Violet proto-drake, here I come

First off, I decided against collecting 500 eggs for a white plainstrider. After finishing the holiday's other achievements it simply felt too horrific to imagine.

Secondly, I have been having a horrible time getting the mop or d3 betas to download. Hopefully I have finally managed it with mop (it's downloading right now). I started a thread on the beta forum which really seems to be a glorified blog post at this point.

Thirdly, I am very eager for children's week. Can anyone guess why?

Beta invites!

Last night I was happy to discover that I had finally received a MoP beta invite. I downloaded Mists while working on my taxes (which normally would have been done a month or two ago) and watching some movies I rented from Red Box. Over the next few hours I was disappointed to run into numerous crashes.  So far as I can tell, I was never able to download more than the first 3%. There are similar reports of dls crashing at 10% at the forums so I'm pretty sure it's not just me and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Last night I also received a D3 beta invite. I'm not sure why I was so surprised about this...there was never any guarantee of it, for one, and I was never invited to the wrath or cat invites...which was part of the reason it took me a while to come to cat, I think. I haven't tried installing D3 yet but from what I understand there are issues there right now, too.

I'll try to post some updates as soon as possible...assuming I can actually get the game to patch, of course.

ETA: After doing some research on the forums I have discovered in a blue post that "The Launcher is closely tied to Internet Explorer settings." Why??? Who uses IE in the 21st century? It's crap. No wonder the stupid Launcher doesn't work, I haven't updated IE in forever because it's optional and I don't use it. So guess what I'm downloading right now? An update for crap.

ETA2:My Launcher is currently at 5%!  I deleted everything again and tried a couple of different directories with a result of no download at all (0% for an extended period of time).  I have no idea whatsoever why it's working now.  I haven't restarted my computer to complete the crap update and i turned my Firewall and Anti-Virus off after my first attempt last night, so that isn't the issue (no matter what the blue post says).  It's inexplicable.  However, if i do run into the same issues as last night i am going to try to delete the "corrupted" file from now on instead of deleting everything and starting from scratch all over again.  I'm not sure i'm willing to edit .dll files in notepad but i do want to get this downloaded tonight...even if i won't have a chance to play it until tomorrow night because i'm opening at work in the morning.

Still waiting for a Mists beta invite

I was rather annoyed that i hadn't gotten an invite and then i realized that i hadn't set up my beta profile up.  Last xpac the stinking program never worked (it always had an error message and didn't sent my info to Blizz) but now my profile is up to date and maybe i can get an invite soon.  I can hope, right?  I hear that the monk lvling experience isn't polished yet but the Pandaren lvling zone is.  I can hardly wait to test some stuff out, whether it be rolling a panda or testing the new hunter skills.

Off to find some eggs...my strange trip is pretty close to the end i think.  Come children's holiday...

A Rose by any other name...

So i like to have character or pet names that say something about me.  I don't really roleplay but i do see my characters as a sort of extension of myself, perhaps upping a part of my personality that i don't really allow myself to fully display or explore.  Of course it's not really that deep but yeah, i put some thought into names when rolling a new character.  This often involves nonsense spelling variations or foreign words.  Sometimes  it's just a pop-culture reference (with my pets moreso than my toons). 

MoP and mount #97

Okay, so i've been reading the info on WoW Insider and i must admit that i'm pretty psyched about the new xpac.  I've been reading articles lately about how people generally play the race and class that fit their personality.  Well i really don't feel like i'm a blood elf.  I'm not a drug addict and i'm not model-thin and addicted to pretty things like pink.  In a way my personality probably fits better with the Alliance...only i totally can not bring myself to play Alliance.  I finally leveled two characters to 65ish (partially with the help of a friend and because he wanted to do it) but it just felt so wrong.

But reading about the Pandaren...they sound like oriental/asian Hobbits, and that sounds very much me.  I think i may be in love.  I cannot wait to roll a monk and may just have to roll other classes, too.  I wish i could play Horde and be friends with Koi-people, too.  But stampede sounds awesome, like the most exciting thing to happen for hunters in a long time.

