Hey all you little things of WAR!

Klara vappen to any bastardous Finnish/Scandinavian etc. person who finds themself here, I will soon be off to celebrate it the only way I know how. By getting shit-faced. With the rest of Finland.

But this is NOT the point of this post. This post however is still random but mandatory 'cause I have been silent far too long.

Now to random business - WAR players who have no idea of the lore and don't care about it. Given i'm no expert - but I know a little bit of that and a few bitz here and there. And now i'm learning more about dark elves - if you know me, you know I love them sadistic, cruel creatures without competition known as Dark Elves. WHY I love them so much I do not know, however I do know that I do.

So, my source? Dark Elf armybook - I finally started collecting again, supported by my new job. AND I can't wait to order that blackguard command squad... I'll name the champion Nirvaesh Vihankylväjä, those who know me, know why.

So back to the real business again started up there - I know anyone no matter how stupid, idiotic, retarded, young, old, blisfully ignorant one may be they have a right to play this game. However! If we decide to mutter about the lore and give praise to our gods and talk about the tabletop game or other such stuff which is definetly warhammer related - don't come screaming at us that its all bullshit and what not.. it isn't. The lore is in the game - you're playing it - your characters are build on the base of the lore. It does mean that you can ignore but don't give us crap about it.

Also, advice chat - what the hell man - I know idiots linger there but hey c'mon.. I tell a person who sais something along the lines of "40k holds more interest to me than warhammer." I reply cause i'm an annoying lil fuck at times that "40k is Warhammer, so is Warhammer Fantasy Battle.." So what do I get out of this? Somewhat what I deserve " stop talking when you don't know what we're talking about." Well clearly I know quite a deal compared to your false paradoxal statement. And.. its pretty clear to anyone with a hint of intellect that they were talking about the two games and who likes which better and such.

Aaand it continues! He starts telling me to go to bed, and that I am a kid. And probably a retard - I didn't much care about his name calling... I get enough of that in guild chat.. even tho they are somewhat wellwished but still. Jokes get old too? (Doesn't mean that i'm gonna rage you all my beloved guildies if you call me your bossgirl or w/e you wanna call me.)

But, I loved my next statement - "Well you're right, I do have to go to bed soon. I have a job to go to." Surprisedly that shut him up. AUSSUMSAUCE!

And now referance to the last post by Sara.
A tank-archetype who has the balls to call himself a tank and goes to an instance to main-tank - and then goes "What's menace?", are the biggest idiots, failers and one skill spammers I must know. If you don't even know your tactics and you're holding warlord tells much about what this game is going to. I once thought that wearing sovereign is like aussumsauce - now I just find it the final step of being a grindwhore. Because me - in my invader - in my OLDSCHOOL brightwizard college glaive can deal better DPS than a full sovereign choppa. And i'm not even str capped OR have focused offence on. For the love of Khaine, the chaos gods.. and EVEN Gork and Mork. Whats the point of even driving yourself to Sovereign when you know that you're awesome and what you get out of it? A bomb squad by order in the face. Oh and about tanking - I tank in the same set and tank whole of LV. So - something.

Anyway, I HATE YOU BOMB SQUADS! It should be seriously nerfed - no I don't care that I will never be able to set one myself cause its nerfed and can't renown farm by it. I just want a good clean fight with different players with their individual skills not a play style from a guide from a forum about bombing.

Now, i'm done randomly ranting. Next post will be about tanking - a task I so hate and love. The stress of it - I HATE. The feeling of being able to go to LV and be like "Yo guyz, check diz out!"

So, look forward to my random, undirectional, very rant-like, off-topic filled and senseless blog-guide about tanking. And fear not, I will rant about bombing aswell.

Love ya'll ya lil fings of WAR<3

Zealot's Guide to Bloodwrought Enclave

It is exactly what it says. If you do as described here you should have no biggies healing through it. Last time I went at it as a Zealot I managed to solo-heal a 3-man party. Of course, I was already near full Sentinel but still.

Anyways.

Tactics: Discipline, Subtlety, Restorative Burst and Blessing of Chaos or whatever. Maybe throw in a tactic you might have bought in a mastery tree. I didn't buy any so go crazy. Just don't slot in Waves of Chaos. At least not while trash clearing. I rarely do any PvE without these tactics. Just changed out one for one boss that I can remember but that's for a different dungeon.

Morale: Tzeentch's Talon, Eye of Sheerian, Divine Protection, Alter Fate. The last one I never use. I rarely get past Morale 2 even, mostly because I love Sheerian's animation so much. And it's another HoT. I love Hots. I passed on Divine Favor because I don't think the amount it heals is justifiable. I'd rather have a reverse 1001 to help kill bosses. If you have a different morale 4 you're in love with go right ahead.

Depending on what gear I had I'd either use a Liniment of Inspirational Winds or a Wounds one instead. I like(d) to keep my Willp at least in the 1k range without Mark of the Spell Destroyer but if you feel the second healer is doing fairly well and the MT ain't too squishy, by all means slap on yer Willp mark. Save your Mark of Remaking for the bosses.

Once inside, turn left. If you're specced Dark Rites (AoE) like me, just lay down a ritual (you can use whatever you have, I just have the one), throw your Leaping Alteration and a Dust of Pandemonium between sending bottles of Tzeentch's Cordial to the melees. If not AoE specced, just make sure everyone is HoTed at least before you invest your AP in party heals.

After you clear all the trash on the left you get to the first boss. Three centaur-like thingies. "Nuke the boss" they'll say. You slap on the self-res before you answer "ready". If your tanks aren't great you'll be off-tanking the champs. It shouldn't be a problem. With your morale one and a Harbinger of Doom on it, the thing should go down fairly quickly. Just keep the MT all buffed up (give him a willpower/initiative mark if he's getting hit too hard) and remember you have a Daemonic Fortitude to put on them tanks if they seem to be a bit fail.

