Chicken Chaser

We still haven't moved. Turns out the former owners had this fetiche about nails ad drills so in the smallest room of the house you can find more than 30 holes drilled in the walls. Painful.

And my mother's cat decided to jump out of a 5th story window. She lived but running to and from the cat hospital has been another adventure.

And yet, amidst all that I rolled something I'd never rolled before. A tank.

I deleted my Chosen and rerolled Blackguard. Ooooh he's so sweet. He can take on anything and nothing can take him. Watch them run in fear when I break loose of the snares and taunt them. I get it now, the whole "over-extending" thing. You're all forgiven.

I have to say this as well. I'm very happy with this new guild thing I found, this Skill Frenzy or what was it. Things are going well. As I always say, "Frenzy provides" and I've been doing my best to provide as well.

I have been on plenty non-fail LV, VL, BE/BB, BS runs (but still no boots. shock. horror.)

We fail at sense of direction though and got lost on our way to Altdorf. We ended up in this strange place where we were afflicted with a strange plague.

By the way, loving the new appearance thing. I can now dress up as a Blood Wizard, or a Bright Letter. Something. However the game is still showing some unacceptable graphic bugs. Not mentioning that Chosen shield that always seems to be facing inwards, you have the WH outfit which... just doesn't look quite right.

Ok, well, I'm off to go tank stuff in the face and winge a bit because I got shot.

My tetanus shot was 2 years overdue.

New beginings

Ok so, me and the missus decided it was time to move on from The End as the guild is unfortunately dead, and Nirv doesn't have the time to play these days.

That being said, we enlisted in Kill Frenzy!!!!

Up till now there's nohing much to say as we haven't done any guild activities with them, but they seem like a great bunch of ppl.

Here's to hopping it will last as I'm kind of tired of fail guilds, and all this orc needs is a cozy spot to keep his tea forks.

On another note, I found an old friend online today. Someone from the first guild i joined, back when Karak Hirn merged with Karak Dron. A Nox. His name being Bogpad. Chatting up with the little gobo was refreshing and some good memories came back to my mind. Unfortunately when Dron merged with Norn, the guild vanished. All members but me and Ehone left and we ended up merging with The End.

It's kind of prophetic that the day I move into a new guild, someone from my first one appears :P

Anyway, all of you enjoy your week of no-renown, and see yha back in the battlefield come 7th of July.

Cheers

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.

"Darkdeadly deals devastating damage," says Dextrose Docinho

That's pronounced "Do-see-ñoo" not Docking Ho.

Alliterations aside, which have been further prolongued by my choice of screenshot, this be the truth. Most Magi do deal tons of damage. You'll see them deal less deathblows though. Yet, Magi seem to be the most memorable characters for me. I can remember at least five Magi from the top of my head (Darkdeadly, Jimix, Zoycolt, Yogiroth and Lowprofile) but I can't say the same about any other class. They just look so imposing and bad-ass, makes me want to cuddle up against them.

So, why Magi all of a sudden? Well, after my short adventure in the guise of a dps Zealot, I missed the true dps of my Magus. On Dex I hopped and damage I most surely dealt. I have been reading Keagen's guides and whatnot but, me being me, I can't follow instructions very well. I just do what comes natural to me.

What comes natural to me is this: always look for a clusterfuck; start off with a Glean Magic to lower spirit resist; slap on Dissolving Mist, half of it where they are, half of it where they are likely to move to; Pandemonium for more dps, Surge of Insanity if there are casters in the midst; Seed of Chaos on a retreating tank; coup de grace with an Infernal Blast, followed by a Warpfire and some good whooping with Daemonic Lash for good measure. For single targets I add all the other DoTs, Baleful Transmogrification, Withered Soul and even a Mutating Blue Fire. I usually throw in a Surging Violet Fire paired with Changer's Blessing if I lack healers. It's probably not the most effective way to go about it but, for me, it's the second most fun I could ever have with a Magus. Why second? Because Magi have a suicide spec more suicidal then any emo Sorc out there.

In my dreams I see a world where Magi roam freely and are loved by all. Treated as equals, they feel free to spec however they wish. In this world there are some who spec for close-combat damage, reeling their enemies in with a Chaotich Rift and acting like a hot plate with their Agonizing Torrent and Aegis of Orange Fire. But they are not alone and, right behind them, more Magi come and cast the aforementioned AoE DoTs. And if some dare survive, behind them are even more Magi with their Tzeentch's Firestorms, Perils of the Warp and Bolts of Change. Who needs healers anyway? Give me more Magi any day.

Again, this might not be the best way to go about playing a Magus but, the best way isn't what Dex is about. I play Dex to unwind from doing the right thing, from ressing people in scenarios (yes, because I do that), from keeping other parties other than myself HoTed from spamming group heals when necessary, criting for 3k. I play Dex to see them purty white numbers fill my screen. It's gratifying.

On a related note, there seems to be hope for me yet! I decided to stop whining and bitching and random arm-flailing and went back to my AoE spec. Seems I'm better at what I "grew up" doing. Which must be why I play vanilla. Well, mostly. What I mean is, I don't use Squared or Healgrid or anything like that. Yes, that might be my loss but, honestly, I've tried it and I seem to spend so much time remembering how to do things that I end up using my good old reliable hotbar and party windows. With that in mind, I went back to AoE, determined to do the best I could and pray for the best. Must've been a good day for my Restorative Burst because AP wasn't too much of an issue yesterday. And most, if not all, of that damage came from my Manipulation, a little something to remind me of my DPSing days.

