Questing Together and Random Couple Thoughts

Last night Tatiaana, aka Tanya, and Valimonde, aka Mike, got  a long awaited chance to do some leveling.  With the holiday's upon us finding time to sit down and play together has been difficult to say the least.  Then it seems when we do get time to play we are so beat that we fall asleep while questing.  It is rough getting old sometimes.  *smile*  But we press on.  Why?  For a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, Tanya and I have been married for 18 years.  We enjoy spending time together, even when it is in short doses.  With all the distractions in our lives it can be hard to find a get away, or place to just run away and be silly or have a ball.  Playing a game we can afford to do that.  *snickers*  She wont let me post the pic of us running through the tunnel linking Lock Modan with the Badlands as we traveled to free one of Father Winter's deer.  Seems the tunnel was rather hot and our armor sort of fell off while we where riding through.  You know. . silly things.  *looks over shoulder hopping Tatiaana does not thwap me in the back of the head*

Another reason we enjoy it is the challenge.  Mike is a goal oriented, strive to do all you can do, learn every skill you possibly can, teach others if they wish to learn kind of player/gamer.  Tanya is a puzzle and problem solver gamer.  In the past these two styles did not always fit, but as we play and work together not only in game, but over the past 18 years of this thing called real life, we have learned how to take the differences and complement each other.  I am the one who knows how to kill a boss.  She is the one who knows how to get to the boss if its a puzzle.  It is these differences that help us enjoy ourselves even more as we play together.

Gone are the days of parking ourselves in front of the television watching mindless dribble.  Now we park ourselves in front of the computer interacting with other people who are playing a game just like us.  Some may find it silly or possibly juvenile for adults to find so much enjoyment in a game.  Recently World of Warcraft has been shot at by some pretty crazy allegations from the head of the FCC to would be competators in the MMO marketplace.  The facts are that a ever growing number of adults in the United States, as well as the world population, are starting to turn to video games as their preferred means of entertainment and social interaction.  Can and should it replace going out and meeting friends face to face?  No. . it should not replace such activities as seeing daylight.  It is however just as legitimate, if not more rewarding at times, than spending hours in an activity that might otherwise be dull and boring to you.

Tanya and I love to play.  I am more into the game by far than her.  Some might even think that we are obsessed.  Honestly the nature of such games is made to keep you playing.  To keep you pushing yourself to become better than you are now.  TO achieve and reach forward.  To work together and break down complex problems.  To. . well, you get the picture.  The game reflects life.  It is what you do with it, how much time you put into it that matters.

I digress.  Back on topic of playing together.  We found time after a long two weeks of grabbing an hour or two.  Last night we helped the guild run Nexus, Tatiaana got her Red Christmas Hat.  We hit 76 and are very close to hitting 77 and getting our wings back.  She is home today and we hope to get some "quality" us time in.  

Take time with your spouse or significant other if you play with them.  One of the best words of advice I can give to help you enjoy your time together is this.  Communicate.  *smile*  Talk, discuss, work out small issues so you do not get frustrated if your partner does not play the same way you do.  After all. . . that is the best advice for couples in the "real world" as well.

PastorPlayz Updated to Wordpress 2.7

After a little trouble in the upgrade path I, Mike the Geek Norton, have finaly updated PastorPlayz to 2.7.  I did have to delete everything and rename my plugin file. . but alas.  Its up.

Frosty the Deathknight was a jolly happy soul

Those of you who have known me for some time will understand my deep love of odd or non normal specs for a class.  I love the challenge of making a looked down upon rotation work, and I actually giggle when I can show that given the right player, any spec of any class can be useful in most situations.  With that said let me introduce you to Digory my frosty Deathknight. 

Let me take a quick step back before heading in to deep.  When the mention of the Death Knight class was introduced by blizzard I was one who . . well . . .I did not care really.  To me it sounded dark and foreboding, nothing like any of the characters I like to play.  Then they said you could tank or DPS with them.  Tank?  Without a shield?  pffft, the protection paladin side of me said.  I did not have any intention of playing one. 

Until I got my beta key.  While jumping for joy at the prospect of testing out Paravel, my restoration druid, on the beta I quickly found I had to wait and wait and wait for the character copy to go through.  So . . what to do. 

Shoot. . Ill roll a DK and see what all the fuss is about. .Ill probably hate it.

The opening quest set and starter zone I have to say and others have was . . . FAN STINKING TASTIC!  Oh my word. . By the end of my 58th level Digory, his name on the beta as well, had not only received a awesome armor set, but he had been redeemed!  W00t for character/life changing events.  But that is another story for another time, and I promise a few that I will post the RP side on the blog soon.

While playing my death knight I went with the frost tree.  Every one would cry out in /general, lrn2ply noob, every one knows blood is for dps, unholy is for pet and ice if for tanking!  I was worried at first, I had no intention of tanking with Digory seeing I have a perfectly good tankadin in Valimonde.  But, don't laugh, for rp purposes Digory had to stay frost.  And I am glad.

Frost is starting to prove itself as a viable DPS build.  I started reading articles and watching videos about frost.  The most information I gained was from a great post "Frosty DPS Discussion" over at Elitist Jerks.  You can head over and read all the discussion.  Some great information on builds and attack rotations.

Right now I am not shooting for many stats but attack power and strength.  It seems that quest rewards have been good to me and at the moment I am starting to see some fantastic numbers.  Last night my guild went into Nexus.  Our levels where all close.  DK 72, Tank 72, Marks Hunter 72, Disc Priest, 72, and a 78 Ret Pally. 

As we started the instance I worked hard to not pull agro, hit the tanks target and start my rotation of:

PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> OB -> FS
PS -> IT -> OB -> OB -> FS

And here is what I saw at the end of the night. . To say I was happy would be an understatement:



At level 72 (I dinged 73 after the run and doing the Wrathgate event.  RPFIT!) I can say I am loving my frost Death Knight.  For a person who would normally get a DPS fix from my ranged hunter or mage, doing damage up close and personal is exciting and new.

As for a spec that is not looked favorably upon by others. . Well BOOYA!  Love doing cool things with the uncool!  But I will be uncool again as I run around and find more and more Frosty DK's.  Its Awesome, and why I love this game!

So, if you want to push the boundaries, if you want to have fun, if you want to be the type of person to show those who laugh at you that you can be good, no great!  Then try a spec others say sucks.  Give it a try, if you don't like it, its only a few gold to go back to the cookie cutter.

The Making of a Junkie

Hi, everyone!  I know, who is this? Right?  Well, I am Mike's wife and playing partner.  I am probably the last person you would ever expect to play WoW.  I never thought I would play computer games myself.  I started playing WoW in order to have more in common with Mike.  He has always been into computing and computer games, and I felt that I needed to at least understand what he was talking about. :) At first, I mostly played just with Mike and enjoyed the time I spent with him, although I can't say I fully enjoyed the game at first.  For various reasons, I quit playing for a time.  When I returned, I retired my hunter and rolled a Draenei prot paladin instead.  I enjoyed playing her as I leveled.  I liked the durability and healing skills that allowed me to solo very well.  I was beginning to enjoy the game for itself, and even found myself playing at times while Mike was away.  I met some good friends that I looked forward to chatting with and the addiction began. 

