It'll grow out...

One familiar Mabd lament... crappy hunter helms. Godawful haberdashery designed to break the hunter will. BRK is fond of complaining of Blizzard's repeated insults to the noble hunter visage with their sartorial efforts that, perhaps, only Bjork would willingly wear. (but didya see the stats on the swan dress!) Of course, AC members complain in turn about BRK's unwillingness to check that little button in the interface options... "hide butt ugly dwarf face..."

So it's all relative. Still... look at the picture. It aint just hunters getting the short end of the ugly stick. My god... who knew the hamburglar was an affliction lock? That's just wretched! Not since tier zero pally gear (you want fries with that?) have I been this shocked...

The original Oxford English Dictionary relied on a mass of submissions by volunteers. Some of them were quite... interesting. I wonder if Blizz has similar lunatics working the design counter?

And does this preface the massive and complete lock nerf to end all nerfs we've been waiting for?

Obligatory sunday post...

Its gotten so I feel guilty if I doan post every two days or so...

Anyway, was running Unbound the enhance shammy through Mana Tombs. Itsa sad state of affairs when the 65 warrior looks at the group and says... "all we need now isa tank!"

So group had Unbound the 66 shammy, a 66 mage, 64 pally, and two 65 warriors.

And even with spirit weapons (30% reduced threat from melee) and BoS... I was pullin aggro. Still, a group with a backup healer is nice... and shammies kick ass in 5 mans.

But the completion of MT left unbound with one big hole in the Instance register... slave pens and underbog... so I get into a SP group...

They need a tank.. and get a 61 warrior.

They need a healer... and get a mage.

"Unbound, looks like you gonna have to heal."

Looks like you gonna have to find someone else. /leave.

Ima sorry. But Enhance shammies, even with shammy gear, heal about as well as a ret pally. Druids and Priests can main heal with dps builds. But not Shammies or pallys. It aint happening. Backup heals... fine. No problem. But main heals? Are you outta your mind? You wanna spend the next three hours corpse running, its all you. Now ifa it was a better group... 61 warrior tanking? enhance shammy healing?

I swear to god, I can't be the crazy one. Please tell me I'm not.

I should play a warrior...

Cuz I'm not a pussy.

And it's killing me. I play nice ranged dps types... snipers, cc freaks... ya know. People who require "teh touch..."

People who can't stand attention.

But the warriors I've been seein lately... my god. First, Pogar of Team Melvin.

"I'll just target whoever mabd targets... and go in as her backup!"

It just gets worse. Majeure was in EotS last night, unable to get the daily done. I led a raid on mage tower... followed by two warriors...

I stopped so they could go ahead and be the good meat shields distractions, and let Maj do her thing.

They stopped as I did, and waited for the CLOTH WEARING MAGE to lead the charge into the enemy.

Or the level 64 warrior who yelled at Unbound, the level 66 enhance shammy to "heal!" while we were both fighting for our lives...

You can tell teh n00bs in BG's. When all goes to hell, they start bitching about the healing. Anyone who expects healing in BG's is a goddamn fool. All the priests are shadow, all the druids are feral, and all the pallys are ret.

Well, no, not if they have a clue, but face it. If you think someone is gonna heal yo level 64 ass in a 60-69 BG, you stupid enough to believe anything.

Which is one of the reasons I don't feel ashamed to play unbound in AV... in that mess, all I do is heal, on the grounds that ANY healing more than earns my underleveled ass a place in a 40 man BG. Which is to be expected. Its not like I'm gonna kill anything or anyone 4 levels higher than myself. Healing isn't subject to the same silly dimishing returns of DPS against higher level targets.

Which leads to the point of my post... a response to the savage one.

It ain't gear. You can beat people with better gear. Melvin has 300 resil and 11k health. He gets schooled like girl in a plaid skirt. His latest bete noir... a rogue ganking in netherwing named Gallo. Its fun to listen to him try to explain talents he doesn't bother to read about. By his count, gallo is up 30-2, and is wearing "an epic bought entirely from honor farmed offa me!"

Melvin is terrible in pvp.

It's all attitute. And with season three, intro raiders are getting into pvp to get a coupla pieces of gear that are much better than anything they can get short of ZA or SSC. And these fools know NOTHING about pvp. One of my EotS games, 7 hordies decided to camp the flag. We were down 400, and the allies simply... held the flag... while raiding our towers and crusing to victory. All the while these idiots were stuck in the middle of the map doin NOTHING.

Mass stupidity > Bad gear, megan, my love. First, real pvp'ers know their classes a lot better than raiders. Cuz every pvp'er has had to run instances... ina raid/instance, you have to do yuir job or it falls apart and you get replaced. The reverse does not apply. Raiders rarely understand the changing nature of pvp. So, pvp includes a much more substantial moral hazard. Who the hell checks to see if you doin what needs to be done? Maj drives me crazy... she's at about 50 resil, and wont last a second if shes alone guarding a tower. But noone else wants to do what needs to be done, so Maj gets staked out like tiger bait. She rocks with company, but I never get another peep to help defend... so Maj as guard inevitably leads to lost tower.

Which has a cascade effect... mabd is an excellent guard, but leads in kills and damage if shes allowed to be on O. How do you get 2-3 of the nubs to stop group ganking on the road, and sit by a flag, actually earning honor instead of leeching it? I'd rather have 5 220+ resil 10k+ health at my back than 8 nubs. Yet the ones with the abilities are stuck filling in guard duties that really should be done by the scrubs, while the heavy armor sits and rusts.

Which is what makes AV so much more fun for horde. All the best players stay back and farm HK's on DEFENSE! While the nubs look at the mass of enemy pouring down on em, and rez elsewhere... The true pvp'er looks at 3-1 odds as a treat. Spec since they tend to be "soft targets..." This one time, Mabd against two locks and a fury warrior... ah, good times...

Remember nubs... you good for nuttin better than wiping on Vann. And guarding flags. Earn your honor, keep your mouth shut, and do your jobs till you EARN some respect.

Hrm...

"I'd never be pathetic enough to waste my time blogging about a stupid game..." - Melvin

Sorry, BRK... I asked.

I try to be original...

But I'm boring. So the hell with it. Ima gonna shamelessly steal stuff.

Like this...

Pardon me if this column seems to lack any flow or direction. I was quite distracted Sunday while watching all of the NFL action.

I've moved into a new neighborhood and the local kids keep telling me that every year around this time all the homes are invaded by some fat, costumed freak. Apparently he's been doing it for years. Well, not anymore. Not in my house at least.

I spent most of the day barricading all of my doors, but I hear he likes to enter through the chimney. So I'm keeping a huge fire going in my fireplace. And underneath the fire? A bear trap. If somehow he still manages to get in, I've left out some milk and cookies. (Supposedly this lardo has quite the appetite.) But I've laced them with rat poison.

Then I moved on to the socks. The rumor is this guy likes to put things inside children's socks. Well, if he does that at my place, he's in for a surprise. One sock I left out is full of vipers. The other? Another bear trap (a smaller one that I use to trap baby bears).

So I feel like I'm ready. I just wish the realtor had mentioned this about the neighborhood before I moved in. Anyway, here are …

12 Things I Think I Thought While Preparing To Kill Santa Claus

12. Is it a bad sign when you lead a charge to get the flag back in WSG, /yell "to the roof!" and then see the rest of em go straight to the flag room leaving you alone with the flag carrier and his 3 evil looking warlock bodyguards?

11. What the hell is the point of AFK stealthing right next to a GY flag?

10. Is it bad form to mock people who post "Just need tank and healer for ZA run?"

9. Why do people always talk about online economies being ruined by prices being moved up? Nuttin wrong with the economy, just with yuir cheapness. Monopolies are part of the fun. If you lack the spirit to go into business to break him, its all on you. (BTW... it's not that hard, and very profitable to crush the would be monopolists... it just takes time and wits.)

8. Did WSG monday... mabd lost three in a row, with the allies capping before the horde could get more than 6 players. This happens all the damn time in BG's... WTH blizz?

7. Played Unbound the 66 enhance shammy in baby BG's. A ton of fun... won't work past 70 tho, cuz I shudder to think what happens to all my "on a crit strike" talents when my 20% crit ass attacks a 400 resil toon. Still, mega fun at this level...

6. Do not run into that cramped horde tower, little mabd. Doan do it... doan do it! Why look, a warrior, how did you know?

5. Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a paypal for WoW gold or honor?

4. My dad worked on XMas eve and Xmas day. My dad is 61. I doan know how I feel about this.

3. My brother didn't. I KNOW how I feel about THAT.

2. My 3v3 team holy pal wants to "be more aggressive" in Arena. To "take advantage of his dps and stuns." Sometimes, ya just gotta stare at the booze in the glass til the world starts makin sense.

1. The adventures of team melvin. Team melvin had a shadow priest. A RL friend of melvin and company. Anyway, palmy the s priest is a grad student... and is gonna fail unless he starts getting crap done. So he gave the account to his brother... who promptly transferred palmy to another server to play with friends. Anyway, this lasted two weeks. Palmy is back under original ownership, and in two months will return to lightninghoof.

So my question.

What do you say to someone who is letting the game ruin his life?

My left nut...

I'm just gonna express my disbelief and ridicule with a simple anagram. MLN.

AV honor holiday? MLN. No damn way they fixed that honor bug.

As much as I hate to say it... the allies have a point. They're getting shafted in AV. As a result... they're revolting.

/grouchomarx accent on

"I'll say!"

/grouchomarx accent off

Was in a game... allies did everything right, ran into 15 horde on d at frostwolf village, and lost. I begin to think that the way to tell the smart horde players from the absolute idiots is to see who's playing D. The short bus is the train heading north :(

"Why look! Noone is guarding SH bunker! Why even bother capping it?"

