“Still Alive” Collaboration

Listen to…the awesome.

When you hear it, you just know somewhere out there the Companion Cube is running free… [sniff sniff]  Well…maybe not exactly running, more like standing there motionless…but she’ll be standing there, happy and free…and potentially covered in char and ash.   Just brings a tear to the eye.

Wintergrasp and Faux Scars

Wintergrasp, zomg!  Blizzard *can* make a decent pvp area!  Color me surprised.  (Though in all fairness I will say it might not always be their fault, as it could very well be all the retards I get stuck with from the other servers.  The players from my server seem to know what they are doing, so props to you all on ET)  So far my ‘best moment ever’ in there was just yesterday:

It was a pretty even fight, occasionally we’d get the Tenacity so I know we were outnumbered but all in all it was a solid match. It came down to the wire for sure, 1:30 left when I respawned and their final door was damaged but not down.  I mounted up and hoped to at least distract the defenders from our vehicles as I knew the siege weapons wouldn’t go fast enough to get me there on time. 

I rode up to the final courtyard and ran through a tank that was inching it’s way to the door.  A good twenty horde were all pounding the hell out of anything that was red to them, so I stayed ’stealthed’ within the tank’s shape, unsure really how to help the situation.  Less than a minute to go, the tank is slowing closing the distance to the door, ranged sieges are still firing, Horde’s honor count is going up faster than gas prices a few months ago, and time is ticking down.  The tank and I reach the stairs at the bottom of the door, either his Ram ability was in range, or the catapults behind us did their part, the door crumbled just as we started climbing the stairs.

The tank is low on health but keeps moving, I’m still ‘hidden’ but the AoE’s Horde are laying down are taking their toll on me as well.  Down to 20  seconds now, the tank makes it up to the Orb of Winning (or whatever the hell the thing is in the middle) and I bolt out and start ‘using’ it to capture the objective.  The tank was close behind and was soon destroyed.  Luckily I’m a gnome, and the way the rubble of it fell it actually covered me up again.  Half a bar to go.

Some how, probably due to tab-targeting, a pally sees me and just before he gets close enough to hit me, someone stuns him.  I saw he had me targeted, spinning in a Mortal Kombat daze just feet away.  I honestly don’t know how long the stun on him lasted, or even what caused it,  but (probably more-so for the pally) it seemed to last a really long time.   But luck or other teammates prevailed, and the capture went through with exactly six seconds to go until we lost.  The first words in the raid pug chat was “Wow” and “how the hell,” but shortly after that they were all cheering and “grats”-ing.

Then later on we did the 10 man instance, I tanked it, and two (what I’m told are T7) plate armor dropped.  I thought it was cool because I was in the running to get the pieces, only I didn’t notice it is also class specific, and I was the only warrior in there.  So I got chest and glove pvp items to boot.  Woot!

As for RL, that pesky thing, I think I had a ’sleeping dog running’ moment yesterday morning.  You know how they twitch like they are running now and then when they sleep?  Well I remember my eyebrow itched or just felt like it needed to be, so I did, and I remember doing that in a twilight-state.  I’m not sure how long I dipped in and out of consciousness, but when I finally made it the bathroom to wash the sleep out of my eyes, I had about an inch long red ’scratch’ on my eyebrow.  It didn’t hurt, but it was deep red and looked badass.  I walked around like Squall for a day, and it was a present I gave to myself for sleeping!  Double-Woot!

A Gamer’s Guide to Voting

Electoral College, votes, partisans…what the hell are they going on about?  As today is *the* day, and I just thought of this when I woke up to CNN on TV, I figured a short and humorous guide to Election Day with in-game terms would be a nice post.

 
How does the election work?

There are two teams in this political battle, Red and Blue.   Each side chooses one Boss level mob and one healer/buffer mob that they think will have the best chance to pwn the other team’s choice.  This year the Red team chose McCain and Palin, while the Blue team chose Obama and Biden.

After these pairs are chosen, each team publicly announces their spawn with a global shout called “The Nomination” and from this point on the two pair’s first goal is to ding faster than the other one.  The only way to do this, is to do random five-mans and the occasional 10-man raids with people they have never met to grind out Reputation.  If the people they group with like how they perform, they get added to their friends list and possibly even send them some gold as a sign of their appreciation.