Then I hit 70.  Suddenly, I found myself bored in the game.  I found out the hard way that, although I liked my prot pally for soloing, I did not really enjoy tanking instances with her.  I was not confident enough in my own skills to be able to lead a group.  It just was not my personality.  So I rolled a human mage.  After playing my very durable prot pally, I was frustrated initially with the squishiness of my clothie.  In time, I learned to keep my distance, use my crowd control skills and stay alive.  Before I knew it, Tatiaana was 70 also and I was hooked for good.

Now we are in Northrend. I still mostly play with Valimonde, although I have become a little more social with time.  I also rolled a Death Knight (a rerolling of my prot pally who is now retired on another server), but I am not sure if I will enjoy playing her as much as I enjoy my mage.  Val and I make a great team as we work to save Northrend.  With his strength and my DPS, we are a nearly unstoppable force!  (That is until we get cocky and take on a few too many mobs :)).  I love the look of Howling Fjords and am really enjoying the stories in the quest lines.  To date, my favorite part of the expansion was the achievement for killing 15 turkeys in 3 minutes.  Val and I were doing this together, so we had killed lots of turkeys.  Once I got the achievement and the turkeys became aggro to me, all those many that we had just killed respawned at the same time!  I was suddenly being attacked by a wave of like 20 angry turkeys!!! After I quickly arcane exploded them to bits, another group of about 20 attacked me!  I have not laughed so hard in a long time. While I still do not play as much as many people, I have definitely been bitten by the WoW bug.  I look forward to the times that I can play.  I am even beginning to enjoy raiding, but I think is partly due to the great guild that we have found.

Well, now you all know how the quiet, bookworm teacher became a frostbolt-shooting WoW addict.  Just remember, it can happen to the best of us. :)

79 Around the Corner and Other Fun

Tatiaana, aka Tanya, reminded me this morning while I was grumbling about server maintenance getting in the way of leveling, that I had not written on the blog for some time.  So . . .  *smile*  For all our wow readers, a wow update.

We have both been rather busy since the release of Wrath of the Lich King.  Bethany and I waited at Gamestop at midnight on the 12th in anticipation of going home with the 2 pre ordered copies we had purchased.  Unlike reports from some on well known podcasts, who obviously live in some strange places, we had over 300 people at our little Gamestop in Yuba City California.  It is always intrusting to see the people who share a hobby with you, even one as involved as World of Warcraft.

Tatiaana was already asleep when Bethany and I got home, and Bethany headed right to bed.  I cracked open the box, inserted the DVD and upgraded my account.  Blizzard put in some great lore facts and story background in the installer.  It was finished and I was ready.  But what to do?

Who do I log in?  Do I get Paravel into Northrend and start questing?  Do I get Valimonde in position with Tatiaana?  No that was out of the question as I decided that Valimonde and Tatiaana will level together.  Or do I roll my Death Knight?

I had run the DK starter zone while in the beta so . . .Digory, my 70 frost mage, had been rerolled and has become my Death Knight.  Now, for those wondering, no, you do not have to delete a toon to make a death knight. You simply must have a character that is at least level 55 on the server you start your death knight. You may only have one death knight per server.  Digory, my mage on another server, has been retired, Jadís is my new mage that I am leveling with Bethany's Shaman Benniah.

I began the quests and hit level 58 in just a little over two hours.  Was time to go to sleep.

Tatiaana and Val started questing the next day in Borean Tundra but did not like the zone.  It was drab and . . well. . blah.  Tatiaana ported us to Iron Forge and we then set of for Howling Fjord and oh we where so happy to do so!  HF is BEAUTIFUL!  The quest lines are so lore filled it is. . .amazing.  We where loving the progression and flow. 

When Tatiaana is at work I have been able to work on Paravel.  I decided to go ahead and work on the BT zone with her to give me more of a mix of things.  Leveling as a solo resto druid in the old game had issues, but I have found that I am able to survive and move along at a pretty steady pace.  Considering I am half a level away from 79 I think that Blizzard has done a good job with the reworking of talents and builds.  Just wish they would add more mana regen gear :(

I am working on getting Tatiaana to write on the blog in the next few days.  She has really enjoyed the expansion, and the two of us are having the time of our lives just spending time together.  Some may look at the two of us as strange or wierd, but when we are spending time playing a game together, communicating, talking to others, working together, we come away with a sense of accomplishment that we would never get from sitting in the livingroom watching hours of television.  If you play wow, or any other game, and your spouse does not. . even if they are not interested let them sit down and try it with you some time. . Use the guest pass. . They may not take to it but you will be surprised at how great a time you can have playing with your significant other.  I will make sure to poke her about putting in her thoughts on this topic since I am the "gamer" in the couple.

WARNING Fake Blizzard Phishing Scam!

Please pass this along!

I just received this email as well as others in my guild.  This is NOT from blizzard.  It is a Phishing attack trying to get you to log into a system which will provide your username and password to them to log in and clean your account out.

The email claims you are trying to sell your account and wants you to log in to verify you own it.  When you follow the link it does not take you to Blizzard but instead to an off shore server where they will capture your information.

 

Steps to resolve following the email.  It looks like this (URLS have been altered to prevent anyone from linking to them.)

Blizzard@ic04.XXXXXXXX
to gcfsmeagol
show details 9:54 AM (4 hours ago)
Reply
from    Blizzard@ic04.XXXXXXX
reply-to    Blizzard@ic04.XXXXXXXX,
Account@ic04.ic.cz,
"Services <acc"@blizzard.com
to    gcfsmeagol@hotmail.XXXXXXX
date    Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 9:54 AM

subject    Account Notification

Greetings,

It has come to our attention that you are trying to sell/trade your personal World of Warcraft account.
As you may or may not be aware of, this conflicts with the EULA and Terms of Agreement of Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft.
If upon further investigation you are indeed attempting to obtain monetary profit against the terms of the user agreement, your account can and will be disabled. Blizzard has the right to consider legal action if necesarry, based on the severety of the action.

If you hope to avoid account suspention you should verify your personal possession of the account in question.
We at Blizzard Entertainment take infractions of the user agreement quite seriously, and we must confirm the original ownership of the account.

Please Complete the information in  http://worldofwarcraft.XXXXXXXX..XXXXXXXXX/en/manage/loginservice.html this form to verify you are the owner of the account in question.

If you ignore this mail your account can and will be closed permanently due to suspicions of alternative ownership.
We ask that during the time of the investigation you give approximately twenty-four hours of inactivity after sending a response email. This should provide enough time for Blizzard to confirm your identity and that the terms of agreement are being followed as is necesarry.

Blizzard Entertainment Inc
Account Administration Team
P.O. Box 18979, Irvine, CA 92623

Regards,

Account Administration Team
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.

This is NOT from blizzard and is very dangerous. 

If you fell for it please log into the official warcraft account site and change your password right away. If you find you are locked out contact blizzard.  Also report this to blizzard so they can follow up.

QQ More Noob – WoW and Church

A friend asked me last night. "So, you don't like emo do you?"  My answer was, "No, is it to much to want people to learn how to adjust to real life and not expect everything on a plate?"  And it got me thinking.  Right now is an example of lots of over privileged people crying that the world is ending because something they "CHOOSE" to do is being impacted by REAL WORLD issues beyond the control of the programmers.

