Verdi and Smetana

As if I didn’t have enough toons already…my friend who played on my second account to try the game has decided to get his own account and we’re going to “recruit-a-friend”.

So let me introduce to you my two newest additions:

Verdi, druid.

Boobs. I mean, Smetana, shaman.

Verdi and Smetana.  These are actually the first two female characters I have ever rolled.  You’re saying, but Troutwort, what about Floy?  Well Floy wasn’t created by me…nor was Kittykat…nor was Tygerlily…nor Monona.  Those were all created by other people.  I have only rolled male toons.  Because I know when I see a male character I assume a man plays it.  I know this is far from reality, but still…it’s the way my mind works, so I’ve always rolled male toons.

For whatever reason though, I made not one, but TWO new toons and made them both female.  I think though it had to do with the names.  Sticking with my classical composer names, I made a list of composers that I haven’t used yet.  This included Verdi and Smetana.  Verdi sounded like a druid name…a druid with green hair…a female druid with green hair.  It just seemed to fit.  And Smetana sounded like a Draenei name, 100% Draenei.  And sounded more like a woman’s name than a man’s name to me, so there she is.  But holy crap, I have never noticed how much boobage the female Draenei have.  I never looked. 

I can see now why so many teenage and college boys made female shaman.  Pervs.  Of course…I’m the one that posted the screenshot of her sideways on the internet…so I guess we’ll call it even.

Anyways, these are the two new additions.  Verdi is level 20 and Smetana is level 17.  My friend is still on the starter account and is limited to level 20.  So we left them there for now.  You might see more of them as time goes on…but I have no intentions of them being much more than leveling buddies for him.

LFR Night

Tuesdays are always a big night for the guild.  It’s the night we do our scheduled LFR.  LFR has been awesome for Crits and I see that continuing through MoP.  Apparently last week when I was doing epic poetry analysis, there were about 15-19 people from the guild in LFR.  Last night we had similar numbers.  Close to 15 for the first half and over that for the second.  We actually provided both of the tanks and between 4 and 5 of the 6 healers as well and the rest were DPS.  

As usual it all went very smooth with no wipes.  We had a few people die here and there, but LFR has like 1 million battle rez so we got everyone back up and running.  I went in on Sousa to heal it, though I mostly stood around making comments in raid channel or else tossing pathetic lightning at the boss.  I figured with 5 other healers I would only need to heal during the really AOE heavy parts…you know, the parts where your FPS go to 4?  

We had a blast, it’s always more fun when you’re there with a bunch of people who will life grip you around or /cuddle you or do crafting professions during boss fights and trash.  We won some things and lost some things, but everyone has a good time, at least as far as I know. 

And I died on the Deathwing fight, apparently from standing where a tentacle spawns?  All I know is that I was probably making some rain and then I fell over dead and got an achievement.  I love LFR night. 

Quick Update!

Oh man…what a week.  Between long hours at the lab and helping the kid I mentor with epic poetry essays (seriously, is there really any value in “Paradise Lost” anymore?), I haven’t had as much play time as I would really like to have had.

I didn’t even log in at all from Saturday until Wednesday?  Well I shouldn’t say that, I logged in to say “hello” on Tuesday as they were forming the LFR group.  Apparently it was a really good showing again.  The introduction of the LFR function into the game has been a very welcomed addition for our Guild.  While we have some very excellent players, I do think that many of us are content with doing what we can and would rather spend time fishing up Mr. Pinchy than reading min/max strategies and opinions.  People in Crits enjoy the game for what it is, and with LFR now was can participate in raids that may have otherwise been outside our reach.  

I do still want to give credit to our 10-man group which has completed DS as well.  As I said, we have some excellent players as well.

The campaign to get the guild “Classy” achievements has been going very well!  We only had 4 left when I posted that I’d pay 5k to each toon that completed one of the requirements.  We currently now have only the Worgen warlock left.  There is one at level 85 but it isn’t honored with the guild yet.  My guess is that a few days of dailies would finish that up.  Though I’m not sure if that’s happening…

The news of MoP is very promising and exciting.  I’m happy to hear there will be an 11^th slot added, but I was really hoping for a bigger jump.  I currently have 2 accounts because 1) the kid I mentor sometimes plays on it and 2) I ran our of character slots.  There is at least one character I would consider transferring from the 2^nd account to my main account if there were more slots, but it sounds like I’ll just be suspending that account for now…

Monks are interesting, but I’m not sure that I’ll be super into them.  To me, they sound too much like paladins and it’s taken me a long time to get where I am with my current paladin so a new one doesn’t excite me.  When I say “too much like paladins” I mean spec wise…tank, melee DPS, heals.  

