them, was the first time since being back online.  We queued up the other night but I got HoR and I can’t do that just yet, I am not confident with my tanking so even contemplate that run.  Certainly not as my first heroic back after 4 months anyway 😀

So last night we got VH to start – mmm nice and easy, then UP, Gundrak, HoS  and then Nexus.  Did quite well for forgetting to put up righteous defence in VH until the last portal 😀  Had one group of mobs go everywhere, but the group we were running with was doing just under 1.5k dps, which meant it was tough to keep up with the portals, but hubby was there doing 4-5k dps and picking up the slack…..we got there in the end 😀

I messed up a little with mob management, I just don’t have enough mana – i think I am wearing too much warrior gear and not enough pally gear…will see if it is worth fixing 😀 and I am not able to get aggro on all the mobs in group pulls quickly enough and then when the DPS lay in at the same time I am losing a mob occassionally… but no one died to a loose mob, which is good, I stayed out of the fire and I was managing to get the loose ones back pretty quickly….

More practice is needed.  Hubby reckons I am a better tank than I was ever a mage, and he reckons I shoudl switch full time, but I am just not sure if I can let go of my mage – she is my collector toon and has all my achievements and I don’t want to lose that….but maybe for raiding I would be better as a tank?  I do enjoy it immensley – as much as playing my mage – hence why I am so torn I think 😀 

I also have my warrior as well which I could tank on, and given they are saying they are bringin back crowd control, perhaps my warrior would be better – no mana management to worry about and aweseom threat on single mobs…hrmmmm…..I do love my warrior as well….GAH!!!  I SUCK!!!

What a weekend :D

So my pally is now on Nagrand, hordeside, my mage will be there next week, and I am going to move my warrior to Amanthul so I can keep in contact with friends, however having said that this real-ID thing is pretty good in that I can still chat with everyone, but I would like to have a toon on the server so I can run with them in things etc if the opportunity arises occasionally 🙂

I went to Ulduar last night and did some of the achievements for the drake, got Razorscale, Ignis and XT…FL we only did 2 of the defenses, we gave 4 a few good attempts, but people just kept dying too early….and he has BUCKETLOADS of health…so I might try and continue with that achievement, but will take a fair bit of effort I think.

I am still trying to decide if I want to start up my own guild again or just join another one…so for the minute all my toons are in bank guilds and I just pug things, making friends and getting my name out there.  I need to get back into research mode to correct a few bits and pieces…

Speaking of which I changed to fire spec…yeah full TOTW/fire 🙂  It is nice to be back but I am so out oif practice I am missing cooldowns and everything….it’s quite nasty, but I am sure after a few weeks I will get back into the swing of it.

Also spent most of the weekend playing with my UI – can I just say – I HATE doing it!! All the prepackaged UI’s are either so over the top you can’t see what is happening in the fight o rso minimalistic I can’t see everything I want to see….I found the most sexy looking UI but I can’t figure out how to toggle some of the options like recount etc….

I also can’t find my old UI that I used to use – it was called Bati’s – and yes I can find that – but it isn’t the same anymore, it is all weird and different to what i used to use….so I am sad about that as well 😦

I will keep looking for my perfect UI, and trying to construct it in the meantime…I am not happy that reflux does not seem to be working for me either, it isn’t saving the set up anymore for some reason no matter how many times I do the commands…so that is also annoying me!!

Anyway, that’s enough from me!!  Time to do some work!!

Pet farming luck :D

Decided whilst I am not really involved in anything to farm some pets that I have been too slack to do in the past 🙂

AND….

Managed to score two last night!! The Azure whelping and the oozeling…I was trying for the emerald whelping but ended up going to bed, so will continue with that next time I log in 😀

I am now 104 or 128 pets according to warcraftpets.com, so I am slowly getting there.  I could also pickup the last 2 alliance tournie pets, and I could buy the horde ones easily enough, but I might just get one of my horde toons working on the rep maybe? Or find a horde person who wants to do swapsies with me??

That didn’t last long….

Yup, I am back 🙂

Have moved my blog to a name I actually like and will continue to update again.

I will go through and update links etc so people can find me once again.

I hope you enjoy the new home as much as I hope to!!

Got Hacked

Yeah I got hacked, can you believe it???

I was out with the family on Saturday and hubby rings me to tell me that my Mage had just jumped online…WTF?!?!!?

So he jumps onto my account management page and we do the auth via phone thing – he is unable to log on my mage but logs onto my pally. He then logs onto the website and changes my password for me 😀

So I have downloaded a scanner for my pc and low and behold 60 infections have been found.

The only sites I visit on my pc, are blogs and the usual things like wow.com, wowhead.com etc…..I do all my other surfing on my mac….

I am not impressed. I haven’t lost any gear or money, thank god my hubby happened to be online as he was logging off at the time. Thanks god he was fast enough to call me and get back my toons. My account was safe due to sheer dumb luck….are you going to be as lucky?

Changing my password again tonight just to be sure 🙂

So…be fucking careful people, because even with an authenticator attached to my account (for months) they can sting you 😀

Shared Topic : What needs to die in a fire in Cataclysm?