Party: "What you're not using Menace?"
Rk40 Tank who should know better by now: "No. What's Menace?"
True story.

If you do find yourself tanking the adds, save the Fortitude for yourself, remember that besides the detaunt you have Veil of Chaos, to give you time to get a big heal in and Embrace the Warp, a beauty of a thing. If only it didn't have such a long cooldown. HoTs are crucial to keep up in this fight, especially on whoever's tanking because now and again you'll get silenced.

Boss down, boohoo you didn't get loot and yes, we are needing on dyes. Moving right along.

When you get back to the first intersection you go left again (that is, straight forward if you're coming from the entrance). Clear more trash, spam more heal, declare the tanks incompetents cuz they can't keep aggro. The person who got the key in the last boss opens the door, you all go in and you healers and any rdps go stand at a staircase. Either one is fine. If you have an AP banner place it down next to you in the stairs. The tanks can find their own.

This bastard is moody but fairly easy. If it's your first time here it can take a while. Tanks should guard the melee(s) but let the MT get all the aggro. You have your selfres on, you slap down a ritual and you answer "r". The most crucial thing to do, once everyone is blown up in the air is that whatever you're doing, once the main tank is knocked back you have to stop doing it and uncurse/hex it. Seriously. STOP and Glimpse of Chaos it. The fight then proceeds as it was, you keep HoTing everyone and once they're all in the air again you jump and uncurse the MT again. Rinse, repeat, Barakus should be dead now. If not, your selfres should be useful to prevent you all from having to run back. Just remember to stay near the middle of the stairs, not too up, not too down. Its normal if the OT or the meleegets one-shotted. I don't know why. I don't know tanking rules. Just know it wasn't your fault.

Boohoo, phantom Marauder has 2 new Sentinel helmets now and you have jack shit. Tough luck.

See you in BB.

RvR and Me

I'm not dead, just trying to figure out some personal stuff.

It's been a while since I actively went searching for an ORvR fight, mostly because I can't deal with PUGs. Well, I can because I have to but some recent ones have thrown me off the thing completely. There's nothing worse than 20 people who won't listen. Yes, the person with the party hat can be a dick, but the dick is leading, all hail the dick, follow and die if you must but please follow. Eventually the dick will see the error of its ways and start listening to better ideas as well.

Since I have shun ORvR almost completely (except for a few WC camping sessions. Yes, I'm admiting it. I do it too) I've come to spend most of my time in scenarios. Black Fire Basin is the poison of choice for this weekend and how I love it. It's a healer's dream, for me. A big open space to shoot DoTs in. Although the most I could do so far was hit the 400kish mark, I always come out of that SC satisfied, either we win or lose. Sometimes I'm even bold enough to leave the farm and go around to cap the flag.

Nordenwatch, on the other hand, is starting to lose interest for me. People seem to resign themselves to the farm so easily. I usually just try and bypass the bomb squad and sneak into fortress or lighthouse. At the very least try and lure a lion to the guards.

Reikland Factory is the worst of them, in this aspect. Maybe they've been playing too much Farmville and forgot that the way to win points is by capping BOs. So its up to me to decide to either let them all die and earn little or no renown and cap flags, or join them in their farming/get farmed while Order racks up the points by having a lone tank going around every flag.

Even through all of this fail I managed to get to RR55. Quite a milestone for me. I've been playing for an obscene amount of time and only gotten this far as of yet. And some 10 more rrs to go before I can equip Warlord. Darkpromise doesn't seem to want to drop for me and there's only so much PvE I can stand.

So I'm guessing I might have to give ORvR a new try. The trail of slime I leave as I climb through the ranks is a sore sight after all the money/time I've invested in this.

WAR Bugs and why I love them

Well, some of them. I definitely don't like those bugs that get me killed like mobs not resetting. Then again, it may not be a bug. Mobs just don't reset for me. Ever. Unless they kill me.

(Somewhat convoluted post ahead.)

Over the time I've spent on WAR, bugs have become fewer and less aparent. Most of my bugs, graphical bugs that is, were somewhat my own fault sometimes, letting my computer running for weeks on end and then wondering why graphical performance was shoddy. And yet, I sometimes still do that but never again have I witnessed the cape-ridding-a-squig-ridding-a-wolf event.

Some bugs can even be helpful. I remember in LV's second boss, the first time I was there I think it was, there was me the Zealot and a Sorc on top of the tent. Everybody died so, dismally, we waited as the big gor-like thingy charged at us... only to get stuck on the corner of the tent. So we ended up almost 2manning that boss to oblivion. Aussum, heh? Well, I thought so.

Other bugs were real pretty too. Apart from the man-cave, I once had a keep all drapped in red velvet-like fabric, an arboreal pattern on the floor of Battle for Praag and pretty polygonal trees along a riverbed. People dressed in buildings, people dressed in wood, Merchants dressed as Orders (Merchants on Destro side).

There was also the recurring Sorc-arm bug (in its many variants). This one was recurrent for me. But I liked it. It "humanized" WAR for me. Nobody's perfect. We're all "special".

