Chilling...

Pugnacious Priest wrote a post about where we like to chill found here, and I've found it rather inspiring.

Stormwind is the place to be, and specifically the Dwarven District is quite populous due to it's proximity to the portals to Cataclysm zones. I have to admit that Ice spends much of her time there, but I've not completely abandoned my other favorites.

Both Audrid and my new gnome have set Ironforge as their home, and I have to admit it's rather nice and quiet now. I can remember the hotbed that Ironforge once was during Vanilla. I was just a wee newbie back then, and I can remember looking at all the level 60 characters and their Epic gear, wondering if I'd ever make it that far. I guess I've come a long way since then, and so has the game itself. Ironforge feels almost as deserted as Darnassus now.

My bank alt, Levi, lives in Dalaran still. She likes to hang out with Frozo outside of Like Clockwork and groove to the hum of the nearby Chopper's rumbling motor. She occasionally takes a trip to One More Glass, for a visit with Christi Stockton and a glass of Dalaran Red. I've discovered that I'm not the only one still chilling in Dalaran either. It may be just a shadow of what it once was, but it seems more populous than Ironforge.

I still miss Shattrath. The Aldor Bank was Ama's home. So many hours spent there, laughing and chatting, dancing and playing dress-up, napping in the piles of gold. It will never be the same since I no longer have Ama anymore, but the memories live on.

Where do you find yourself hanging out?

The torture that is maintenance day...

It's Tuesday - maintenance day. I know, we are all going through our WoW withdrawals, but Tuesdays are particularly horrible for me.

You see, I work loooong hours on the four days that I work each week, allowing me no time for WoW on work days. Tuesday is like my Friday. I am freshly off of work and ready and anxious to play, and more often than not I am presented with half of the day wasted because of maintenance.

Now, I'm not begrudging maintenance. It must be done, and I'm glad it is normally done on a regular schedule that is well posted. I'm not crying for Blizzard to give me my money back and all of that nonsense. I understand maintenance must happen. I just wish my schedule was different or that the maintenance schedule was different.

I guess I am crying a little bit because I always end up chomping at the bit on Tuesdays, anxious to get back into the game. I catch up on the blogs that I read. Try to think up new posts for my own blog, maybe write a little bit. And then I am left thinking about what I'm going to do when the servers come up.

This is what gets me into trouble. I'd love to work on my baby warrior. I kind of want to try out an RP server again now that the new guild finder is in place. I really should run a dungeon on Ice. What about Audrid? She's in Outlands now. I wonder if there are mats for the enchanting rod I need to make on the AH? I should work on my professions on... all of my toons. What about Archaeology? Its so much fun! I really still want to roll a Horde alt and stick with it.

When it comes down to it I will probably end up playing Ice or Audrid with my partner, but what about all of the rest?

With limited play time I find that all these side projects are suffering, and I just wish I had more time. That extra time that I spend every Tuesday waiting for the servers to come up.

A gaming crisis of sorts averted

Last night Torq and I were on Skype together trying to decide what to do in game. I was feeling a bit burned out on playing Ice and said as much.

~Cue Flood Gates~

You see, Torq (on his main and high level alts) is what I would call a hardcore raider (hardcore-ness subject to perspective). He is anxious to get Torq to 85, and his guild is anxious to have a Frost DK added to the ranks of Melee DPS they can pull from for raids.

When I mentioned to Torq that I wasn't really feeling like playing Ice, well, it drew parallels in his mind with a time that came before in which I deleted my level 84 Druid and my level 80 Priest among others. He was right to draw those parallels. Subconsciously I had reached that point where I was afraid to hit level cap. It is the same thing that happened to me with my Druid.

It is always difficult to deal with feelings that you haven't fully accepted or even noticed yet. I only just started to feel that little bit of burn out. But it was true, I was feeling that fear of hitting level cap. Irrational as I know it sounds, knowing that I don't really have any desire to raid left me wondering what else there is for me in the game. What happens after that?

Now, that is normally a very easy question for me to answer. ALTS!!! However, I have Torq to consider in all of this. Ultimately, he is one of the main reasons why I continue to play WoW. We have so much fun together. And so, irrational fear creeps in that once we hit 85 he will be off raiding and I will be alone. Of course it is irrational fear because I completely forget that we have 3 other pairs of alts that we are leveling purely with each other.

