A world without war . .. craft!

Friends,

Hellfire and damnation, after an OS upgrade I've tried to install the game three times to no success. Yet, I fear my resolve to keep trying is lacking. I'll see if I can't get someone to bring me a clean set of discs for Blizzconn, but that isn't the point. I could easily just go two blocks over and drop $40 and get my own, yet . . . well . . . the $40 means nothing to me and the friends I miss in that world do, but . . .

Hall posts from time to time about facts. I ramble along in my own peculiar way. Twink has LONG been absent [Hellfire, I'm not even sure he still even bothers to read it]. Akkie has recently made a few great comments, but that's about it. It's Hall with a photo and a caption and Via with a puzzling post. Let me just leave a Pinter's pause here and let folks marvel at the meaning of any further effort.

There comes a time . . . and here we are. We've all agreed to go left and I'm the one left who hasn't [do you folks EVER bother to marvel at the beauty of some of these sentences or it is just me? Oh . . .yeah . . forgot . . . it is just me]. Hasn't been for trying, but I've yet to get a response. Regardless, I remain. You two go ahead and I'll catch up.

If I can be so crass, but as I was taught in the first day of a program Hall devised, but doubt doesn't buy . . . it's all about the relationships. WOW isn't all that important and nor was Plaentside before. It's the presidential placard, "The Buck Stops Here". It's the third space. It's the tavern open till 2 a.m. It's the community and the culture. It's the . . . every step with a fellow traveler.

Yeah, I know . . . I might be a fool, but at least I'm a perfect fool. I love my fellow travelers without shame. I'd happily spend a day with Clive or Hall or Akkie or Twink or Assa or Trubs or ND or . . .

And that's the point, regardless of it being attached to velt and framed and hung on a wall.

JBR

JBR

The Hat Saga, Part III

OMG, what is it with hunters. Here's this week's reward and bizarre headress. Sad thing is, I think it's a real keeper.

But....


WTF is it? A lizard? A dragon? a mosquito?

A New Warlock in Town

So I made the deal. She's not quite Hellgrima yet, but she's on her way. Level 63 undead 'lock. Currently spec'd destruction for PVP; soon to be affliction for PVE. She needs a lot of work. She has little cash and only one profession, tailoring. >sigh< At least she has the epic mount. Character transfer is next.

Farming the Outlands

One night, as Saami was flying over a corner section of the mountains separating one region from another, I saw flashed on my screen You have discovered the Elemental Plateau. OMG!!!!! I had heard of this legendary place on the World of Warcast podcast, from Cryler (Starman was sick) and Renata. Cryler had been telling a tale of farming on a PVP server (not fun), and when he mentioned he'd been working on the Elemental Plateau he added, and if you don't know where that is I'm not going to tell you.

Now I knew why. I landed and realized I was in a small plot of land that felt about 100 sq yards. In one burnt section, I saw 6-8 fire elementals. In another hilly section, 5-6 earth elementals, another section *PRIMAL AIR* elementals. As a leatherworker, Saami desperately needed those to make clefthide leg armor. And heck, the rest was AH gravy. I was sooooo stoked.

As it happened, I was there pretty much alone, something that NEVER happens anymore. I could write a whole entry on the etiquette, or lack thereof, of fellow farmers, but I don't feel like ranting. I'm in the zone and I don't want to be brought down by my experiences with fellow players who are not only unable to cooperate and share, but who also lack grace and manners.

Now as it turns out, being my second 'toon, Saami has benefited from my experience with Hallgrima. Saami has all her professions almost maxed out. This means that for Saami, farming is a big, big deal. You name it, I farm it. I could wax a bit on the zen of fishing, and well maybe I will.

I discovered, quite by accident, that the small pond up on the plateau had pools of "pure water" that occasionally made an appearance, and from those pools I could fish out motes of water, sufficient to make primal water (another AH professions commodity). I then noticed, upon departure, the same sorts of pools in the larger lake below. I set up fishing. Well, much to my joy, I started pulling icefin blue fish out of the lake. And these, my dears, can be cooked up in to this:

Poached Bluefish
Requires Level 55
Use: Restores 7500 health over 30 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 min.

Hallgrima would kill for those. Alas, her fishing and cooking are not even above 100. She could neither fish nor cook the dish.

Thus began the quick free fall into farming, cemented even more firmly after the first single set of Clefthide Leg Armor sold for 120G (well, 115G after the AH took its cut). There were at least two weeks where Saami (and I) spent more time farming than playing the game.

Here's a partial shopping list I regularly farm now:

• air motes


• mana motes


• fire motes


• earth motes


• cobra scales


• clefthide


• knothide


• golden darters


• figlusters mudfish


• zangarian sporefish


• icefin blue fish


• chunk o' basilisk


• ravager meat


• serpent flesh


• raptor ribs

So Saami is a busy gal. But I find I sort of enjoy it. I think this is because it is a real low level task, with a few exceptions when hunting the meatier items among MOBs. I do get satisfaction from making the items for my others toons, for Sarah, and other folks, and selling the left overs. It is not play; it is not chores. I don't know what it is other than some sort of zen state with a semi productive outcome. LOL.

