Council down!

A nice, clean kill with only 24 raiders and 3 of them constantly disconnecting throughout the fight. Onwards to Tortos!

Winter came, but not for Impulse.

For the Horde!

As mentioned in a previous blog post, my guild (and the entire Silver Hand server, really) has been dying/dead for quite some time now. In searching for a new home, I decided to make a character on Zul’jin since it was a relatively progressed server with a large population. Last I checked, Zul’jin was #11 in progression while Silver Hand was #156. Tanmaya later informed me that Silver Hand fell even further to #193 later that week. The extent of progression is quite prominent; on ZJ, I was surprised at how many people were pugging heroic modes for tier 14 already whereas on SH, very few guilds had even finished those as a group. 

The amount of active subs on ZJ far exceeds SH also, at 15,000+ subs to 3000+. I can put up obscure and obsolete items like Hearts of Darkness on the AH and they’ll actually sell. Good luck trying to sell such items on the market of SH. Items in general are cheaper on ZJ also since the population is too large for any one person to corner the market, which has been such a huge problem on SH. And with such a large population, one would think that the amount of trolls on ZJ would be higher, but luckily such is not the case. People actually use Trade to spam for – gasp – Trade-related things! On SH, ads for guild recruitment or pug raids would be drowned out by all the trolls in Trade; on ZJ, the trolls are the ones being drowned out. What a wonderful twist of events.

It is a little more difficult to farm things on such a high-pop server, though, so there are some drawbacks. Gatherers and rare-hunters will find stiff competition. With so many people on the server, it can also be difficult to remember which guilds and players one should avoid when trying to form pugs. For those of us who don’t have top-of-the-line rigs, densely-populated areas such as Orgrimmar and the Shrine of Two Moons are hell on frame rates, even with all settings turned down to Fair. 

And you might be wondering, “Why, Rhu… What are you doing in the Shrine of Two Moons?” Yes, after 8 years of being a human crusader for the Silver Hand, Rhulain now belongs to the Blood Knight order. I felt it was time for a change and so long as I was changing servers, I might as well switch factions, too. So far, I don’t regret it. Though the Horde are not largely deemed to be as “honorable” as the Alliance, I find them to be much more interesting. My only complaint is that I absolutely can’t stand Garrosh and wish for him to die in a (very large) fire. Vol’jin once threatened to “be there to end [Garrosh’s] rule” after which Garrosh spit at his feet. I think it’s time soon for Vol’jin to make good on that threat. I’ve only been Horde for a few months and I’m already tired of Garrosh’s attitude. Vol’jin would make an excellent warchief, I think. Even Baine, who although is young, will be a better warchief since he’s proven to be his father’s son. Thrall must have been out of his damned mind, passing the title to Garrosh…

One by one, I will be moving my characters to Zul’jin. I have a lot of memories on Silver Hand and will likely leave my lower-level alts there for nostalgia, but it’s definitely time to move on, though the decision to do so didn’t come to me easily. And so here begins a new chapter for Rhulain.

At least I kept her original hair style? lol

Runescape spammers, really?

Anyone else getting a lot of spam comments from people linking stuff about Runescape? I've had to delete at least 12 comments in just as many days. It is getting frustrating. I don't want to have to start restricting the settings for comments but it looks like I might have to...

Holy transmog

It's been a while since I last posted a transmog screenie. Here is what my paladin is currently wearing for her healing transmog. I've gotten quite a few queries from people, even from LFR and LFG, about what pieces I was using. It's not all from the same set so I usually just refer them to my Armory page for simplicity lol.

I know Wrathion thinks my mog is cool.

 

 

So here are the pieces that I used to build this set:

Shoulders - Shoulderguards of Radiant Glory (Raid Finder)
Chest - Valorous Aegis Tunic
Gloves - Gloves of Radiant Glory (Raid Finder)
Belt - Girdle of Soulful Mending
Pants - Valorous Aegis Greaves
Boots - Silver Sabatons of Fury
Axe - Last Laugh

WTB Raiders

For the past few months, my guild has been struggling to fill its raids. Our first big hit was when a raider and his two brothers disappeared over the Thanksgiving holiday. No word from them except a previous mail from the eldest stating that they were having a real-life issue. At this point, I'm more concerned about everything being okay for them rather than them not being online. But replacing them was difficult.

We were finally able to fill the raids somewhat when Tanmaya, some of her guildies, and one of her friends from another server decided to join Afterlight. Then they were followed by Ayzera, a former AL member, who decided to come back to the guild with some of his guildies in tow. Finally, we had a full raid team and even some reserves on stand-by.

As luck would have it, a few days before the first raid, RL tragedies struck. 2 of the friends that Ayz brought had to go MIA for personal, RL reasons. Only one of them returned (and I don't really expect the other to) but her schedule is greatly limited now that she has picked up a second job. She has only been on 2-3 raids since. Then Ayz started to get bombarded with work and his erratic schedule doesn't allow him to commit as he used to. He can only make it to maybe 50% of the scheduled raids. Another of his friends came on a few raids but then he also had to pick up a second job and can no longer commit. Yet another brought outstanding dps to the table but at a price - he was undisciplined, arrogant, condescending, and - for lack of a better word - was just an asshole. I had to make a choice between keeping him or losing everyone else, since no one particularly wanted to defend him. I chose to keep the other raiders but that meant losing yet another raider. To top it off, we lost more bodies when one of the healers took offense to me saying things like "Don't stand in puddles" or "Don't break chains." I never once actually called her out for doing it so my conscience is clear. But when she left, she took her husband with her, leaving us down two more raiders.