As the pairs quest and raid on their mission, they occasionally run an arena 2v2 against the other team and debuff the opposing pair by using Taunts, Mocking Blows, and even the occasional Cheap Shots.  These match ups are not for actual arena points, just practice battles.  Some friends of the winning side might troll the losers on the forums, but this just boils down to a flame war that ends up getting locked, and does not adversely affect the outcome of the election.

 
Election Night

This is a Special Event that only occurs once every four years, and only lasts one day.  This is what the two teams have been training for.  The ultimate goal is to win by numbers, but not necessarily by popularity.  (Much like those elitist snobs that raid 24/7.  They are all jerks and know it, and no one wants to be around them, but in the end they get the job done and have epics and their huge epeens to stroke to compensate for their lack of anatomy and significant other in real life) 

The entire game is turned into a massive Capture and Hold style battleground.  During the time leading up to The Election Day event, the two teams were hopping flight path to flight path to cover the entire area and interact with as many players as possible.  If they used their skills and talents correctly before today (almost all Boss Nominee mobs are Subtlety and Balanced spec’d.  Minus the previous Bush/Cheney duo, who were Destruction and Marksmen spec’d, respectively…), then all the people that they have interacted with will help them during the battle.  This of course leads to a massive RvR scenario and both sides clash against each other in a glorious way that only Tolkien could describe.

As the two Boss mobs and buffers give Battle Shouts and Orders on the field, their minions dutifully do their part to aid them to victory.   While this battle is being waged, in order to keep things as orderly as possible, a group of battle commanders (Electoral College) oversee the combat and after some time has passed give the go ahead and light a signal flare to mark which side has one the individual battle.  Late game rushes can still occur to claim lost objectives, but this is not very common.

Once the majority of lands is claimed and the night grows long, The Election event ends.  The Election Harolds (anyone on CNN) proclaim the victor, and the winning side all get a week-long buff to their Morale and Vitality.  The losers get a blow to their ego, and have to pay for their durability loss.  The special event is complete, and the winner will take control of the capital city (and it’s loot) in January.

 

Note: Don’t take this too seriously, this was all in good fun and something I did to keep the mood light (as politics can quickly turn a conversation hostile).  Best of luck to both McCain and Obama, and hopefully you can relax after the election ends…at least until one of you get voted in anyway ^_^

Longshot, We Hardly Knew Thee

Well, it seems fitting that the server I started out on and complained that I didn’t get RvR procs in over eight hours ended up being a Low population server, so I took advantage of the free move and now my main Cultivator is on…Monolith?  Or Ungrim…I forget, heh.  But it told me Longshot was already taken on that server, so I’m resorting to my secondary WoW hunter name (I was a fan) and now she’s Trickshot.  I also had a chance to grow some stuff again, it’s been awhile as I’ve been playing Destruction almost since a week or two after release.  Just wasn’t meshing with the classes, and went back and started enjoying it again, good ol’ Shadow Warriors.

Also, I read this post and thought it was funny in a very bad way:

The Witching Hour: The loot chest that appears when players complete this Live Event Public Quest will now appear in the victors’ warcamp, and will remain there for ten minutes. This ensures that all victorious players who have a right to claim loot from the chest will be able to do so

The Herald

Wow.  I haven’t leveled up at all fast yet so I haven’t seen the rvr PQ completed (Tier 1 was a ghost town, tier 2 seemed to be full of idiots rushing the enemy and killing them in the areas that it didn’t count in and wouldn’t let them simply get closer to us for it to count.  Also the enemy was dumb and never charged us when we gave them the opportunity, so I left after a half hour of waiting for those tards to get it right, meh), but I know how long it took to get started, so I can only imagine the situation that could have caused that hotfix.  A long, hard battle that was prolonged by the enemy players constantly getting in the way.  Victory was finally claimed late into the PQ, you get a gold bag loot roll, only for you to be killed at the last second. By the time you get back to the chest that’s probably in the middle of the RvR lake, it’s gone.  Well, maybe when it resets in an hour or so you can get your purple quality Witching Night mask, ha!  Man, I would have been PISSED-the-hell-off if that happened to me, sheesh.  Thank god it didn’t, but man…poor guy that lost that loot, eh?

And Happy Halloween to all of you!

Hiya folks!

