Two weeks ago someone hacked my primary WoW account (I have 3), and sold all my gear to in-game vendors before mailing off all the money from the sale to some unknown destination.
This affected 4 of my characters. My Priest, who is my main character, is the one who's loss hurt me the most. He has equipment that I can not replace because several people left our guild and we can no longer do anything in Blackwing Lair (BWL).
But the expansion is coming out in about 3 weeks, so people tell me to just wait it out and replace my gear with new gear as I level from 60, the current level cap, to 70, the new cap when the expansion comes out in January.
And possibly the worst part of all this is that I have no idea how my password was compromised. The traditional method is to hack the persons computer and install a keylogger that tracks all keystrokes. If that happened, then I could have my RL banking information stolen and my identity stolen. Jokes on them though, I've got nothing to steal.
Anyways, Blizzard was kind enough to send me an e-mail saying it would take 5-7 days to investigate the theft. You see, they have to make sure I didn't sell my gear and mail the money to a friend in game. Then if they restored all my gear they would have been scammed. But they've had almost 3 weeks to investigate now, and it's driving me crazy. Oh well, I just wanted to rant.
2006-12-20
2006-12-05
2006-11-30
I'm starting my own company
With a little prodding from my nephew Ryan, I've decided to start my own company doing web and graphical design. I'm calling it H&H Designs. The name is a tribute to my father's first race car shop: H&H Speed Shop. A few years ago my brother Tom told me that he uses H&H Systems as a fake company name for online questionnaires, so I started using H&H from time to time.
I'll probably post a few logo idea's here and see what the 3 of you that read this page think.
I'll probably post a few logo idea's here and see what the 3 of you that read this page think.
2006-11-17
Onyxia last night
Crap, it's already 04:30. Where does the time go?
Last night our guild ran Onyxia. We called in a few friends that had left the guild in the last big blow-up a few weeks ago. These two left on fairly good terms, but I know that they expected a mass exodous to go with them. Raiding just hasn't been the same since that last blow-up. We were probably a month away from downing the last boss in Black Wing Lair (BWL), and now we can't even finish Molten Core (MC) every week.
Anyways, Onyxia is a gimme, and after 2 failed attempts these two people left, stating that they were out of time. I would have said the same thing, or something similar, and I wouldn't expect anyone to believe it. It really looked like the raid was going to fall apart as even more people left, but we were going to give it one more shot, as hopeless as it may be.
I happened to be on my Mage, because we supposedly had enough healing and wouldn't need my Priest. Well, for this last attempt I decided to 2-box my Mage and Priest. I was doing it almost as a joke, but I figured if my Mage died I could switch to healing and if the Priest died, no big deal. I never planned to be attempting to focus equally on each character in the fight, that's nearly impossible to do during Onyxia.
I totally didn't expect to down her, because once a group fails at something a few times, the spirit of the group is just defeated and typically they can't win at that point. It's human nature, and raiding in WoW can sometimes boil things down to the basics of how we as people function. It becomes less and less about gear and skill, and more a factor of who has the desire and drive to make things happen.
Let me deviate from the story a bit and explain the groups involved in a raid. First, there are the officers, such as myself, who manage everyone and try make things happen. In a raid of 40, we have about 2-4 present. Second, there are the class leaders who are in charge of their specific group, be it Warriors, Priests, Hunters, or whatever. About 5-10 people in each raid are class leaders. And third would be the guild members who are the body of the raid, making up the remainder. Different outcomes depend on the different disposition of the three groups. When the officers lose the ability to lead or even control, things go sour and it's obvious. When the class leaders have lost their drive, it's less obvious, and doesn't lead to failure as surely or as quickly. Also, a few good class leaders can easily make up for the officers shortcomings. And lastly, when the guild members who form the bulk of the raid lose their spirit, it's sometimes difficult to see what exactly is wrong. It's even more difficult to correct this. I still don't have a fool-proof way of picking up the body of our group and getting people to perform. What seems to work one day, will fail the next time. Sometimes it's like herding cats. You get a few immature punks in the group that want to crack jokes nonstop, and soon everyone is screwing around. That's when I play bad cop, and I get mean. Verbal abuse DOES work people. But it has to be used only in extreme cases. If you do it all the time, people disregard your anger as a personality flaw rather than a call for them to correct themselves.
Tonight we had a case of the third group losing it's drive, and we mis-diagnosed it as a class imbalance issue: "Not enough DPS". It wasn't a case where the bad cop could fix it. I definitely didn't know what to do, and that leads me back into my story. I was going to control two different characters, on two different computers, at the same time.