All in all though, looks like awesome things to come!

Legendary and Double Bubble

Oh man, it was a busy weekend/week so far!

The guild completed its legendary staff from Firelands.  Congrats and thanks to all the members of the guild who supported, assisted in, or otherwise encouraged the completion of this staff.  It took great effort from the regular Fri/Sat raiders to start this process and many of them participated in the off night runs to finish it up.  I was sad that I could not be online at the time the staff was completed.  Real life just gets in the way like that sometimes.  I am happy though that I was able to get myself a minipet.  

The announcement of the Classy Challenge has been met with good response!  We had a couple race changes and a couple others start focusing on alts to complete the challenge.  Dwarf warlock was completed first after a race change and couple handfuls of quests to get to honored, and one week later a worgen DK completed honored as well.  Elgar is out 10000g.  Ha!  We have left now the worgen priest and worgen warlock.  The priest, I was informed, will be completed today, 03/15/2012.  Then it’s just the worgen warlock, who is on his way last I heard.  This will be an easier achievement to complete now rather than waiting until MoP and it gets pushed to level 90.

On Tuesdays, Crits runs an LFR for the guild and some former guild members, it’s usually great fun and we get maybe 3-8 people.  This week we had between 12-16 people coming to each part!  It was awesome!  Coming together with that many people from the guild and our friends made the runs that much more enjoyable, though I couldn’t bubble just my own members like I usually do.  Ha!  I took Sousa on the first half since I didn’t need anything from part one on Elgar, but brought Elgar to the second half and he won the robes, well, “we” won the robes.  I used to feel bad about rolling for other people, or having people roll for me, but it’s such a standard practice now, I don’t feel very guilty.

This token completed Elgar’s 4-piece for T13.  Yes, it’s just Raid Finder gear, but it’s probably the best gear he’ll get until next Xpac.  Let me say this.  The priest 4-piece set is AMAZING.  100% more mana back from rapture??  YES PLEASE.  That’s 14% of my total mana back as often as every 10 seconds (I think 10 is the internal cool down).  And the best part is that PW:Shield has a 10% chance to absorb 100% more damage!!  I did a random heroic to see how this would work.  I only was able to see one time where it worked (I don’t have an add-on to tell me, so I had to mouse-over—and I’m not doing mouse-over every time) and it said there was 71k absorption left.  That is awesome.  REALLY awesome.  I have to wonder if the glyph is affected as well, the glyph heals for like 10% of the amount absorbed upon cast, so if the bubble is bigger, I assume the glyphed heal will be too.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for this.

So that’s that.  I know, WALL OF TEXT.

TL/DR version:  Crits got its legendary and things are awesome.

5k Classy Challenge

As of yesterday evening, Crits and Giggles announced the 5k Classy Challenge.  We have 4 remaining class/race combos to get the classy achievement.  You need to be level 85 and honored with the guild to complete the requirement.  Anyone that finishes any of the class race combos we still have left will be rewarded 5k in gold.  There are no rules like restricting race changes or anything, if you think the real money is worth the character change, I’ll still pay out.  

I thought I’d save myself 5k by getting my worgen priest to 85 first, but someone already race changed in at level 83…eek!  But they are still neutral with the guild, so maybe there’s a chance.    Either way, Bank of Elgar is going to be out some cash as there were some rerolls and talk of changing focus.  5k is free epic flight!

Upcoming Contest

Since Cataclysm, I felt that I haven’t been organizing as many events for the guild as I used to.  During LK when we seemed to have lots of time between patches and such, we did some scavenger hunts, naked night elf and gnome races, fishing tournament, Critty Awards, and of course…classic raids.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have dropped the ball a bit.  Naked races are a little harder because people don’t have unlimited character slots on a server so they can’t create new level 1 toons just for the sake of running around like crazy.  The scavenger hunt was fun, but items purchased off the AH made it really easy for some while others didn’t think that was fair.

Anyways, I learned a bit from those things.  Classic raid nights still are pretty successful as people are looking for transmogrification gear.  And with that, I have thought of a new idea, a fashion contest.  As people collect gear for transmogrification I thought it would be awesome to come up with the best and worst outfits for your race/class/armor type combo.  Of course this is all subject to the eye of the beholder, but I think I can figure out a voting system so people can cast votes for their favorite best and worst outfits.

I’m hoping we get a decent turn out as the more the merrier!  Unlike actual transmogrification, this will not be limited to only green or better items, and all novelty items and holiday items will be allowed as well.  So maybe people will think of awesome or horrifying outfits to make with those weird Lunar Festival Pajamas…seriously…weird.