In other news i used Raid Finder for the first time today (at the urging of an old guildee) and my net connection still cannot handle 25 man raids.  My graphic card didn't crash or anything, but i kept getting dced.  What bothers me is that this card can obviously handle good without overheating but the framerate is horrible.  I am not sure if this is because of my connection or addons, i really need to experiment more.  But it stinks to have a new card that still can't handle the content and let me see the vistas this game has to offer.

And now announcing the acquisition of mount #97...Drake of the West Wind.  I can't take a screenshot of it where i bought it because there are no flying mounts allowed anywhere in Tol Barad.  So i took some screenshots by the portal to TB in Org instead...graphics still turned down from trying to raid.

Three more to go.  I keep trying the usual places, have been fishing up a storm, but no luck so far.  I really want the arc Battle Tank and fishing Sea Turtle but at this point i just want the achievement to be done.  I don't think i'm going to be too picky about these last three mounts.  Well....picky enough to not go grind some more Argent Tournament rep. /shudder

soloing setbacks

Tried to solo Mag and Maly (same night as last post) but I barely made a dent. Kept getting heal aggro on Mag from fire mobs. I couldn't focus fire a caster down or Mag.  Maybe there's a mechanic that I'm missing? With Maly I would be doing fine (albeit very verrry slowly, hit it like you mean it) only to get hit by his breath or pull aggro with disengage and fd on cd. Considering an attempt at Naxx next.

easy peasy soloing

Soloed Problim earlier this week and Attumen was easier than ever.  My next soloing challenge, however slight, was to solo Ossirian.  This wasn't too bad, there really wasn't any point other than i saw that the Armory said that i had never killed him.  The irony?  He drops a head that starts a quest; as it turned out, i couldn't accept that quest because i had already completed it.

eta: It's been five days and the armory still says I've never downed Oss. I have no idea what is causing the error.

Extreme soloing...Vortex Pinnacle

As you may have noticed, my main goal on WoW right now is probably getting that 100th mount.  With four to go, the pickings are getting a little slim.  So today after i helped obtain a victory in Tol Barad and did those dailies i bought myself some new PvP boots and decided to try my hand at normal Vortex Pinnacle again.

I will never get a world first solo kill.  At the same time, i'm no stranger to running content alone.  I will try anything at least a couple of times (case in point, that annoying demon in HFP that and Colossi chain that require/d a group).  I have tried one manning and two manning both of those with varying results (depending on what class i'm playing).  I finished the Champion of the Naaru quest chain mostly alone (the bits that didn't require a group, and i think i 2-manned the last part with an acquaintance).  I have ground a lot of rep alone (or in PUGs).  I used to solo Strat for the mount run back in Wrath and have been soloing old raids more and more.

But solo a dungeon that is part of the current xpac?  That isn't possible, is it?  Well, as it turns out, maybe it is to a point.  My first attempt at soloing VP, i failed miserably.  Trying to down Grand Vizier Ertan was not working, let alone even getting to Altairus, which was my main goal.  I want that mount!  So i gave up, discouraged, but something in me just kept niggling.  I know that i'm rusty, haven't been playing every day for the past year, have taken breaks, etc., but surely i'm not that fail as a hunter?  This is my main we're talking about, the character that i've been playing for the better part of four (five?) years.  So i started doing some more research.  How can i down this drake without hacks?

Which is when i realized that i had made a very lame mistake.  See, i have a soloing/PvP build, but i was trying to solo Ertan in my PvE gear.  I think i only read this on one website out of about ten that Resilience (paired with Stamina) is the stat that makes or breaks your attempt to solo most instances.  In other words, wear PvP gear.  If there's no enrage timer then you're set, and enrage is usually not an issue at all when soloing old content as much as survival (when that's an issue xD).  It's easy to kill these bosses, but can you survive long enough to do it?  Luckily, i just so happened to have five pieces of PvP gear that i upgraded most of in anticipation of doing lots of Tol Barad...and because i just happened to be a little bored.  (In case you're curious, that's three pieces season 10, one piece season 9, and one piece season 11).  So today i grabbed some stuff off my alchemist alt and headed back into Vortex Pinnacle.

What i packed:
Mythical Healing Potion x7
Elixir of Mighty Fortitude x5
Dense Embersilk Bandages
Skewered Eel
one battle elixir that was a seasonal reward as i recall...it gave me attack power and growth?