I've done this before, but on my own, when other people weren't affected by my performance. In this case, I was playing my Mage, BigGuyCasts, one of our top 10 DPS characters in a guild of over 350 characters, and I was also controlling my Priest, BigGuyKills, our #1 healer (name is somewhat ironic) in that same raid. Yes, I'm a bit proud of my accomplishment with my Priest, and no, I wouldn't be half of what I am if it weren't for the other people I play with.
So during this third attempt, where practically nobody thought we would succeed, at the end of the battle both of my characters were alive. My Mage was 7th in total damage done, and my Priest was first in total healing (having done 25% of the healing in a group of about 9 healers, the next nearest had done about 16%).
This was a case of the body of the raid losing it's focus, but pulling through at the end. I still don't know exactly how it turned around. My guess is that the two groups of leaders, about 10 of us, took their game up a notch and covered for everyone else who had lost their edge.
Well, I know that none of you really care about all this. I'm just really proud that we were able to recover from 2 failures and end the day on a good note. And I guess I need to look deeper into why these things happen, as well as how to recover better and faster.
Last night our guild ran Onyxia. We called in a few friends that had left the guild in the last big blow-up a few weeks ago. These two left on fairly good terms, but I know that they expected a mass exodous to go with them. Raiding just hasn't been the same since that last blow-up. We were probably a month away from downing the last boss in Black Wing Lair (BWL), and now we can't even finish Molten Core (MC) every week.
Anyways, Onyxia is a gimme, and after 2 failed attempts these two people left, stating that they were out of time. I would have said the same thing, or something similar, and I wouldn't expect anyone to believe it. It really looked like the raid was going to fall apart as even more people left, but we were going to give it one more shot, as hopeless as it may be.
I happened to be on my Mage, because we supposedly had enough healing and wouldn't need my Priest. Well, for this last attempt I decided to 2-box my Mage and Priest. I was doing it almost as a joke, but I figured if my Mage died I could switch to healing and if the Priest died, no big deal. I never planned to be attempting to focus equally on each character in the fight, that's nearly impossible to do during Onyxia.
I totally didn't expect to down her, because once a group fails at something a few times, the spirit of the group is just defeated and typically they can't win at that point. It's human nature, and raiding in WoW can sometimes boil things down to the basics of how we as people function. It becomes less and less about gear and skill, and more a factor of who has the desire and drive to make things happen.
Let me deviate from the story a bit and explain the groups involved in a raid. First, there are the officers, such as myself, who manage everyone and try make things happen. In a raid of 40, we have about 2-4 present. Second, there are the class leaders who are in charge of their specific group, be it Warriors, Priests, Hunters, or whatever. About 5-10 people in each raid are class leaders. And third would be the guild members who are the body of the raid, making up the remainder. Different outcomes depend on the different disposition of the three groups. When the officers lose the ability to lead or even control, things go sour and it's obvious. When the class leaders have lost their drive, it's less obvious, and doesn't lead to failure as surely or as quickly. Also, a few good class leaders can easily make up for the officers shortcomings. And lastly, when the guild members who form the bulk of the raid lose their spirit, it's sometimes difficult to see what exactly is wrong. It's even more difficult to correct this. I still don't have a fool-proof way of picking up the body of our group and getting people to perform. What seems to work one day, will fail the next time. Sometimes it's like herding cats. You get a few immature punks in the group that want to crack jokes nonstop, and soon everyone is screwing around. That's when I play bad cop, and I get mean. Verbal abuse DOES work people. But it has to be used only in extreme cases. If you do it all the time, people disregard your anger as a personality flaw rather than a call for them to correct themselves.
Tonight we had a case of the third group losing it's drive, and we mis-diagnosed it as a class imbalance issue: "Not enough DPS". It wasn't a case where the bad cop could fix it. I definitely didn't know what to do, and that leads me back into my story. I was going to control two different characters, on two different computers, at the same time.
I've done this before, but on my own, when other people weren't affected by my performance. In this case, I was playing my Mage, BigGuyCasts, one of our top 10 DPS characters in a guild of over 350 characters, and I was also controlling my Priest, BigGuyKills, our #1 healer (name is somewhat ironic) in that same raid. Yes, I'm a bit proud of my accomplishment with my Priest, and no, I wouldn't be half of what I am if it weren't for the other people I play with.
So during this third attempt, where practically nobody thought we would succeed, at the end of the battle both of my characters were alive. My Mage was 7th in total damage done, and my Priest was first in total healing (having done 25% of the healing in a group of about 9 healers, the next nearest had done about 16%).
This was a case of the body of the raid losing it's focus, but pulling through at the end. I still don't know exactly how it turned around. My guess is that the two groups of leaders, about 10 of us, took their game up a notch and covered for everyone else who had lost their edge.