We’ll sweeten the pot with some nice prizes, some TCG loot and such.  More details to follow for this guild event.

It’s Not Easy

It’s not easy being the prettiest character in WoW.

So, what should you do it someone is wearing your outfit?

Kill them.

At least that’s what my party told me last night when I went to Hour of Twilight instance for the first time.  I was on Elgar and when we got to the final boss I said “Hey!  That guy has on my outfit!”  And my party responded with all sorts of quips about how that’s reason enough to kill them.  So we did, in the name of fashion.

It was Christmas early for Elgar then as the boss dropped his epic staff and it was a MUCH needed replacement for Elgar’s 333 mace which I have been toting around since forever.  I just don’t seem to get weapon drops on Elgar.  Elgar then had enough JP and VP to get a new chest piece and new bracers, these new pieces pushed Elgar above the i372 requirement for LFR and now he’s raid ready!  I was surprised he passed Sousa.  Sousa has some nice things but since patch 4.3 hasn’t been running as much as Elgar so is behind in replacing some of his pieces.  

So Elgar was able to transmogrify his new staff to match his T5 (Staff of Immaculate Recovery) and now looks SO amazing.  Speaking of transmogrification and having a tough time being prettiest, one of our guild’s most beloved shadow priests, Bocat, told us that the other night that someone whispered her and told her that her character looked hideous, laughed at her, then put her on ignore.  Now, Bocat spends more time creating and farming awesome outfits than anyone I know, (and our guild does have transmogrification fever in general) but Bocat’s outfits are awesome and original.  So I asked her specifically what the person said, she typed it in guild chat.  I then searched that person, whispered them the same message, and put them on ignore.  I announced in guild chat that I had just sent them the same message and put them on ignore.  Someone else in the guild chimed in “me too!” 

This is why I love our guild.  And we sure do love our outfits.

Alt Time!

As the patch breathed new life into the game, Elgar saw more play time this last week than he ever has.  A result of the new Darkmoon Faire and the new dungeons as only he and Sousa were capable of queuing up for them. 

But Saturday my friend came over and he played on his hunter of level 36 and me on my warrior of level 39.  After he did his Faire things, I ran him through all the Scarlet Monastery instances to get him to level 38 and hopefully some new gear.  I was hoping we’d get some of the Darkmoon artifacts as well, but no dice.  We did a few more dungeons, but for him, I think he enjoys questing better as it’s more dependant on his pace rather than the pace of an heirloom geared tank who is all “go go go!” 

We did some quests in Western Plaguelands and then headed over to Eastern as we both dinged 40 and got our fast mounts.  The mobs there were more appropriate level and leveling went much quicker.  We stopped for herbs and ore along the way.  There are so many since Cataclysm that I had a full 28 slot bag of herbs before I knew it! 

I also did a few archaeology dig sites on the warrior and after his first completed artifact (fossil) my next one is the fossilized raptor pet, awesome.  So it looks like at least one other toon will do some archaeology.  It is amazing how much faster it goes now.  One dig site now can provide as many parts as 3 did before! 

While end game is fun, I’ve always enjoyed leveling up alts, doing the dungeons again, getting new gear and talent points.  Trying out new classes and new quests. 

The nice thing about having that second account up and running is that I have the ability to play more alts over there on the same server and get the perks of the guild.  Since I have 10 toons already on Winterhoof and apparently 10 is not enough.  I mean the GM should make up 10% of the total population of his whole guild, right?

Anyways, on that account there’s a druid and mage (71), hunters (63 and 41), priests (36 and 21), warlock (14) and a couple of level 1 alts that were used mostly for holiday achievements.  Many of these toons haven’t been logged in on in a very long time so last night I decided to see if they still needed any respecs or whatever.  I decided to log in as Linus, the level 35 priest last night, assuming he’d need to respec talent points or something.  But as it turned out he was ready to go, already in shadowform.  I never leveled a priest shadowform so he was my experiment.  I queued up for a dungeon and in about 1 minute it popped up, awesome.  I did two dungeons and leveled up to almost level 37.  Good times. 

The character names on this second account are more hap-hazard that the ones on my account which are almost exclusively named after composers (save Troutwort and Floy–though I’ve been tempted to change Floy).  While playing Linus a guild member pointed out… “so now you have a toon named after someone who obsesses over a dead composer?”  It never dawned on me.  But yes, yes I do.  It couldn’t have been more fitting.

Probably more alts in the future, like I said, you can never have enough!

