Why?

So, I really don't like QQ PuG stories, other than for amusement, and I have passed up blogging about some real whoppers of my own. But this? This just boggles me. First thing the healer does is start putting the star raid icon on my head. Then I get this:



Seriously, dude? You think you run the show because you are suposed to keep my little green bar full? Just WHO do you think is keeping all those mobs from coming and eating your face?

I really would like to know, if anyone can tell me. Why does everyone hate the tank? I have had my fair share of horrible tanks on my DPS toons, but playing Kal, I have realized just how hard tanking is. And the funny thing? I didn't have any of this during lower lvls, like around the 40s. It wasn't until Outlands that everyone started with the 'GoGoGo' and the huge attitude problems.

So now? Kal, who I originally rolled for the express purpose of being a tank, is now going to queue as dps, unless I have friends with me. And only to get quests done. I have too many RL issues for this game (which is the only real stress relief I have) to add more.

And that Nexus group with the jerk healer? Left as soon as I was out of combat from the first pull. I would wonder how long it took to replace me, but I really can't make myself care.

Congratulations, Draxuul-Arthas

Welcome, Draxuul of Arthas, to my new Jerk of the Month Club. You get the dubious honor of being the first member that was truly awful enough for me to want to share your complete lack of regard for anyone but yourself.

So I was on my shaman Taarren, trying to get her daily herioc done. The first instance to pop was Halls of Lightning. First thing I noticed? Except for one little undead (mage I think), it was all tauren. Warrior tank, DK, tree druid healer, and me. It just struck me as slightly amusing. It started out fine, tank keeping aggro, healer keeping me alive when I attacked the wrong mob, DPS doing their job. Then a blue dagger dropped. I was the last to roll, and I noticed everyone had hit 'greed', except the druid, who hit 'need'. I thought for a second about hitting 'need' myself, and then, if I won, calling for a /roll, but then I decided not to bother, and hit 'greed'. It took until the next pull for anyone to say anything.

Mage: need?
Druid: lvl'ing a rogue
DK: wtf
Mage: rogue not here
Druid: its a f'ing blue worth 7g
Druid: qq
Me: .....
Druid: either you stop qq'ing or i stop healing
Druid: choose
Me: ..... are you serious

At this point someone pulled the boss, along with the group he was near. I think it was an accident. We wiped. Apparently the druid wanted us to kill the boss with the buff on him, so he didn't even bother healing when we pulled. Everyone just dropped the group at that point.

So it seems that a blue item worth only a few gold is enough for someone to throw a hissy-fit over, when someone else didn't like his decision to be greedy. Just forget about the dagger, I really don't like the item anyways, I think the stats are horrible (just my opinion guys, don't flame me). It was the druid's attitude that bugged me. He was the second-to-last to roll, so he saw everyone else pick 'greed'. He deliberately chose to screw over the other people in the group, because he wanted this item, which he even said was hardly worth anything. Seriously, he could have hit 'greed', and if he lost, he could have asked the winner if he could have it, 'for his alt'. I know I would have given it to him, and the rest of the group seemed like decent people, until he pulled that little stunt.

And then, after that, he takes advantage of his role as healer to attempt to blackmail the rest of us into shutting up. That, sir, is a seriously low thing to do. And then letting us all wipe, because he wanted to (in his words) 'choose the hard one'.

So, thank you Draxuul, for showing what a complete, total blit you are. Thankfully, my ignore list will keep me from ever having to deal with your elitist, self-centered bullcrap ever again.

And I did get Taarren's heroic done. It was Nexus, with a DK tank that chain-pulled the entire instance. It was awesome, except for the fact that I was low on mana the first half. The hit-rating trinket did not drop though. :(

Arien and Alanon - Underbog

As promised (sort of), here's a quick story of when Alanon came to help Arien find a couple lost druids in the Underbog. We did most of it in character, though this was before I got my chatlogger addon, so I wrote it afterward from memory. It happens right after this. (Also, please forgive the rather rushed editing job. :P)