Speaking of DPSing Zealots, I saw Bauros in full Invader, or Conqueror or what was it, DPSing in a SC. Although I wasn't impressed by his output, I was impressed by his renown gain. He was in my party so he wasn't whoring. You'll notice that the boss, Mike and I ranked right after the dude/dudette and we all have similar RRs. I am yet to fully comprehend how this renown table works.

All in all it was a good day for me to be back on Norn. Most of all because I found my buddy Krueg again! Krueg was one of our off-tanks, back in the day where we still had a guild to speak of. He was a RAWRing Khorne worshipper that could always lighten the mood. He had a ficticious homossexual affair with our other Chosen, Ranark who has since also gone the way of Jimmy Hoffa.

Krueg is currently following his heart and pursuing his love for naked lady elves, i.e., he rerolled a WE. We hope to see him back in T4 with us soon.

How many WLs does it take to kill a Shammy

So, I was effing about in Azgal's T1 with my male AM (Tryharder) to pocket Mike while he ranked his new slayer (Epikk) when I spot a battle waging in the middle of the warcamp. Now, I've seen wc guards be useless before but never to such an extent. Turns out 3 rk 10 shammys (trials, no doubt) found a neat yet completely obvious way to storm into the Order warcamp. All the non-Hero NPCs punched and spat at the greensters to no avail and the Heroes were scratching their virtual nuts looking the other way.

They got a pretty decent amount of kills in before someone asked for help in /1. I guess it must be a different kind of satisfaction, being an OP trial.

Luckily for us, or maybe not as much as I initially tought, it was Psych's bday. Happy birthday Psych! (BTW, I have no idea who Psych is) and his fellow guildlings threw an event just for him. And so it was that 16 members of The Asguards all rolled WLs and happened to be nearby to help with the shamy crysis. The whole thing reminded me of Kill Frenzy's WAAAGHMAGEDDON. Only less epic.



Make sure to visit Bootae's Bloody Blog for more Kill Frenzy videos.
Make our dreams come true indeed.

So 16 WLs + 16 Lions + Renown Trainer + Random Orders = Win, right?

Not so much. It took a considerable amount of time to down just one of the buggers. Alot more than what I would've expected. Im considering just skipping T1 entirely from now on and plvl straight to T2 just so I don't have to deal with trial accounts. Considering there are already trial guilds and whatever, I just don't have the will or the intestinal fortitude to deal with organized OP toons while babysitting the headless chickens on my side who are just learning the ropes.

/advice

Every once in a while I log in with a char with which I haven't filtered off the advice channel yet.
It serves as entertainment in the long stretches between SC pops. Apart from the old favorites (WoW bashing, guild advertisement and trade spams) you get your noobish but valid questions and your noobish nab questions.

Some I'll always answer like:

• "Where to get mount?" (North oh the Monolith or Near Sigmar's Hammer for 15g)
• "How do I use these talisman thingies?" (it says so right there, in any slotted item. Shift+rclick it)
• "h0w name pet??" (/petname . Squigs and Horrors are not namable, they're cannon fodder. Although you might have named your coffe maker, Turrets are machines and, therefore, unamable.)

Others, however, always generate heated discussions and every nerdrager that happens to be logged in takes the opportunity to nerdrage a bit more.

• "Is this server balanced?/Does our side ever win?"
• "What's most fun to play?" (Magus, duh. How can anyone even ask that?)
• "What heals/hits/tanks best?" (no accounting for taste but I personally prefer AM, BG and BWs)
• "Is this game worth paying for?" (everyone currently logged in above rk11 should think so, so what kind of question is that???)
• "Why do all healers suck!?" (healers suck as much as everyone else, it's just that everyone else dies when they do.)

Yesterday, though, I caught a heated discussion not only on the balance in both Norn and Azgal but also on its reasons. Mostly these reasons come down to "healers don't heal" or "we sux" and other constructive remarks but, this time, seems like there was more to be said.

According to someone's opinion, Norn wise, Destro has the numbers, Order has the guilds. Not to say that we don't have guilds, it's just that most of them suck.
 I don't wholeheartedly agree with this but yes, it has always seemed to me that we have very few organized and useful guilds. There's Evil Inc (to which I was part of for like 3 days) and maybe Tainted. Chlopi Chaosu is always recruiting and Damned Souls ain't half bad (wonder whatever happened to CIR). There are others but if the zerg sees a few Red Guard they turn on their "headless chicken" switch and everything thereafter is full of fail.

I, myself, have never been part of a big, organized guild and I admit I'm a worst player for it. In one year of playing my main is only rr5x and I've been to one full LV run (and in the span of those 5/6 hours I got 5 DP pieces, none of them for my class).

I guess it's all a matter of loyalty and that'll be The End of us (see what I did there?). Out of loyalty, I'll stay put in our 3man guilds, and I'm happy there. It's the kind of gaming I know and love. And even though the boss tries to recruit, what is he going to get? No >rr50 guy is likely to join us, they have their own allegiances and guilds and whatnot. End-game players in rk40 guilds only leave their guilds to join other rk40 guilds. So you have the same guilds everytime with players that might jump between them but never new guilds. We get to recruit rk12s and maybe the occasional 20ish. But with us being 40, what are they even doing there? There's not much they can do with us and plvling takes the fun out of the race.

I dunno. I'm not much for gaming-studies. I just log in and play. I don't usually dwell on these advanced playing tactics or what the best build is or whatever. Call me an instinctive player.
I used to think that, if we made a name for ourselves, they would come but I'm over such childish fantasies. They come and they go and we're still here. And we will be as long as the boss's computer holds out.