Firelands: A Noob Remembers

This past weekend I went with the guild group to Firelands, because there were some people missing and needed some warm bodies.  Sousa is my most geared toon though he is still toting around a few heroic level items.  I took him along to help heal and switch to DPS as needed.  

Having only done some trash on Rossini before, I had no idea what any of the boss fights were like.  I’ve read lots of blogs so I had some idea of a few things.  Like, I knew there were feathers on Alys and that there’s some cat/scorpion phase thing…and lots of spiders. 

Anyways, here’s my recap of what happened, according to Sousa.

Shannox – Heals!  OMG why do you guys keep running out of range!  So much fire on the ground.  Ouch.

Beth – Heals!  Spiders everywhere.  Stack on butt.  “I made some rain you guys!  I hope you like it!”

Rock dude? – There’s right leg and a left leg, tank them apart and he’ll fall down?  I don’t know, don’t get in fire?  “Heal everyone.”  Neat?

Alys – DPS!  Interrupt the druids!  Yay!  Tornadoes are fun!  

Fire demon guy? – DPS!  Don’t go by some crystals!  DON’T STAND BY THE DOOR!!

Domo – Heals!  Stack up!  Make rain!  Run out?  Too slow.  Try again, more rain!!  Pounced!  Hold hands!  Don’t hold hands!  She loves me, she loves me not!  So much rain making.

Ragnaros – DPS!  Okay, hammer smash, not by me…lava wave?  WTF?  Try again.  This time not lava wave death.  Don’t touch the hammer!  Good!  Stack up and AOE…wtf is AOE on an enhancement shaman?  Totems LOL?  Attack!  Death.  Game over for us.

So we ended up 6/7.  Not so bad for my second time ever in Firelands.  I’m pretty amazing with my rain making.  Just saying. 

But seriously, thanks to the guild for being patient with my noobness and my potentially crappy heals.  Having never healed a raid before on my shaman I wasn’t quite up to speed on what I should be focusing on and what I shouldn’t be.  In 5-mans for example, I almost never use chain heal because everyone is not holding hands and it hits like one person.  But in raids, everyone is holding hands!  I make way more rain than I should in a 5-man, so that was easy to do in the raid too.  It was a lot of fun healing with Kerick, because I knew she’d save us if I was busy floor tanking with Bocat and/or Grom.  I’m teasing!! 

Thanks again, good times and pretty dresses.

A Raven Good Time!

As I previously had mentioned, I have been sorta bored and not sure what to do with my time in game lately.  One thing that I did note is that due to me being unexplainably busy outside the game, I had stopped planning Classic Raid Nights.  These have been and usually are a success especially with the coming of patch 4.3 and transmogrification!  

So last night we were planning a Naxx-10.  Sign-ups were low, but I blame that on me not putting it up until late.  But even so we only had a few people online.  ICC-10 for next week has more people planning on coming.  So Bocat and I started to think of other things we could do.  We joked about an arena team, as something totally new.  Kelli offered to join us and had the most resilience of any of us…182.  Nice.  We thought maybe that wasn’t the best idea.  So I browsed through guild achievements to see if there was anything we could do.

After glancing about, we decided to run either low dungeons or heroic Outland dungeons.  We went with heroic Outland dungeons because it wouldn’t be so much travel from instance to instance.  So there three of us went off and started to take out Hellfire instances, then Coilfang, and then Auch.  It was a great time.  It was almost a joke when it would say “Your kill took 2 seconds, a new record!”  We were breezing through things, collecting reputation and netherweave by the buckets!  I even got honored with a few of the factions as a result.  Good times. 

Of course, I was on Sousa, so all the leather gear that I wanted for the transmogrification set for Sibelius was dropping all over.  Nice.  But my anger soon faded.  Grom joined us for the Auch dungeons and we did Mana Tomb and Sethekk Halls first because those both have exits near the end.  On the Raven Lord, we joked that if the mount drops, roll need.  And holy crap, it dropped!  Bocat already has one, so she passed and the three of us rolled.  Sousa won it!!  I couldn’t believe it, didn’t even see the roll number, I just heard the sound of something dropping into the bag and knew!!  Of course it was awesome.  We quickly finished (Sousa earning the Sethekk Halls and Heroic Sethekk Halls achievements) and moved on to the other two instances there…I rode my new mount between them.  Good times. 

All in all, we did 10 dungeons earning many achievements for ourselves as well as earning 6 achievements for the guild.  Just a few left for the guild, so I might set up another night to see if anyone is interested.  Though Naxx was a bust, it was a very fun night!