For those of my readers who do not know what is happening, well, World of Warcraft is launching its second major expansion tonight.  In the process of getting ready a lot of changes have been made to the game system, a system that I think far to many people take for granted.  You know, the same people who have no idea the work that goes into that Hot Mocha they just ordered at Starbucks.  The same people that if you ask them where milk comes from they will answer, "the store."

In a game with over 11 million subscribers it becomes a hotbed of whiners and QQers (For those not up on the lingo, just isolate the QQ and tell me what you see.  *smile* )  Not only does Blizzard have to balance the customer support nightmare but they have to make sure things go smooth tonight with the launch. 

Ok, so some hiccups nailed them when they applied whatever implantations of the software server side yesterday.  Ok they spent all day, and even part of today with the servers down to make sure people end up happy.  I would HATE to be in the shoes of the technician who are trying to get things back up.  Especially when EMO kids are complaining.

I had a little spar with someone on the official forums.  I made a simple comment about how I would rather have the down time when it happen than come home from Gamestop tonight, load the game and not be able to enter Northrend.  The reply I got was, and I paraphrase:

"OMG Blizzard SUCKS!.  I pay $14.95 a month to play this game.  I expect my cell phone, cable TV . . . blah blah blah.  to work. . .Blizzard is the worst!"   

I would have laughed but this attitude just struck a raw nerve.  Here is a person, who thinks the world owes them something, complaining because their life is impacted for a short time.  The feeling is that his "INTITLEMENT" gives them the right to make over reaching over generalizations.  And we wont even talk about the laps of common sense.  Ok maybe a little.. . Just that morning our Comcast Cable went out. Had no Internet for the first 6 hours of the day   O.o  IT WAS THE END OF THE WORLD   /slit

But I digress. 

The issue is not that Blizzard has failed.  heh, I dare anyone to show us that they could run things any better.   .  .  . *still waiting*

The issue is that people need to relax, enjoy life, go outside some times, and enjoy what is around them.  Realize that things happen and we just have to deal.  Do we always like it when a storm comes through and knocks out power for 2 days?  Heck no. . But do we look back at the quality time we had with our family when we could not hide in a corner with a T.V. or computer or . . . Oh yea.

So, to all the emo QQ'ers who are going to quit the game over this.  I have one thing to say.

There's the door. 

*smile*  I know. . mean. . But serious!

And now for those expecting something about the church, after all, I did put it in the title.  Well, just reread the article, replace the word Blizzard with your churches name and wala. . . .

Let's not be emo QQing noobs anymore!

/rant

Grr, I lied, Turning Rant back on after talking to a guild mate in Gtalk Dori, before posting this.

One thing that REALY disappoints me is that some of the very same people who where yelling the sky was falling and they where going to quit took advantage of a glitch when the servers did come up.

Once servers rolled online apparently you could purchase select PvP gear that used to require a high personal rating.  The price was messed up, most likely from a careless oversight in the rush to restore databases.  So when people found out they did they told Blizzard about it so it could be fixed.  WRONG

The took a virtual ROCK and tossed it through the window of the department store and walked off with the item, all the time justifying it by saying Blizzard sucked and made them wait to get back online.

ARGGG.  Ok. . I'm going to finish now before this becomes a novel on the social ills of idiots.

Love you all. . .its going to be a good day no matter what :)

Can't Level Past 70 without WotLK

While reading blue posts I got a conformation that you will NOT be able to level past 70 without the expansion.

Taar asks:

Will I be able to start leveling past 70 at midnight on Thursday, even if I do not have the expansion yet?
- Taar

Nethaera responds:

Unpossible.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/12454631457-level-to-80-without-wotlk.html

Midnight WoTLK Release - Ill Be There

For those of you in the WoW universe you know that Wrath of the Lich King is coming out tomorrow at midnight.  Bethany and I will be at the Gamestop in Yuba City at 10 PM 1070 Harter Rd # 102.  If you happen to be in Northern California, and by chance going to be in Yuba City, come say hi.

Thank You

As a young boy I would play games in the back yard with my brother and childhood friends.  One of our favorite games to play was war.  My mother was never to thrilled with us playing this game, but we did it anyway.  With scenes right from a John Wayne movie in our head we would storm the beach, with assorted objects serving as our cover.

Later on in my life I became an avid gamer, as most of you know by now *smile*.  I have to admit my favorite genera of games where war based games.  I spent many years in clan's that played Day of Defeat, Battle Field 1942 and other mod's of these games that allowed us to experience what others went through without putting ourselves in harms way.

Some would make the mistake of thinking people who like to play or simulate war campaigns as twisted or sick.  Lovers of war.  But on the contrary.  I am a huge history buff, firmly believing in the old adage that if we do not learn from history we will relive it over and over and over. 

After my grandfather passed away in 2002 I discovered a lot about his part in World War II.  As I was preparing his service I spent time going through his belongings, looking for more clues to use when speaking about him.  My grandmother gave me a box that contained some documents and papers from his service.  Patches, nick knacks, all completely trivial or useless to someone else, but to me . . . it was gold.  It gave me a chance to appreciate my grandfather that much more.  Why?

Because my grandfather was one of the millions of men and women over the past two centuries who put themselves in harms way to secure the rights that we all take for granted. 

I want to take this time today to thank my grandfather, George Delano Hall and all the other men and women past and present who stand to protect us and our way of life, a salute.

Thank you . . .

Related

Big Bear Butt: For All Who Serve This Country, Thank You
Big Red Kitty: Happy Veterans Day

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2008-11-09

• Loving, Guild, Patch, Kara, Coffee, Vent, Tanking, A Certain Mage . . .: Last night I ventured into the .. http://tinyurl.com/5lnqzw #


• Morning world. #


• Reading: "Big Bear Butt Blogger » Sharing a special education" ( http://tinyurl.com/65kbeb ) #


• Trying out Live Writer for my blog posting. . hmm. . So far. . I am likeing it. #


• The Prot Paladin and You!: I know I have written a lot about Paravel and her lovely, wonderful, active t.. http://tinyurl.com/6d6rfw #


• Heading out to vote. #


• Home from voiting.. Heading into WoW and IGNORING the news. Time to level and get ready for Northrend. #


• *sigh* #


• Fixing Bob's computer. Man its messed up. :) #


• home and playing wow with @tanyanorton, my beloved mage :) #


• Reading: "Big Bear Butt Blogger » Child’s Play is in da House!" ( http://tinyurl.com/5k66q4 ) #


• I hate Healbot. . It criples good healers :( #


• Paravel is moving back home! The Scryers her she comes. #


• got haircut. At walmart with the girls and most of Yuba City it would seem. #

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Is Arthas Closer? Extended Maintenance Time

Blizzards has posted a note on the log on screen.

We encountered some issues and need to extend the maintenance.  We currently estimate that all realms will be playable by approximately 1:00pm PST.  Thank you for your patience.

I am speculating that we will see the next large pre expansion event.  It only makes since after the popular plague.  I do hope so. . I'm getting bored. . Need more fun story line driven fun.

Please Vote

Please take the privilege, NO, responsibility you have as a citizen of the United States and get out and vote today.  I will not discuss, nor indorse any candidate, but you do need to excesses your rights.