Horde uber eliteness... MLN.

Had dinner with Melvin the other day. (My xmas gift, dinner at Outback.) He informed me that in his considered opinion, druids are the weakest class at pvp.

MLN.

BTW... team melvin went 2-8 in Arena 5v5, and are at 1380 after two weeks. They still think they can get more points with 5v5 than with 3v3.

MLN.

Maj is gonna have to go frost. Pretty much the same reason Mabd went MM. So... 600g to regear to little wretch? Swap out the spell fire for the frozen shadowweave tunic, season 3 gloves and vindicator belt? What a drag. Worth the pain...

MLN.

So I pop a mage table every BG I go into with Maj. And four or five people grab all the grub. God I hate humanity. Social responsibility...

MLN.

Merry xmas to all! And may the life wrecking game spare you enough time for family and love! WoW as an acceptable activity over xmas?

MLN.

/cry

Lookit this. It makes me wanna hit a GM with an axe. Dammit, why do all female orcs come off as butch inbred hillbillies?

That top?

Screams "no trailer park can hold me!"

I mean really. Mabd is gonna have to go medieval on those orc baiting vermin. If only their miserable hides would be worth something after I skin em.

Now lookit noble Mabd. Pondering her next loss in AB.

Her motto:

"Death is a feather. But BG's these days are a motherf&%$r!"

AV the honor holiday for XMAS!

Nuttin says holidays like honor bonus. And with a 4 day holiday, the socially bereft should be able to grind at least an epic outta the holiday.

However, truth be told, Ima starting to burn out a bit. Maj helped Melvin and company fill out their 5 man last week, and I still feel dirty. However, it left me with one huge question...

Can an invisible mage see a stealthed rogue or druid if they've had detect invisible spammed on em? Which is to say... lotta locks out there, and locks tend to spam detect invis... so you gotta rogue that can see invisible, and the rogue starts arena in stealth. Will my invisible mage be able to spot him/her? This bears investigation...

Battlegrounds are just a damn pain at this point. Went 0-6 in AB on monday, losing twice with Mabd, herself. Both times popped into a losin game against a premade, but still... anyway, AB was the BG quest on tuesday, and Mabd signed up... nother premade. Still, we managed to barely squeeze out a win. They didn't have the gear, and Mabd gives good D.

If I'd been playin Maj, we woulda lost. No doubt.

So anyway, I'm beginning to note a massive divergence in BG's between the haves and have nots. We're really beginning to see the point in the post BC world of warcraft where you can't simply gear yourself out in the AH and compete in any meaningful way. I mean, Maj has awesome gear. She's around 850 +spell unbuffed (Melvin has been raiding with less for months) and well within spitting distance of 1k with a coupla gear changes/enchants. That's easily SSC/Gruul level gearing. And yet she's decidedly average in BG's. One on one with another char, with my cooldowns blown, and itsa coin toss.

Mabd, OTOH, is singlehandly responsible for most of the WSG wins she's in. Either she slaughters the other side, or draws so many of em into a pointless quest to kill her that the rest of the team can run without fear. What about you guys? You been seein something similar in BG?

This was too damn weird not to share...

If ya ever wondered what Arms&Fury was like in real life...

Well... that last post should've given ya a clue. Here's another one.

Nerd Central.

Only with some otherworldy sex appeal. And yes... I was once tortured with a two hour lecture on a green lantern story arc.

The pride of the horde

First read this. Then take a look at the picture. I'm beginning to suspect Blizzard has taken CERTAIN MEASURES to increase the suckitude of the horde, at least as far as pvp is concerned. Well, this is ONE theory to explain my horrific string of losses in battle grounds. The cruelest nerf of all...

Rats... ya might wanna put yuir pants back on. We wouldn't want anything to happen to yuir orc pride, now would we? Oh, and... Sylvanas asked Maj to ask ya why you ain't been round UC lately. Damned if I know what this is about...

Why I hate humanity part 7,601 of too many...

So maj is cleaning out quests... and runs Crypts with a group.

So so group, get to end... and they boot me from the group after the end boss dies. No time to run back to entrance to turn in quest, I gotta port or get my hs blown.

Of course I beg them to reinvite... but they either doan understand or doan care.

Then they try to recruit me to their guild. (Hey, you were a pretty good mage, looking for a home?)

12 minute waits for AV.

WSG is the BG quest for third day in row.

And the entire ally army is camping the holiday quest sites.

Why are my pvp options limited to just the other faction?

...

Mabd ran outta mana in AB and had to beat a dwarf pally to death with her axe.

I feel so... orc... now.

Doan multi-shot me, bro!

Itsa more and more amazing the diff between Mabd, queen of death, and Majeure, the soft crushable one. Maj has pretty much enough gear to raid Gruul or SSC. She has next to no PVP crap.

Now the vicious one, (may the gods of MMORP never put her in a battle group opposite me...) Became involved in the ongoing hate fest between the pve'ers and the pvp'ers. And the epics involved.

Asa resident on a pvp server... the argument is settled.... everyone grinds BG's for the handful of epics required to get from 70 (n00b second class) to 70 (stilla n00b, but with a chance in hell...) Itsa helluva lot easier than grinding epics in heroics. Lets face it, as BC gets older, the spread between new 70's and old 70's will widen. Blizz tried to keep greens, blues and purples closer together in the expansion. But you doan keep chumps grinding unless they get uber-gear cookies. The problem... there is a progression track in pve... kara, the lowbie 25's, ZA and the upper 25's...

There is no progression track in pvp. And thassa shame. What is needed is growing arena costs for the new gear, and much more reduced costs for previous seasons...

Who in their right mind would buy season two if they could get season three? 20% off is WAY still way to expensive...

But halve that. Double the season three gear costs... or make the equivalent season two item a requirement for purchase. This way, there actually is a seniority to pvp.

OTOH, as the soul stealing wench likes to point out... upper ranks of arena shouldn't belong to gear monsters, but to the skilled. I can see it both ways.

I dunno... but BG's are getting freakin weird. You get into a game with a handful of season 3 on other side, ya lose. Maj gets pwned nonstop... and when Mabd takes the field, I can run into a mess of allies and come out with three scalps before they come close to dropping me. Partly this is the n00b 70's grinding for epics... and partly Mabd's uber twinked pvp build. Bloody hell, build really does make a difference...

Melvin is talkin bout switchin out all his +12 sta gems for +8 resil ones... and the sad thing is I'm begining to agree with him.

K, personal note. I dreamt that I beat up santa claus last night.

He was makin candy in my kitchen, and I had to stop him cuz it looked like a meth lab, and i was scared he was gonna burn the place down.

God, I have weird dreams.

Kiss it...

Did some more 3v3 with mixed results. Kept losing to War/Rogue/Healer teams. One we should have won, the others were just brutal. The war and rogue key on poor mabd, challenging the pally to keep up heals, while herk chases their healer around.

Sigh. Resto druids are too damn close to unkillable.

Anyway, teams that didn't have this build got squished. Ran into a pair of locks with pallies... crush crush.

Anyway, its time to speak out on the stupidity. As much as I enjoy the blog, Kestral, you dead wrong. BTW, I really enjoy the blog :)

Some history. Sad sad history.

My first char to 60 was a rogue. I was one of the first on my server with 300 lockpicking. (Actually it was 275 to open every box in the game back then, but who's counting?) This was when the first thorium boxes were showing up, and, well, you know how blizzard would NEVER, EVER drop the ball? Yeah. Rogue lockpicking was like that. You couldn't get skill checks via trade. The box had to be in your possession to get the skill up. And so, noone, but noone, could pick the thorium lockboxes. Getting lockpicking up to 275 was equivalent to the Frostsaber faction quest or getting neutral with bloodsail buccaneers. You had to run SM over and over, in stealth, and pick the locks of all the doors.

I was that kinda nuts back then. I aint anymore.

Around then, I started noticing the crazy start. People would ask in trade chat for "someone to help open x box." "Help open?" What the hell? Yeah, I'll hold the damn flashlite while you jigger the lock. Help? What is this help? The real comment should be... "Need someone to open x box as a favor."

Well, the help cry got zero responses... so came the age of "tipping." Goddamn, I hate humanity. I was in the hospital last year... $77k bill. How much do I tip the doctor?

NOTHING! Hesa professional. He getsa fee. Who do you tip? Haircutters, taxidrivers, waitresses, delivery people, maids, doormen. In other words, people who took over work that used to be done by servants.

Ya see how this works? You ain't a needy bastard who wants a job done by someone who poured life and soul into moving up a skill and getting all kinda rare patterns... you a master and lord, tipping a lowly craftsperson.

Screw you. Either honestly ask for your alms, or honestly pay for them. "Tipping" is insulting and belittling. Intentionally so. You DOAN have to tip. You DO have to pay yo doctor.

So anyway... saw someone wanting the major spellpower to weapon enchant the other day... now Melvin spent two days farming for that thing. (Maj got it on the first drop, at least thats the official story to help me slowly whittle away Melvin's sanity. That's right, Melvin. The game hates YOU personally...)

So anyway, I got the enchant... and I respond to the tell. The guy then forks over 250g in enchanting mats. I light up the enchant. Then he puts a 3g tip in the box.

So how much is my time and effort worth? About 1% of the cost of mats. Why doan you guys try that when you order pizza? Or get your haircut? I'd rather do it for free than take the insult. Oh wait.. I'd rather not do it at all. And then there are the BoE Patterns people pay 1k gold for... yeah, yuil make that up in a hurry at 3g a pop.

Majeure... 385 enchanter... friends only.

Running with mages...