I have made a promise to myself, to Torq, and to all of my readers, that I will not be deleting Icelica any time soon. That would be the farthest thing from what I'd be likely to do at this point. I still have so much of her story to write. There is no way I can just delete her now. She still has a long way to go towards healing the wounds that being a member of Lich King's army has given her.

In which my new computer brought me to tears

So, just when I said I was back, I was thrown a curve ball and ended up away for another week. I had all sorts of posts planned and many ideas and the freshness of my new main kicking around my head, and BOOM. Crash went my motherboard.

It was bound to happen. I'd been inadvertently trying to destroy that thing ever since I got the computer years ago, so I wasn't completely surprised, but disappointed to have a week without it. I hardly thought I could stand it. Screw the game, I missed my blog!

Happily, yesterday I purchased a replacement with the recommendations of my guardian computer angel. It isn't perfect, and a few upgrades are still in store, but even just out of the box it screams when compared to the old computer.

After re-downloading WoW and getting my addons just so again, I stopped to look. For years I've been playing WoW with the lowest video settings possible. I thought the game was pretty enough. I had no idea. The textures, the sparkles, the details, the water, the air, the spells, even something as simple as the cobblestones in SW... I stopped and played dress-up on Ice, and she looks even more amazing than ever.

And then I had a moment of regret. The very first moment of regret at having deleted Amaranth. Not wishing I could play her, because I am well and over that, but wishing I could see her with the graphics improved. All of the beautiful sets of dress up clothes she had, all of the nifty staves and off-hand frills. I cried a little, just a little, just a moment, for that lost opportunity.

Why, oh, why did I not upgrade my computer sooner?

Keeping Control

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I am truly a healer at heart. It is my preferred role, always. Over the years reading and talking to other players I've gotten the feeling that most  people who heal do it because it has faster queue times for randoms or their guild needed another healer for the raid, not because they love healing. As a consequence of this conclusion I have never stopped trying to figure out why I love to heal. Well, I think I have come to a conclusion.

I'm a control freak.

As a healer, I always feel as though I am in control. If I don't heal you, you will die. I don't typically abuse this power, but it is the truth.

Having now tried all roles in dungeon settings, I can firmly say that the reason I have had issues with playing as DPS is mostly due to lack of control (especially when playing pure DPS classes). As DPS, in most cases, you are at the whim of your tank and healer to control the flow of a dungeon. The appeal of the DPS role is numbers. Instant gratification via large shiny numbers. I love those big numbers too, but not at the sacrifice of control. It feels like taking a huge leap of faith to put your safety in the hands of a tank and healer in a random dungeon. I know, I know. It's just a game. The worst that can happen is a wipe, but nobody likes wiping.

Now that my main is a tank I can see things much more clearly. The thing that I am enjoying most about tanking, and the thing that keeps me on the edge of my seat, biting my lip in anxiety, is that the tank role is a constant battle to keep control (keep aggro). I feel like a child walking several misbehaving dogs on leashes and they all want to go different directions. Perhaps this feeling will even out in time as I grow more experienced, but I kind of doubt it. When I am healing I know I am in control. When I am tanking I am always on the verge of losing it. I know that at any time that hunter pet might growl, or the mage might randomly decide to frost nova mobs before they reach me, or (God forbid) the healer has gone afk without letting me know. All of which has happened.

In ways, playing in the role of a tank has presented the ultimate challenge to me. Maybe someday I will attain that perfect state of zen where I no longer care about keeping control.

That Warlock Itch

I've been reading more and more Warlock blogs lately...

Oddly, I miss Ashwynn.

Since I have deleted my toons I haven't really missed them much, except Ashwynn. She was the last one I expected to miss, afterall, she sat for years as nothing more than my bank alt.

I don't make a good Warlock player. I know this, but I really love having demonic minions. Muahahaha!

Errm... yeah.

So my random six may be expanding to seven, before I've even gotten all of their stories up here. In fact, there are 2 that I haven't even gotten to level 10 yet. Do they make a d7? I don't think so. /sigh

Pardon me while I run off and create Warlock after Warlock deleting them until I find the perfect imp name.