Well, I know that none of you really care about all this. I'm just really proud that we were able to recover from 2 failures and end the day on a good note. And I guess I need to look deeper into why these things happen, as well as how to recover better and faster.
2006-11-09
2007-01-16, the day I dissapear
That's the street date for Burning Crusade, the first expansion to World Of Warcraft which lets me level my characters beyond the current cap of 60 to level 70. So you can expect even less than usual from me on that day. I've already pre-ordered it, and splurged for 1 day shipping.
Not sure how I feel about the expansion. People in the beta are saying that the basic drops from the first dungeons are better than some of the more accomplished people's gear. It really leads to a bit of discouragement when you know that "trash drops" form simple instances are going to replace the epic gear that you worked so very hard to get. A lot of people are not playing as much because of this, and my own addiction may even be wavering.
But all this comes from my keyboard a mere 20 seconds after seeing the post on the official website. Excited enough to post so soon after seeing the news, and excited enough to post twice in a day when my two prior posts were over two months apart.
Yeah I know, I make no sense.
Not sure how I feel about the expansion. People in the beta are saying that the basic drops from the first dungeons are better than some of the more accomplished people's gear. It really leads to a bit of discouragement when you know that "trash drops" form simple instances are going to replace the epic gear that you worked so very hard to get. A lot of people are not playing as much because of this, and my own addiction may even be wavering.
But all this comes from my keyboard a mere 20 seconds after seeing the post on the official website. Excited enough to post so soon after seeing the news, and excited enough to post twice in a day when my two prior posts were over two months apart.
Yeah I know, I make no sense.
You probably don't want to read all this
Blah, blah, blah.... I don't want to type in here. So why do I? Bored I guess, maybe I want to make this thing work again like it used to. I think it's good to have a place to thrash out ideas and feelings. That sounded less feminine in my head.
So I'm on my backup PC right now, here's why. A few months ago I had a power outage during a storm. No big deal, the backup PC went down as expected, and my main PC stayed up as expected. So did my internet and a few other things. All this because of the 500VA APC UPS on the floor next to my PC. The UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) is basically a battery that keeps providing power to whatever is plugged into it for as long as that battery has a charge. It also makes sure that the power going through it never spikes up or down. Upward spikes in power are handled with simple electronics that never allow the voltage to exceed a set amount (why do I always try to put two M's in amount?). Downward spikes are handled with capacitance and the aforementioned battery. Anyways, back to the story (I know it's a great story so far, and it's gonna get better folks).
So I finish up some rant about DKP or guild drama or our raiding schedule or whatever happened to be the topic in WoW at the time, and was about to close down my main PC, when the UPS battery ran out of juice and powered off. No big deal, it gave me enough time to finish what I was doing after the power outage, so I was happy. A few hours passed and power came back on. The backup PC cycled on, but the main PC didn't. This is where the story really takes off guys.
So I had a mystery on my hands. Well, mostly I just wanted to not deal with any of this, but I forced myself to. My first thought was that it's the power supply (PSU), motherboard, or CPU. My next thought was that these are all kinda spendy, and I don't want to throw that much money at the problem. So I took out the PSU, and drove to PC Club to have it tested. They said that it was putting out proper voltages, but would need to run a bench test to see if it's putting out enough amps. Well, if it's putting out the right voltages, I'm sure it's fine. I'll just replace the motherboard because that's surely the problem. So I took anther 2k from my 401k, and paid rent, bought groceries, and picked up a new Asus A8N-SLI Premium.
The motherboard got here a few days later and I installed it that day. Hit the power button and NOTHING. I just wanted nothing to do with it at that point. But I knew that most of my bills were paid and that I easily had enough money left over to buy a new PSU, so I drove to CompUSA and bought a new Antec NeoPower 550. I was a little upset that the NeoPower series had switched from 120mm to 80mm fans, but I bought it anyways.
Got home, installed the PSU, and it powered on! I was so relieved. And just in time for Molten Core (MC). WoW was acting a little strange at times. Of course it wasn't the computer's fault, I had that all fixed, right? Well, it turns out that about every few hours, the game completely locks up. I replaced the CPU with the one from my backup PC, and it still faults. I'm at a complete loss as to what this could be. I've replaced EVERYTHING that could be doing this. Except drivers. Seriously, I just realized that as I was typing.
See, not matter how girly it sounds, it IS good to have a place to type out what you are feeling.