I have not done on e of these shared topics before as I never really had much to say on any of them, however, this one is great!

Which town, quest, NPC, or zone really needs to be purged with fire, in your opinion? Will you enjoy dancing on the ashes of a particularly hated quest giver? Or is there some zone you avoid like the plague (plaguelands excluded) where being nuked from orbit could only improve the experience? And why do you hate it/them so much?

There are too many for just one…so here is my long list 😀

1 – anything, and I mean anything, near, about, related to or that has any connection to Gnomer the instance – and I mean all quests as well…possibly even tinkertown!! I hated that place possibly the same amount as the next one.

2 – Uldadoom…..yes….I cannot speak anymore about it as it makes me froth at the mouth in anger!

3 – When i was levelling my mage there was a quest in Theramore near one of the guard towers, part of the stupid missing diplomat quest chain I am pretty sure….I failed it so many times i left it alone and came back when I was 80…..that’s two xpacs later – I hated it so much I could not stand it….that also goes for that stupid cow in the hut – Tabitha…yes….she should get her own graveyard.

4 – When doing the starting zone for DK’s there is a quest you need to poke people with a magical stick to get them to talk to you, the first time I ever did that quest t took me close to 50 minutes to complete. Every person I poked did nothing but die. It is a stupid quest and should be removed from the game! I hope they blow up eastern plaguelands and whoever hands you that quests get swallowed by lava!

and finally, the one thing that should be wiped off the face of Azeroth in a huge smelting pot of lava and fire are:

5 – murlocs…all murlocs should be made extinct, oh they are funny and everyone finds them amusing now, but I cannot count the amount of deaths I have chalked up to those horrible things. I often find myself back in SS or Elwynn forest just nuking them for fun and payback….

Sometimes if you pray really hard….

I do my dailies fairly randomly, there is one daily I am fairly set on doing, as it drops a mount, like that damn egg, I keep trying. Today whilst doing the daily I was praying to all the Azerothian gods, that today would be the day I got lucky. Comparatively to some people, I have terrible terrible luck. I have to farm things for almost 3 times as long as some others. This has been proven by tests multiple times 🙂

I once was farming some for of spider silk from the spiders outside Allerian Stronghold, I wad there for about 3 hours and had managed to pick up 5 pieces of the silk, as it was coming up the third hour I complained in guild chat, a friend (who has unbelievable luck) came and helped out, after approx 15 minutes he had over 15 pieces. IN essence he had the silk drop from every single spider he killed. We tested this out on eternal fires as well, and a few other farming items…

So when I say that this was an absolute score you will understand how happy I am!!

When I opened by pack of spoils and saw the purple flash of writing I screamed…out loud!!

This is awesome!!!

April fools day? Or good changes?

So they are changing cataclysm a little bit. I would have been upset about the guild achievements being removed, but well I am not overly upset now 🙂

I like some of the changes, but not sure about others. Doesn’t really matter to be honest, I love the game and they would have to really screw it up for me to not want to play 🙂

I will just wait and hope it means it will come out sooner now!!! Fingers crossed anyway 🙂

Settling in…..maybe?

So new guild, all new toons and new faction, so many things, I have run out of money, no surprise there, but I am on annual leave all this coming week, so I will be doing as many dailies as possible on all 3 of my level 80’s (not just dailies but opening up quest areas as well like Icecrown etc) for the cash.  My warrior is on another server still, but money does move servers you know :d hehe

I think this week is going to be hell boring doing it, but it should set me up nicely financially.  I am also going to spend the week attempting to play the AH to my benefit, after all I now have a toon that can disenchant stuff, so that will be a bonus money maker, if other people don’t beat me too it.

I am slowly settling in, I feel awkard and unsure of myself, which I am sure many people feel when they head off and start something new.  I feel very relived that I log onto the game and the couple of sparse whispers I get are about people and not guild issues, that makes for an enjoyable play time.  And if we don’t respond to each other straight away there is no follow up hounding…it is nice 😀

My bear transferred his level 80 hunter over, so we could run heroics together occasionally etc, which is cool, we did one this morning, hopefully will catch him again tomorrow.

Hubby got into the same guild as me as a raider, I am happy, as we were not sure he would. His gear is slightly less than mine due to his old shiftwork – thank god he doesn’t do that anymore (yes it has only been a week but it is bloody nice knowing he doesn’t have to work until 10pm), he would raid only say 40% of the raids we had, even less probably. But they looked past that, and we are now in the same boat – fighting for a raid spot and on a more casual basis until someone drops off…and only then if we prove we can play.  So it may not be the perfect position to be in, but as I said to hubby a new xpac always brings changes, AND we are with the guild we have been wanting to be in for almost 2 years.  So what if we don’t get to run every single night in their progression runs, they have plenty of other runs happening all the time, we just have to get in on one of those.

All in all, I think it will be ok providing I pass my trial period, I will just try and get to know the people and make friends where I can.

I just re-read this post and it really was a post about nothing 🙂 But I guess I just wanted to get the thoughts out of my head and onto “paper”.