VOTE!

The Prot Paladin and You!

I know I have written a lot about Paravel and her lovely, wonderful, active tree form lately.  I also know that you might be wondering just what has happen to all the news about Resto Druids.  Well that will all still come.  BUT. . .I have recently dusted off my shield and mace, and brought Valimonde back into action since patch 3.0.2.  And right from the start I have to say.

I FREAKING LOVE PROT PALLADINS AND TANKING AGAIN!!!!!

Blizzards has finally given protection speced paladins the tools needed to do everything we have always dreamed of.  They have given us at least two new talents that have turned the tables on all those old stuck in the mud, this is how it has always been done, warriors out there who say Paladins can tank 5 mans but never a raid. 

One of the bigest concern and arguments used against paladin tanks on larger raids has been that. . you use mana.  A tanking situation is a careful dance of agro managment and mitigation.  In order for a paladin prior to the patch to stay ontop of the threat list he had to do holy damage.  To do holy damage he had to use his skills which would use mana, lot's and lots of mana.  When you run out of mana you are unable to do your spells and before long that mage in the back starts to overtake your threat.  If you are unfamilure with what happens when a mage, or any other class, over takes your threat on a boss, well, lets just say it looks a lot like the floor.

It was because of the mana issue that many old school raiders would never allow a paladin to tank raid bosses.  To some extent they had a valid point, however, I have seen some fantastic tankadins prior to the patch porve the sceptics wrong. 

So, what to do about mana?  Blizzard answerd our issue with this.  Greater Blessing of Sanctuary

This new spell, which is only in the protection tree, offers a wonderful solution.  What does it do?

1. Reduces damage taken by 3%.  This may not sound like a lot of damage mitigation, but every bit helps, and frankly, this is not the reason it will be the only blessing I use.  This is:
2. Gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% maximum mana whenever the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack.

O.o  Let me put this in real world terms.  The new guild I am in just did our first Kara run Saturday night.  I seldom had to drink.  When we got to Prince on the roof we had one slight misshap.  Many of our team had NEVER been in Kara and did not know the dance with the enfeble.  We ended up loosing half the raid, BUT, we 5 maned prince and got him in one shot.  I tanked him with only 5 members for more than 3/4 of the fight.  When he died I looked at my mana bar.  It was full! 

This allowed me to keep at least 1K TPS (Threat Per Second) on the boss at all times.  So mana is no longer an issue for a tankadin.  It should also be noted that Warriors, Druids, and Death Knights will also benifit from this blessing when they are off tanking to us paladins.  :)

The next tool that Blizzard has given us is our 51 point talent *drum roll*

Hammer of the Righteous

Oh how I LOVE this new talent.  This is a new AOE, err. . well 3 target Melee atack that gives the paladin up to 4 times (NOTE, tool tip is being changed to reflect the real 4 times damage with 3.0.4 as I write this) your main hand damage per second as Holy damage. This attack causes HIGH treat. 

Perfect!  What we have always needed!  In normal situations a tankadin would use his Avengers Shield to get a head start on frontloading threat.  Only issue with the old method is a very long cool down on Avengers Shield makeing it nearly useless to climb back on top of the threat list once you started to slip.  With HotR we simply nail the mob every 6 seconds to not only build threat on them, but on the mobs next to them then you are AOE tanking.

I have to admit I am aprensive to write about HotR.  I am so fearful of others crying about it. You see. . I belive this little gem has made the prot spec fun again in more areas than just tanking.  It has helped to increase tankadins over all DPS.

In our Kara run I was 4th on the DPS chart!  I have NEVER been above another DPS class no matter how bad their gear was before patch. It was just not my build or skill set.  Now I am wraking up 2.5K avenger shield pulls, 1.5K to a whopping 3K HotR crit.  Its. . its. . just AMAZING!

And then!  PVP!  OH MY WORD!  Forget how over powered Ret Paladins are in BG's.  In previous days I would take Val into BG.  I could live a long long time, but kill nothing!  Now. . .Arms and Fury warriors run from Prot Paladins.  Ret Paladins end up screaming WTF when a prot nails them into the ground with HoTR and a few avenger shield tosses.   ITS AMAZING!

In conclusion, (You know, I was taught to never end a message or post like that :P )  I am so excited to play my tankadin again.  It is so much fun.  We are still having the OH WOW factor.  Just last night we took a 65 fury warrior, and a 66 Enhacment shaman into Underbog.  It was cake.  We planed to do Slave pens as well to get the quest done for them.  We where done in no time.  Tatiaana, my wifes mage, had to go at this point, but Mel, my healer and I said, why not do Steam Vaults.  When all was said and done, even with under level DPS, we did all three colfaing instances in under 2.5 hours!  WOW!  I can not wait to hit Northrend.

Here is to all the protection paladins out in the world.  Education will prevail and we will be given the chance to do what we always knew we could, or always wanted to do.

Loving, Guild, Patch, Kara, Coffee, Vent, Tanking, A Certain Mage . . .

Last night I ventured into the musty spooky halls of Karazahn for the first time since patch 3.0.2 was released with my new guild.  A little over a quarter of our raid had NEVER been in Kara up to this point.  Besides the completely new people to what many call the “entry level” raid instance, about three of our other members where on classes that they had never brought to Kara.  Typically one would hunker down for a long night, or at least a split day run of Kara when running with new players or classes that had not got their raiding legs under them yet.  But not tonight.

I am not going to take up page after page rehashing each and every boss.  However I will say that we one-shotted every boss, with the exception of Mirkblood, the new boss that is only in game for a couple more days.  It took us 2 attempts to figure out the rhythm.  When we did take him down on the second try it was a thing of beauty.  Instead I want to talk a little about the discussions and perspectives that players have concerning the expansion, and what the game will be like.

Blizzard has nerfed boss health and damage output as well as buffing player/class skill sets.  After the first pull of horses on the bottom floor a smile crept across my face.  I have dusted off Valimonde, my protection paladin, and transferred him over to be with this guild. I will be leveling him before I level Paravel, my resto druid.  As a tank with new groups I often pull the mobs to myself and zoom out my camera so I can get a feel as to how the group works and thinks.  In past experience on the simple trash pulls many a pug or new group will wipe once or twice just getting to the first boss.  Not this time.  After we cleared to Midnight, I had confidence in the abilities of our guild.  Each person filled their roll as if they where champions.  Thank you Blizzard.

I am completely in favor of the new philosophy, or at least the newly publicized philosophy to make the game about the player and not the class.  Many of us know of that guy decked out in T5/T6 gear but could not DPS/Tank/Heal a fencepost to save his life.  He may have been a charity case or carried by a guild/raid with people who just took over for his lack of skill.  We also know those players who excel at playing, have a good grasp on how the mechanics of a fight play out, but might not have the greatest gear, mainly because of that little thing called, LIFE.  If last nights run with the ease of care we cleared Kara is an indication, we will be unstoppable in our pursuit of fun and joy in a game that, frankly, sometimes can suck the fun and joy out of you when you are pushing to hard to hit that ubber skill mark.