I had invisible mounts, invisible Orcs, people moving horizontally (as in, stuck in dead), people mounted without mounts, perverted Saccelum bosses fighting me in the nude, naked female toons not wearing a bra but sporting black triangular "niple flowers", teleporting mobs, mobs inside walls, inpregnable keeps with their unattackable doors, the fortress they screwed in Norn when they botched a patch, that barkeep on that PQ in Praag (or was it Reikland) that gives you a XSDJ23SDE&%2 code-like thingy when you tlak to him... All of these things made me smile (well, not so much the keep door issue, that was just silly), as if the game knew I needed to smile a bit or maybe it was customising itself especially for me (this on the graphical ones.) And general annoying/hindering bugs that have been overcome were like server-wide events that we longer-term players have overcome together and can now look back and laugh at. If... the need to do so ever arose.... which it doesn't... cuz yall r so bizzee whinin u neva lauff no moar.

Most of these bugs have gone the way of the Dodo and while I sit here, reminiscing, I can't help but miss these good old days; days when us Zealots were a cut above the rest, summoning our mounts quietly, no horn to warn anyone. We just stood there and *puff* mount got. Or how WE opened their mouths in shock when they jumped. Like they just knew you were just doing it to try and look up their skirt. And remember when killing keep bosses on balconies (before the outside staircase) wasn't considered exploit? I 3manned some keeps back in T3, back in the day. Oh oh and remember how AoE heals had that awesome radius? Those were some OP days...

So, really, "WAR is buggy, there's no excuse". You should have seen it back then. And, if you're anything like me, you'd have loved it too.

I am a master at roleplaying stupid

I started playing pen and paper roleplay games 19 years ago (AD&D 2nd Eddition) and, excluding MUDs, my MMO experience began 14 years ago with Meridian 59, and one year later it evolved to an addiction with Ultima Online.

Since then i've tried lots and lots of pen&paper stuff and an equal share of MMO's, with some of them catching my eyes more than others.

Taking this into account, i can say for sure that i am no stranger to roleplay, in more than one form.

But even after all these years there's still something that shocks me, and that is people who try to apply to MMOsthe level of roleplay that's needed on a P&P.

I mean, while it seems strange to go into the sewers of the city and start killing rats for no reason in the middle of a Mage session (i can picture the Story Teller right now "ok so.. you kill another rat... nothing happens... AGAIN..." while the other players look oddly at me because i'm stalling and losing precious time) it also seems strange that i WOULD NEED a reason to go to Bloodwrought Enclave.

This is what mainly separates the two worlds of roleplay for me. There's stuff that i wouldn't dream of doing on a P&P without first coming up with a reason for it (of course there's always the chaotic neutral character that needs little to no reason for most of his actions, but still...) but at the same time it wouldn't cross my mind to have to justify each and every action i do on an MMO (no, i didn't kill that bright wizard cuz he was a bitch to my sister last time they went out.. i killed him cuz he was right there and he didn't noticed me.)

As everything in life, this is only my oppinion and it differs from other people's, as expected.

There are people out there that think that they need to justify each and every action they do EVEN on an MMO (and while they're at it, they do it in ye olde English, because any other way would be a sin to the gods).

I came face to face with a group of these people a couple of months ago.

I came back from work a little later than i'd like to, and so, when i logged on, the rest of the guild was doing an LV run without me. So, to keep myself entertained while they were in LV, i decided to find a PUG to go to BE to try and get some Sentinel gear.

To my surprise, as soon as i announced "Choppa lfg for BE" in the IC, i instantly got a /tell of someone saying something like "we are riding our steeds there as we speak, care to join us, oh strong creature?" ... WTF????

Ok, so, i caught up with the guys at the BE entrance. As soon as i got there, the Zealot said to the Chosen(the guy who sent me the /tell) "what a fine creature you brought us. Is he tame?" and for some reason i felt like smashing her face right there.

Anyway, we got in. they all just stood there for a while, so i asked "you gonna pull?" and to my surprise, the chosen says " OC - wait up i'm looking for my notes" (later i found out that he actually meant "Out of Character" with that OC...). Eventually he pulls, but then the marauder started messing up and for some odd reason we died on the first group of mobs (yes.. i died at the entrance to BE... ridiculous to say the least... but true) I asked if the healer had self rez or if i should release and THEN it all made sense.

The chosen sent me a /tell saying that if i was going to ask stuff like that i should indicate that i was speaking Out of Character, cuz they were a roleplay group and that i should try to fit in if i wanted to stay there with them, so, it was either roleplay or back to finding a group.. i decided to mess with them.

Eventually the healer self rezzed, rezzed us all up, and then they started with something about how we had to go and smite the Evil Godslayer because he stole a precious item from the Guild's leader and they had to get it back (what a crummy excuse to go and kill the guy for some Sent gear).

As son as the chosen pulled the first group again, i yelled /WAAAGH at them and started choppin my way through them. when they were dead i simply yelled "ENRAGE!!!!!" and ran towards the other group, spamming lotsa choppin' and /waaagh ing yet more. went right past that group of mobs and ran into the next one. Then i decided to come back yelling "NOOE THEY BE HITTING ME!"

We died. the healer released and came back to rez us.

the zealot said something to the chosen about keeping his beast (me) on a short leash. when everyone was ready again I decided to yell "LEASH BROKE!!! WAT I DO????" /waaagh and ran through two or three groups, stopped.. said "OH NOES!!! THEY BE HURTIN' ME AGAIN" and ran to hide behind the healers.

We died AGAIN. i laughed my ass out. it was soooo worth it :D

the zealot simply said "ahhh fuck this. all release" so we did, and everyone started yelling at me "WTF WAS THAT FOR???" and "DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY???" so, my obvious question was "dude, you wanted me to roleplay an orc... i roleplayed an orc. i'm a dumb creature.. you gotta tell me what to do."

They kicked me out of the party :) i still laugh about it today.

Bottom line is, i hate roleplayers in MMO's, but i also know that they have as much right to play the game as i do, but PLEASE don't expect that some random guy you pick up (e.g. ME) will want to play the game the same way you do.

cheers.