Shortly after noon, Arien met Alanon at the draenei post of Telredor. The druid and paladin set off. They soon reached the mass of pipes in Coilfang Reservoir, marking the drain-entrance, and Arien slid off Snow's back into the water. Alanon dropped out of his bird form and splashed in with her, where he promptly turned into a sea lion. Arien was a bit startled, but quickly got used to it, and even thought to herself that it was almost rather cute. They swam quickly, and soon were through the water-filled tunnel, entering a large cavern. There they found the contact for the missing scouts, Watcher Jhang, kneeling on the shore holding her leg. "I twisted my ankle, or else I would be with the others. Don't worry about me, the others are in trouble. Can you please go find them?" she pleaded. "Rayge and Claw are somewhere in the Underbog, and Bite and Greenthumb got lost in the Slave Pens." They agreed, though Arien hated to leave the scout without healing, even for a simple twisted ankle. They slipped down one of the huge branching tunnels into a place the scout had called the Underbog. Aggressive sporebats greeted them, and Alanon quickly changed to a bear and charged them. Arien gave him a moment to grab the attention of all of them, then came up behind and began swinging her axe. With just two of them, and Alanon being very skilled at this kind of thing, Arien felt more comfortable helping him to bring their enemies down, rather than just sitting back and healing him. They progressed relatively quickly through the damp muggy caves, to the point where Alanon mentioned that they made a good team. Arien felt a small flush of warmth at that, and agreed.

After a while, they left the crude tunnels full of sporebats and elementals, and found some constructions rough-made of metal. Arien felt a very different flush at the familiar sight, this time of anger. Sure enough, a pair of naga guards came down the narrow ramp, where Alanon surprised them and, with Arien's help, quickly dispatched them. As they stepped past the bodies, Arien quietly grunted in disgust. "Hm? You ok?" Alanon asked. "Yea," she replied. "Just hate nagas." She wondered briefly what he would think, of a paladin admitting to hating something, but he just shrugged and went on. As they fought on through the hallway, they found a huge room, with a ramp leading to a platform with a enormous hydra. Alanon and Arien looked at each other, and Alanon switched to bear form. They charged the 'guard dog', Alanon giving Arien a warning to watch out for it's tail. She quickly discovered that the creature gave off a toxic sort of aura, which was making her too nauseated to fight, so she backed off and worked on just keeping Alanon healed. The aura didn't seem to bother him, and the thing was quickly dead.

They both moved to the edge of the platform afterward. Arien looked down at the water below, then glanced back at Alanon. "Guess we're jumping?" she asked. He nodded, and they both plunged in. The drop wasn't as bad as it looked, and Arien got a surprise when she hit the water. It was warm, almost hot. Alanon shifted into a sea lion, and lead her to the small niche in the surrounding wall that allowed them to climb out. From there it was another drop, into more of the crude tunnels. Different creatures lurked there, vicious nether rays and huge glowing insects. Arien was kept busy, using the Light to cleanse the bugs' poisonous spit, as well as helping out with her axe. At the end of the first stretch of tunnel, Alanon, in bear form, suddenly stopped and started sniffing the air. Arien heard a faint rustle almost immediately after, and slowly moved to investigate. She jumped and almost tripped over herself when a Night Elf suddenly appeared right in front of her. It was one of the missing scouts, Rayge, and he thanked them profusely for clearing the monsters out of his escape route. He too was slightly injured, but assured them that he was only resting before healing himself and escaping. He had a warning before they left him and continued, however. "There is a hunter up ahead, and he has somehow managed to trap my comrade Claw in his bear form, and is treating him like a pet!" he told them indignantly. "I'm afraid you might have to fight Claw in order to free him." The druid and paladin nodded to him, promised to be careful, and continued.

Down a few more bends of the tunnel, they found the pair. A broken hunter was sitting by a small fire, with a large bear with the typical markings that druids have on his shoulders and face. The smallish horns he sported marked him as a tauren, but druids held themselves mostly apart from the Alliance/Horde squabbles, and Alanon and Arien had no hesitation about helping him. "He's in the wrong shape for me to hold him still much," Arien whispered, as they tried to figure how to not hurt the bear. Alanon looked unhappy, but all he could say was, "We'll just have to try not to beat him up too much." She nodded, Alanon shifted again, and he trotted out to challenge the hunter. It called the bear to attack them at once, and Arien had to pull back her axe-swing more than once to avoid him, but after a long, dancing battle, the hunter fell. The bear continued his attack, however, and finally the two were forced to fight back to defend themselves. Before too long, the bear's angry red eyes seemed to clear, and he suddenly broke off his attack. He stood panting for a few seconds, then shifted into his tauren form and walked to the campfire, plopping down next to it, still looking confused. Arien slowly approached, Alanon right behind her, and she told him about his friend they had already discovered, as well as the two still unaccounted for. Alanon looked him over for any major injuries, as he thought for a moment. "Well, now that I'm free of that hunter, I can get out of here fine. Perhaps I will collect my companion on the way out," the tauren finally decided. Alanon nodded, having found nothing more serious than some small cuts and bruises, and the two of them continued, hearing some strange noises ahead.