We have 10 days until we can set foot on the shores of Northrend and begin our leveling and questing to hunt down the Lich King.  In these 10 days I plan to continue to get to know my new guild mates, learn more about the changes to my class (I WILL be posting an article on Prot Pallies soon!  THEY ROCK!) and ramping up for more fun.  Oh, and also leveling an alt or two to help with professions.

To all my guildies on The Scryers in Thought and Memory I tip my hat. Job well done friends, job well done.  Now let’s go kick Arthas’s tail!

Multibox Light Show!

Was chatting with a friend when in the middle of Stormwind on The Scryers server 5 shaman showed up to give us a light show.

[gallery]

Busy WoW day.

Its been a while, but the fun in the game we love to play is back.

Tanya's mage hit 70.  I grabed this screen shot and made a wallpaper



Let me know if you would like the wallpaper.

And the Scourge invasion was in full swing.  I hopped on Val and was able to get revered with the Argent Dawn and get a tabbard.  Great time indeed.



Great time indeed.  Now all is left is to rais the funds to move, Para, Val, and Tanya's mage to The Scryers to begin our new journey with Thought and Memory

Looking forward to the expantion.  But for now. . Sleep time.  Then. . a hard day ahead.. But all will be well.

Project Move Para - Custom Themes

/company experiment mode on

I have found a new home. . Now I need to transfer Paravel and Val, and then Tanya's mage. and . . yea I know.

In the lean times of the budget crises with Tanya not getting a contract after last years school year, and my attempt to get the company off the ground, times, as with most in the country, are tight financially.  So. . I have taken a custom theme I was doing for Deep Magic and I am offering it as  limited edition theme for 10 lucky guilds out there.

I do not know if this will work, but my normal prices on a custom drupal theme run from $500 to $2500.  These one shot themes will go for $25.  Desperate?  Hmm. . not sure.  But its worth a shot to see how it works out.

If you would like to see them you can view them at http://new.guildredeemed.com

Fast Feathers FTW!

Well after a bit of time I have hit a mile stone and met a goal on Paravel.

After this long:



She has FINALY got



Swift Flight Form!

Yea!  Man can she move now. . To bad it wont matter in Northrend. . But its DONE!!!  And im 5000 gold poorer now. . Oh well. .

Guild Shirt Designs!

Mark me down for a new christmas gift.  A new partnership between Blizzard and swagdog.com has appeard on the wow launcher this morning.

With this company you can order a guild T-shirt or hoodie to proudly wear your colors.  woot!

I know I want 1 or 2 or 3.

Warcraft.SwagDog.com - World of Warcraft Custom Guild T-Shirt Builder WoW Shirts.

Podcast 17 · Providing truth to Citizens!

Podcast 17 · Providing truth to Citizens!.

A friend of mine just posted his new podcast.  Its a HL2 centered show.  He tells me mature content so be advised.

I did some voice acting for them. . Let me know if you can tell where.

We Hate Pugs, the Podcast | We Hate PUGS

We Hate Pugs, the Podcast | We Hate PUGS.

One podcast down, one more to go.

Dev4gamers???

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Jon Radoff’s Entrepreneur 2.0 Blog » Blog Archive » Interviewed about the Future of Gaming

Jon Radoff’s Entrepreneur 2.0 Blog » Blog Archive » Interviewed about the Future of Gaming.

Very nice intervew about the future of gaming.  Althogh I find a slight seperation with Jon on Casual vs Hardocre.  I think its time to define a new vocabulary to seperate the labels from a genera compared to a play style.

Check it out.

Patches and Talents and Specs Oh My!

The great thing about having a blog is I can post things simply so I can remember and look up later :) You should try it.

With the patch being released all talents and sepcs are reset. Head on over to WoWhead's

Resto Druid

Oh Noez! My mods are borked!

Well we will be getting WoW 3 tomorrow.  One thing I am doing, beside a lot of design work and such not related to wow, is updating and getting ready for the patch.

I am a veteran of a couple of major UI/API changes and know how hard the switch for some will be when they log in tomorrow and find that most of the addons they use are broken.  I hope to help at least aim you in the right direction to make this transition go a little smoother.

First download and install WoWMatrix.  This little gem will search out updates for you.  So instead of having to scour over endless web pages trying to locate the latest version of your mod, you just hit a button and it does it for you.  And NO, WoWMatrix is NOT an addon, nor does it run in game despite what I heard on a podcast a few weeks ago.

WoWMatrix is safe.  The author has even taken an extra step now to provide fuller description and a link to the mods webpage for you to check a certain mod if you have questions about it being safe or not.

I also suggest you keep WoWMatrix set to launch wow, and keep wow set to launch the launcher.  This will provide a litle more security for those afraid of getting haxed.

Some of the mods that you currently use now might be going away or have not had any public announcement as to availability come Tuesday.  I will be giving some tips and suggestions as I dig through my mods right this very minute.

Mother's Cookies Crumbles, Citing Credit Crunch : NPR

Mother's Cookies Crumbles, Citing Credit Crunch : NPR.

 

Not good, no, no, no, not good at all!!!

Pre Expansion Blues - What do I do?

I'ts Monday.  Enough said.

I spent most of last night reading forums, reviewing WoWjutsu, and checking realm list creation dates and data center data locations in an attempt to try and find a place to call home for the expansion.  I tell you, its not easy.

Here is my delima, and please excuse any rambling as it has been a rambling weekend.  I am currently playing my main, Paravel, on the PvE Misha US server.  Tanya and I came to Misha after leaving Earthern Ring.  The reasons we left ER are not really important, but the size and age of ER was a factor in our departure.  

We found ourselves on Misha because we had just been introduced to some local people through Todd, the former pastor at Cooper Ave Baptist Church in Yuba City.  Todd and I hooked up when he first moved into our area.  When I resigned First Baptist Live Oak we gravitated to Cooper.  (See, I'm rambling)  Back to Misha. 

While Todd was pastor at Cooper he found out one of the members and her husband played wow.  So they hooked up.  At the time I was involved in raiding with a great raiding group on ER in the SaSu raiding alliance.  Todd knew that the husband was struggling with raiding and guilds on Misha and possibly looking for a place to transfer.  His joining us was not to be.  As fate would have it we left ER and went to Misha mainly they where there.  It turns out that Tanya and Michelle knew each other from when they where youth growing up in the same area.

Blizzcon: Ghostcrawler is not a HAWT Chick!

Time for class descusion.

First.  Ghostcrawler is NOT a gril.  The room exploded in laughter.

Best line ever about the new buff system

"We want to get back to where you bring the player and not the class."

The new buffing system now affects the whole raid.  So now it will take fewer buffers to fill out the group and leave room for others to come. You know, like your friends.

We now have 4 main tank classes.

• Warrior


• Paladin


• Druid


• Death Knight

Another confirmation of dual spec from Ghostcrawler.  He said it should not be complicated, no running back into town.  You will not be able to switch on the fly like in an arena.

Another great quote.  "Dont nerf me bro!"

Blizzcon: Notes from UI conf

We have confirmation in an upcoming dual spec ability.  Meaning we can have 2 specs to switch between.  At the same time the developers stated they will be addressing the specing UI to give ability to make sure you do not spend points without a confirmation.

Not only is auto shot for a hunter fixed and will not be clipped by another ability, but not for priests, mages and locks wanding is the same.  It will stop as soon as you cast. No more having to wait for the cool down to heal or nuke.  Yea!