Now actuallly, farming is the wrong word. I am NOT engaged in planting or animal husbandry. I am really a hunter-gatherer. But the expression is farming, as distinct from playing, and so the misnomer continues. Me, I'm just living off the land, something in between the indigenous people and the Russian trappers in Alaska.

I'm heading out to farm right now. Need anything?

PS
Like Cryler, I will not be telling you the location of the elemental plateau. I already told Via and Clive.

Another View of Uber Guilds: SUNDER

I was trying to get some tasks done in STV with Kuu, poor Kuu. She and all my toons are down to just group and dungeon tasks. And, I have no guildies to run them with. Twink is sucked up by PM and Via is busy with school (imagine that!). Sooooo I was noodling around and then this palie started helping me. We both had the waves of apes quest (Stranglethorn Fever) and I said I doubted we could do it. He said, "I'll bring my 70 mage on."

Well his 70 mage, Revith, played alongside his 40something palie. Yeah, he was on two boxes at once. I said how it impressed me and he said, nah, quadboxing on EQ is impressive. Turned out he's in Sunder. We discussed a lot as we played. I had mentioned I had a hunter and he suggested I look in to Sunder cuz they need a serious hunter. He helped me respec Saami to beast mastery (OMG she rox the house now).

I joked and bowed, saying SUNDER was the uber guild and I was honored to play with him. LOL. He invited me to look into it again, but I mentioned my experience in Crimson and alluded to Twink's experience in Project Mayhem. He said SUNDER had been playing together for 7 years, that friendship trumped raiding, and yes they'd had recent argument but friendship still reigned. I examined Sunder's webpage...OMG five pages of 70s. ROFL. Can you imagine. Great pictures and news on the site. I'm still toying with the idea because I am SO FRUSTRATED trying to get group and dungeon stuff done. I hate PUGs, though I've actually had some good PUG experiences in Netherstorm lately.

Anyhow... I'm thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Saami has a new hat FINALLY...and is a Beastmaster spec.

Running from the Graveyard

I no longer load up WOW as a matter of habit. These days its other things. I play some Get Hostile. It is based on a game I loved in my youth called Acquire. It's quick . . . in and out in under 10 minutes, unless I play with humans and then it's about a half hour commitment. I am rated about as low as you can be . . . regardless, it's a pleasurable passage of minutes.

I had supper with the gods this week. Hall and Clive and . . . well . . . my brother Twink. I got called "Uncle" by Akmalla. It was a pretty amazing time for me, though I could not but feel a bit out of place. All of them are so authentic and real. I never doubt them and am honestly proud to be in all their company.

And that is the point of this post . . . the distance from the graveyard to resurrection. Hallgrima posts very academically. I always enjoy and ponder over them. DoubleE posts not near enough, yet he is one of the best writers I know. And me? I always try to post as close to the bone as I am able. I don't expect my posts to be taken as academic or as anything other than as authentically emotional as I can muster. I'm not sure if that is what Hall' meant for this blog, but it is what I have done.

I fear they occasionally fall into the 'dear diary' category, but that is never my intent. I have tried to capture my emotions as I have experienced the game. Now, I'm done with the game for a spell . . . until an event or expansion or a call to arms. I feel VERY old in the game. I've forgotten more about WOW than I now know. My function now is no longer peer, but . . . take me off the shelf and dust me off and point me in a direction.

I log on occasionally to farm for gold to be sent to my nephew and niece. I know Twink occasionally inhabits me to make a pot or two. These days, I'm just a conduit for others. I'm a tool to be taken off the shelf when needed . . . and ONLY when needed. Otherwise, I just rest easy on the shelf with all the other tools.

I don't really like WOW. What I like . . . what I love . . . are my relationships in WOW. Before, it was Planetside. Though I liked Planetside better than WOW, still . . .it was my relationships with Hardboot and Killaton that brought me back. When I log into wow and see Hall, Clivfe, Twink, Aka' or a dozen others . . . I feel a real sense of joy. When they whisper me asking me to do this or that . . . I feel pride that I am of use. In the end, that is all I have ever wanted to be . . . of use.

The rest of my family in WOW have not led the singular existence I have. They have explored other identities. From Priest to Warlock and from Warlock to Hunter and from Druid to . . . what the hell is Yojimbo? Rogue? Regardless, they have found ways to be "other". Me? I am a dwarf warrior . . . generous and gracious and . . . well . . . on the top shelf. Take me down as you need. Use me as you need. Break the glass in case of emergency. I have served my purpose and am satisfied.

There is still more to do. Hall and Clive have not seen the backside of some of the instances. I hope that we can find a way to resolve that. Twink will have to join us . . . priest he is, regardless of protest. There are quests and gold to secure for my new 'niece' Akmalla. Funny thing about titles . . . they bring with them responsibility. Spending a year calling Dr. Riel "Madre" taught me that. This isn't the beginning of the end, just the end of the beginning.

I expect someday and somewhere . . . in another form . . . we'll stand side-by-side again with all the wonder we once had in our teens in WOW. There are more virtual landscapes to actually experience. We will eventually be young again and then old and then young. We'll live our lives over and over until we no longer want to run back from the graveyard.