Around another bend in the tunnel, Arien noticed some dark shapes on the ground. As they neared, she saw they were more nether rays, dead. She shuddered a bit at the sight of so many, and Alanon, a bear once again, remarked wryly, "You should be glad you can't smell as well as me right now." They turned the last corner, and saw a huge, strange creature moving about the piles of ray bodies. It was similar to the tall marsh walkers that roamed the waterways of the marsh, but much bigger, and solid black. It made low hissing noises as it fed on several of the half-rotted rays, and Arien began feeling slightly ill, watching it. Alanon was looking at her, and seemed to pick up on it. "Let's get it," he growled. She nodded and tightened her grip on her axe. Once again Alanon led, Arien letting him grab the monster's attention. As she moved in to join the battle though, it started casting magic, throwing chains of lightning around the cavern. Arien got too close on one blast, and was knocked back, lightning crackling around her hands as she stood back up. She stayed back after that, throwing healing spells on Alanon, and as the creature weakened, she called a hammer made of holy energy and threw it as hard as she could. The monster fell, leaving a small opening in the back of the cave clear. Bear-Alanon backed a few steps from the body and sat down, breathing hard, and Arien came up beside him, checking to see if he needed more healing. He was fine, though, if slightly out of breath, and they went to inspect the small doorway, finding it dropped into the same tunnel they had started from. They both looked at each other and shook their heads. "How convenient," Alanon said, with an ironic tone. They dropped down together, and wearily backtracked to the entrance.

+ + +

The two of them sat around in the instance for a while afterwards, chatting and such, but I'm gonna end the story there, because I don't have the entire dialog, and I don't want to wind up forgetting anything important. Hope you enjoyed it!

And now to go finish setting up my new laptop that I just got for Christmas. :D
Hope everyone else had a good holiday! /Waves

More Updates and Thoughts

Because we need a happier post now.

First, I'm starting to think I'm getting a cold. Not sure yet though. Been having a stuffy/runny nose off and on for a while now, and today my throat is starting to hurt. It could all be weather related, though.. (I really don't like winter)

Second, I still love the new LFG tool. Windstar has 2 peices of t9, all from badges. Working on a new ring next. She is So Very Over-Hit-Capped though, argh. WTT hit rating for some expertise and ArPen. And need a new trinket. :P And then need to work on her healing gear. :\

Also, Star has done the entire new ICC trio, and it was AWESOME. Halls of Reflection especially. Running from Arthas was epic. At one point (third ice wall, I think?), we were killing the adds, and I noticed him almost right on top of us. I actually got scared for a second. Yes, I am a nerd. She got the Orca Hunter's Harpoon too, 'cause the hunter in the group had better already. It was over 100 more AP, in cat form, un- gemmed/enchanted. O.O (She had the staff from the Argent Tourney vendors.)

I need to run the entire thing with Arien. ICly if possible.. >.> With sis on Alanon, of course. I did get as far as the start of HoR with a guild group, but my friend on his shammy healer was starting to fall asleep by then, so we called it there. :P

Windstar is also getting her reputations done, which will be a first. :P My other level 80s, who I've played more than her, still haven't gotten all the WotLK reps done (although Kel is close). I'm such a slacker...

She's also almost at 300 fishing. Did I mention I'm a slacker?

I am missing my pally again, so sometime in the next day or so I might spend some time on Gilneas and just run heroics on her. And abuse her mote extractor, since it will be harder for my other toons to get eternals without Arien. Although my DK is a transmute-spec alchemist...

And I think there was more, but I'm falling asleep over my keyboard now. Must try to catch up on sleep, especially after I let myself get suckered into going in to work a few hours on Saturday, which was a day off. :(

I will end with one more thing Star has accomplished. Screenies are worth way more than words, so here ya go:


Goodnight! /waves

3.3 for me so far

Because everyone else is making notes about the patch, so I might as well join the club, amirite?

Well, so far I've only been doing stuff on Windstar, so I havent really tried out the hunter changes. Tried the new LFG on my troll Rajji last night, but wound up in herioc Old Kingdom, which hates me, and the tank abandoned the group on the first wipe. Which lead to the group falling apart. Not a good start for him. :( He is starting to camp for the new spirit beast bear though... >.>

Windstar, on the other hand, is having a ball. She has even gotten to run with a few friends. I'm almost always healing, but she did get to go kitty for a couple runs. Druid tree healing is fun, anyways, so I don't mind. The single bad experience I've had was last night, and it wasn't really anyone's fault. The LFG thingy was under the illusion that my gear level was good enough for the new Forge of Souls, heroic version. I have been avoiding the place, because no one wants to run the regular version, and I knew I couldn't handle it on heroic. I was proven correct. :P Although, some really nice caster bracers dropped, not sure if we had killed anyone special or if it was just a random drop for the instance. Then I got a bit of a '/facepalm /lol' moment when the warlock in the group complained that she couldn't roll 'need' on them. I had to point out that they were leather. /Sigh.