Trash
Just ignore them.   Camouflage will get you past everything except those two Howling Gale orbs that you have to shoot at a couple of time...lest they throw you off the ledge.  You don't die, but you do get sent back to the beginning.  Which is an important time saver to be aware of when you're ready to reset the instance and go again.

Grand Viz
Truly is easy once you get the hang of it.  Keep your pet healed, stay away from tornadoes, use maybe one bandage, Chimera Shot whenever it's up.  I've read that you don't need a tank for this, i felt that i was taking too much damage if i held aggro.  Basically manage your aggro and watch where you're standing and be patient.  If you get hit by a lot of lightning, this is tough.  Downed three times today.

Altairus
So much going on here.  First off, this guide helped me so much, but it leaves a little out.  As you probably realize, you want to stay upwind as much as possible.  Disengage can help, but not as often as you'd like.  However, even more importantly, you have to deal with Chilling Breath.  This is one of those mechanics that is pretty much a non-issue if you can self heal or are in a group.  Why?  Because he randomly targets someone with it once every... 30s?...only, because you are alone, you get targeted every time.  (Note:  I cannot find any confirmation about how long you have between each Chilling Breath.)  So he will hit you with ~25k damage (in my gear) upwards of twice a minute.  With ~140k health i can only get hit 5.5 times unmitigated/unhealed before i will die.

Fortunately, Chilling Breath has a 2s cast time and there are three tactics you can use to survive it.  If you feign death soon enough (after he has started casting, before the cast is halfway through), he will hit your pet or give up instead (i'm not sure which, but it didn't hit me).  If you feign death too late, it will hit you for the full amount.  If you are glyphed for Raptor Strike and can dance in, hit him, dance back out (all while being mindful of which direction the wind has just turned or is about to turn), then you can negate 20% of that damage.  I tried using Aspect of the Wild on one of my attempts, but i couldn't tell that it helped appreciably.  Disengage does not help with this, he turns as you fly across the screen, his maw following your fleeing leap (not to mention this skill is better used to get upwind).

The only skill that makes you completely immune to Chilling Breath is a well timed Deterrence.  If it's up, he gives up until next time his cooldown is up.  Now, the aforementioned guide says you can use Deterrence twice... that's not strictly true if you are MM (which is the spec i based my solo/PvP spec off of courtesy of Warcraft Hunters Union).  A well placed Readiness will give you two Deterrences in a row and you will probably get a third when you need it most.  I would not want to do this fight without a health pot.  Chimera Shot and don't forget to use Rapid Fire.

Other than that, remember to heal your pet, try to get upwind as quickly as possible, but Chilling Breath is going to be the thing that hits you hardest.  If your pet dies or you want to reset... stay where you are.  Running away is not going to help, as if you run off the platform then he will hit you with lightning that's worth 2/3 of your health to begin with.  Feign death where you are (assuming that it's not on CD!) and he will despawn.  Then run off the platform and rez your baby.  I managed to get to him for the first time and after about 5-6 attempts i had gotten him down twice and used up my health pots so i decided to call it a day.

 As you can see, i'm using a bear for his damage reduction.  It's not a reduction of damage taken, rather of damage caused by all nearby enemies, not just what's done to the pet itself or by one enemy.  It has a short cooldown so it can always be up (assuming the focus is available).  It's 10% rather than 50%, but it's more consistent.  (Petopia ftw)  I may try a different pet in the future, but i anticipate this fight becoming much easier for me after a few more kills are under my belt.

Happy hunting!  And may the odd be...no wait.

not pink!

mount #96...Swift Lovebird
a perfect way to end Valentine's Day

BRAINS

SMC really gets decked out for LiitA. No, wait... SMC always looks like that.

FINALLY!!!

Gretta finally saw fit to put me out of my misery and bequeathed me my 95th mount... the White Polar Bear

I kid you not, i have been doing this daily ever since Wrath was a brand new xpac.  As soon as i got the cold flight training i attuned myself and set myself to the task.  I wanted to be able to ride Iorek.

is this cheating?