Now, we went from having almost enough for a 25-man or two 10-man teams, to having only 9 regulars. This makes things difficult as those 9 raiders consist of 3 married couples, myself included. So if something comes up with our respective families or schedules, that usually means we lose 2 people at once. My husband is schedule to work 10-hour shifts soon and not only does that mean he likely can't raid, but it means I won't be able to, either. So that brings the numbers down to 7 regulars. This would be doable, as the last 3 spots can be pugged. However, if anyone else can't make it, even if for just one week, it leaves the raid severely shorthanded.

I know this is frustrating for me, as a guild leader, to handle. But I'm more concerned with how this situation leaves my raiders. Do they feel tied down to AL out of loyalty? Am I being selfish for not just cutting them loose? They know they're free to raid with another group if raids are canceled for any given week. But I still feel bad that I can't provide them with a proper raiding environment.

Recruitment on Silver Hand is pretty much futile. All of the good raiders are already in established teams and we don't exactly have streams of people lined up to server-transfer. I'm really hoping that we'll be able to regroup come 5.2 because I really enjoy playing the game with my guild and the team.

"Just ask."

Oops, been a month since I made a post! I was busy with the holidays and exams and I was also sort of writing a holy paladin guide. But more about that another time!

My guild raid group seems to have an overabundance of healers right now so I've been trying to gear out my death knight so that I can provide some dps instead. I am currently chain-running heroics like crazy. Plate drops and other dps items have not been plentiful; I've only seen 4 items so far in about a week and some days. And you know what? Tanks have rolled against me for each one of those items. I will, though, not include the tank who rolled against me on Ook's Hozen Slicer because 1) He asked me first if it was okay for him to roll on it; 2) I know that sword is BiS for tanks pre-raid. I won the sword and he didn't complain, was just happy I let him have the chance to roll on it. But all of the other tanks wouldn't give up the dps items that they won, items which I believe I have more right to than they do. I asked nicely and was either awarded silence or hit with rudeness.

Today was no different. Bracers of the Fallen Crusade dropped and I said in chat, "Finally! Those are a big upgrade for me." (This part was cut out in the screenie, got pushed too far up by the time I was able to take a shot.) And I rolled on it. Ten seconds later, the tank rolls need on them and wins. The following discussion occurs:

Apparently, I was being bitchy. But come on, I even said in chat that it was an upgrade for me! Which means that I needed it badly. The tank took a whole ten seconds before he decided to roll, so I don't buy the "oops," (Here's Your Sign moment #1) as that roll couldn't have been an accident. As for his guildie, I don't even know what the "And u tank?" comment was about because I don't even understand what she meant by that. After asking clarification, I got nothing. At the end of the run, the tank asks, "Did u want bracers?" (Here's Your Sign #2) and I said "I would, if you don't mind." So he hands them to me and says, "Next time, just ask." (Here's Your Sign #3). I shouldn't have HAD to ask because firstly, I said in chat when the item dropped that I needed it and secondly, because it was off-spec for him and main-spec for me. He shouldn't have rolled on it in the first place.

I am not a fan of the changes to LFR's loot rules since you can trade stuff you get, but don't need, to other people who could use it. But I am becoming a fan more and more of the "assigned loot" aspect of it. I am so tired of losing healing/spirit gear to mages and warlocks on my druid and tired of losing dps gear on my DK to inconsiderate tanks.

/end rant

Friends on the Farm

I'm still really enjoying the farm aspect over at Halfhill. As a Harvest Moon fan, it would be awesome if WoW had more "active" rewards upon reaching Best Friends with each individual Tiller that are similar to how things are done in the console game. For example:

Old Hillpaw - Provides chickens. If chickens could be looted for Wildfowl Breast, it would really help with skilling up cooking or turning in the cooked dish for rep with Farmer Fung. They could even be looted for Farm Chicken, like what Sungshin sells and more higher-level recipes could have been added to use this ingredient for skill-up.

Ella - Gives you a cat. The cat could help chase off virmen and hawks from the farm. I can't stress how annoying it is to have two rows full of scavengers.

Sho - Adds an orange tree to Sunsong Ranch. The tree could yield a specific amount of oranges a day, say 5 or 10, and these oranges could be eaten like buff food that gives 150 to your top stat or something along those lines.

Fish Fellreed - Provides pigs. Perhaps these could be made into "truffle pigs" that root around and find the Shadelight Truffles needed for the cooking quest.

Farmer Fung - Provides a yak that could give a daily yield of yak milk.

Chee Chee - Provides sheep. Maybe the sheep could give a daily yield of wool fluff that tailors can turn into Windwool Cloth. 

Haohan Mudclaw - Provides a mushan. Miss Fifi could grab the tangled plants and pull on those for you.

Jogu - Could help make the pond on the farm deeper and wider so that it can be fished from. (Maybe this would be the type of project to help him sober up...)

There are a lot of players in WoW who don't really get "hardcore" so they do things like the pet battles and the farming to leisurely pass the time. If Sunsong Ranch could provide a more engaging environment where a player can really spend some time there, it might be enjoyable for the casuals and even for the not-so-casual, like myself, who might not feel like running LFR or heroics on some days.