Monday, May 3, 2010

I'm a-Leavin'... On a Jet Plane!! (or a server X-Fer)



The four Balths you see with red dots are mine... and you may notice that I'm no longer on Velen with my 80 Pally, "Big Balth". I moved him over to Lightbringer (Whirlwind BG) last night. (I also created a Drae DK named Balth, either to play, or possibly as a placeholder if/when I return Big Balth)

Did I find a perfect-fit raiding guild? Did Kattastrophe switch and find a great guild?

Um, no...

The reason?

Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake

huh?


Well, as you may all recall, there is this fugnastic achievement along the path of getting this (via the "What a Long, Strange Trips It's Been" meta achievement). And what, pray tell is that achie? The dreaded "School of Hard Knocks".

If I had known this prior to doing a number of the achies, I would never have started. But I did, and so now I am.

Please note; I'm not THAT big into mount collecting, nor am I really that much of an achievement whore.


BUT, I have been slowly, doggedly, beating my head against the many long, tedious and uber-grindy achies so that I could get a 310% mount. I hadn't realized that one of the achies needed required some painful at best quests/requirements, like capping a flag in Eye of the Storm (EotS)

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you'll recall a few things about me & PvP:


1 - I'm not that good at PvP
2 - I have a low tolerance for frustration
3 - Velen/Retaliation are not exactly good for Alliance PvP

To put this into perspective, in the BGs I've played in since I hit level 80, I have:


- lost every single game in Warsong Gulch (WSG)
- have never capped or returned a flag in WSG
- only seen 1 flag cap by Alliance in EotS
- never capped a tower or flag in Arathi basin (AB) or Alterac Valley (AV)

Now, to be fair, I haven't played many of either AB or AV since Dinging 80, but I have still tried a handful.

Now, combine this slightly wrongwise slanted data with the requirement of doing them for the achie, and you can easily see that it is pretty much a sure thing that I would never be able to get them on the Velen server.

"Well, don't worry about it, just forget about it."

Easy for you to say. Now, many parts of the holiday quests are entertaining or at least garner a grin or two. BUT, many of them are multiple hour slogs across Azeroth to pee in a fire, or grovel for candy. And I have been grinding them. It would piss me off to no end to leave all that hard, grindy work to waste, if not toget something out of it.

I did give a couple shots on Velen. In fact, it was during one of these attempts that I saw my first Alliance Flag cap on EotS. But it was also during this same game that someone (Ally) managed to grab the flag and run, but wasn't able to capture it, because we had ZERO towers.

FYI, the server balance is 62% Horde, 38% Alliance.

So, I asked around, and heard some good things about Lightbringer and put my $25 on the table.

FOOP!

I'm moved, ran into an ex-guildie, and got invited into a guild. (no clue what this guild is like, but hey...)

So, I get into WSG, and it's a quest-fest. folks grabbing the flag, dropping the flag, and generally being silly. Pretty fun & funny.



Yeah, I took my turn grabbing, then dropping, the Horde flag.

My next WSG was a closely fought 3-2 loss. Tough, a bit frustrating, but at least a GAME. Not a one-sided domination.

And then over to Wintergrasp (WG). We won in what seemed like a moderatly balanced fight. Alliance was defending and we won, after dropping one tower and out-lasting the Horde. They had dropped one wall (west side) and had damaged the wall into the main courtyard. I was out near the towers, so I'm not sure how ahrd fought it was. What I can say is that we dominated for a bit (20-4 for vehicles) and then the Horde came back to tie the vehicles 12-12.

I died a lot, and killed a lot. (and the quest 3k honor, 10 stone shards were a nice addition)

So, am I paying $25 to get my Proto-Drake? Possibly, or at least I'm paying that $$$ to get a CHANCE to get that.

But seriously, WHAT are we trying to t4each these orphans? Btw, I think that they should be doable "by the group", not per each individual. That would encourage teamwork, and give most folks a fair chance at it.

Oh, I did a little bit of tanking in Utgarde Keep (UK) and Utgarde Pinnacle (UP) both in normal (not heroic) mode. If I only ned to tank 3-4 things, I'm OK, but when it comes to huge mobs, especially when mixed with casters, I struggle to get/keep aggro.

And I got wheedled into OT-ing Naxx 10. I did OK for a while, then failed miserably on that large Dog. Evidently Righteous Fury fell off, and, since it was my first time in there, nobody really explained it, so I had no clue = FAIL. Ah well.

OH!!!! One last thing. I have been running ICC 25 mans with Kattastrophe's newest guild. Mainly a Saturday start, and Sunday-struggle. After the RL said "NOBODY START THE GUNBATTLE, OR I'LL BOOT YOU!!!" I ran over to the dude to get my jetpack, and clicked quickly.

Too quickly.

Evidently the "jetpack-dude" and the "start the fight dude" are right nexxt to each other.

Oops.

(we didn't wipe, and I didn't get kicked, but I felt - and still feel - like a fucking imbecile)

We finally made it past Saurfang.

Later!










No comments:

Post a Comment