 #94 Tyrael's Charger...which looks absolutely awesome in shadow form.

2001...a rewatch

One of my friends in high school was fond of Dune and 2001...a Space Odyssey.  I watched both films and read both books as well.  Dune made a bigger impression on me, as i hardly recall the 2001 novel and never got around to reading the third book in the series.  The first Dune film, on the other hand, was more memorable, and not as true to its novel as i would have liked.  With that series of novels...they were a little too politically and religiously involved, even for me.  I might be able to enjoy more of it now.

2001, on the other hand...the film has made absolutely no sense to me any of the times i've watched it.  What plot i was able to work out was only through other people telling me about it.  It isn't relayed through the film itself.  Last January we discussed part of the film in my World's Greatest Films class...and the information that the professor relayed to set up the scene is not in the actual film at all.  He claimed that the satellites in Earth's orbit carry nuclear weapons (Earth still being in the midst of the Cold War, apparently).  It's apparently alluded to in the commentary and interviews, etc., and was originally part of the story, but if you read the Wikipedia page then it's obvious that this information was abandoned.  If all you have to go off of is the film itself then such a context never even enters your mind.  This is because when the film went to the cinema it had been expunged of all references to nuclear weapons.  The original ending, you see, was for the so-called Star Child to make all the nukes detonate.  This, i have only learned because of Wikipedia.  I'm not taking the time to watch the film again with commentary.  While this is purportedly in the novel (i don't remember), this information is not in the film, and Clark and Kubrick seem clear than the two stories are not meant to be identical.

But i did watch the film again last night.  I wanted to see it again post WGF Clockwork Orange viewing and since it was referenced on Stargate Universe (which i finally finished watching a couple of nights ago).  The biggest thing i noticed was that Alan Tudyk as Sonny in I Robot sounded a lot like HAL.  The other thing that i confirmed is that the film lacks a coherent objective, plot, or message.  Some people (a couple of my professors, for instance) think that this is an okay thing for a film--or even a novel--to do.  I do not agree.  Many people seem to go for this kind of art, and accuse those of us who don't to be afraid or dumb or something or other.  Personally, i just don't think that something can be considered art unless it is expressive and communicates something.  There are lots of pretty paintings out there that are nothing more than blobs of color, sculptures that are nothing but a cacophony of shapes.  But without a certain framework, then the artist is just being lazy.  That's my feeling about it anyway, it might not be rational, but there it is.  Which isn't to say that if i look at an abstract i'm guaranteed to get nothing out of it.

But with film, in particular, i think that it is important for a screenwriter and director to actually do their jobs and not only provide a story but effectively portray and communicate what it is to the audience.  Now, the argument with 2001 is that Kubrick was being vague, surreal, realistic, and even that it is impossible to communicate a plot when there is limited dialogue.  This last point is ridiculous.  I grew up being familiar with several of the Chaplin films which do communicate a plot with minimal textual and no verbal information.  I have also watched foreign films, anime, and other silent films that are perfectly able to communicate a message through music, movement, color, etc.  I can understand the plot points, if not the details, even without subtitles.  I am forced to conclude that Kubrick was either being lazy or thumbing his nose at us.

If i were watching the film with no outside source information from a novel, reviews, or research...i would be forced to conclude that i had watched a horrific film where the computers that are designed to protect us instead murder us and that the alien beings who created and guided our evolution are just as ill-intentioned.  However, the final part of the film, that of the Star Child...makes no sense whatsoever.  I have no idea why Bowman found the trip to be so horrific and his becoming a huge baby that appears to still be in the womb...only there is no womb and he has no mother...but can exist in space?!?  Pure fantasy, impossible, we might as well be tripping or hallucinating.

Technically, the cinematography is menacing as well as beautiful.  The music reinforces this.  The models and science seem to be accurate but it is all stilted and the presentation bores one almost to tears.  In the real year 2001 and 2011 we all use technology and are excited about it (even some of us in Third World countries).  In this film the technology seems tedious on one hand, far beyond what we have been able to yet achieve on the other.  I am forced to conclude that Kubrick meant to bore us and scare us at the same time.  The three tools do not work with each other, in fact their messages are conflicting and cause yet more confusion.