This one was just too damn strange. Popped into WSG Sunday to do my daily pvp... and got into a game with neither warrior nor druid on either side.

We won, 3-0, but still... it played out like no WSG I've ever been on. The other side had a mage holding the flag most of the time...

And some fun with Melvin. He thinks hunters are OP now. But still claims not to have a problem with them. He's doin miserably in arena since 2.3 hit...

One fun thing on Melvin is his psychopathic hatred/fear of locks. Yeah, a lock can school a mage, but POM Pyro has a decent shot at em if ya keep yuir wits. The one big thing is getting that cs off when they castin shadow/fear (what does that shut down, all affliction, or all shadow spells? I've always wondered...)

Melvin can't time his cs like that. So melvin is lock meat. Maj, OTOH, has been having some success on locks in BG. Soul linked locks are still a cast iron bitch, but get that POM and fire blast off, and then catch em casting with cs, and between slow, and arcane missile, ya got em under control. Still a hellova fight tho.

She's been having problems with full glad bonus warriors tho. Too much life to whittle down before they get enough of those 2k hits on ya. Maj still needs more sta and resil... luckily, the next coupla pieces are in sight.

More on AV missing honor...

I been damn telling people we were getting shorted honor.

Looks like it was showing up in the "est daily honor" but not the end screen. And the "est daily honor" was wrong.

Here's the other side of what was goin on, Herk.

Take it honor farmers! Blizz LUVS you!

Btw... spending the weekend watching Wire, season 4. One of the main chars... a cop named Herc.

Uses force and shouting for everything. Sound familiar? I'm just saying...

He fell for it...

I just wish I'd gotten a screenshot...

He's almost as much fun to watch as lemmings are. Or gnomes that walk into snake traps...

Again, the horde disappoints... took 5 tries to get my EotS done. And the win was close, while I got 4 capped twice by pug groups.

It's starting to kill me.

A real bastard...

TJ... sweetie... A big wheel? I'm sorry... I thought you realized... I sent you snow for yuir birthday! Pure and clean, like my love for you! You didn't get it? I'll have em send some more...

Er... for X-Mas... it looks like I might inherit a man-whore. Would you be interested? He's not gay, he just strips for/sleeps with guys to pay for the drugs. He's gonna need a place in Maryland to crash over the holidays...

So anyway.. I hava problem with this whole blogging thing. I really doubt that I can add much to people's understanding of hunters or mages... so why bother writing bout em? Fun stories, yeah...

However, BG's are killing me. Maj lost four in a row trying to do her daily. I begin to think that the entire horde has joined a conspiracy to drive me crazy. So here's a guide, based on the teachings of one of the most ruthless and evil human beings to walk the earth.

Today... BG's in general.

First. The point of a BG is NOT to kill the other side. The point is to accomplish the victory conditions. The other side will try to stop you, and you will have to kill them to get them outta the way. But this is NOT the point. And if you go off killin allies (or horde) and ignoring all else, YOU WILL LOSE.

Herk was driving me crazy last week with the incredible missing honor mystery. He even said he sent in a ticket on it... He'd BG for a while, get up to 2k honor or so, then log in the next day, and a coupla hundred would be missing.

He didn't know what was goin on till I explained it to him. It really is something everyone should know by now, but it bears repeating. There is a diminishing return to honor kills. The first time ya kill an enemy char, ya get full honor. The second time, ya get half honor. Third time, ya get crumbs... after that, nothing.

This is done server time during rollover. The honor you see is the honor that your console estimates you get. It doesn't, and can't know, and can't calculate the fractions of honor you get from kills. (Remember, in BG's there are few unassisted kills, so you split the honor with others as well, leading to even more shrinkage...)

What does this mean? Killing the other side does you very little good, honor wise. So fer Christ's sake, leave the hell offa stupid fights.

The other thing people know, but don't seem to realize. Dying can be an advantage. You die, you come back within 30 secs with full mana or health at a nearby rez spot. BS in trouble, and you at LM? Jump and die, and you'll get there faster. And don't be afraid to charge into the enemy. One nice rule of thumb for the armor classes... the more people you can get to chase you down and kill you, and the longer it takes... the better. Thats a swarm of idiots that wont be capping flags or annoying the rest of your raid. So what if you die? You lose nothing, and you wasted their time.

When it comes down to it, BGs are won by the team that reacts the fastest, and gets more people to the target site the fastest. Or as NBF put it... "Get there firstest with the mostest." (He was borderline illiterate.)

Keep an eye on the damn map. Know how many peeps you got where, and who's in trouble. God damn to hell all idiots that can't be bothered to announce incoming over raid chat. And when you do, say how many, and how much help you might need...

"at least 3 inc to BE, only got one here defending, plz come help..."

Another map based thing... if one of your sites is getting slammed... grab a peep and hit one of the enemy sites... 8 enemy against 6 of you on one of yuir bases is a fair fight... and leaves something unguarded...

Defense is a force multiplier... if your team isn't mind boggling stupid, and can keep the flag from being capped, or the other team from establishing enough of a presence to flip an EotS base... yuil win. Every time you die, you come back in less than 30 secs at full health and mana... every time they die, itsa 30 sec rez and at least a 20 sec ride. Being outumbered by a couple is no big thing. You SHOULD win, unless outgeared or outplayed.

This is what makes WSG such a nightmare. It always comes down to trying to take a flag offa guy standing in/near his own rez spot... and every 30 secs, the other team comes back at full strength...

Last... keep movin. Unless yuir on D, you should either be fighting or running to a fight. Know where the enemy is rezzing. You just beat off that attack by 8 on the BS with your 6. They prob aint comin back. Know where they ARE going, and get there first. Doan sit around scratching your ass. It aint rocket science, there's usually only one or two possible targets. For the love of god... don't try attacking a target right before a big rez. If they attacking the LM... and they control stable and mines... ignore the stables... rezzers will keep popping up there... the mine will be a much quieter target of opportunity.

These things are simple... they come down to mobility, aggression and ability to keep yuir mind on the objectives.

The adventures of team BlueRageBar

Enemy Druid: "Don't worry, my brave warrior, here comes a heal!"
Tazanian: "Stun hammer to the face! God, I hate treehuggers!"
Enemy Warrior: "Ain't *THIS* a bitch? /dies"

Team Blueragebar: "We win again! Way to cock block that heal, taz!"

****

Enemy Mage: "Frost nova FTW. Eat ice you stupid ugly cow warrior!"
Tazanian: /cast BlessingofFreedom
Herk: "Grrrrr.... /madcowspittle"
Enemy Mage: "Can't we just get along? EEEEP! /dies"

****

Of course the quote of the night...

Herk: "Sorry bout that, dude... I didn't see the rogue..."

So anyway, 7-3 for the 3v3 team, MM Hunter (Mabd), Herk the Hybrid warrior, and Taz the holy/prot/ret/insane pally.

Lost to two teams with shammies, and a Pall/Warr/Druid team. We'll get better tho. Spec when I replace the headphones/mic that blew out last weekend, and we can vent.

But uh... damn, arena is a lot nastier than I remember from last season... Melvin and Co are SCREWED. They'll either have to reform every week, or get used to 200 points a week. I've been trying to get magebert to respec his priest a bit to do some 2v2 with Mabd. What does he lack? Imp mana burn. "I've never really seen much use for it in Arena..."

Now a mm hunter and disc/holy priest should pwn in 2v2. And magebert aint a bad player... unlike, say melvin. He's just a raging idiot sometimes.

Still, its nice having a 3v3 team with two people with decent reflexes... I still suck, but, well, I come prepared. We will get much better. And Taz and Herk both will scale nicely with a coupla pieces of better gear. The team makeup works well... Herk had some concerns about that... the typical team he's seen was Lock/Pally/War

I think Hunters are taking the places of locks in a lotta teams. Decent control, drain ability, higher dps and survivability. (SL lock is harder to kill but does a hell lot less damage... UA lock does more dps, but goes down much faster...)

And that 41' range silence is a killa.

More disturbing... Herk's single minded crusade against the entire mage class now that I explained the whole BoF thing to him. He is to mages what Michael Myers is to sex crazed teenagers. Note that I haven't actually *CAUGHT* him pleasuring himself over the bodies of dead gnomes, but that kinda creepy sexual tension is definitely there.

Have a confused friend, plz help...

First, I love Mabd's laughing skull battle harness. I'm gonna have a hard time givin that up. It just looks so cool.

Second, Maj is slowly getting the resil and health she needs to survive. We gonna try a 3 mage team soon, and see how that works. Unfortunately, its gonna be with melvin...

The prob with melvin... hesa BG player. And a BG player sits on his ass until someone else takes point. On arena teams, aggression WINS. First up, first in...

Case in point, was running WSG with Majeure the cruel. Allies are holding the flag in their flag room, we take it, flag caps. So there we are, 2 mages and a hunter, eating... and the flags respawn.

I look at the other two... no interest in them in taking the flag... so I gotta grab it and run, while still only at 80% health...

Meet another team member, a pally, in the tunnel. I drop flag... pally is MUCH better runner, right? He doan take it... so I grab again, and set out into the world of light and pain...

At this time, an ally grabs our flag... so I'm near mid field, and see this ally warrior with MY HORDE FLAG running at me... POM PYro, Fireblast, arcane... dead warrior... I recover flag, blink outta roots, and get to my keep... flag recovery and cap in same run.

God I hate WSG.

Anyway, in arena, ya gotta be agressive. Can't worry bout takin damage... if you become pew pew target, duck outta LOS, but Melvin will let someone with less health and resil take point so HE doan have to worry bout aggro. On such things are losses built.

Anyway, Arms&Fury and I are hanging with a pally. New player, needs help. Any links to good shockadin build/playing guides? As well as a few blogs on how to gear out a heavy holy pally who wants to do damage as well?

