In which I talk about PVP and Continuing on my way to the elusive Proto-Drake

So while I hemmed and hawed, bitched and complained about the Battleground achievement in the For the Children Meta-Achievement, I still went out and did it.

I have to say,  I was annoyed that I had to do it, and I didn't really want to. I hadn't done battlegrounds in a long time. I was crabby about it. I admit it. I did some of the standard bitching on guild chat about it, and even stormed off in a huff a  couple times. But, I did it. I finished it.

Somewhere along the line I even started to enjoy it. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed some battlegrounds and it got me to want to do them again. With a stipulation. I really didn't like doing battlegrounds where my goal is to not win, but instead meat some weird criteria (cap a tower, capture a flag instead of a base, etc). I even found myself doing some battlegrounds yesterday after I had completed the Achievement, just for the fun of trying to punk some Horde. Coming from a MMO that had little to no PvP in it, I didn't think I would ever get into it. The only other MMO experience I had ever had that included PvP was Eve online, which consisted of dying to people so far beyond my level of equipment that I never had a chance. With WoW, that really isn't the case, gear is important, but dying doesn't cause me to lose everything I have worked hard to gather. Instead it is more a pasttime of fun, not work.

Now, I will never be a PvP god/whore/monger, but it definitely is a bit of fun to do when I get tired of leveling, questing, cooking, raiding, exploring, crafting, playing the Auction House, or just chatting with whomever is around.

OK, I know, I missed my normal timeline for posting. The reason is good. I got stuck going on a whirlwind trip for work down to the magical land of New Jersey. While down there I contracted the New Jerseyian Death Flu, which kicked me in the head a few dozen times before finally pretending to leave me alone, though it hasn't really gotten done with me yet. I feel a few more kicks to the 'nads coming before I'm all done with this stupid thing.

Anyway, you all don't give a crap about me being sick, you want to hear me randomly pontificate on things that are meaningless to anyone but me, and maybe a few of you others out there. For today's post, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to talk about. At first I thought I'd talk about all the stuff coming out about cata-who. Actually I was going to talk about how little I care. Is the expansion out yet? No? Well then why the hell am I wasting time reading about all the new things that I may or may not get? Oh yeah, I don't.

Then I decided I could talk about how frustrating it is to be a pure DPS class (hunter) and have to wait for up to thirty plus minutes on the whim of a tank who may or many not really care enough to run the entire random with me. And, if they do deem themselves available enough to be able to run a whole instance then they obviously get to tell me exactly how to play my class. Since being a level 34 Paladin obviously gives you the ability to know everything there is to know about the other nine classes that are out there currently.

Instead, I think I might just do this. I did the Noblegarden achievements for Michelinea. It's awesome, I'm still on target for getting my cool year achievement this year. Also, in frustration of long wait times on Waterlemon, I created a Paladin and have leveled her to 15. I've now done 3 instances as a tank, but haven't once told someone how to their job (even the melee hunter who didn't have a pet). I also have learned that people don't really want tanks, they just don't want to die, they seem to like tanking themselves as long as the healer can keep them alive. More power to them.

Who knows what next week will bring, maybe something more interesting.

Meta-Achievements, here I come!

So, when the Valentine's Day holiday time came up in Azeroth I made a conscious decision to go after the all holiday meta achievement. To that end, I went at Love is in the Air like gang busters. At first, I thought I'd screenshot every achievement I got to post for posterity. Very quickly that fell by the way side. I get really excited when I get a new achievement so I forget fairly often. Actually I get too excited. Sometimes I cheer or do something foolish like spin around in my chair. These kind of things are the reason my wife and kids think I'm crazy.

Anyway, there was one that really cracked me up. It reminded me entirely too much of some Friday night's while I was in college. I swear I must have done this at some point on a college campus in northern New Hampshire.

 

Side note, I love how when you get drunk in WoW the screen gets fuzzy and it's hard to move. That just makes me laugh every time I do it. The thing I don't get is how people are able to continue running things like instances while drunk. I just can't see enough to know I'm hitting the right thing.

Last night I got both the Elder and Love is in the Air Meta's giving me a good start toward my goal. This is all thanks to a guildie who got a bunch of her friends to help me get through the Northerend instances. 

Note to everyone out there who want to do these 

1. Not soloable, not duoable with a DK and a Priest.

2. You don't actually have to do it on Heroic mode.

3. If you have alt toons that need to get the achievement, you can do it. You just need a couple things:

a. A group that is willing to let you do this.

b. A warlock in the party

All you need to do is have the party get to the elder, get the achievement, leave party with your current character, log onto the other character, have the warlock summon you and get the achievement for the other character.

c. Poof, 2 alts with the elder complete.

While I personally didn't try it, I hear it works well.

Who ever thought....

I would have so many ideas to write about that I would not write any of them down? Since Saturday I've been getting ideas to talk about on my blog, but each time I start to write them down I get side tracked and that means I ended up with 5 or 6 post starts and nothing actually published.

I am determined now though. I will post. It will rock. Well maybe not, but I'll like it and maybe you, my 3 faithful readers scattered out among the servers of the internet. Which reminds me, to that person out in Alaska who is reading to me, I have no idea how you find me, but thank you for reading. I know I don't know anyone in Alaska, and yet you are my highest hit person. Thank you.

On to the post!

One of my favorite parts of WoW started up on Sunday at 3AM server time. Another holiday has begun in the world of Azeroth. I am not going to post a guide, since sites like Wowhead write very good ones and I would be merely copying from them or another site that provides such good details on the holiday.

Back a year or so ago when I started playing WoW seriously I skipped on the holidays in my huge rush to try to get to be one of the cool kids at 80. I've since learned the error of my ways. I didn't realize how much I liked the holiday events until last thanksgiving when I happened to run by the thanksgiving vendor outside of Stormwind. Since then, I have tried to do as many events as I can. I down right love them and eat them up. They are great. I started last night and did the 2 dailies I am allowed and advanced the main questline about as far as I can go on my own (destroying the cart and the sprayers). I need to do some research on it before moving forward from there.

What else is going on in WoW? Let's see, still doing Heroics with Alydar, I bought my first piece of Frost emblem gear, the back piece. I'm still battling with deciding whether I should have Mich leave Soulbound and join Atlantis. I don't know what to do here. I don't really get anything out of Soulbound other than the companionship of Cara and Jisao, but I wouldn't really get anything out of Atlantis either.

I begin to think that Atlantis is a dying guild. The GM is doing a semester abroad so is rarely if ever on. In addition, I rarely see anyone online other than Alydar and myself. Every once in a while I'll see another person online. I don't know if people are logging in, seeing no one so logging off, or they just aren't active anymore.

I started thinking about it, and I noticed that I can set up events on the calendar (I think anyone in the guild can). I was thinking I might set up an event and see if I  get any acceptances. I was thinking of maybe a 10 man Naxx run, something easy like that to see if I can get some 80's interest. To do this though, I really should move Mich since she's my only 80, and she's in another guild. Oops! Circular argument. Round and round we go!

Also, I am a bit nervous. I don't want to update Alyx (our GM), or any of the other Guild officers (there are a few). It wouldn't be good for me to take initiative and find out that in fact I was rocking the boat. Problem being though, I never see any officers other than Alydar. I have mentioned my ideas to Alydar, and he hasn't really said anything positive or negative on the subject. Maybe I'll do it, what's the worst thing that can happen? I get thrown out of Atlantis? Oh no. It isn't like there aren't other guilds out there that people are always shouting for membership on trade.

I'll do it tonight. If you happen to read this and have an opinion, please comment!