The UI panel is over. Looks like a few cool things coming.  More notes to come as the class discussion will start shortly.

Inscription

Scribing Tools now known as Inking Tools

First I made 30 Silvery Ink.  This got me to level 28 and gave me the mats to make the next recipe.

purchased 16 Light Parchment (purchased 1 to many :) )

Made 15 Scrols of Intelect to get to level 40

I learned milling and started to create Alabaster Pigment

I made 30 Alabaster Pigment with 3 stacks of Peace Blossom

I then made 25 Moonglow Ink and hit level 63

Purchased 14 more Light Parchemtn to give me a total of 15.  Now to make 15 Scrolles of Recall

I stoped at 13 when I hit level 70

Purchased 10 more Light Parchement to have 12 on hand.  The guide was wrong on how many Moonglow ink, so I need to get to 80. Lets see how I do. . (Now a server notice that its going down.  *hurry*))

Well, so much for 15 min warnings.  A 15 min restart turned into a 10 second.  So my data for money spent will be lost but we will continue on and see how easy it is to level Inscription.  I am looking forward to being able to use the vellum for Brick to enchant to, so this should be a good test.

Ok, several hours later the server is back up!  Time to continue the experament.  First, get out of trade channel.  *head desk*

I made 12 Bleached Vellum and got to 81

Milling 2 stacks of Stranglekelp gave me 18 Dusky Pigment and 4 Verdiant Pigment

Creating Midnight Ink was grey to me. So I made Scroll of Strength to get to 90  Made 10 + 5.  had to fudge it some.

For 90 - 100 I am making Glyph of Wrath since the Glyph of Rejuv is now yellow.

For 100-110 I will make 15 Lion's Ink.  First I need to mill  1.5 stacks of Wild Steelbloom gave me 15 golden Pig and 2 Burnt Pig

That only got me to 104.  So I milled some more Golden Pig and got to 105 when Lions Ink went grey.

105-115 x 15 or so Glyph of Holy Light

115-130 x 25 Glyph of Healing Touch

Need alot of Lions Ink to get to 150

130-135 5x Glyph of Moonfire

135-140 5x Glyph of Lay on Hands

140-150 10x+ Glyph of Sunder Armor

I stalled at 149.  Need to find a way to make more ink to get one stinking point, but some jerk has herbs on the PTR AH for 500 gold.  *head desk*

And now for the AHH HAA and Head Desk x 2.  Frustrated at not having the mats to get the one point I lo out.  Switch to my other account and sitting on the PTR?  My herbalist!  DUH! TIme to farm.

Yea 150!

150- 155  Jadefire Ink (just keep makeing it :)  )

155-160   Glyph of Righteous Defense

160-165  Glyph of Gouge

165-170  Glyph of Shadow Bolt

170-180 Glyph of Overpower

180-185   Glyph of Shadow Word:Pain

185-190  Glyph of Sap

190-200 Glyph of Revenge  (Took about 14)

At 200 we get Artisan

Start makeing Celestial Ink  I got to 205 after makeing 65.

205-220  Inscribed Vellum  - At this level new spells are only green :(

220-225  Glyph of Starfire

225-230   Glyph of Ice Block  ((Need more Celestial Ink)

Took me some time. Had to have Digory go farming just to get one point.  Now lets continue shall we?

Well *sigh* Looks like im at a stand still. .  Next ink is at 250.  And everything we have now is green.  Lets see how far I can get makeing Fiery Ink.

230-235 - 5 Shadowy Tarot

WoW Machinima Flyby Test #1

Flyby Test from Paravel Communications on Vimeo.

This is a WIP test of few ingame screen captures.  Thinking about putting together a project later this month.

Want to know how to make gold in WoW?

2+2=Inscription

 

Thats how.

/discuse

Patch Just in the Nick of Time

Repost of http://wehatepugs.com/blog/paravel/2008/10/02/patch-just-nick-time

Wowinsider posted about an official speculative release date for the 3.0.2 content patch.   Blizzard poster Nethaera. posted this little bit of information on the first. 

6 Random Gamerz Things (Got Tagged)

Got tagged by Taylor Kent
http://thesnarkyavenger.com

Here are the rules for those I’m tagging. Check the list after my 6 Random Gamerz Things to see if you’ve been tagged.
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six-ish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

6 random things about me, Mike Norton

1. I collect bald eagles, not the real thing, but anything with them on them.


2. I met Tanya in college.  The very same college Bethany will be going to this coming fall O.o


3. My first video game addiction was "Return to Castle Wolfenstien"


4. I can balance a spoon on my nose.


5. My game tag ManO comes from my first clan mates in Team Fortress Classic shorting my name MANorton to ManO. It sort of stuck.


6. I'm an ubber Geek.  No . . really.

Six tagged people

Scott Bridwell (http://blog.scottbridwell.com/)
Carey Norton (http://yarnpaperscissors.blogspot.com/)
Warren Kelly (http://pewview.mu.nu/)
Rick Presley (http://www.ill-legalism.com/)
BigRedKitty aka Daniel (http://www.bigredkitty.net/)
Phaelia (http://www.resto4life.com)

Things Id Like to See.

After my long post I wanted to jot some notes about what I would like to see a church be/do.

The most important thing is to be "relevant"

Random thoughts.

• Worship that fits the hearers


• Ways to communicate outside of a "weekly meeting"
  
  
  
  • Web
  
  
  • Podcast
  
  
  • Vidcast
  
  
  • Twitter
  
  
  • Forums
  
  
  • SMS messaging
  
  
  • Online groups
  
  
  • Games (You know i had to get WoW in here someplace right?  :)  )
  
  
  
  


• Non threatning leadership structure.
  
  
  
  • Co-leaders
  
  
  • Ownership (don't read to much into that, still needs some developing)
  
  
  
  


• Not confined to a "traditional" time frame.
  
  
  
  • Have meetings when those who come can attend, not necessarily based on a old tried and true time frame.  Although not tossing out the old Sunday morning schedule either.  Being flexible to meet the needs of families that are very busy
  
  
  • Use online as a way to meet for those who are unable to meet regularly in a physical time and place.  But keeping them involved as much as possible.
  
  
  
  

More to come as I think about it. PLEASE leave a comment with your idea!  I want your feedback.  What would you like to see in a church?

I get it God! (The short story that went long)

(This is long)

I woke up last Sunday with the realization that I had become that which I thought, or tried to never become.   A statistic.  Many who follow my twitter feed saw my remark about that before church.  I had spent many days in chapel service while attending Clear Creek Baptist Bible College where the speaker would share the depression information that a high percentage of men going into the pastorate would burn out, be forced out, or just plain lose interest in the first 2 to 4 years.  After a long hard battle against the powers of "tradition" I had become one of those numbers.  About ready to give up completely.  Not sure which end was up, and frankly, in a nice self induced pity party about it all.

We Hate Pugs is online

Welcome to my brain and my idea of social networking meets wow raiding/grouping



Because No one Should Have to Play with Noobs.

We Hate PUGS

We need your help.  Check it out. Try to break it. Tell me what you want.   Use it.  Share it.  Help run it.

Thanks all.  Now I can play some again.

Lady Sylvanas New uhm . body.