A coupla pics...

I'm just sayin... theres a dozen hunter archetypes those blizzard bastards coulda used... Brotherhood of the Wolf/Last of the Mohicans... Elves and Rangers from LOTR... but no...

They picked The Hills Have Eyes....

Hence Mabd, Princess of the Wild becomes Mabd, Daughter of Gruul.

Thanks a ton, bliz. And you too, Herk. Five sunders, huh? Revenge fantasies already? Shouldn't you be saving your bile for frost mages?

Sunday sunday...

So my friend had his big presentation yesterday. And it went well, apparently. So well they went out drinking.

And I get a call at 2am... "Dude... I just got into a fight with a bouncer... and won. Damn they hire pussies for everything here... anyway, what was yuir address again, the cab driver needs to know..."

So I got my vengence wrap made. A pure dps cloak. Yummy yummy. Since I needed primal airs for it, I responded to the following trade chat...

"WTS 4 Primal airs."

"I'll give ya 90 for all 4."

"But they're going for 27 each at AH!"

"Oh, so I should check AH for my primal airs? Will do!"

Later on I check AH again, and find 4 for 90.

Wow

I respecced Mabd a bit now that I'm getting the hang of MM... ask me how I like it... go ahead, ask me...

So my friend is in town, and we're having a blast. Even if he works with incredibly silly people. So he's all like... play this wow game, show me what its like...

So I log on with majeure, and start the av bg daily...

"You seem to die a lot."

"Yeah."

"Is that cuz you're not very good?"

"...."

We win, and I switch to Mabd.

"Whoa! What the hell was that?"

"That was me charging into two locks and pwning em."

"oh, its just that cute elf chick that sucks, then?"

"yeah, pretty much."

End of the World!

Or at least the end of the whole blog til ya die thing.

Shout outs to TJ, who only went a little crazy. K, a lot crazy, but she's small, and crazy don't scale that well with her. Kinda like an imp in a raid. Things doan go well if it gets noticed...

And to Rats... sorry guy, I gotta use you as the measure of the things all horde should be. At least for a certain horde that perpetually falls short...

And the bear. Cuz I agree with Steven Colbert... they are a damn menace, and should be put down. Maj was running EotS last night... and the combat log looked like

Feral friggin cat druid does way too much damage to you with a ridiculously overpowered attack

Feral friggin cat druid finishes yo squishie ass off

Feral friggin cat druid notices you rez

Feral friggin cat druid turns into feral friggin bear with extra points in "stun mage until you cry like a little girl" talent

You have been stunned. Here comes the druid pain...


AND ON AND ON.

So anyway... the end of the world post, and my most annoying stalker... Ken.

Ken once got written up for cyber stalking a girl. See... the girl's ex-boyfriend told Ken he could "have" her. So he sent her some emails demanding a meeting, she freaked, he got written up. (this was a work kinda thing...)

So he gets it into his head that the chick has to be smoking hot. Cuz a non smoking hot chick would WANT the attention, right? So he gets the location of her parking spot... and waits for her...

He doan go up to her... and she doan know what he looks like. All does is follow her around for a coupla hours, across town and into a walmart, and around the aisles til he decided she really wasn't hot, and was just giving herself airs.

Ken needed a woman.

I gotta explain the Smiley situation. There was a guy named Mr. Smiley who used to haunt my store/neighborhood. He was called that because all day long, he would hang out at the street corner, smile a really really diseased smile, and wave at people.

And he'd get pissed and throw bricks sometimes if they didn't wave back.

When I say creepy smile... think the joker's victims...

And he smelt really really bad. Cuz he didnt bathe... just hung out in the heat of south louisiana, waving at cars all day.

Luckily, I didn't see him much cuz he was pretty diurnal, and I worked nights. A small mercy. Anyway... one day I had to cover a shift... and Smiley came in with his woman... they were working a con that I really haven't the time to explain. But they needed an envelope...

So later, Ken comes through... and I tell him bout smiley and his woman.

"Smiley has a woman? What the hell? How can *I* be without, while the mentally and hygenically handicapped get some?"

So Ken gets it into his head that he just needs to lower his standards... and he succeeds. He got his own woman. He bought her.

Where do you go in America to buy a woman? Ken went to the county jail and paid bail for one. An alchoholic on her 3rd dui who was about to get evicted. So she moved in with him... and everything seemed to work. Strange.

She had it rough sometimes tho... Ken got really religious... strange religious... he started observing the sabbat... from friday night through saturday he refused work... including buying things... and he wouldn't give her money for beer during this time.

But no, this story is about Ken and the end of the world. First... ya need to know that Ken was working on his doctorate in astrophysics. I doan know why you need to know this... but it seems important...

Second, he used to teach at a public high school. He got laid off for some weird reason. I say weird because it apparently had nothing to do with his inordinate sexual attraction to his female students.

Third... he was up all night long. Listening to weird radio programs. And one night...

You gotta understand. I worked six friggin nights a week. The seventh, I'd get school work done (I always had a dozen papers due...) and then drink myself to sleep. So... one night off, I get awoken from a drunken slumber by a loud pounding at my door....

It was Ken.

"Dude... what the hell are you doing here? How did you find out where I live?"

"They told me at the store... what are we gonna do?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"On the radio... right now... they said that the russians faked their own collapse, and even now are smuggling nukes into the country to destroy us!"

OMFG. Can you even imagine how long it took to talk him down? And this was before 9/11. THAT EVENT drove him over the edge. I even got contacted by the FBI, who were investigating Ken's reports on his arab neighbors....

(I really doan have the time or sense of humor about it to poperly tell the story of the "truck bomb thing..." which was a lot more innovative back then before Iraq made it kinda commonplace...)

But anyway... my most annoying stalker... who got my address to come warn me about an impending russian nuclear attack in the middle of the night.

BTW... there was another Ken. He worked at another location of my c-store's chain. He was so erratic that the cops nicknamed him Lucifer.

He disappeared after, well... See, he was working at the store cuz he needed a job. He had no place to live, so the store manager let him crash at his place. Ken freaked out and disappeared after accusing the store manager of drugging and raping him. Now the manager in question, Tony, worked 80 hours a week, and drank non stop. Tony couldn't sexually molest his own hand, let alone Ken. (Tony died a year later from a massive coronary in a bar.)

Ken didn't make my list cuz he really wasn't my problem. But I got other stories...

The SHAMMY POST

You lucked out! Its time fer the shammy post!

See, back in the day, during the beta... I played horde. A forsaken rogue. I was so happy with her, back in the day before anyone knew how to play... and then the game came out for real, and I made the mistake of joining friends on a pve server.

Lets face it... only kindly, delicate creatures should play on PVE servers... and Ima asshat.

A note on my relationship with Arms&Fury.... Hesa lazy slacker that needs a serious kick in the butt to get him moving every so often. I provide that kick. Otherwise, he tends to just coast on talent. Which he's got a lot of. However he has yet to learn, despite the vicious beatings I administer, that age and treachery will overcome youth and beauty everytime... I mean, really, he updates his blog so rarely, the page doesn't even bother loading anymore...

Back to shammy-ville!

So after my first, and last, trip with guild drama, I decided to move to pvp, and go back to the horde.

I was crashing with a bud while looking for a damn job... (took almost a year...) and we would both play our chars together, and smack things around.

We both went shammy. And for a reason. What says horde (pre-b.c.) more than Shammy? TAUREN SHAMMY. Cuz warstomp is to horde what gnome rustling is to alliance. (Get along, little gnomes!)

This was back in the day. Back when shammies were FEARED! When the class concept was... have big ass mace/axe, will travel!

See, before Blizz decided to return to teh ghey, Shammies were the lord masters of the burst damage concept. Windfury would proc, and something would evaporate. Nuttin came close. Everyone feared the shammy... didn't matter what, 4 outta 5 times you might be able to kill one, but that fifth time, oh mama.

We call this deterrence. Think about the psychology of the gank. I can kill you, and laugh at yuir attempts to defend yuirself... but that tauren shammy... with the wild crazy look in her eyes... /MOO!

Witha old skool shammy, ya never know. Doya feel lucky, dwarf? WELL, DO YOU? Shammies WERE the horde. One shammy, one big ass pile of bodies. Ya know, cuz THRALL is the main orc! And he aint no wuss baby warrior. Hesa shammy wielder of DOOMHAMMER. And nuttin puts the doom back in DOOMHAMMER like the triple crit with +a bazillion AP.

Unbound was my love. The only allies that would mess with me were pallies, and I'd hurt them like... oh lord. It was so funny. Unbound was also an engineer, see. And back then, the dominant build was resto to nature swift, and rest in enhance. So you'd have an insta cast heal up yuir sleeve... and a bomb, anda robot dragon pet... this one time, in hinterlands, I got jumped bya pally two levels higher, while I had half health and no mana... and beat him down like the alliance coward he was...

It was great. Shammys reward quick thinking and improvision. So many classes, itsa just button one or button two... but shammies can do so much, via totems... and each shammy really can play differently, some relying more on totems than shocks, others more on kiting than straight combat... play style is everything...

Then came burning crusade, and blizzard's war on insta kill specs. Yeah, hunters lost that one aimed shot, one kill thing... but shammies lost the thing that defined their class... the big honking weapon laying low the proud, and bringing justice to azeroth.

Friggin dual wield? SHAMMYS? /weep

I was broken. I went resto, and had a blast... and plan to go back to resto when unbound hits 70... cuz I seriously think resto shammies are the most evil pvp spec on earth right now... next to MM hunters :) Unbound, as resto, got jumped bya rogue in hellfire...

/Stun
/Stun
/stun
... 15 secs later...