Hello all!  Changes abound for me!  It seems my Cultivation guide got the attention of ‘the powers that be’ and now I’m writing a weekly column for Hammer of War Online!  The site’s updated every day with articles from columnists like myself, (ooo, don’t I sound all proper?) as well as having a rundown of the most recent news from Warhammer Online blogs, to even being hooked up to Warhammer’s official Herald!  Basically, it’s a quick command console to see what’s goin’ on in the WAR world.  A wealth of information is to be had!  Also, the contest I posted about is entering it’s final stages, so go and take a cool screen shot and upload it already, you big ninny!

Ha-HA! Revenge is MINE, Vile Weed!

Did you read the patch notes recently? ::giggle::  Did you hear?  Oh, my.  Read this good news:

One of the things we’ve been hearing from players is that our Talisman making system was a bit more time-consuming than we wanted it to be.  So, in an effort to make Talisman making more accessible to lower/mid-range crafters, our Items team changed Gold Essence (originally a product of Apothecary) to Gold Dust and added Gold Dust to crafting merchants to eliminate the need for a third crafter to level their skills. Unfortunately, this change was released slightly ahead of schedule and Gold Dust had no sell price. Rather than change everybody’s character, we decided to leavethe change live. However, in order to avoid an impact on our economy, we have made it so that Gold Dust, that had been purchased prior to server restart cannot be sold but it can still be used. This item can still be traded. So, since Gold Dust could previously be bought for no cost, well, you haven’t lost anything.  

• Players who previously had Gold Essence will notice that it has been converted to Gold Dust, which can be used in all recipes that previously required Gold Essence.
• As a result of this change, Goldweed, which had previously been an ingredient used to create gold dust, has now been converted to a stabilizer for Apothecary. This is a boon to Cultivators, who could not previously create a stabilizer and it will help make tie Cultivation and Apothecary more tightly together.

HA!  The demonic seed has be purged of it’s evils!  Now what, unholy kernel?!  Now what can you do, once your crown has been untimely RIPPED?! Your time is NEIGH!  No longer shall you taunt me with your mysterious skill level requirement jumps and turn into a Talisman making item, in fact now you shall do my bidding!  And not only become a plant of some use to me, but you will now make all of my potions more stable through Apothecary as well!  Ha-HA!  Your comeuppance has been arrived, evil spore!  You shall rue the day of your very existence, and I shall bask in your slow demise! 

Victory: Cultivator!  Mwahahhaa!

 

-Note-

Enric kinda had long-standing bias against Goldweeds, as they were weeds and foiled all his lawn care attempts in the past.  Not only that, but for some reason level 50 Cultivation seeds would turn into level 75 Apothecary items, and 75 to 100, etc. which Enric deemed “unnatural and evil.”  Supposedly some words were said, his mother’s good name was called into question, and Goldweeds and Enric just had it out for each other since.  With this recent development, it seems Goldweeds, or what Enric calls “vile weeds” have lost the on-going struggle.

Warhammer Online Contest! Phat Loots!

It seems that there’s a contest a brewin’ over at Hammer of War Online.

All you gotta do to enter is take a screenshot in-game, find it in your screenshot folder (of all places) and upload it to the site’s Screenshot Gallery.  Just sign up on their forums and you are good to go.  Here’s the ones I uploaded, I thought they were pretty darn good if I do say so. Below are the shots I uploaded and the captions for em, click em and you can see them full sized on Hammer’s site.  And if you could rate the *one* you like the best with a high score, I’ll totally be your friend for a week.  Maybe, maaaybe two if you play your cards right.

 

If one stares at this picture long enough, one shall notice two cities in the distance…

 

Throw your only tank in this Tier into a floating jail. Very smart. Very clever. Good luck in your next PQ, Mr. Zealot. This axe might not be a shield but my Taunt works just as well. You’ll see…oh yes…you’ll see…

 

Squiggles: Taste the rainbow.

 

“Oi! Gitface, ztand ztill! Thiz’ll only ‘urt ALOT! WAAAGH-HA-HA-HA!”
This summer in theaters prepare for utter Destruction in:
So I Rolled An Axe Murder.

 

In Norsca, Flag Capture YOU!

The contest lasts until the end of the month, so get busy and spread the word!  Ooo, and vote for me!  BFF!

Shout Out!

Making a quick shout out post at Syp for linking to my Cultivation Guide on Da Bloody Twenty this week! Check it out on his awesome blog of WAAAGH!  He updates his blog a LOT and it’s all about Warhammer Online related stuffs!  So go on and read it already!