Click to Play

Lady Sylvanas got a new model for the beta and ptr patch of 8982. I think it looks great. What do you think?

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by paravel with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license.

Lady S Has a New Look!

Ok, I admit I'm a lore junky and it never sat well that Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, you know, the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken?  Well anyway, in game she is portrayed by a Night Elf model.  Some hoped that when Blood Elfs, more in line with stature and looks of High Elves, where introduced in Burning Crusade that they would change her model since she is a High Elf.  But No. . Not until now.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Lady S in her 3 Faces"][/caption]

I first caught wind of the changes on the wowinsider post this morning. As you can see that in patch 8982 she looks more like a world boss than ever.  And boy does she still have attitude.  What do you think of the new look?
 


I think the new model looks more fitting from a lore stand and world boss point of view.

Casual Raiders Unite

Over the past couple of years I have had the great pleasure of being the GM of some awesome guilds, filled with some awesome people.  One thing that has become very clear however in the past year.  

*holds a candle and stands slowly to his feet*  "I am a casual raider"

That's right, you heard me.  For a long time it was enough to level and hang out with friends.  I came from an RP server and enjoyed RP and events as well, as much as they can burn you out at times. But it was not enough.  When Bricklethumb, my first 60 and then first ever to make it to 70 got there, well, I ran out of things to do alone with a small group of friends.  

So I did what most non-raider, or non-pvp addicts did.  I rolled an alt!  To cut to the chase . . at this point I have 4 70's, 1 64, 2 40 somethings. . .well. . you get the drift.  I would run into people that would say "wow you have 4 70?  That must be tons of fun?"  Well, yes and no.  What it does mean is I now have 4 toons to spread across my limited time and get stuff done.

I was bored.  Puging was for the birds, allthough Im not against it as much as some others are.  I find you can meet some really good people and players in a random pug.  I left wow for a while to try some new content in LotRO. You can read about that here on PastoPlayz.  It was great, it was fun. . But . . ran out of things to do at the time and sucked back into wow.  

Then it happen.  I got my paladin into Kara and I was like. . This is cool!  So I got bit by the raiding bug.  Working with new content, seeing new bosses, learning new tactics, and enjoying the game. . . oh and  . . loot!  Only problem was that most of the guilds that wanted to run Kara all the time a)  wanted to run it all the time, especially at times I could not go due to family, church, or what not, and b) did not want anyone from another guild in a run with them.

This went on for several months.  Untill I moved to Earthen Ring US.  There I discovered a raiding alliance that worked.  It is called SASU, and it is like most large groups of people. Some are cool, and some are jerks.  Thankfully due to the structure and history more cool than jerks *smile*

The Nerf Bat Falls!

The beta giveth and the beta taketh away.

Resto Druid Changes

8962 hit the beta servers today and some things changed.

First, all the going on and on about Flourish, now called Wild growth has been touched. You know that supper awesome aoe heal they gave us that would heal 2212 over 7 seconds! Well now it will only heal 469 over 7 seconds. Its not 2K heal but it is still usable.

Pha, over at Resto4Life seems to think that this may get turned down by most resto's come live time.  And she just might be right considering its overall output to mana cost is now not worth the effort for some situations.

Mounts, Mounts, Mounts!

So I log in and what do I find in Stormwind?  This!



A Woolly Mammoth Mount!  Apparently it cost like 15000 gold from some guy that was swamped by players in Dalaran.  I think Ill pass, but wow it looks cool!

If you thought the engineer  helicopters where a noise problem, wait until you hear all the motorcyles.  Yep, choper mounts.  And they are 2 seaters!  The best news is they are crafted by an engineer, BUT you do not need to be an engineer to use them.

Paravel in the NeXuS

Click to Play

I got a chance to FINALLY get into an instance on the WotLK Beta server and try out the new Resto Druid talents. I'm pleased to say I am VERY excited!

Come watch with me as we clear out NeXus, compared to BC's Blood Furnace in equivalent.

Resto Tree, I think I LOVE You!

I FINALY got a chance to get on the beta servers . . and play.  The lag had been so bad this weekend that it was impossible to do anything.  So when all the kids went back to school I took the opportunity to log in on Monday to check it out again.

>[LFG] Izak: Looking for a healer for Nexus.
>[LFG] Paravel: I'd love to come give it a try, although I have not been in there yet.
>[LFG] Izak: I take it your resto?
>[LGF] Paravel: Yep
> Izak /invite Paravel
> /accept invite

And that is how it began.  My first Northrend instance, and first chance to heal with my new spec.  At first I was a little frustrated at loosing some of the spells I used to have in the balance tree.  They made it possible for me to be resto and solo or PvP.  Now it looked like I was being left out in the cold only to heal.  At honestly at this point the jury is still out. . but as for healing.  OH WOW!  But I should start with some basics.

WotLK Release Announced - 11/13/08

It's official.  Apparently Blizz last night allowed WoWhead to post this new shiny front page.  More news has come down the pipe as the release of the Collectors Edition has also been released.  And there was much rejoicing in the streets!

What does all this mean?  It means that Warhammer has some competition.  I have to admit that the pre-expansion blues have set in, and set in hard.  Before Burning Crusade was released many players became disinterested in the game.  Their was not much of a point in pushing for gear or raiding because new content was coming out.  And in hind site we were right.  No one runs the old raid content anymore with the occasional "nostalgia" runs for old time sake.  During the wait for the expansion stage servers became ghost towns.

Now with WotLK on its way you can see the same effect on the live servers.  I have stoped raiding, partialy due to moving realms and other issues but largely because I do not want to get deeper into SSC or BT right now with so much new on the horizon.  I have started to make plans for new things like new professions, instances, specs.  I cant WAIT to take Paravel into an instance or raid and heal.  The new healing tools druids have look amazing!!!  But the beta servers are so laggy I cant test them :(  Soon!

So now we have just a around two months to get ready.  And I'm glad.  With the next content patch on the PTR's we will get a jump start on some of the new features of the game.

Its time to play ladies and gentleman! (it's also time for me to finish development on a new drupal based guild/casual raiding site *smile*)

Oh, and did I mention Collectors Edition? *smile*

Stormwind Harbor - WotLK Beta

Click to Play

SPOILER WARNING!So I took Digory on a little tour. The new harbor looks amazing! Im also blowing out the cobwebs from the creative part of my mind. Im trying Blip.tv for hosting video that I shoot while in the beta. And I hope to have a little more

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by paravel with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

Resto Druid Talent Build Test No. 1. 16/0/55

Well, my brain hurts a little after taking Paravel's spec from the live server. 19/0/42 and some new things in Lich with a 16/0/55

I'm a little worried about loosing from the balance tree.  This is where I got my ability to solo from.  But with some of the new survivability things added to the resto tree we might be able to hold our own.  We shall see.  Ill load Paravel up and give it a test.

Improved Tree of Life adds a nice bonus to our armor.

Death Knight Story = Lore Giggle Fit!

Ok, I have to admit I was one of the guys who had little to no interest in a Death Knight, the new hero class in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft.  To me I have enough on my plate to worry about my 4 70's getting to 80 and seeing new content.  AND I was not to keen on the idea of being this "evil" guy who got his kicks out of running around killing things without mercy. . .

BUT was I surprised!

