Nerdtacular 2013 (Woot, woot!)

    So this post is going to be a little less Wow related then my normal ones.  I just spent the last couple days at Nerdtacular which, if you don't know is a small pod casting convention held here in Utah.  It was originally a very Wow centric, but has grown over the years as Frogpants studios (http://frogpants.com/) has grown and added more and more podcasts to the line up it puts out.

    This is web comic and podcaster Scott Johnson's company, and I first became aware of it when I started listening to "The Instance," (http://frogpants.com/podcasts/the-instance/) The World of Warcraft podcast that Scott Johnson, Willy "Dills", and Turpster put on.  I have been listening to this show since 2008 or so, and I have rarely missed a week.  They do a general mix of Wow information and news and are just fun to listen too.  Of course Scott Johnson has a guild on Earthen Ring Server named Alea Ecta Est (The Die is Cast) and I know at one point it was officially the larges guild in World of Warcraft.  I myself have a toon in that guild I log on to sometimes just to kill a few minutes and listen to that community chat.  Illyrea on Earthen ring.  (Yes, that isn't my only toon of that name.)

       I highly suggest if you can finding something like this near you.  Nerdtacular was a bunch of panels around podcasting.  Their shows are all based around Wow, gaming, Books, New Tech, and other such geekery.   Stuff that makes  people like me happy, and even if like me you don't talk to a lot of people, it's nice just sitting in a group of like minded individuals.  Cryptazoic (http://www.cryptozoic.com/) even donated a bunch of their board games and wow TCG games so people could chill and play between panels.

      The shows we caught were the Battles of the Frogpants all stars (A group of Frogpants Podcasters split into two teams and trying to outdo each other at games and trivia) Film Sack (frogpants.com/podcasts/filmsack/) Where they did Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Costume contest, Prizeocolypse,  The Saturday morning Stream (Normally the Morning Stream http://frogpants.com/tms/) and a couple of other things.

     My only big complaint this year is that during the Prizeocolypse I didn't get my name pulled for a third year in a row.  That is more a Karma thing then anything else, I guess I need to yell more or become more social.  Me and Matt (Shaqia) were sitting in the row right behind Scott Johnson's family, which was cool. Until when they were tossing shirts one of the dudes there blocked a shirt thrown straight at me, and then picked it up and tossed it way back into the crowd.  Matt, offered to punch the dude for being a douche, but we decided to shrug it off.  Wouldn't be good to get kicked out for picking a fight, 'specially with the hosts family lol.  (Not that we would pick a fight anyway it was just annoying).  Unlike last year, where I left with a bunch of blizzard shirts, this year I had to settle with just my swag bad and a T-shirt I bought.  (The Instance T-shirt)  There is something inherently disappointing about  that, but at the same time, I know Scott Johnson had asked blizzard not to send so many T's because anything left over he has to take home, and there was a crapload of T-shirts last year left over even after the attendees picked over the remnants.  So I'm trying not to be unreasonable in my head with this, because I know it's just me

       I am lucky to have a understanding wife who lets me do this once a year.  I've known and heard of people who don't.  But I do need to shout out to her for letting me express my nerdyness, and hopefully I will be able to drag her along one year.

      All in all, it was a fun wonderful weekend, but I'm ready to spend time with my family again and return to Azeroth with my adopted digital family.  And Moldie.  (Hee hee)

       Next post I will talk about Wow, I promise.

Dizzty, Lag, Lazyeye,
     

For all the Bugs I've Squished Before

This was what one would call a very good week.

       With an overwhelming return of people I actually had to see if someone wanted to sit out of raid Tuesday, (thank you Lotauna for volunteering) and Wednesday we were full quickly as well.  Sadly, had to leave a person or two out of that one as well.  But we shook hands with our good friend progression.

My hunter Lazyeye who is getting geared now.  Mwha ha ha.

       Night one Jin'Rokh went down again, then we burned some time on trash (sadly) and got a few good hits off on Horridon.  It felt like a good start.

       Then Wednesday we stepped in to do Grand Empress Shek'zeer.  We had an issue with a DC on the first attempt that killed us.  Lag, had to strap his shield back on and hop in to tank, And we took that giant bug down!!! This means, we don't have to do Heart of Fear again peeps! No more HoF

       It was then a trip to Terrace of Endless Spring.  Now we had killed the Council before, but it had been a few months and I wasn't sure how this was going to go.   It did take a few tries... but we got our bearings and those Jin'yu breathed their last.