Now i realize that this film was considered to be a landmark achievement and made tons of money.  And i know that some people see Kubrick as god.  But i really don't get it.  After watching all of the Lord of the Rings special features again, and then watching this again, i really do not have a high opinion of Kubrick at all.  He did not successfully communicate with the viewer, he did not do his job.  To sum up, he failed on an epic scale and was teaching us what worked and what doesn't.  I love science fiction, and he turns me off.  There is so much potential here but it's all muddled, it's painful for me to watch or even think about.  I find 2010 to be so much more enjoyable and the changes, really, are very slight.  In retrospect i think that one of the things that is hardest to overcome in this film is how very flat the characters are.  We know next-to-nothing about them and do not care whether they live or die.  Which is probably what made me think of LotR, besides those films being epic is how very much that is communicated without words.  Most of all, you can understand and enjoy the plot without reading the novel, but then, why would you want to?  The LotR films point to Tolkien as their source material.  2001...it's just as much fantasy, but not nearly as believable or enjoyable.

the countdown

I meant to post as soon as i found out about the newest WoW expansion, Mists of Pandaria (now forever to be known as "mop"...seriously?), but Blogger or the nets or something was just not working right.  First off, i was skeptical.  I don't particularly care for the pandaren non-combat pet.  But i eventually realized that i love the Star Trek and Firefly references (etc.) that they put into the game, so why shouldn't they put in some Kung Fu Panda, too?  It is an awesome movie, and i love martial arts in certain action films, so why shouldn't that be incorporated into the game?  My biggest concern is the lore/plot being advanced, which they are being very hush hush about, so maybe MoP will be the best xpac yet.  Trying to be optimistic...

Secondly, i was super upset the first night about losing melee weapons as a hunter, but i can't say that i'm at all surprised.  Taking the dead zone away does nothing to change the fact that i have always wanted my Hunter to be a true dps hybrid capable of defending herself when mobs collapse into melee range.  Legolas was awesome with his pair of knives but hunters, sadly, are not allowed the same privilege.  However, unless they fix focus then i can't say that i will be playing a hunter anymore at all   All i'm really doing on her right now is trying to get my last couple of mounts for the achieve (i'm sitting pretty on 93 mounts right now...more on this later).  I prefer playing my shammy even while my shammy continues to feel like an alt.  I am a hunter through and through, and being alienated like this has not been a fun journey over the past few years.

Thirdly, i opped into the year long membership.  Free Diablo 3 and guaranteed in to the MoP beta?!?  Worth it even if i am going to (possibly) be mostly playing SWTOR for a while.  So right now i'm finally working (even if it is a crap job) and am looking into upgrading my power source and graphic/video card.  Hopefully this will be happening very soon, within the next paycheck or two.

Lastly, i have been leveling two alliance characters on another server with a new friend.  I'm up to lvl 66 on my worgen druid and 62 on my human spriest.  I have been wanting to lvl as alliance for a while, to see what it was like if nothing else, but it still doesn't sit right with me after 65 levels+.  I am horde through and through.  It seriously messes with my head.  I leveled my belf spriest to 65 and did a little bank maintenance on my 45 belf rogue a couple of days ago and had to keep stopping myself from approaching alliance flight master in Gadgetzan, for instance.  Just today i decided to take Lui to OL and my first inclination was to turn left to go to the flight master just inside the gate.  I don't know that i want to even raid on these characters, though i have enjoyed leveling them i constantly feel as if i'm a deserter or being unfaithful because of the faction change.  I keep wondering if this game will ever do away with factions entirely or even fracture them further (the horde definitely seems to be on the verge of breaking apart).  MoP seems to be a step closer to that no matter how much they try to deny it.


No screenshots for most of this, but recent acquisitions that i'm proud of...my last two AQ mounts (including the red one!), the Venomhide Ravasaur, and an Amani Battle Bear on both my mains (shown here on Fyre).

Oh and did i mention?  I was able to tame Deth'tilac with the help of a guildee and a couple of his friends.  You have to be able to kite perfectly do this alone... alas i am fallible and needed help.