Kardinal healing makes me sad.

Bags make Mike sad, apparently.

Thunderstorms make me sad. Not being a published author makes me sad. Moths make me sad. Hysterical at first, but then sad when they don't leave.

But this is a WAR blog, innit? So, what makes me sad in WAR? Well, inadequacy, mostly. Mostly mine. But not always.

I'm a good healer. It is especially noticeable when I hop on a lower tier alt. T1, of course, is no competition. Most people are still wondering what this or that button does. In T2 you start getting better players all around. No more trials and lots of seasoned players on their alts. You also start getting some bigger guilds there. Still, I can pwn lots in T2 SCs.

T3. Man, if only something happened in T3. They call LotD the T3 killer. Most of the time this is true and you still can't find anything to do, RvR-wise, after midnight (GMT+0). However, for whatever reason, things have been picking up as of late. I actually like T3 quite a lot. You have your real keeps with 2 doors, you have a decent array of abilities, you can separate the wheat from the chaff as far as player quality but you have none of the stress and/or waiting of T4. And when you get to level 31 you're completely unstoppable whether you're healing, killing, whatever. So it is in T3, the tier I love the most, that I get the most sad. Why? Inadequacy. Of others, that is. Tanks not guarding the mdps, mdps hitting on tanks and, of course, the aloof healers.

I've said this a lot already but I say again. For the love of whatever deity you wish to believe in, if you're a healer, don't just walk over another healer's body. Or any body, for that matter. If you see a body and you click it and it doesn't say "Friendly" or if you get a chat bubble cursor on your mouse, then that person is just eagerly awaiting that love spell. The saddest I can ever be is when I go out of my way to res a healer from another party, manage to get both our parties in decent enough shape and then get focus-fired on by a BW/SW/Bomb'syouruncle and die and all the other healers just run right over me while my party slowly but surely dies away.

This doesn't happen in T4. For one, T3 has showed them how annoying it is to have this happen to you. So they rez others hoping that the afore mentioned won't happen to them. Counter-rezing is also common practice. You know what I'm talking about. A healer dies, you rez them and then you die and they rez you and then they die again, rewind, repeat and so on and so forth and such like. I find it amusing and frequently yell "f u, we will not die!"

One thing did make me feel quite sad in T4 yesterday. My own inadequacy. There I was, in my meager Sentinel gear, scraping by on the top of SC lists at around 300k, hoping for a few wins so I could get a focus that isn't LotD talisman dependant. But along comes Kardinal, my new hero WP, healing around 750k per SC. That Kardinal person is probably one of the most proficient healers I've ever seen. We, on the other hand, have these Zealots in full Tyrant and Warlord doing less for the colective than me. I don't get it, it's like they're not even trying. If Kardinal can do it, why can't we?

Which is not to say I don't have my bad days. Especially if I'm alone in the party or in a party full of mdps (they die too fast for me to be able to heal). Or if I happen to die lots in between respawn waves. Shit happens, true. I'm living proof. But shit doesn't happen consistently. I see the same names and they heal consistently the same. I for example, am in the 300k ballpark. Kardinal is up on the 700k stadium. So why do we get awesomely geared healers with apparently enough experience to know better, doing exactly the same I'm doing?

This too, is very disheartening.

Shop of Horrors

Just a quickie one today, before i forget.

I had a dream about Tchar'zanek. Weird right? Weirder still: he was a merchant. He had like these pocket items and trophies on sale because I'd done like special assingments like Special Forces or something.

But Tchar was a mean merchant and he'd give u like two minutes to do your shopping. After that he opened the trapdoor and we'd all fall to a pit full of harpies and daemonettes and hounds and corpses of previous shoppers while he point&laughed.

Now, I'm a healer at heart so I know my way out of a sticky situation. So I healed myself into a courner and managed to reset the bastards. Yes, it's the only time when I can actually reset something. In my dreams.

I found out my corner was actually the inside of a lift and, very slowly and carefuly, I managed to get the doors closed, leaving the harpies behind. After it went backn up and me having to do some Prince of Persia (the new 360 version) around the palace, I went back to the good ol' boy and resumed my shopping. Repeat the whole trapdoor process. By now I was a pro. I don't know for how long this dream went on but let me tell you. I just now remembered it and it is weird. I mean, have I been playing too long that I now have dreams about loot that isn't there and sadistic NPCs? Sure, he's the NPC to end all NPCs but still...

It was really weird.

How good is your eyesight? Should you be dead?

I finally got the Sentinel boots. I almost wept when I saw them. Now I don't want them anymore. I want more Darkpromise.

Moving right along.

I read recently how some quite interesting storylines and events go unnoticed because most of us just read the quest objective, press accept and get on with the killing. I have come across some interesting stuff in my "voyages", like the half-dead dude in Talabecland (i think it is) that has fungi growing under his armpits or whatever and it speaks to him. That cracked me up.

And who doesn't love clicking Chaos NPCs repeatedly just to hear some of their finest lines. My personal favourites are "Hear the lamentation of their women", "Kittens are tasty", "Feathers make me itchy" and the one that always makes me "sing-along" with a snobby smirk on my face "The fools of the Empire call us Blasphemers. To them I say: Who's winning?"

Recently, when we were messing around as Orders on Azgal, big bossman Nirv pulled my attention to yet another quirky little known fact. Well, little for me because I didn't know it.

There's a few sheets of paper slapped on the banners crowding Altdorf. I find the text on them hillarious. I mean, I imagine this poor dude that was given the task of just writing something, anything, to fill in the space. Looks to me like he was just drunk. Click the image for a better view.

"I know I mispelled mispelled". Best.