First two bosses we killed

     The next part is the part that makes me most happy.  We stepped up to the Giant Tsulong!  We had experienced tons of trouble trying to take down this dragon previously.  We hadn't attempted him for a few months either So with about 15 minutes of raid left, I wasn't expecting to take him down.  However we walked in and gave him a great smacking on our first attempt.  I said holy crap we decided to do another attempt with 5 minutes of raid left we stepped in, and went a little late while getting our first kill of Tsulong.

 It was a good night.

First Downing of Tsulong!!!!

      So that means, if we can down the last two bosses in Terrace next week, we can focus solely on Throne of Thunder!  I don't think that is an unrealistic goal after last night to think that is possible.  So off to a happy weekend and We shall beat things down next week!

       As a note, I probably won't have an opinion post this weekend like I try to do, since I will be at Nerdtacular on the 5th and the 6th at Snowbird, Ut.  If anyone else is there that reads this, I hope to see you.

Dizzty, Lag, Lazyeye.  Yes I am having an identity crisis.

The Next Expansion.

     We are now waiting on 5.4 to drop.  This means that the last major patch (to our knowledge) of the expansion will be out possibly as early as September, and probably by October or November at the latest with the speed the patches have been coming from Blizzard.

     Of course, this expansion has been, and will continue to be fun for a good while yet, I'm not calling in the doom bells on this.  From watching the trouble with Mission of Mercy, to the epic return of my friends in Bridgeburners, to all my long winded speeches about raiding in Fear Itself, you know, my guild, Mists has some great moments and memories for me.  However, we must start looking toward the next expansion, because we know that Blizzard is.

      Chances are that Blizzard will be announcing the next expansion at Blizzcon in November.  From there, if things are going the speed they are we can expect the next expansion to drop sometime in early 2014.  I would guess that if Blizzard keeps at the pace they are going that the aim would be before summer hits.   Heck, I will even make a guess, the next expansion will drop on May 13th.  Now it's in writing and we can all see how close I am.

    Of course traditionally it's been a nine months to a year after the last big patch before the next expansion has dropped.  I don't think Blizzard will stick to that this time.  I think they are too dependent on dropping another expansion quickly, and making it hit all the right notes to bring some of the players they have lost back.  They have maintained a breakneck pace of releasing content for Mists, so I am assuming they plan on keeping that momentum going.

     There are things I hope to see in the next expansion....

      New Class.  My hope for this would be the Demon Hunter.  It has long been in Wow's lore and would be awesome if implemented correctly.   They could even go pure dps on this one, with a melee spec, a ranged spec, and maybe some sort of caster spec.  I wouldn't mind them stealing a couple of things from Diablo's Demon hunter for this as well.  Plus, they could introduce one handed guns/crossbows and warglaves into the game with this...  Whatever they choose the next class will probably be a Mail armor wearer.  Other armor types have three classes.  Plate (Warrior, Pally, DK.)  Cloth (Priest, Mage, Warlock.) Leather (Monk, Rogue, Druid.) Mail (Hunter and Shaman.)

      New Character slot? This one I don't think will happen.  (I won't say it will never happen) With Virtual Realms opening up if you want more then 11 characters on your realm, you can just choose of the the realms connected to yours and have the same access you would if your rolled on your home realm.  The caveat to this being, that if you are on a high population realm, or one that isn't pulled into virtual realms as firmly it might limit your options a bit.

      New Race.  I am not sure we need a new race, but I am not sure they can pass on putting some more coolness into the game.  My guess on this varies, but if we go on another space adventure, like in Outlands, plan on the new race being demon/alien like.  If we go to the Emerald Dream or somewhere closer to home then it will be a local thing we have never seen, or they may roll something we have fought for years rolling into our ranks.  I.E.  If it's an underwater expansion (shudder, I love Vash'jir, but didn't make a point of going back after I left it) there might be a rogue group of Naga that join our factions. As it is, the races I'd like to see (but most probably won't) turn playable would be, Etherial, Naga, High Elf (for the alliance),, and Saurock/Jinyu.  NO MURLOCS!!!!  I am guessing if they do another race they will do them like the Panderan and they will be multi-factional.  Not only was that done well, but it cuts down on development time to only have to throw in one race.

      New Places.  This expansion we got Panderia.  Next expansion who knows?  There has been plenty of signs that we may be facing the burning legion again.  My guess is that we will avoid that direction though until Wow has about pushed it's life cycle to the end.  Eventually we will go after Sargeras, but I feel that is the big bad Blizzard will save until the end.  We may also end up facing off again Queen Azshara which would mean some under water work.  Of course with us still discovering things from the Cataclysm, we could go to Kul Tiras, see Jaina's family and find several new islands/areas that have popped up in the sea.  Tie in Zandalar, and maybe we can have a tropical expansion where we hop island to island.  I am just throwing this in, because everyone else says Space Adventure/Emerald dream.