Lastly, my countdown is not to the newest expansion (though i'm sure that will be coming sooner than we had to wait for Cat).  I've been wanting to screenshot my last ten mounts as i acquire them.  Let me just say that Coren, the Baron (is it still the Baron who's in Strat?), Kael, Skadi, and Greta (curse you!) have not been kind.  You may have noticed that there was a name that wasn't on that list that you might have expected. /cackle

90+91 = two Goblin trikes (my Ambassador title is finally complete again...that is, until MoP)

92 = Flameward Hippogryff

93 = Headless Horseman's Mount!!!

I am really hoping that i'm not going to have to start grinding Argent Dawn dailies in order to get 7 more mounts.  I foresee a lot of archaelogy and fishing in my immediate future.  That and hoping for rare drops and more Call to Arms on Fyre with a mailbox a quick click away.  Is that cheating?  How many times have i run Occ and UtP only to see nothing drop?!?

you tell me this now?

I found this on WoW Insider a few days ago about T13 set bonuses (the proc being off Arcane Shot):
"The challenge that MM faces currently is that it can do more damage by hardcasting Aimed Shot than by using Arcane Shot as a focus dump."

Yeah, i've been theorycrafting on my hunter for weeks (if not months) now and you just tell me that now?  I mean, i've seen one or two people advocate hardcasting Aimed Shot while Rapid Fire is up, but then my own work at the Training Dummy and other people discredited such theories.  The trouble with using Aimed Shot as a focus dump is that it has a reallllly long cast time and a reallllly high focus cost so that means that you are capped the entire time you are trying to cast it (assuming that you don't get interrupted or have to move, mind you!).  Aimed Shot is completely impractical, Master Marksman usually procs just as the mob is dying, and until it's added to the Aspect of the Fox list...  So how???  I don't even know how to begin to try to master it.  How do you force an elephant into a slot left for a mouse?

Notice i used "cast it"?  I want to be able to say "shoot it" or "aim it", something that sound like an actual Hunter, but instead Blizz has made us more like casters than ever before.

Arcane Shot...i don't know why i hate it so much, i just do.  It's like Serpent Sting before it was buffed, completely worthless, or at least nearly useless, and the "experts" can't seem to decide whether it should be spammed or panned.  Hunters aren't casters, we aren't meant to do magic damage (#1 reason to take mana away from us, but now you want to make us more like casters???  Which is exactly what Aimed Shot, Cobra Shot, and Steady Shot do).

#1 reason i am considering quitting WoW...is that i don't like feeling this way about Blizz, as if anything i like about my class is only going to be taken away from me, and anything that i don't like about my class will eventually get worse, too.

Another example of this:  Raid Finder will only be for 25 mans and will yield no VP.  There's no reason for me to go in.  I get instantly DCed in 25 mans, it's hard enough staying connected and viable in 10 mans (actually, it's impossible even with my video settings turned down ALL THE WAY save for Particle Density).  And the only way to get VP is to do defunct raids or 3 heroics that i don't know if i will be able to do or if they will be like ZA/ZG and you have to outgear it for it to be fun, fast, viable.

Why do i even play this game anymore?

green/purple, red/red/red...amber?!?

Yeah, i saw the second episode...it was a little better.

SPOILERS! / theories

The first thing that everyone sees (in the "Previously on Fringe" bit) is Walter telling us that there is an infinite number of universes out there.  So it hits me:  This season of the show isn't either of the universes that the last three seasons were about.  Well, it might be the red universe is still the alternate universe, but "our" universe just doesn't exist anymore.  We're stuck in an amber universe now (which is disheartening, to say the least, as we now associate this color with Amber and being frozen alive indefinitely).  But this is abundantly obvious through Anna Torv's brilliant acting.  Fauxlivia is vastly different from Olivia who is vastly different from who we now have...let's call her Frostlivia.

Where is Charlie?

Proof (re: step-father's fate):  child Peter changed child Olivia's life (and therefore future).  Is he even capable of reaching Frostlivia?  Is anything of Olivia even left?!?

Incidentally, about last week... I like Lincoln, but whose bright idea was it to try to transfer the audience's primary interest onto him and away from Olivia?  What, she's not interesting and empathetic-evoking enough without Peter all of a sudden?