INSTA HEAL, SHOCK, WINDFURY... DEAD ROGUE

Enhance, OTOH... rogue/warrior meat. :(

But I gotta level... and while Sun Tzu's dictum that, ifya wait long enough by a river, yuir enemy's bodies will come floating by... that doan get ya to 70 fast enough... So there I was, playing a class that does better with cheap green weapons than shiny blue ones due to design issues. A rogue wanna be without stealth or stun. A fury warrior without the damage or protection.

I wanted to cry. I think I did. The new concept of the enhance shammy is just... crappy. What gets to use big ass 2h weapons? Warriors and pallies, i.e. ALLIANCE TRASH. The horde without its "smite on behalf of the ancestors" spiritual leaders? LOOKIT ME, GRANDMA, I'M GOIN DUAL, LIKA BACKSTABBING GNOME!

Enhance is no longer a true melee dps class. Itsa mockery. Itsa travesty. Itsa tragedy. Not since the first starbucks opened in the Valley of Wisdom have I felt so... ashamed.

Or wait... there are other builds... that use SHIELDS! What kinda self respecting hordie uses a damn shield? Its cowardice, thats what it is! Elemental, resto? WITHA SHIELD? Bugger this to hell! Horde isn't afraid of damage! Horde isn't scared to mix it up!

Well, we are now. Thanks a lot, blood elves... and space goats. Yeah, I know pallies have been bitching for the same general reasons, but they're like... pallies... they'd bitch even if they got to wear plate. (BTW... ever multi shot a pally, see the crit, and then think... hey... he's wearing WAY TOO MUCH CLOTH? /evillaugh)

Unbound got put on a shelf while I leveled Maj from 1 to 70. Every so often, I'd pull unbound, and run around, and realize how much it hurt, and go back to the mage....

Truth be told, shammies are now, more than ever, a support class. In pvp AND pve. Shammies are a harder target than anything but a holy pal, and even then, we aren't neutered healers in plate. We can dish. After 2.3, the new damage mitigation gives a great deal of survivabilty. So, yeah, time to dust off unbound and get her happy hooved ass to 70. But still... this dual wielding crap HURTS. And the worst thing... ya can't go anywhere alone... cuz yuir support...

Oh bugger.

Black Tuesday!

First off... national blog every friggin day month is almost the hell over. Yay!

And I still got two posts to work on. My number one stalker, Ken, the guy who once got written up for cyber stalking a girl, and then stalked her in real life to see if she was attractive enough to be justifiably defensive about being cyber stalked...

Yeah. I doan understand either.

Also, the SHAMMY POST! And Jabari, buddy... nuttin but appreciation for yuir criticisms of Unbound. My poor shammy needs all the help she can get. Per yuir point, I really wanna try elemental minor just fer laughs, but appreciate the whole resto backup... anyway, more on that in the GREAT SHAMMY POST! IT WILL CHANGE YUIR LIFE!

But today... oh my lord...

K... gotta nother friend coming to visit. Cept this one is one of my oldest buds, his link is on my page, if ya wanna know how twisted he is, read this. Or this.

Bastard would pick the weekend after I get all professor plum. (PURPLZ!)

However, this post is about the craziness that was yesterday. And I mean, unfiltered, absolute, batshit insanity. Area 52 was wall to wall bones. Mabd got 4(!!!!) epics, season 3 hat and gloves, the new mega axe (IT'S STONE! A REAL ORC WEAPON FOR ONCE, INSTEAD OF THAT SISSY GEM BLADED CRAP!) and the season 1 shoulders... finally getting rid of the high warlord shoulders I'd had in one form or another since level 60. I got the +15 agil on gloves, +35 agil on axe, gemmed out everything (+12agil and +3% crit damage meta gem).

And Maj got her season 1 shoulders as well... black and purple and menacing. GRRR.... PH34R t3h CUT3 1NZ.

So, after the warm fuzz of purplz faded a bit, and all enchants and gems were in place... I was left with quite a bit of crap. Gems I'd bought, and didn't need, and tons of enchant mats...

And, well... the trade channel was INSANE.

ER... hrm... now I think I must state...

There is no god but AH... and Majeure has it's profit!

I made 1k gold last night. In three hours. Offa enchant mats (large prisms = 30g, greater planar = 10g) and gems... 45-55g each. My large prisms were selling as fast as I put em up for auction.

This puts me at about 3k gold total. Close to shootin distance for Maj's elite mount. My current project... getting a Vengence Wrap for Mabd. I can't really see a better pvp cloak out there, the new BoJ one is nice, but no way in hell I'm gonna go through what it takes to get it. Anyway, Mabd is at 29.11% crit with the pvp token equipped. And now over 10k health, and 200 resil. Oh baby. Shifty, gonna make you proud...

Time to reorg the arena teams... I gotta disc priest lined up for 2v2, and looking at a 3v3 with Herk and a holy pal. Admittedly, Herk's gear still sucks troll, but well, hesa friend. I can carry him some more. If only to mock him for falling 20 points short of being able to get the season 3 chest. Serves ya right for that damn phone call in the middle of the night.

Looking at some arena for Maj... maybe 3v3 with the other two mages :) Slow is turning into an incredible little spell. And maj got another 800 health yesterday... and will do better as soon as I can get the pvp boots and bracers...

The Huntard Lurks...

I mean seriously... I caught myself over the weekend doin it.

I was farmin cobrascales. Which are a pain in the ass, now that Mabd is no longer BM. But I got my six, enough for the nether and reg patch, already got the primal airs and leather.

And there I was... droppin offa my mount to take em down at close quarters... and doin great. Plant an imp fire trap, serpent sting, MS, then pop deterrance and monkey and then go to town.

And I thought... hey... maybe I should think more about melee in pvp.

Cuz you know... they all wanna get close to you... and I'm getting that sweet new axe today... so pop the talent points for +20% crit on raptor strike, and watch that rogue or mage eat 3k damage the sec he steps into range...

This is the dark side calling. The dark side does not love you, hunter. It seeks to destroy you... to turn you into one of the shambling monstrosities known as... huntards.

Turn away! Reject the easy path of non kiting! It never ends well...

Everytime the hero yells... "Come get some!"... well, something big and nasty, and usually in plate shows up to collect. And we all know where that ends... your spine overpowered into the ground, while you stare at your violated body from a distance as your severed head rolls away.

This is the terrible secret of the hunter... that little voice that says... "letem get into melee... you can deal..."

Its the same voice that tells you to jump, when standing on the bridge, or buy that girl with all the tats and the bad attitude a drink, CUZ YA NEVER KNOW. (Oh, yes you do, oh yes you do...)

Or maybe my family won't be crazy this year, yeah, lets visit for the thanksgiving weekend.

Its the same thing. The same, evil, self hating thing.

BEWARE!

X-mas eve!

Tomorrow is the day! When all our dreams come true, and Santa Arena Vendor leaves lotsa nice purplz under the tree for us.

(Death to the alliance.)

When all good wow players unite in the spirit of the game... raw stinkin item greed, baby. On this one day, we are as children, filled with the sense of wonder and togetherness...

(Death to the alliance.)

Ah me, I can't wait to see all the wonderful bragging as hard won trophies are gemmed, enchanted, patched, and then put to their intended use...

Killing alliance.

Mark of the n00b

So there Maj was, doin a little shopping for bling-bling in the org AH. True, itsa dump, but the prices can't be beat, and unlike TB, the streets are free from omnipresent dung.

And I get a whisper.

"Can you make some netherweave bags for me?"

Level 21 tauren hunter. Sure, what the hell. Give back, and all that crap. While trying to calculate the rep per scryer faction piece.

"Sure."

So she runs around, and then comes, opens trade....

My screen fills with netherweave cloth.

"Er... how many bags did you need?"

"11"

"Um... (quick calculation) there's not enough here... (short by about half a stack.)"

"Plz give me rest of mats!"

K... at this point... its kinda looking abusive... but I figured I'd get a story outta it, so I played along...

"Right, whatever."

An hour of crafting bags later...

"Here ya go."

"Thx! I sell em... thats how I make my gold... wait right here, and I'll get some more netherweave for you to make me bags with... oh, and please put me on your friends list!"

I immediately log....

Playin the next day, knee deep in demons in Shadow Labs..

"Can you come to org to make me more bags?"

N00b... meet the ignore list.

The girl, the macro, and a pile of gold...

My girl majeure is kicking ass and taking names. For those of you unfamiliar with the lure, the addiction, the sheer insanity of the UBERTWINK... have a mage hit 70 and immediately epic out, then finish all the regular speed quests....

It's better than a whole lotta things... spec all that loverly gold. Started around 500g wed night... after blowing 200 on 15 primal airs, and 200 on 300 sunfury sigs, I got 1300 :)

AND another 200 on my bank alt offa spellfire cloth sales. And she's getting good honor right now. Had a 770 honor av game, not counting kills.

Jabari had some interesting comments on Unbound's poor build...

I SWEAR TO GOD that there will be a shaman post. Soon.

But for the most part, Jab, I'm avoiding the imp enhance totems cuz I daon really do instances right now. And in casual grinding, I kill fast enough to make enhance totems a non issue. Not actually playing her much truth be told, which will change. 2.3 helped a lot, but I've been single minded on getting maj up. I ran Unbound a little to see how things work... love the mana efficiency of shocks now, hence the elemental points. Yeah, my main hand weapon sucks... I hava nice slow level 66 and 67 weapon in the bank, but I screwed myself with the ring of blood in not getting the fury brand :(

Anyway, a nice +20 str 2.6 hammer dropped for maj in netherstorm today, so Unbound might just be ready for prime time!