      Level Cap.  Blizzard will add more levels.  Whether it's 5 or 10 remains to be seen, but I would put my money on 5.  I think there will be an item squish this time around and we will see all stats/ilevels bosses, npc's etc.. in the game get squished with us so we aren't tracking 1.5 mil dps by the end of next expansion.  With a squish they may go for 10 levels, but I wouldn't bet on it.

     Dance Studio.  MWha ha ha, lol, hee hee hee, ho, ho, ho, Mwha ha ha ha ha.  Needless to say at this point even if put in and done well, they would get nothing but mockery for it.

     New Talents system.  I hope not.

     Swimming mounts.  If we get our undersea expansion, I imagine we will have an array of Undersea mounts to collect.  Then again, Blizzard has said that if they could, they would go back and avoid putting flying mounts into the game.

Always nice to remember where we come from.

    And more....  What do you think the new expansion will have/be about.  What have I missed?  As a matter of fact comment on anything you think you can add to this and make it a discussion.  What do you think?

Dizzty

   

   

     

Heart of Fear update for 06/26/2013

    Yes, i'm busted, I created a youtube channel to put stuff on.  The good thing about this, is it gives me a media form on which people can mock my healing abilities, my voice etc..... bad side of things is right now I'm limited to 15 minutes of video per video.  So I will probably edit stuff down for time.  However as I have a system that I can now put videos up for you to watch, I am a little excited.  I may even start studying classes and doing simple guides for people in the guild to watch.  I am not expecting anything fantastic, but I will see what I can do.

(bit of the first half of our raid)

     Now, I haven't figured out how to get the other half of the vent conversations working yet, when I do it won't feel all one sided.  I may have to bring up my headset for recordings so you don't get as much background when I talk.  But enough about new features/toys.  Let's discuss last nights raid.

(and some of the second half)

    O.k.  So last night wasn't the amazing stomp fest that I was hoping, (as you can tell from the videos)  We managed to kill trash.. but the Emperess Shak'zeer stomped our faces.  To be fair, we did make some progress through out the night, but it's going to take some more work to get her down.  If we can manage a Jin'rokh kill and get our LFR's done weekly we will even out gear this fight quicker and just take her down much quicker.

     So, I ask everyone to study the fight, it is up on our guild website.  If we can just tighten up the amber traps on the add phase, we should be able to get this down quickly once we get that figured out.  The difference between having an add up after the boss re-emerges and having one dead is what will be the difference between a dead boss and a live one.

      We will get this, and we will get this soon.  We are still playing a little catch up from having attendance issues, but those will pass quickly enough.  Most of the people playing now have been playing with us on and off, and we should start gelling soon.  Couple of people (like me) have just class switched and are still figuring out the nuances of what we are playing.  As soon as we get more comfortably into a groove things will go faster.

I will hopefully have a new report, or something similar this weekend.  Remember, next weekend I won't be around as I will be chilling at Nerdtacular.com 

Dizzty

Jin'rokh is dead... poor Jin'rokh is dead.

     I have a happy announcement for everyone.

     Woot, da Woo!, Yes folks, after months of fighting attendance, and having some headache pains we have finally started into Throne of Thunder.  First boss is down, and we had some great progression during the night.  We went from wiping in the first few moments of the fight, to consistently progressing, to downing the boss with half an hour to spare.  The trash defeated us after that, and I called the raid about 10 minutes early when I realized that we wouldn't have a chance to get to Horridon.  I am in high spirits though, because we have started some current progression.

   Credit should go to those on the team last night.  Shaqia, Gwyndolynn, Laroth, Magilla, Scorpiack, Badwulf, Easybake (and her insane deeps, she gets an extra call out), Amelmi, Khallon, and Dizzty (me).  It was great work tonight, and I will soon have all the boss fights up on our website (fearitselfofzangarmarsh.enjin.com) and I look forward to pushing through the rest of the fights in Throne of Thunder.

    So I am sticking to the plan now, we are going to continue on Throne of Thunder on Tuesday nights, and Wednesday nights will be progression through the rest of HoF and ToES.  As soon as all those bosses have been downed, we will be ToT every night, all the time.  Well, at least two nights a week.  I may look at opening up and starting raids a tich bit earlier, or finding a way to get more time into ToT because the raid is big, and I want to make sure we have the time to progress.  It will also help because from what they have released on the Siege of Ogrimmar, it looks like there are going to be 14 bosses in there as well.

     But, big ups to the raid team, and I look forward to downing the empress tonight and moving on through ToES.  If we keep our momentum, I think we will be done with that tier completely in the next couple of weeks. I also am going to look for a recording program I like so I can start posting recordings of our raids where out members can watch them, and review.  I plan on having this up by next week, so if anyone has any they like to use, please leave what it is in the comment section.