Nothing much to report RP-wise. Everyone has been running the new instances, and a lot of old ones, so there hasn't been much. I may spend the day on Gilneas, since a lot of my toons there are only short by a few badges to get some shiny upgrades, and I have been missing playing Kel lately. Have to see how long I can stay away from the crazy OOC chat that goes on on Feathermoon. /evil grin (<3 those guys)

And that's all I can think of for now. /waves

Holiday Fun

So, I've been doing the Pilgrim's bounty achievements ever since I found out there was a turkey pet. Kel is done already (had to kill the boss in Sethekk Halls twice, because first time I forgot to put her holiday outfit on >.<). Today was Tad's turn. A few days ago, Shaurria (who was trying to get a turkey pet as well) was asking about what level she could get into Sethekk. Aelflaed then volunteered to take her, and Tad too, to go kill the boss when she got back from vacation. Well, she got back today, off we went. Only had one accident with the mind-control totems, which killed Tad, but it was more funny than anything else. Shaur got a couple drops for the healing set she's trying to put together. And we got the boss with no problems!
(reserved for screenie of new pet that I was too excited to take at the time)
And then, after the run, Aely turkey-fied Tad! I found out something: If a hunter is a turkey, and said hunter feigns death, this is what happens:
(Yes, I have a messy UI. I have a lot of addons. It works for me pretty well though.)
In case you can't tell from the chat, I gave myself a tummy ache from laughing so hard. Maybe my current lack of decent sleep made this funnier than it shoud be, but come on. Blizz did an awesome job with this holiday, and it was worth the stallout it caused to Windstar's leveling. Which, by the way, she just hit 78, and has started Argent Tourney dailies. :D

Working on a story about Tad and Shaur getting into some mischief during the holiday. It's coming a little slow, though. Will have it done in the next day or two, hopefully.

And gotta say thanks again to Anna (aka Aely) and 'Mr. Anna' as well, for taking the time, right after returning from a trip too, to take me and Shaur through an instance that was way over our level range, just so we could get a pet. I know I've said it before, but it constantly amazes me how friendly and willing-to-help people on Feathermoon are. Maybe I was just too used to the elitist, everyone-for-themselves attitude that prevails on PVE servers, but this has totally renewed my enjoyment of the game.
And now, random video of a group I recently started listening to, called Fireflight. I think this might be my favorite already.
Forever

And now, goodnight! /waves

"Hey guys, Windstar is a tree"

My sister actually said that in the OOC channel our rp friends invited us to. The reaction was many variations of "The world is ending" and other stuff I'm too tired to remember now. It was funny though. Must remember to screenshot chatlogs more, argh! Or maybe find one of those addons/programs that saves them.

Moving on ... I tried druid healing for the First Time Ever today. Sis brought her 66 DK tank, with our friend on his 65 DK, with 2 PuGs, a ret pally and (guess what?) another DK. Last DK acted like kind of a noob, but since s/he had just told me, before we started, that they just reactivated their account, and was just now getting used to everything, I'm willing to forgive. Was a fun run, first in Ramparts, then since we did so well, we all went on with Blood Furnace. We only had one case of deaths, in BF, because everyone was melee and ran into a LOT of bombs that the technician mobs drop. Arvoss (sis) and me lived, I managed a battle rez on the pally, and the mobs were almost dead when the group asploded, so we managed to not wipe. Windstar made out like a bandit, with a lot of caster drops, so she might actually have a full healing set by the time she gets to Northrend. :P

I usually try to avoid healing, because I'm rather ADD, and don't have a lot of self-confidence, so I feel intimidated trying to keep a whole group alive. I also tend to panic slightly when ANYTHING goes wrong, because I expect everyone to blame me. This run was a great ego-boost, though. I had fun, we all lived through (almost) everything, and when I mentioned that I hoped I did ok, the pally said that I had. Druid healing is definately fun, and I'm looking forward even more to level 80 and Mass Heroic Farming (possibly even occasional raids, we'll have to see). I really really love my little druid right now. :D

O yea, she started out a little into level 60, and dinged 61 turning in the first BF quest. This is with no rested xp, since she ran out about a week ago and I havent stopped playing her long enough for more than 3 or 5 bars worth to build up. She is still leveling like a machine though, and still getting a good bit of RP time.

Must sleep now, hopefully will have another story or something ready to put up soon. /Waves