And here's a slacker macro. Its really simple, you all probably know it, but I couldn't find this anywhere... too late I realized it really is a rogue macro, and I shoulda looked there first...

/use Wizard Oil (or whatever)
/use Bringer of Death (or whatever yo weapon is....)

One button mana/spell damage oil buff. Simple simple. I had no idea that the proper command to apply the stupid oil was /use, until I chanced upon via trial and error. Another silly macro thing... I've been having probs with my
/cast POM
/cast Arcane Power
/use trinket of mega death
/cast pyroblast

macro... had to take out all the /stopcasting parts, and now, when it lags, I gotta double tap it to make it go off... I think its getting stuck server side when it gets a little ahead...

Dark thoughts...

K... someone here isn't pulling their weight.

No surprise, itsa tauren.

Unbound, you aint cutting it. Mabd has become the scourge of the BG's, a terror to the alliance. And she's FUN to play now. Like a wolf in the fold, or a snake trap in a noob area. She had 4 kills in a single 5v5 yesterday. (Aimed shot is just... evil now...)

Majeure pulled in 400g yesterday on quests and spellcloth manufacture. Her arcane missiles crit for 1100.

You, however, suck without remorse. Your bank is filled with useless engineering gear... a set of healing gear that you will never use, and a ton of crap bought for you AT ENORMOUS EXPENSE for when you make a higher level. Scales of the beast WITH the cobra patch? Jeez.... and what have you to show for it?

We cannot continue to maintain you at your present level of expense. Cutbacks will have to be made. And performance will have to improve.

Or else. Mabd got a new beef flavored kitty treat recipe yesterday... you'll never guess the ingredients...

Happy thanksgiving!

First... ain't respeccing Z. No way... slow is too much fun. That 1.5 sec heal is now.... 2.5 sec. AWWWWWWWWW.

Second... eating till ya almost burst on T-Day. Cool.
Walking a mile in the rain immediately afterwards... not cool.

/checkspulse

Damn, still alive, I guess I gotta post again.

I think today is the day we should set aside to recogize all that we have been givin by life. A wonderful meal, bountiful drink, plenty of sheep.

That's right... kiss up to the mages.

What? We get to drop 200g on conjure water and food books, so we can then blow 20s feeding you hogs? And not even a thank you, just a pile of dirty dishes to clean?

Cmon... I'm not asking for much... Warriors... you see a rogue carving us a new.. well, stunlocking us, a nice little charge/overpower love?

Druids... ya see that nasty little shadow priest mindflaying us? How about a heal?

Hunters... that mean old warlock has us on permanent fear? Feed his ass to yo beast!

Just a little recognition of our value to the team, please. Or I start adding laxatives to the manna biscuit recipe. And we doan want that, do we?

Why I hate people...

I grew up in a strange household. By the time I was 12, I was in charge of cleaning the kitchen. By the time I was 15, I was cooking for the family. Mom was often sick, or tired from working, my dad was lazy, and my brother was useless.

This is one of those stupid things. I used to have to go through my brother's room, and pull dirty dishes and rotting food out from under his bed and in his drawers. I hated it, and still resent all this crap.

One of my earliest memories was cooking steak, canned peas and mac and cheese for the family, then sitting down to watch The Electric Company. I think I was 7.

This leads to the two great conumdrums of life. First, you goddamn learn, and this scars any future relationships. Second, you never goddamn learn, and keep making the same goddamn mistakes.

People ask me for advice. My life is a wreck, and people still ask me for advice. And when I say "advice," I really mean, certitude. Something happens in too damn many people, and they get habituated to not picking up after themselves. Like at a job, there's always one or two people who do all the cleaning, and the lazy bastard coworkers who just friggin watch them.

The same principle applies to the whole advice thing. If people get used to asking for advice, they never, ever, goddamn friggin ever learn to think for themselves.

A lot of my personal demons have to do with my brother. We're all guilty about how he turned out. But he was a year younger than me, and I was the one stuck keeping an eye on him. I used to get beaten when he pulled one of his little stunts. I also used to get beaten because I was intensely protective of him, and he would use this to get me into fights with other kids. And my brother never learned. So I had to learn for both of us.

I dreamt of kittens yesterday. And of a gremlin that presented me with a bill for services rendered. I dunno where that comes from. I have messed up dreams.

So anyway... Ima pomous ass sometimes. And intensely conservative ina non political sense. I doan like risk taking, and tend to plan crap out. This affects how I level. I doan really spend much time playing, compared to, well... what, william shatner?

So... I got all the green hills of stranglethorn banked on an alt. I got tons of unidentified plant parts banked. When I hit level 62, Majeure got to honored with the scryer offa firewing sigs I'd collected, and at 64, she was halfway to exalted with all the arcane tomes I'd slowly bought offa the AH, at 9g (or lower) each.

If ya take the time, and know what yuir doin, you can save a ton of gold... just buy over a coupla weeks...

I spent 62-70 leveling tailoring to 375. Slowly, using the cooldown patterns to get as many skillups as possible, speccing spellcloth, and making all my spellcloth for my epic level 70 sets, so I wouldn't get raped on costs... while buying primal mights over a coupla months to save as much as I could...

This means I get to play more, and farm less. I really don't play enough to bother with farming.

So.. all that said, I got tagged last night with a hefty spot of goddamn drama. And I deeply resent it. I mean, really, really mind searing pissed off about it. I do not need this crap.

Girl comes home.

"Dad!"

"Yes?"

"Doan freak out now..."

K... anytime someone says doan freak out... it means one of two things... first, something bad has happened or is about to happen... this is life. Second, something stupid is being planned... this is humanity.

"K..."

"I met the greatest guy!"

"K... why did you think I would freak out about this?"

"Er... no reason... but he's famous and rich!"

"O.K... still not sure about the freak out thing...."

"Its O.J. Simpson!"

"*freaking out*"

"Dad! He really loves me! And I mean, what are the odds of some random lunatic killing *another* one of O.J.'s girlfriends?"

Ya see what happens here? I've had a dozen of these conversations... and had another one last night. I'm pretty sure we've all had a conversation like this... someone we know is about to do something they KNOW is freaking stupid. So they come and "tell" you. And they rationalize it with some off the wall argument, "enron stock is now 50% lower than where it was a year ago, itsa steal!" Then they talk to you...

Why?

I doan know. It's always different, and it's always some insanely stupid reason. Are they hoping that you'll talk em off the ledge? So you have to be firm? "NO! You do not NEED a $10k fitness center!" Or is it something they've set their hearts on, and want some support... "well, if it makes you happy, a pierced (bleep) doesn't have to be terribly unsafe..."

Either way, itsa plot to make you the bad guy. You either tell em no, they listen, and resent you forever. Or you tell em go ahead, and it blows up in their faces, and it's your fault for the bad advice.

Thersa scene from Last King of Scotland... a movie I have yet to see, but, well, its on my list...

The english doctor is talking to Idi Amin after one of Amin's more regrettable decisions... to expel all the asians from Uganda. Since the asians were, pretty much, all the engineers, doctors and merchants.. the result was an economic catastrophe. The conversation...

Idi: "Why did you let me do that?"
Doctor: "I *TOLD* you it was a bad idea!"
Idi, face filled with anger...: "You did not *CONVINCE* me!"

Once they *ask* for *advice*... whatever happens... its your damn fault. And I resent this crap.

So... for the record...

Arms&Fury... if you REALLY have to have the season 2 gladiator shoulders NOW, instead of next week... buy em. It's your damn character. You worked for those points, spend em how you see fit. Claiming that the season two gear is gonna have a rating requirement because... "you haven't seen anything that says they won't..." isa cheap rationalization.

But leave me the hell outta it. It is deeply unfair for you to dump this crap on me, and I resent it. And calling me last night only to hang up on me when I told you it was a stupid idea was completely unacceptable.

Listmania!

It's hard to explain yourself to other people. One of the best ways, I think... is a to do list. And a follow up to yesterday's incoherent post. That mage that Arms&Fury and I went 3v3 for... kicked both of us offa his team before points came out today. True, we got more points from our 2v2, but still... no good deed goes unpunished...

To do list for Thanksgiving weekend! (RL)
1. have fun
2. clear tivo crap
3. thankgiving meal with Kimmu!
4. Football!
5. clean apartment

To do list for WOW... Majeure
1. BG tokens
2. AV honor holiday!
3. 10k rep from exalted scryer! Get Arms&Fury off his lazy ass and hit netherstorm like it looked at me funny!
4. Buy some damn gems
5. Steamvault, revered with CC, and farm the +12sta/bracer pattern
6. Forge key to SH
7. Finish Blade's edge, and do some Shadowmoon
8. friggin Sha'tar rep... need about 6k for revered... and the trinket and helm buff

To do list for WOW... Mabd
1. BG tokems
2. AV honor holiday!
3. start looking for a guild to do some damn kara with to get to revered for that new ammo...
4. a little more netherwing rep... like 8k from exalted

To do list for WoW... Unbound
1. Level 66 is too close not to grab...
2. Get Arms&Fury to help farm engineering patterns (adman arrows!)
3. set up bongos for this toon

K...
Now a small to do list for Arms&Fury...
I know you're busy, I know you have a family... but if you have time to burn rest xp on alts, you have time to do this crap...

1. Get revered with CC... I gave you that stack of unidentified plant parts for a reason... namely, so when you turn 70, you'd be a hop skip and jump from revered and that +34 ap, +10 hit helm buff. A SV run is not that difficult...

2. SHUT THE HELL UP about your plans for WotLK! Itsa goddamn year and a half off! We're both gonna burn the hell out and stop playing for about 3 months sometime between now and then..