(This song dedicated to Jin'rokh, and hey, Wolverine can sing!)

      And hey, if you find them wandering around Zangarmarsh, give the members of our raid team Big Ups for their hard work.

Dizzty.

State of your Class

   Believe it or not, there are people out there who have never rolled an alt.  Weird huh?

    Then you have people like me who have about 500 more alts then I have time to play, and occasionally you go hop on one to hide from the world, or have a little me time where you won't be bothered by people.  (Have I mentioned I can't wait until the appear offline option goes in someday for real ID)  It's not that I don't love people, and my friends it's just there are times when I don't want to have to say, "Umm.. no, I don't feel like it right now," because I feel I am letting others down when I say that.

      For those who play one class, and one class only? I am wondering why?  Why do you limit yourself to that one character?  I understand some people don't like change, and desire to perfect themselves in what they play... but I know I need to swap up speeds here and there.  I can't be a one toon player.

      I always have my main, don't get me wrong (whom recently changed, and will someday likely change again.) But I always have an alt i'm working on.  My priest has all his LFRs done for the week? Well then maybe I dust off my hunter and run a couple things, or try to get that gun from Kara for my transmog, once again.  I will continue to work on that hunter in my spare time for a week or three, and then suddenly my warlock will whisper to me, and I will switch up which alt gets my extra time again.

     I feel my Disc priest is strong on heals atm.  As he is my main, this makes me happy.  My Pally is solid on tanking, but Ret just seems middle of the road on dps.  None of my other characters are developed enough for me to give an opinion on how they feel.  However, I do want to get a ranged dps leveled and somewhat geared to step in if needed, as my shadow dps leaves something to be desired right now.  I still haven't a lot of practice at it, and as much as I should work on that half of my priest... I like the alt time.

     So, comment on how you are feeling about your class right now.  Is it the bees knees, or has blizzard left you in a mode of boredom/devastation?

Dizzty

   

   

This Week in Raiding 06/20/2013 Un'Sok Goes down.

We kicked some trash! Also, a couple of Bosses.

      I am very happy with this weeks progress, insanely happy.  My priest Dizzty did a decent job healing, which is still a point of worry for me, but Disc seems to be in my wheelhouse of things I can pull off, and I plan on sticking to it for a while.

     First of all, Tuesday was not a great raid day.  We made progression, and moved against the boss, but the same little thing kept killing us as the end of the fight.  We hit a wall about half way through the night and couldn't get the boss down below 20% or so without blowing ourselves up with the wind bombs.  I left Tuesday night feeling frustrated and ornery... which due to running around earlier in the day I was already ornery and hiding it through the raid.

      Last night my goal was just to take down Wind Lord Mel'jarak, my brother Matt (Shaqia) gets a big shout out from me for talking to one of the raiders who was having a lot of issues with the wind bombs and helping her out.  Gwyndolynn helped her out as well, and between their help and everything else we managed to one shot Wind Lord Mel'jarak last night.

     I was excited, and ready to push against Amber Shaper Un'Sok for the rest of the night.  However, my raid team completely smashed my expectations and we downed Un'Sok in a few tries.  That's right, two bosses down with time to spare!!!  We even smacked the Empress across the face a couple times and I anticipate her going down next week as soon as we get her add phase figured out.

     The Whole raid team deserves a shout out for a Job well done.  The raid was Dizzty (me), Gwyndolynn, Shaqia, Magilla, Laroth, Cuin, Amelmi, Easybake, Fantaa, and Scorpiak.  Everyone worked hard and we managed to push through.  This means a couple things.

    Next week, raiding will be different.  We are going to spend one night on Throne of Thunder and one on Heart of Fear.  We are going to start working through the old stuff one night a week until we finish up the Terrace of Eternal Spring, and the other night, we are into Throne of Thunder territory.  Once we have downed all the old bosses, we are going to be doing Throne full time.  This is the plan, and I'm excited to see it move forward.

     I think with some hard pushing and some luck, we maybe close to caught up when the Siege of Ogrimmar comes out in a few months, and hit that one hard.  We had a good run with Cataclysm where we caught up right before Dragon soul came out, and we managed to down Deathwing before the expansion ended.  Hopefully we will have similar luck.

     Here are two things I attribute to the success last night.  One the fact everyone worked hard and pushed to get things down, and two.  Everyone was on time and ready to go so we were able to maximize out time in raid.  We had a short break midway through, but most the two hours was time well spent.

(This video has nothing to do with this post or raid, I just have Imagine Dragons in my head.)

     On to next week now, we will see what it brings us!

Dizzty.