WoW: ....::sigh::....
* So, elections finally got started for the current term. Yay, elections!
* Ishi, our inimitable Marshal, is taking an extended break. Probably not from PvPing, because he's a PvP monster, but from PvPing on Steamwheedle Cartel. I'm...kind of ready to bang my head into a blunt object on this issue since, at his request, I respec'd Keldris and was building a DPS PvP set for him, as Ishi was going to train me in the finer points of retribution paladin PvP. That is...completely up in the air now and I'm not sure what to do. I'm still enjoying PvP quite a lot but we have definitely reached the endgame state of PvP where, in randoms, you either stomp or are stomped with little to no excitement in between. Monday night at the randoms was a thoroughly unfun bloodbath in all three Warsong Gulch matches we played though last night I finally had a decent EotS game.
* Ishi's departure also means I will not be doing the Arena Tourney since, at this point, there are only two people in Steadfast interested in doing so and two people cannot a Tourney team make. Yes, I know we could theoretically pick up a third and fourth in training/practice. My performance anxiety, however, hovers rather high when I'm in a team completely surrounded by guildies and I expect that it would be considerably higher in a team comprised by half of not-guildies.
* I can see that the Warlord election is not going to settle anything. At all. The ongoing Raiding Drama isn't making me as insane as the Raiding Drama that attended the end of Wrath -- nothing in the universe could match that and, no, Universe, that isn't an invitation to prove me wrong -- but I'm definitely at the stage where I'm sincerely hoping that MoP drops sooner rather than later just to end this accursed raid tier.
* On the other hand, Meton has returned and brought his friend Amonwen with him from DCUOnline -- and, as it turns out, we've got a bunch of people in guild right now who are interested in running the old raiding content, including them. In the last week or so alone, the mate and I have finally gotten to do both Sunwell Plateau and Serpentshrine Cavern, and tonight will be Blackwing Lair. I admit to deep conflict on the BWL thing because, well, the guy who is raid leading these Old School raiding excursions is a dual spec'd holy/prot paladin who prefers to heal and who is farming the last bits of the Judgment set out of the place. I want the Judgment set like a burning thing but Kel's PvE DPS set is completely nonexistent. Solivar has been getting a workout, DPSing all over the place, off-tanking in Sunwell Plateau, and being the one who insists that we stop to look up strategies on fights that are still, frankly, not face-rollable in 25-Man mode, even with a party of 85s. I'd love to do Ulduar with these guys, because we still lack a guild Heroic Yogg-Saron kill -- the problem being that Yogg-Saron is still one of the hardest fucking boss fights in the game, whatever mode you're fighting him in, and comprehensively and repeatedly spanked us on Normal 10-Man earlier in the year. Also: all the transmog gear that I'd really love for Solivar only drops from Heroic Trial of the Crusader and/or Heroic Ulduar. I have never seen the inside of ICC, not even the five-mans, and I would love to do that with Keldris. It is a thing to ponder.
* On the other hand, breaking my long tradition of playing Alliance toons to 16 and then losing interest in them, I now have not one but two Alliance characters at 20 -- Tygranasia and Aileinn.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/wyrmrest-accord/Tygranasia/simple
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/wyrmrest-accord/Aileinn/simple
* Have been poking the MoP beta with a stick, intermittently, though not anywhere near as much as I probably could/should. Every time I log in, it's packed. I could probably hop on at 2 am and find the pandaren starting area packed with people named after Naruto characters. My machine is not unbeefy in its performance but between the ridiculously high pop even on the PvP server and the more-or-less constant hotfixing of stuff, the latency is almost unplayably high. Still...pretty. So very, very pretty. I took screenshots of the conspicuously beautiful and awesome starting area, even though I didn't get much else accomplished.
* Ishi, our inimitable Marshal, is taking an extended break. Probably not from PvPing, because he's a PvP monster, but from PvPing on Steamwheedle Cartel. I'm...kind of ready to bang my head into a blunt object on this issue since, at his request, I respec'd Keldris and was building a DPS PvP set for him, as Ishi was going to train me in the finer points of retribution paladin PvP. That is...completely up in the air now and I'm not sure what to do. I'm still enjoying PvP quite a lot but we have definitely reached the endgame state of PvP where, in randoms, you either stomp or are stomped with little to no excitement in between. Monday night at the randoms was a thoroughly unfun bloodbath in all three Warsong Gulch matches we played though last night I finally had a decent EotS game.
* Ishi's departure also means I will not be doing the Arena Tourney since, at this point, there are only two people in Steadfast interested in doing so and two people cannot a Tourney team make. Yes, I know we could theoretically pick up a third and fourth in training/practice. My performance anxiety, however, hovers rather high when I'm in a team completely surrounded by guildies and I expect that it would be considerably higher in a team comprised by half of not-guildies.
* I can see that the Warlord election is not going to settle anything. At all. The ongoing Raiding Drama isn't making me as insane as the Raiding Drama that attended the end of Wrath -- nothing in the universe could match that and, no, Universe, that isn't an invitation to prove me wrong -- but I'm definitely at the stage where I'm sincerely hoping that MoP drops sooner rather than later just to end this accursed raid tier.
* On the other hand, Meton has returned and brought his friend Amonwen with him from DCUOnline -- and, as it turns out, we've got a bunch of people in guild right now who are interested in running the old raiding content, including them. In the last week or so alone, the mate and I have finally gotten to do both Sunwell Plateau and Serpentshrine Cavern, and tonight will be Blackwing Lair. I admit to deep conflict on the BWL thing because, well, the guy who is raid leading these Old School raiding excursions is a dual spec'd holy/prot paladin who prefers to heal and who is farming the last bits of the Judgment set out of the place. I want the Judgment set like a burning thing but Kel's PvE DPS set is completely nonexistent. Solivar has been getting a workout, DPSing all over the place, off-tanking in Sunwell Plateau, and being the one who insists that we stop to look up strategies on fights that are still, frankly, not face-rollable in 25-Man mode, even with a party of 85s. I'd love to do Ulduar with these guys, because we still lack a guild Heroic Yogg-Saron kill -- the problem being that Yogg-Saron is still one of the hardest fucking boss fights in the game, whatever mode you're fighting him in, and comprehensively and repeatedly spanked us on Normal 10-Man earlier in the year. Also: all the transmog gear that I'd really love for Solivar only drops from Heroic Trial of the Crusader and/or Heroic Ulduar. I have never seen the inside of ICC, not even the five-mans, and I would love to do that with Keldris. It is a thing to ponder.
* On the other hand, breaking my long tradition of playing Alliance toons to 16 and then losing interest in them, I now have not one but two Alliance characters at 20 -- Tygranasia and Aileinn.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/wyrmrest-accord/Tygranasia/simple
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/wyrmrest-accord/Aileinn/simple
* Have been poking the MoP beta with a stick, intermittently, though not anywhere near as much as I probably could/should. Every time I log in, it's packed. I could probably hop on at 2 am and find the pandaren starting area packed with people named after Naruto characters. My machine is not unbeefy in its performance but between the ridiculously high pop even on the PvP server and the more-or-less constant hotfixing of stuff, the latency is almost unplayably high. Still...pretty. So very, very pretty. I took screenshots of the conspicuously beautiful and awesome starting area, even though I didn't get much else accomplished.