 

Note:  Tell him his female dwarf is attractive and he’ll love you for life.   Which is good, because you’ll burn in hell for lying.

I kid!  I kid!  I’m sure she has a great personality…

I’m Just Talkin’ Bout My C-c-c-cultivation!

Ahoy hoy!  Another quick Cultivation tip for you all!:

How to grow a few plants at a time

If you look at the default growing menu you’ll see the following image, more or less.

As you can see my Cultivation level was at least 50 at this point as I have 2 plots unlocked.  This is the first requirement.  Without multiple plots you can’t grow multiple plants, after all ^_^  So let’s take a look at the individual parts I labeled (I left the right side blank so you can compare easily what is being selected):

1.  This is the plant we are growing in this plot.  If we were growing a spore, it would look like a mushroom and have a blue shade in the background, not that it matters but I guess you *need* to know what’s what on the fly o.O  The picture also changes to match what growth cycle the plant is in, getting larger with each cycle.  The seconds remaining at the bottom of the plant is connected with the time remaining in the current growth cycle.

2.  This area shows the three ingredients we can add to our plants (from left to right) Dirt, Water, and a Nutrient.  As you can see the Dirt and Water icons are colored in, this means we added those ingredients correctly during each cycle.    Notice the green circle around the Water icon?  This is to show what cycle the plant is on, and a reminder on what item we should add.  The timer above this area, in the green highlighted “1″ section is connected to this, and it shows the time remaining in this cycle.

3.  This timer is to let you know the *total* time remaining until the plant is ready to harvest.  Helpful reminder, or in case you are one of those dark horses that throw care away with reckless abandon and don’t add any items to your plants, you’ll know exactly when the plant will be ready, as this will not change if you do not add any items.

4.  This number is directly over the Nutrient icon, which has a red circle around it and the icon is grayed out.  The red circle is to let you know the plant is not in this part of the cycle, and the grayed-out icon lets you know that you did not add that ingredient.  If you are on this part of the cycle and it’s gray, add the item.  If this was a previous cycle and it is gray, don’t forget to add it next time, mmmkay?

So what does this do?

When growing a few plants at a time, I keep this view up almost constantly.  It lets me see how long until my plants are done, if I was too busy killing to add the right ingredient yet, and how long I have left to add that ingredient if I didn’t already.  Like I said I keep this menu up a lot, even when fighting monsters I find it’s helpful.  I just spam attacks on my number keys via keyboard, and while I’m doing that I’m adding the right items to my plants.  I do not recommend doing this in densely populated areas, or when you are less than 50% health as it might get you killed.  In that case, don’t forget to carry extra health potions and to keep your “Flee!” skill handy hee hee  (Or you can keep the windows closed and wait for the text prompt of ‘you plant has reached the next stage’ to open it again, plop the item(s) in and close them once again, waiting for the next prompt.  Or some other variation you might think of!)

 

Also I got a comment by Kreture! (Great name, btw!)  She wanted to know if I use any Cultivation ingredients (dirt, etc.) that are *not* level 1 items you can buy from merchants.  In fact, no I do NOT!  I simply don’t have a supply of them to use!  If I did have a supply I’d definitely use them as I’m sure they increase the odds of getting bonus items and Critical Growths, at least way more than the ingredients I’m using now. 

If you have the option of using higher quality and/or level growing ingredients, use them!  I don’t see how they could hinder you in any way, minus their cost of course ^_^

I do plan on making another Order toon on this server (once my cousin gets the game and we can slaughter in unison *ahem*) that uses Scavenging, and I’ll mail my Cultivator the helpful items he plunders, but until then I’m sticking to merchant bought items.  I may check out the Auctioneers soon and see if there are a lot of them up for sale (and thus cheap), but for now it’s merchant only items for me.

Remember this game is to have fun, and this skill is just a small part of the game.  These are my thoughts and opinions, and are hardly set in stone.  Do whatever fits your playstyle, I’m just posting mine.  ^_^

Cultivation Invasion!

Well it didn’t take as long as I thought, so after I posted my Cultivation Guide, I got started on my own personal Cultivation Database, of sorts.  I didn’t get far, as it’s late now and I’ll update it tomorrow, but it’ll have all the seeds I grow listed by level.  I’d talk more about it, but again it’s late and I’d just be relaying what’s already there.   Go check it out!