Sometimes I wonder what other cool things I missed by just breezing through the few quests I had to do. I admit, at times, I followed the storyline of some epic quests and they were actually fun. More fun to read than to actually do them. Like this one quest in Eataine or Dragonwake or what was it where the Dark Elves were tying to tame dragons and sent me back and forth collecting this and that and killing each other because... that's what Dark Elves do.

Sometimes I feel for the people who invested their time in all the PvE content. Sure, WAR is not a PvE oriented game. That doesn't mean that a significant amount of effort wasn't put into it. Maybe just the fact that it's there and it was a job well done is satisfaction enough. I sometimes feel bad about not reading the intricate story of everything. But if I did I'd never get anything done.

And every unlock has a story to tell. Epikk sometimes misses his scenario pops just 'cause he gets immersed reading random unlocks. Like the one you get in IC with the Gors that depicts the story of every NPC. It wakes up, it knows nothing except its own name, it fights, it dies, it wakes up again.

After this gooshy-wooing of PvE it's time to go and shred LV to pieces. My belt is lonely.

Chaos in the Old World

I try to get away from WAR, now and then. Mostly to go sleep or to indulge in some much needed bodily functions. But we've made a habit of taking weekend nights to visit our neighbours' house and having a game night. We can either rock out on our fake guitars with Rock Band, play Munchkin, build roads in Catan and we even gave Risk a go. I ended up starting with Mother Russia, lost it but, by golly, I won it back! And that single russian fended off wave after wave of invasions.

We have other 2 games we play regularly: Warhammer Invasion and Chaos in the Old World. You play as one of the four Chaos God and kill the other's minions and ruin places. Godly enough, in my opinion. I usually end up playing Tzeentch (not by choice, mind you, but the laws of the universe have decided that if I went Zealot and Magus, I must be Tzeentchian), but this time I gave Slaanesh a go.

Good times were had by all, as good times usually are, when there's alcohol involved.

Later we came back and back to WAR it was. I've been pretty lucky with our Mount Gunbad runs and I've gotten 2 Redeye setpieces so far. I decided to go full DPS on scenarios with Donkeywrath (with the odd healing now and then) and I decided not to specc out of the AoE tree. Turned out quite well. Chaotic Agitation is now among my favourite abilities in the game. It can crit up to 500 on mobs and 300ish on players. And it ticks lots. On lots of people.

Although in some scenarios I proved to be less effective, Talabec Dam turned out to be real sweet. Especially if we had other good healers in there and I could feel free to just kill and rez up. (Sorry for the uncropped pic, I cba to go to the laptop and crop it.)

All in all, I'm fairly pleased with my DPS and this might encourage even more people to stop picking at us. We can be helpful if you work with us, not against. And I still pick up a new set of tactics if we're short on healers. So, less bitching and more healer rolling, there's still not enough of us out there so that I can DPS moar!

On a side note, it seems our PvE runs are getting indefinitely postponed as the bossman is always sleeping now that he found a job. That Darkpromise set seems almost impossible to get by now. And don't get me started on my Sentinel boots...

Nirvaesh as a working man

So - I finally got a job and am now a working man. On this fab time of economic depression I managed to get a job - who would've guessed. Not me fo' sure. In anycase it happened - it has its pro's and con's.

MONEY! .. oh yes the sweet sweet money that I never have - but the major con is that its physichal labour and when I got home today.. I was totally incapable to play and my 1 hour nap stretched to 3 hours cause I just couldn't wake up. SUCKS. 'Cause we were supposed to bonk ToVL again. Oh, well. So now that I got up 2 hours ago I had a few good sc's - few laughs with Doomish and then.. order attacked IC. After valiantly fighting for 45 mins.. they locked. Bloody bastards of VIII and Red Guard bombing - what a fun ruiner.

It's tempting.. those bomb groups.. to make one. But - I can't help but to think that those people on order who we would bomb would feel the same as I do now. Meaning I would ruin their fun - and that sucks. Sure its fun to bomb away lulz and get free arpeez.. but when I think of it deeper then the renown - it's dull, unimaginative - tho at first a great invention - but its like.. not Warhammer Online - it's more like a Bombhammer Hotline - when I go to a scenario all I see is bombing bw's and slayers going "Yaya I can spam AoE woot I r skillzed at this game." No I don't mean that every order bomber etc. is a retard - most likely the opposite. It's just the pressure of peers. Use what works. I don't blame you - I don't care whos responsible for ruining the prime-time of the game with bombers. But - I just wish it would stop. That's all.

In other notes back to my achievement of finding a job - this means I get money - this means that I hopefully will have this job for a long time and they'll premit me a few weeks off in the summer - cause I would love to visit Mike and Sara in Portugal.. and maybe another friend of mine in Holland on the way back/there. Who knows. Well I guess I'll find out in a months or twos time.

Back to the scenario then - I hope I can find one that isn't being dominated by bombers.

What "Annoying" Is and Other Exciting Adventures

I live in a small country. Granted, we're not totally backwater anymore, but still a fairly small country. This does not annoy me. I'm patriotic, I swear. On the rare and much celebrated occasions when I can actually get myself to leave the house, I find myself looking up at the sky and feeling "man, I love being here." What does annoy me is the people.

Yes, it can be said I'm somewhat anti-social. Not quite a sociopath but not on the friendly side of the stick either. This, although it might annoy others, does not annoy me. I like not liking people. I'm the best company I could ever hope for. So it comes as a bit of a shock to some people the way I glare at them when we first meet. I don't mean any harm, I'm just sizing them up. Not liking people in the broader sense has made me a good judge of character.

