Down But Not Out

This blog will now be solely dedicated to mediocre fiction I write about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

More interesting things about both WAR and other games and... other flights of fancy: all of this and a less offensive blog design might be found here.

Friday, April 9, 2010

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.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

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.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

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.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

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.

Friday, April 2, 2010

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.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

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.