3. Dude... yuir still only friendly with the scryers? AFTER I spotted you 50 firewing signets? End game my left nut, +13 crit, +25 ap buffs doan do it for you?
If Ratshag can get exalted with scryer, and THEN turn around and get honored with Aldor, you can damn sure move yuir faction up a bit...

4. Remember! I almost died earlier this year. The had to burn my heart... and I still have serious health issues. Please stop giving me crap when I doan feel like playing after putting in 9 hours at work...

5. Grammar! For god's sake... the headline is MABD OWNS! not MABD OWNED!

6. Farm either gold or mats for the Nethercobra leg patch. Legging buff, +a zillion crit and ap. Doan have to get it right now, but sooner or later you gonna get the season 3 legs, and you'll want this ready for that.

A small to do list for Shifttusk.

1. Track down and kill that sonnavabitch.

A small to do list for Ratshag

1. Continue to kick ass and take names. BTW, we found the guy to play you in the movie...

A small to do list for TJ

1. Still waiting for the capitulation post. I suggest you use this as a template...

Some more stories...

K. Look.

We all know they're out there. The greatest threat to human civilization. The darkness at the end of time. The hunger that consumes itself.

Theresa kinda neat conversation goin on right now about the baby boomers. Or, as I prefer to refer to them, the least generation.

Doan get me wrong. I love my parents. But they're outta it.

My pet theory... we go through phases. The first phase, we scream when we want something, and don't stop screaming until we get it.

Baby boomers made a political movement outta this philosophy.

It's not until we realize that noone is gonna clean things up for us that we grow into the next step, adulthood. However, this process is not inevitable.

Dealing with drunk teenagers during my years at the c-store taught me this.

The question then becomes, as adults, how are we going to deal with other people's children? Cuz, realize, that's exactly what they are.

It gets even worse online, where bad behaviour really isn't punished with anything like real world reprecussions. Arms&Fury is always falling for this. I remember him bragging a coupla months ago about helping someone buy their (non flying elite) mount. His boast... "Nuttin like helping someone buy a mount to get in good with a new guild!"

A month later when he needed the money for his own mount... "I can't believe he hasn't paid me back yet!"

We have to realize... there is no "loan" in the game. Itsa gift. If you get it back, well and good. If not... you damn well better have not expected to get it back. Remember this.

Doan fall victim to teh N00b. They plead, they beg... but inevitably, they will just waste your time. If you have to help them... teach them how to play better. BRK has dedicated his online life to this noble pursuit, valiantly trying to rid azeroth of huntards, one lesson at a time.

He is doomed to failure. For everyone that listens, there are a dozen infants who cannot... who can only scream and demand the game change to suit them.

A real world example of the horrors of doing favors for people. my brother needed to upgrade his computer to play WoW. My brother has no credit cards. For very good reasons, mind you. So he went to my father, asked to charge some online parts to Dad's credit card, and in return, would pay him back.

My brother then went lowest price on the net for his shopping. The card got charged, the parts never showed. My brother didn't pay my father. It wasn't HIS fault, you see. The website was a ripoff, and my brother didn't think it fair that *HE* have to take the hit.

I'm just saying. This is how they think. They doan even consider how much of your time they're wasting when they ask for the instance run, then have to spend a half hour running around to get the quests after you've agreed. While you wait.

And it doesn't have to be fiscal. Arms&Fury (not quite grown up himself, mind you...) answered a general chat request for more people for a 3v3. Bein run by a mage.

Now the mage seemed nice. Friendly, polite, etc. But his gear and build were TERRIBLE. Far enough in fire tree for firepower, far enough in frost for ice barrier.

Now, I know some people will claim something like this to be a viable build. And it is... kinda, sorta. I wouldn't mind playing this sorta thing one day. But the trick is... how do I put it?

Theresa harley. And theresa tricycle. And some people gotta do the tricycle til they work up to big kid bikes.

Majuere has some horrible damn equipment. But I'm not gonna change out my bracers, boots and shoulders till I can buy the season 3 crap. Ima cheap ass bastard that way. Still, while working her from 60 to 70, I accumulated the full spellstrike and spellfire sets. So... my health will go up, but I pack a punch immediately.

Now this mage... had 2 of 3 of the spellfire set on. And the thing about spellfire... it only adds to fire and arcane damage. The majority of this guys points are in the frost tree... you see the problem?

So Arms&Fury are playing three games with this guy so he can get his 10 for the week... and we lose all three cuz the poor guy only has 6.6k life, and that aint enough for arena. He also lacks the sense to stay outta harm's way long enough to do any damage...

And Arms&Fury asks the question that chills my soul.

"So, X, are ya doin any 2v2?"

A&F wanted to invite him into the team...

I still wanna hit him for being so silly.

Doan get me wrong. Occasionally, the spirit of altruism will move me, and I will help people out. But I prefer to help those that help themselves, if you know what I mean. I hate people spamming for help in quests that, by all logic, are quite soloable.

Anyway...

Economic forecasts... also known as the trading pages... we gotta week before season 3. Now is a great time, if you are expecting to get new gear, to buy the gems and enchant mats for the gear AHEAD OF TIME. Cuz come Nov 27, its gonna get crazy, price wise.

Sir Thomas Lipton, the Earl Gray, and Arms and Fury

There is a particularly reprehensible practice that has spread amongst the WoW community. Arms and Fury is an enthusiastic practicioner of this obscenity.

If you are unaware of it, I will spare you the horrific details. None the less... it didn't take long for the horde to get a nasty nasty Alterac Valley strategy. You can see the results on the screen shot.

Horde... 606 honor.
Alliance... 0 honor.

If the horde has any sort of discipline... then the alliance has to get lucky or good to win. I wonder how long this imbalance will last?

Oh, and TJ has surrendered. I await her formal capitulation in a post.

Majeure made 70. I put on the new gear... and damn, I need season 3. About 800 +fire/arcane damage (more than melvin) and only 6.2 k health.

Glass cannon indeed.

Arcane missiles are hitting for ~600, and critting for about 1k.

Pyroblast is hitting for 3k, and critting for 5.5k.

Did the new Alterac Valley... and its gonna take the horde a while to get accustomed to it.

Here's the skinny. You win by killing enemy players and taking enemy towers. I doubt many games will end by the death of the enemy general.

When Blizzard says... "reinforcements..." they mean YOU. Every time someone dies, the counter ticks down. Every time a tower is lost... the counter loses a lot. The only way it goes up... take a mine.

I like it... it's a lot less static. And theres a lot more pvp now. However, it seems to be taking forever for the horde to adapt. Ah well.

Lists!

Maj turns 70 and...

1. Put on 5 epics.
2. Equip level 70 staff.
3. Farm enchant weapon, spell power
4. Hit netherstorm and get exalted with Scryer.
5. Buy pvp trinket.
6. Farm more honor.
7. Start arena.

The question... do I get the regular pvp trinket or the +20 resil pvp trinket? I only got 24k honor at this point...

Whatcha think?

She sells sanctuary...

Kicking it old skool...

The sky was Bible black in Lyon
When I met the Magdalene
She was paralysed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name

And a ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm.
Two hundred francs for sanctuary and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows where all the heartache disappears
And from glowing tongues of candles I heard her whisper in my ear
"'J'entend ton coeur"
I can hear your heart

...

I was actually in a guild with a guy that recognized these lyrics.
Oh, and the question I had to research today... what constitutes High Grade Wastepaper? I love my job :)

Not every occupation makes you learn things. I have a great potash lecture :)

So... a Rick story. Stalker #2.

Working at a c-store in the middle of the night is a horrible experience. You really have no idea the type of people who are habitually up at that time of night. Like, say... Rick...

How do you respond when a strange crazy person walks up to you and starts telling you about the time he was raped?

Especially when he wasn't.

Not that it didn't happen... just... well...

One time the cops were hanging out at the store, and they got a call about a rape. Here's the story, told by the girl...

"Girl meets booze."
"Girl meets cute guy."
"Girl takes cute guy home."
"XXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX"
"Afterwards, girl realizes cute guy didn't use a condom."

"That makes it rape!" The girl told to the cops...

K... the Rick rape story.

The night before going to marine boot camp... (late 70's) Rick was in a New Orleans hotel, waiting to catch a bus in the morning. He let a black friend into the room, and the friend then proceeded to hold rick down and forcibly fellate him.

(I'm sorry, I can't figure out a way to sanitize it any more...)

But you see the problem with the story?

And then Rick goes to boot camp, gets into trouble, and gets institutionalized for the rest of his term of service.

So, by the time I met rick, he was on full military disability... getting 2k a month (tax free)... which he spent on ganja. He would go from c-store to c-store in the middle of the night, and hang out with the clerks while drinking a 12oz can of coke. Then go to the next store, get another coke, and repeat... sometimes I had to see him twice in a night.

Rick's dream was to move to Vancouver, where he'd heard there were no black people, and dope was legal.

Rick was crazy. I mean, really really crazy. He went the VA hospital every 3 weeks to get shot up with anti-schizo meds... and sleep for 48 hours afterwards... and you could always tell how close he was to that point... afterwards he was mellow, just before, well... severe paranoia. He would flinch anytime someone walked near him, and then stare at whoever...

Bad idea around drunk teenage boys.

It would be easy to say Rick was a hardcore racist... but I think it would be a mistake... Rick simply didn't understand what the hell he was saying. One of his favorite stories was about a notorious case that happened in Louisiana back in the 70's... a mixed race couple walked into a county bar... one of the people at the bar looked at the black man with the white woman, pulled out a gun, and blew the guy away...

Rick thought the date should be a state holiday.

Imagine having a conversation with this person two to three times a week. One fav topic of his... buying porn from the store, and then talking to me about it. *Shudder*

If I had to pick one story to sum up the Rick experience...