It is with this good amount of anti-social experience that I can most definitely say that most portuguese players (henceforth known as "tugas") are OMGSTFU-annoying. Seriously. I've been approached, time and time again by the same people, always asking me if I would like to join their now defunct "national" guild. The concept of an all tuga guild always put me off but I never actually minded them. So it was with a smile on my face and a sprint in my step that I heard they were done with the "national" part of it. Still didn't stop them from trying to recruit me every other day. This I find annoying.

I feel nothing but pity for their guild leader, as he is one of the few I have no qualms with. But their so called recruiters have been nothing but disapointing and/or rude. So, if by some off-chance you all happen to read this (you know who you are) please, STOP trying to recruit me or even talking to me. I don't care. Oh, and I will let you die every time it is within my power to do so. That's for telling me to go fuck myself, you non-Dark Magic releasing and unpocketed Sorc.

On to happier and more exciting things.

Our first ToVL run, albeit a short one, was a success. Mostly because the very first thing that dropped on the very first boss was the Glyph of Ualatp: Khaldun. Sweet, eh? Take that, Sentinel boots! (no, they still haven't dropped). We breezed through the first boss fairly easily, even though we had no ranged dps and three tanks. And apparently they forgot to reaply the guard the dude supposedly strips.

Moving right along, we got to the second boss and this one took a few tries. I had seen it done in a youtube video from this guy so I knew how it could possibly be done. But, although someone said it would be better if I did it, I wasn't keen on trying to kite the thing. So we tried it this way, and that way, this kiter, that kiter all to no avail. Finally, I stepped up and did it. First try was fail, second try was total win. This was, all in all, the best solution because I was the least dps-capable of the bunch and I could spam Flash of Chaos on myself if he happened to hit me once (no saving if he hit me twice though). Seeing as we kited him on the platform I was still in range to use my morale 1, Tzeentch's Talon, to help them kill it a bit faster. I also threw in a Harbinger for good measure. So, down it went and we didn't even take too long.

Third boss, not so win. I must admit, I wasn't as effective as I could've been, mostly because I didn't know if I should be coming or going when the beam thingies started. I have since looked into the matter (AKA, watched more vids) and decided the dmg from the beams can be fairly easily outhealed and thus I won't have to move around much. Which is nice, considering Dust of Pandemonium has a long cast time. Good thing it's critting for more than 3k too.

Alas, our healer had to bail and we decided to try and do it some other time. We got out, Crimson killed us, we took some BOs, a keep, unlocked Cunning Evasion/Assault, sleep.

Now that I think of it, that was probably one of the most ORvR filled days I had in a long time. We had to farm resources to try and open LotD up and we always seemed to end up in the middle of a keep take. Which was nice, for a change. Also nice cuz i "/point & /lol"ed at the afore mentioned sorc after it died while trying to hide behind a courner while we valiantly fought off the ordas.

Oh, and don't think I forgot Kahliah, Oh Great Broodmother. Seeing as you believe we should raise our recruitment standards so that they match a certain "star quality", I give you another tuga (actually a bunch of them) who is beyond annoyng, he's downright hillarious. He's got "star quality" alright. His momma told him so. She also said he was "special".



All of them are great fun, aren't they?
Note especially at 3:46, when our friend answers the question "What is it you think you have?" There can be only one, indeed.
This one's for you, Broodmother.

PvE and Me

I give you today, The Eye of Sheerian which, albeit a bit of a useless or maybe just ignored morale 2, is clearly, the most visually stunning ability in the entire game.
Indubitably.
Word.

So everyone was talking about how they did the thing there at the place and the ones who didn't we're all like "aww, I wanna go do it too!" and I got to thinking "yeah, I should totally do that. By golly". And, by golly, so I went and did it. Yes sirree.

I'm talking about LotD powerleveling. Yep, I got on my Shaman and we went to get Nirvaesh's DoK up to 40. I got the Shaman up to 35 in the process. Which sucks since he's "da Green" specced and I wanted to get his rr up evenly too. Don't get me started. This is the one toon I won't respec for a long time. For starters I'd need to get new gear to slot willp talismans in. Maybe if I ever get it up to Annihilator level. Maybe. And then it's just to breeze through the rrs until Conqueror.

And then it got me thinking "what wards did you need for that big bad tomb there on the horizon again?" I'd heard you only needed Greater but, call me a rub-tugging* jamaican monkey, I was doubtful. So I asked Gonk, my new second favorite tank in the whole wide server, and he confirmed that all we needed was Greater.
Rock on.

So a semi-guild run is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm guessing we'll either have a legitimate rdps with Gonk on his Magus (Doomish) or he'll come on the Gonk itself (BO) and we'll have an MT and 2 dps tanks, counting Krueg on.... well, Krueg. Lets hope we find another good healer. I like Groobar. Everyone that helps me heal through N'Kari, I like.

And so it is that after our completion of yet another LV (still just the damn belt) and 4manning BE (still no damn boots. SRSLY! I've been trying for months now) we set forth to conquer the last big PVE challenge. ToVL. Gonk says he's confident we can do the first 5 bosses. I'm up for at least die trying.

Speaking of trying, I went to Gunbad (fiiiiinally) on the Donkeywrath, the dps Zealot. That Redeye set is so yummy for a dps healot, especially compared to Devastator. The last bonus for me takes the cake. So off we went, me half-healing specced, Sarephi the other zealot (and broodfather) main healing, Kahliah (the broodmother) on her Sorc, Nirv on Krothek, his rk 18 Marauder (or Mordor if you ever hear him saying it) and the new Chosen, Zorpus. Surprisingly enough our 5 man group cleared the whole right wing, including the instanced boss, and managed one of the pqs on the left before Sar had to go. Surprisingly because I was rk 26, apprenticing Krothek but the rest of them were 23/22. We walked away with bolstered egos and some Redeye pieces to boot. And we got to hear Zorpus and Nirv spill out finnish over the vent. That's always.... interesting.