You start as a level 55 Death Knight in the starter zone. .er . . instance.  The first thing that made me fall over in a lore moment was as soon as I finished my intro camera swoop animation that WoW is known for to explain the story, I found myself face to face with the Lich King himself!  Can you say Teh Awesome?

You then begin your quests to learn how to be a Death Knight.  To make a long story short.  (to late) You will be 58 when done and ready to hit outland, or Eastern Plauge Land when done.

(SPOILER ALLERT PAST THIS POINT)

Paravel's Tree Respec

Starting with the beta we will see a lot of new things moved around in the talent trees.  While patching my game I spent some time looking at Paravel's Resto Spec of 19/0/42 and translating it over for Wrath.  What I have seen so far is some pretty cool things.

First Improved Mark of the Wild
Improved Mark of the Wild

WotLK - I'm IN! W00t!

Thanks to a friend I got a beta key!  w00t!  Paravel is on the server and im downloading.  Get ready for some Resto Druid info!  YES!!!

Paravel Communications is Up.

Well, after several months of trying to get bearing after resigning at First Baptist I have begun to take to heart the comments my friends have been telling me for years.  I have been developing web sites for guilds, churches, personal use for a long time.  Every time I finish a job someone would comment how they liked it, or how cool something was on it.  Soon the conversation would turn to "You should do this for a living."

Well, it is now time to see if they are right.  My deepest desire is to help others use the internet to reach out to the masses.  Weather it is a church or ministry, a local company, or someones private blog, they deserve to have a great web presence.

All I ask of my readers and friends is you pray for us as we try to get the company off the ground.  If you know of someone or you are in need of a custom site, give me a call.  *smile*

http://paravelcomm.com

Frost Build

Been toying with the WotLK talent calc on wowhead.  Here is what im looking at for my mage.

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=oZZiAcIsfz0ddgcst

Ding 30!

Bethany and I have been playing with the Refer a Friend program.  We set up an account just for Bethany, err, rather she purchased her own account.  We are getting 3 times the XP.  So far we have flown through levels. Only issue is we out level a zone and have to figure out where to go.  

I'm going to do a write up on the pros and cons later. But for now, some Screen Shots.

 

 

 

 More to come!

Cool Weighted WoWHead Filters

Ok, so last night I'm mulling over in my head gear for Wunderkind.  I discovered the weighted filter search on wowhead a while ago but never really dove into it until now.

I have taken the preset filter for Holy/Disp priests and modified it some.  Right now my weights look like this.

• Stamina: 75


• Int: 75


• Healing Done By Spells: 50


• Spirit: 50


• Spell Critical Strike Rating: 20

My thinking for these figures goes as such.  Stam is important when in PvP.  The more health you have the longer you can stay alive.  So I put that weight at 75.  For a caster class a large mana pool, plus the crit chance from Int is important.  This is why I put Int at the same weight as Stam.

Being a healer I wanted to mana regen and healing to be somewhat equal.  I will probably revisit this thought as in a BG mana regen is often done after you die.  But, if one tries to stay alive as long as possible then running out of mana could be a quick trip to the Spirit Healer.

Link to Filter: http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.1&filter=sl=10;minrl=10;maxrl=19;ub=5;wt=22:23:24:50:49;wtv=75:75:50:50:20

To use the filter on other items simply chose from the Menu up top from Hands to another item. I'm going to me playing with the settings to see if Wunderkind has the best gear I can get for her, on cheap.

If you have any suggestions on the weight for the list, or would like to post your own weighted list please feel free to drop it in the comments section.

Twinking a Priest

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="227" caption="Twinked Healz"][/caption]

Well, its pre expansion time.  And I'm experiencing the same thing I did before BC came out.  Bored stiff.  I know their are lots of things one can do, but I have chosen to work on twinking out a clothie.  Introducing, Wunderkind.  Wunder here is a priest that for the time being I will concentrate on having so much plus heal that she will be nearly unstoppable.

What is a twink you might ask?  According to wowwiki.com;

Twinks are player characters who exploit the gearing system by equipping themselves with many gears and high-end enchantments that are not feasibly obtainable at their level.

So starting with some research online I have started to put together a list of armor, and enchants that I want for Wunder to have here.  The biggest issue with doing this is it helps to have a high level toon, preferably on another account so you can run your lower level toon through instances.  This is where Paravel comes in, but more about that later.  For now Wunder is level 14.  I have my list made which you can see here.

Wunderkind of Misha, Chardev.org


Full list after the break

I am Becoming a Beliver

If you would have asked me a year ago about all the hub bub over social networking I would have more than likely told you it was hype, or a fad, or just a flash in the pan.  I absolutely HATE Myspace, and this facebook thing was new and cumbersome.  Not to mention all the "what am I doing now" apps and services.

But then. . .I tried a couple.  First twitter, then Jaiku, then Pownce then. . . well you get the picture.  I started to use them for a short time but then as with most things I think are fads. . they sort of left the back of my mind. . Sort of like that Franklin Daily Planner I used to think was cool. . .for a week.

BUT. . .here I sit out of work. No longer pastor at FBLO.  I know I have gifts and talents.  I know I can do some cool things.  After all, I would not try if it where not cool. . But I have never found a way to get someone, at the right time, who was willing to pay me to do these cool things.  Podcasts, web sites, custom graphics, network design and installations, you name it. . .  But then something strange happen, after a very long and hard, and ill be the first to admit it, a rather depress filled two weeks.  My buddy Scott Bridwell sends me a Gtalk message at midnight the other night saying.

"Hey Mike, guess what?

What?

I lost my job yesterday."

Heart sank to my stomach for Scott and Becky.  I know the hard road he has had to walk.  We started talking about a lot of things.  Not to put you to sleep Ill get to the point. .He asked me if I was LinkedIN. I'm like, am I what?  I had heard in passing about the site but payed no attention to it.  We talked over an hour about social networks.  So that night after he logged I went to LinkedIN and set up a profile.  Sent invites to all the people in my Google address book and crawled into bed at 2 AM depressed and not sure what the morning would offer.

Today however, after filling in the information, after brushing off my twitter and posting to it the sample mundane parts of my day, and after getting "plugged" back into the tech world I am already seeing results.  Friends I made a year ago and friends from high school have contacted me.  It has really shocked me in a way, but a good way.

So tonight, as I go to bed, as I think about tomorrow, I can say that I'm feeling pretty good.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm sure its not a train. *smile*

Drupal and You

I have just started a new project for the California Southern Baptist Convention's Student Ministries Department. Shhhhew, to many words. I am creating a new site that will allow them to keep in touch with those around the state that need information about the Healthy Church, and specifically, student ministries. In the past they have used flash driven web sites. Flash, although snazzy and sometimes awesome looking, can also be riddles with navigation and just. . plain old problems. What they really want is a way to post things in a timely fashion and yet keep things fluid.

Enter a content management system. I have offered to tune a Drupal install for them and help them tailor it for there needs. With all features that a Drupal install has to offer it will be a very flexible system. It will allow them to post news about upcoming events, post vital information about ministries and offerings. Offer a place to display some of what is happening in the churches around the state as well as attempt to create a social network using forums or other systems to help key students and leaders into place.

Keep watching this particular topic in the next week as the site comes together.