Rick liked hanging out on friday and saturday nights... mostly for the same reason that cops liked hanging out on friday and saturday nights... drunk college girls. Dressed like they trying out for girls gone while.

Cept... well... I think I mentioned that I've had a LOTTA experience with creepy guys? Rick was hanging out in front of the store with his friend Rusty. Rusty was what his friends called him. We at the story called him shaky. Cuz he shook. Uncontrollably. He did nothing all day but take mini-thins, drink coke, and smoke. And he shook like day five after giving up heroin. He had a 64oz cup that he would refill with coke... all the way to the top, neglect the lid, and spill half of it on the way to the register.

We hated him.

Oh yeah, before he destroyed his life, shaky used to be a pharmacist.

So anyway, Rick and shaky were hanging out in front of the store, waiting for us at the store to say no.

Cuz at a cstore, next to 5 bars... people are gonna want to use the bathroom. And there is no way in hell that we're gonna clean up a bathroom after it's been used by a thousand drunk teenagers. So... people would come in, ask to use the bathroom, and be told no.

And then they would go around back, and use the side of the store.

*Girls* would go around back, and use the bathroom on the side of the building.

And Rick would get a cheap thrill.

So, one night... well... imagine a bean pole skinny white guy with grizzly adams beard, glasses, a cap, and overalls... coming into the store, and announcing in a loud southern drawl to the dozen of people inside... (customers and a long suffering clerk)... "Thersa girl with her panties down around her feet takin a *** outside! It's the prettiest thing I've ever seen! Rusty wouldn't look, but said that just thinking about it made his *** hard!"

It was about this time that I started washing my hands a dozen times a day, a habit that's stuck with me.

So maj logs into arathi basin, just as the horde takes base number 5. Two minutes later, 12g and 600 honor.

:)

Doan wanna blog...

Doan wanna blog...
Doan wanna blog...
Doan wanna blog...

K..

While working at the c-store, in the middle of the night, I met a lotta non crazy people. Cept, they were up in the middle of the night, so, well...

The strangest were the midgets. One of the bars across the street had a dwarf wrestling event every so often. I hated it. The frat boys would come through, horsing around like, well... drunk teenage idiots.

After everything calmed down, and the bars had been closed for a while, the midgets would come through, pick up food, and chat. They were pretty cool, even if they did whip the masses into an orgy of blind stupidity.

Prob my favorite visitor was this musician. He was a professional... by which I mean, he actually made money doing it, would play gigs at bars, and afterwards when I saw him at 3 in the morning, he'd be stone cold sober.

Doan trust people that drink at work. Even if they work in bars.

Anyway, he'd come through, and we'd rag on each other. It was great.

Then one night, a smokin hot chick comes through, and I say something snarky to her. She looks at me for a moment, then shrieks..

"You're so-and-so!"

"Er... yeah..."

"My boyfriend is always talking about you! He comes home and he's pissed for like an hour, trying to come up with things to say to you the next time you guys get into an insult fest... it's the cutest thing!"

Some people just have a taste for abuse.

Me, I get it from WoW.

So, I log onto my shammy last night. YOu know, the shammy I had to pay 15g to respec cuz blizzard decided to radically change the talent trees and NOT give a free respec.

Cept, they DID give a free respec. They just waited until the DAY AFTER THE GODDAMN PATCH.

Thanks again. No, really.

Oh, and that TJ person logged on and was yelling at me.

She says I need to stop saying she's cute. She's probably right. Next time someone asks, I'm gonna just tell em that she has a great personality....

I <3 Everyone!

Arms&Fury wants more conflict between TJ and I...

A&F is an ass.

I have discovered something very important about TJ. Inflicting suffering on her is rather like kicking a cute puppy. With cute puppy eyes. And AIDS. Whose mommy just died. And who has hurt its precious widdle paw.

TJ is like the puppy. One of the precious, cute, happy-making, gentle things of the earth. And when she growls, in that cute little puppy way, the only civilized thing to do is smile at her and pet her precocious widdle head.

There. If that don't do it, nothing will.

I doan feel like another stalker story right now. The stories of Rick and Ken are best told when I'm not jonesin for WOW like Michael Jackson at a daycare center.

2.3 was the hunter deliverance patch. I was in AB last night... like a wolf in the fold.

Allies died like the vermin they are. I suck at movement, but even *I* can kite a fool melee class into ranged now with everything on cooldown. And now Scattershot/Aimedshot is what you GET when you charge/ambush me. The 3 sec cast for aimed makes Scatter/Aimed a no brainer.

/charge poor Mabd
/Mabd emptie buckshot into yo warrior ass
/Mabd hops back while global cooldown fades
/AIMED SHOT BEATCH!


The death of the dead zone is gonna make a lotta non hunters seriously unhappy.

Now, my big blizz criticism.

For GOD'S SAKE.... WOULD A FREE TALENT RESPEC REALLY BE OUTTA LINE?

I log onto my shammy. Enhance time! Look at my talents...

I got 40 points in enhance, and shaman rage. And the rest of my points in resto...

Hrm... keep what I have, and see if I can keep Shaman rage and pick up Nature's Swiftness? Is blizzard OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS?

I plopped down the 15g for the respec, and went Enhance/Elemental.

Then took Unbound out for a spin.

Jesus. I was blowing things away like they were made of cardboard. PVE, true... and in BG's rogues still pwned my poor ass. But enhance is now a really effective pve build. The new talents not only make shocks uber cheap to cast, they add a healthy chunck of spell damage (30% (?) of attack power turns to +spell... which makes the resto/elemental trees much more useful... )

News of the night... apparently tier 6 resto shammy gear was free at the mount Hjal vendor...

Side note. God I wish I still had access to Armory at work. And last night, I was trying to look up talent builds, and use the blizz talent calculator... and they still hadn't been updated to the new talent trees... grrr....

So... bg dailies...

The best thing since hotel sex or what?

Man, I got into games in two minutes, with my 66 shammy, at 4 in the morning. 3-0. Three games, three stacks of gold, two stacks of exp for maj and unbound. And many many dead allies.

Maj was having special fun in the "not quite ready for prime time" bracket... 60-69.

She's gonna be a cast iron bitch when I get her ass to 70 :)

One nice hunter touch... the tooltip updates the damage of the stings and traps according to the current ranged attack power. Wouldn't it be nice if they did the same with spells and +spell damage?

Free at last!

He went home! My guest over the weekend! With only the mild price of a few gallons of juice.

Strangely enough, my guest, Derek, has a bete noir... Neal. And the story of Neal is the story of my number 3 most annoying stalker.

See... Neal managed to screw over Derek just by existing. Derek is intensely proud, and hates being in his current position. Neal, on the other hand, spends all his time trying to nail down every penny out there for handicapped people.

Neal managed to get himself diagnosed as learning disabled. He managed to parley this into a full disability from social security, and hence a nice lifetime pension.

Doan get me wrong... that might sound logical. But Neal is crazy. He's just not crazy the way Derek is. Neal is crazy in thinking that the world exists to take care of him. Derek is crazy in that, if he's alone too long, he'll start talking to himself and getting severely agitated.

You see the difference?

See... Neal wasn't exactly stalking me. But he insisted in visiting me, and would talk about the injustice of the world while plotting his stalking of his ex-wife. And the horror he put the mother of his three children through...

I mean... ladies. I'm as misogynist as they come. But some things give me the serious creeps... and it's mostly men. Sexually obsessing about women that they've just seen, and not even met in any sense of the word. Bad enough the handful of times that *I* was sexually proposition by creepy guys with no personal hygene. I can't imagine what you ladies go through...

Neal became a ferverent christian. And not in the Christian sense... he swears by the faith because he thinks it teaches that he is OWED. That his wife had no business divorcing him and taking the children, because they were married in a church, and god trumps all... and that he was devoted to his children, the courts had no right to take them...

This from a guy who refused to work a part time job cuz they started garnishing his wages to pay back child support.

I could talk about his horrific personal hygene. (After he left the residence hall, they burnt the furniture he used regularly...)

I could talk about the pack rat mentality... (He slept in his car cuz his bed was a storage device... and he stopped taking showers years ago, the better to store things in his bathroom...)

But this is the story of stalkers... and Neal spent a year playing the Sims, recreating his wife and children so as to get them back in the game...

How did Neal screw over Derek? His first quarter at my school... Derek was evicted from his apartment building. (It had been condemned...) Derek was told to move into my building, a graduate hall. Now, Derek was an undergraduate. And my hall had exactly *1* undergraduate at the time... Neal. And the Hall Director's experience with Neal was so poisonous that she blocked Derek from moving in (which Derek later found out that she had no right to do...) . So Derek had to scramble to locate a new apartment in his first quarter... and it was the week before finals.

I swear to God, Derek is simply cursed. Oh and the hall director tried repeatedly to evict Neal... but he was (learning) disabled... and despite not paying rent for half a year, he couldn't be touched.

So anyway, after getting his full disability tag from social security, he got a $77k payout. What did he do with it? Pay back child support? Work on setting up a productive life? Pay off his massive debts?

Try suing his wife to get custody back, on the theory that she couldn't afford to fight it. Thankfully he managed to blow the money before doin much harm.

By the way... Neal eventually graduated... (he was givin a year to take the final exam for a physics class he never finished. Cuz of that learning disability.) And he got his degree in zoology.

I did mention his Christianity, right? What I didn't mention... hesa creationist. With a degree in Zoology.

/sigh

Needless to say, he play a hunter in WoW.

PATCH DAY! And Majeure is 148k exp from 70! Glory be!

Tomorrow... the number 2 stalker. Rick... a guy who got married to a girl who then moved in with a male friend of hers, trying to get pregnant so she could sue Rick for child support...