All in all, a good time was had, we got to spend time with our new recruits and we're taking a well deserved break from PvP. Of course, you'll find us emblem whoring in Scenarios now and again (but never leeching, we try our hardest, honest) but I, myself, needed and still need a break from all the zerging.

And getting better gear in the process is a well deserved added bonus.

I will continue on with my PvE adventure-relaying at another post.


*Kudos to Mr. Robert Rankin for having written all my favourite books. According to this remarkable man, a rub-tugger is one who "tugs at his rubbing parts".


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CASUAL READER READ NO FURTHER! TOTALLY USELESS BULLSHAITE AHEAD!

Character name meaning for the curious or otherwise no-lifers:

• Ehone Donkeywrath (means nothing, GOA/Mythic renamed me in a server transfer. "Ehone" sounds like a donkey to me so I call her Donkeyspeak) - ZL
• Dextrose Docinho (dextrose is a sugar and "Docinho" means sweet/sweety) - MG
• Trinca Espinhas (although "Trinca" by itself means bite, "trinca espinhas" is an expression used to describe someone very thin - its direct translation would be "fish-bone bitter") - DoK
• Nojo Debolso ("Nojo" is an ick, something disgusting; "de bolso" means portable/fits in yer pocket) - SHM
• Fofo (cuddly, flluffy, cute) - SH
• Chaimite - CHS
• Enfermeiro (male nurse) - DoK
• Donkeywrath (after Ehone) - ZL
• Pirilampo Mágico ("Pirilampo" means firefly but.. a magical firefly is something else altogether. You buy them to help the... handycapable?) - SORC

That's all of them I can remember, on Norn. So, if you see any of them stop asking me if I'm a tuga. Yes, I am and it's always just me.

Something little - a bit late - but hey...

Indeed, last night we finally managed to complete Lost Vale with our little team.
Me going on with Nirvaesh - main tanking, Sara on Ehone with the healz and our Epikk choppling teh Mike. And an old member of the guild, Krueg - now back with us as we're getting active (him being surprisingly hyped about the PvE) and Doomish/Gonk (which he bounced on when we had trouble with N'kari) from the guild Pyran (sp?) and Vixiez a DoK who joined us for the middle wing to take Groobars place who accompanied us through left and right wing.

This could be something more if it wasn't this late as most guilds and pugs are farming this place now that its old news and most are running around with Tyrant and Sovereign. Which makes me sad cause I remember the good ol' days when my Invader still meant something. -sigh-

In anycase, most of the instance was a pleasent breeze as I've always enjoyed tanking and that night scenarios were being populated by order bombing us to oblivion in most scenarios and despite our efforts it was pointless and due to it starting to get late and scenarios getting scarcer and scarcer we decided to continue with the LV we started determined to getting it done.

Left wing, all a breeze - even our spiderling nemesis - Draleth proved to be not much of a challenge to our Dark Promise greedy wrath. There were plenty of useful drops in all three wings - sadly a part of them went to the wrong address as I was doing fine on my invader which I use to tank and RvR with. Meaning I would've gladly had my drops be redirected to Ehone as she is still running around in Sentinel which by no means is not a crappy set but new is always new and shiny and I couldn't find someone more deserving than her. Epikk got a few a pieces - which are also well deserved.

Right wing, also a breeze - my 2nd time tanking it and no problems there except a bugging butcher and no gutbeater's shield for me.

Middle wing was brand new to me and I felt a bit nervous at tanking new bosses but with Doomish doing a great job on guiding us through the bosses we ended up clearing it without any trouble except a few careless wipes on the Chieftain and of course - a few missed purple orbs in N'kari which then ended up in me going down with the cleave and us resetting it. In the end we got it and were rather pleased with ourselves.

A rather pleasent expirience, a nice feeling of accomplishment and a warm and fuzzy feeling about making some new friends - especially since we started planning on hacing a semi-static party to go after Lockout if all were free at the time. AND something that got me even more excited was that we started planning on a possible go at the ToVL which we have once visited but then quit after a friend of mine Silanglindis - a sorc of the unnamed/unforgiven (I seriously can't ever remember which one he is from - I think unforgiven) had a lovely blue screen of death. We cleared a boss and got nothing useful for our trouble but it was still decent fun.

So - now with my tanking ego buffed to a whole new level of gloating and resulting in a whole new level of ego bubble bursting by Sara - I - atleast anxiously wait for our next roll at LV and our future in ToVL. Where I hope for all the phat lewtz but secretly on the back of my mind hope that the first set of drops are for Sara as that orange Sentinel must go - even tho she already is the most competent healer I know you can always put it up a notch eh?

Anyway - a little something a bit late - but I blame it on my darling black beast of a computer who decided to backfire on me on the height of my funtime on WAR which ended up in me taking a very long break from WAR in which time most people hit 80 and started dancing around in Sovereign and Tyrant - which of course they deserve as they worked for it. But I still wish I could've been among them at the time instead of crawling behind after my involuntary leave of the game. Thus my hopes of being one of the first BG's on Norn to reach 80 and even our little guild got crushed by inactiveness - but I think it all might be alright soon enough. But now is the time for me to actually log in to beat Order to a pulp as I still have a good 20 RR's to go through.

Guide to the Would-be Healed

Thanks to Mike and the boss for finally joining forces with me. They have more to say about the finer aspects of tanking and choppin than I ever will.

This post is in honour of Kaboose. If you're a RedvsBlue fan, you can understand just how promising this premise is.

We have a few new recruits in t2 so I logged my Dark Rites specced DoK, Enfermeiro ("Male Nurse", if you're wondering), to help out in scenarios. At a point we had an almost full premade ruling over t2 scenarios. Me and Sarephi, a new Zealot, were in charge of healing, while the boss on his Magus, Xone on his Blackguard, Kahliah the sorc and Krueg on his WE Lilrotir were in charge of the killing. And so it was that we were there, we were merry and we were pwning.

On one of many Mourkain Temples, we were joined by an auspiciously named Marauder. At first glance, a fellow RedvsBlue fan was a prospective vessel for my respect and even though Kaboose disapointed me in the end, we can all learn from his mistakes.

He started off with the succinct crowd favorite "Heal!" in /sc. Every healer that is actually healing knows how twitch inducing this can be. I wasn't about to have that. Especially because I had other people there with me to help bash the poor Kaboose. "WHERE'S MAH HEALS, KABOOOSE?" and several variants were my choice of taunts. We ended up taking home the cake and the 6 emblems and my healing won.

Now here's where it gets interesting and it is on this point I would like to focus on. Kaboose whispered me after we won the scenario and I'll dissect my answer to him step-by-step to help non-healers know what they can and can't expect from healers.

"I don't consider you to be a good healer because I was holding the artifact and I died right next to you." - Kaboose

After much rofling and lmaoing, my answer was as follows:

• "Kaboose, you're as smart as your name implies" - if you're in the dark, Caboose was the brainless comic-relief of RvB.
• "Next time, check your combat log before bitching" - if you think you're not getting healed or not getting healed enough, check your combat log before you nerdrage at whoever it is you think isn't doing his/her job. Sometimes you'll be surprised at how hard someone's trying.
• "There's only so much a healer can do" - sometimes, people go down faster than any cast time. Let's take Kaboose's example for a minute. When he so dramatically died while "right next to me", he was getting hit not only by all the dps Order had but also their tanks and the artifact itself. Me, a lowly DR specced DoK under rk20, had only Restore Essence and Soul Infusion to help him. And instead of falling back a bit, Kaboose bravely stared death right in the eye and died with his back against a wall.

Also, I had no turrets at hand. Turrets I use to spam Consume Essence to build up Soul Essence and also to use my Rend Soul. Unfortunately, most mdps are kind enough to destroy the turrets for me. I don't bitch about it much because their heart is in the right place.

To sum it up, please bear in mind that while you're thinking "if only I'd lived a second longer I could've killed that thing" a healer might be going "if only I hadn't lost LoS (line of sight) he could've lived a second longer".

In truth, I don't hold any grudges against Kaboose. I bet he's a nice guy. He just made a mistake. The mistake of thinking that having a healer makes one invincible, or perhaps the mistake of thinking that he was the only one in need of some healing. Or maybe even the mistake of thinking a dps was the best choice for artifact carrying. Whatever it was he was thinking, Kaboose made a poor choice of judgment. Or several of them in a row. But we've all had our days too.

And the Golden Rule would be, no matter how pissed off you might be, it's never a good idea to upset a healer. You might find yourself dead more often.

Never give up!

Today is one of the days - I have no cigarettes, no energy drinks and no money. And yes this is relevant to my WAR expirience. I will function but not without bitching around. Thus it makes it even worse when I enter a scenario and people are giving up 'cause we're too weak. Well it definetly isn't my fault! Watching R40 geared helears throwing around ~30k in the full scenario is just way too sad. Oh and the leading destro DPS was me - Blackguard on sword and board mode, defensive masteries and what not. So not only did we have a bad start and gave up on the middle - it ruined the rest of it. We aren't going to win by giving up - thats why I never do. Even though it does give me a headache - which I now cannot fix with nicotine and caffeine.

Anyway back to my more and less amazing feats of awesomeness - Batlle For Praag - good teams both ways. We're at their doors, we get pushed to the ground. I notice Sara dying on her zealot. And with that the rest of my group and the other group falling too. So I'm alone - a zerg of order comes at me. I think the first reaction of a normal player is either RUNAWAY. Or just lulz and run to them and let 'em kill you. I tried something spontaneous and something very weird. I took my banner out, ran in with the banner shield, bashed 'em. Ran to Ehone and rezzed her. And it worked - I lolled hard even though it was a futile attempt it was a perfect example of never giving up. Theres always something you can do.

In anycase, i'm hungry, grumpy and my mom's leaving to work soon, thus I have to make her a bit of food.

I had a book, but i eated it

Untill a couple of months ago i was able to read a book (or at least look at one and point at the tiny letters with my big index) and although it might seem futile, it made me feel happy because not that many orcs can read.

It was tough at first because my big teeth got in the way, but eventually i learned to tilt my head in a way that i could actually see what i was pointing at.

These days, every time i read a book i disapear and get sent to places with tents and angry elves ; as if Gork or Mork are punishing me for not eating all my vegies D:

Am i the only one that's sad that the "/tome" emote was removed ???

What am i suposed to do now when leeching renown at a warcamp? They took away my book!!!! and i can't use my "/special" all that often cuz the other day someone told me that it was rude to "spank your gobo" when there's ladies arround (and Ehone is always arround).

I miss my book D: bring it back please ;_;

I wanna be a sexy Chosen!

I'm gonna roll a tank and I'm going to level it and I'm going to love it and all to get this armour set right here!

Could there ever be a sexier beast? It's got all the manliness of the Chosen with the sensuality of boobs!

And I've got the perfect plave to powerlevel it too. I call it the "man-cave". A lot of people visit the man-cave for its healing properties and beautiful scenery. I like to use it for powerleveling because you never know what you can find in the man-cave. Every visit is a surprise.