So I'm on my backup PC right now, here's why. A few months ago I had a power outage during a storm. No big deal, the backup PC went down as expected, and my main PC stayed up as expected. So did my internet and a few other things. All this because of the 500VA APC UPS on the floor next to my PC. The UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) is basically a battery that keeps providing power to whatever is plugged into it for as long as that battery has a charge. It also makes sure that the power going through it never spikes up or down. Upward spikes in power are handled with simple electronics that never allow the voltage to exceed a set amount (why do I always try to put two M's in amount?). Downward spikes are handled with capacitance and the aforementioned battery. Anyways, back to the story (I know it's a great story so far, and it's gonna get better folks).
So I finish up some rant about DKP or guild drama or our raiding schedule or whatever happened to be the topic in WoW at the time, and was about to close down my main PC, when the UPS battery ran out of juice and powered off. No big deal, it gave me enough time to finish what I was doing after the power outage, so I was happy. A few hours passed and power came back on. The backup PC cycled on, but the main PC didn't. This is where the story really takes off guys.
So I had a mystery on my hands. Well, mostly I just wanted to not deal with any of this, but I forced myself to. My first thought was that it's the power supply (PSU), motherboard, or CPU. My next thought was that these are all kinda spendy, and I don't want to throw that much money at the problem. So I took out the PSU, and drove to PC Club to have it tested. They said that it was putting out proper voltages, but would need to run a bench test to see if it's putting out enough amps. Well, if it's putting out the right voltages, I'm sure it's fine. I'll just replace the motherboard because that's surely the problem. So I took anther 2k from my 401k, and paid rent, bought groceries, and picked up a new Asus A8N-SLI Premium.
The motherboard got here a few days later and I installed it that day. Hit the power button and NOTHING. I just wanted nothing to do with it at that point. But I knew that most of my bills were paid and that I easily had enough money left over to buy a new PSU, so I drove to CompUSA and bought a new Antec NeoPower 550. I was a little upset that the NeoPower series had switched from 120mm to 80mm fans, but I bought it anyways.
Got home, installed the PSU, and it powered on! I was so relieved. And just in time for Molten Core (MC). WoW was acting a little strange at times. Of course it wasn't the computer's fault, I had that all fixed, right? Well, it turns out that about every few hours, the game completely locks up. I replaced the CPU with the one from my backup PC, and it still faults. I'm at a complete loss as to what this could be. I've replaced EVERYTHING that could be doing this. Except drivers. Seriously, I just realized that as I was typing.
See, not matter how girly it sounds, it IS good to have a place to type out what you are feeling.
2006-09-13
NO LA
I'm in New Orleans (NO) Louisiana (LA) visiting Ryan, Ashley, and Jordan. Ryan and Ashley are great, and about the same as you've seen them in the past.
But Jordan is almost an entirely new person! He has such a little personality now. The usual 2 year old traits are there, like shouting "NO!" in defiance whenever Teletubbies or BackYardigans end. And answering "Yes" anytime you ask him if he wants something.
He says "peesh" for please, and has his own flavor of Jackanese where he can talk in complete sentances that seem to make perfect sense to him.
I can't stop smiling as he does most things, and I know that I'm being stupid about it all. It's nothing novel, kids have been this way for centuries, but that's my nephew's son being so traditionally cute. And by traditionally cute, I mean fare more adorable than 99% of the 1-3 year old population of the world. I have higher standards than most.
This weekend we are going to walk the French quarter with him one night, which I guess is a lot of fun for him, and all the partiers walking around in the past just adore the kid. I'll get a few pictures and try to post them here.
But Jordan is almost an entirely new person! He has such a little personality now. The usual 2 year old traits are there, like shouting "NO!" in defiance whenever Teletubbies or BackYardigans end. And answering "Yes" anytime you ask him if he wants something.
He says "peesh" for please, and has his own flavor of Jackanese where he can talk in complete sentances that seem to make perfect sense to him.
I can't stop smiling as he does most things, and I know that I'm being stupid about it all. It's nothing novel, kids have been this way for centuries, but that's my nephew's son being so traditionally cute. And by traditionally cute, I mean fare more adorable than 99% of the 1-3 year old population of the world. I have higher standards than most.
This weekend we are going to walk the French quarter with him one night, which I guess is a lot of fun for him, and all the partiers walking around in the past just adore the kid. I'll get a few pictures and try to post them here.
2006-08-21
2006-05-01
Been a long time
Sorry for ignoring this blog for so long, but a lot have been going on.
I've been looking for a house over the last few months and not having a lot of luck. This is compounded by my work schedule which is from 10-6, and does not have a lunch hour. This means I have no time in the middle of the day to go look at houses. So I was only able to go looking on Saturdays. And when you find a house in Utah, it's got an offer on it within 1-3 days.
And then, my company went through some major changes. WCGS was owned by 3 equal partners, but is now down to 2 partners. The 3rd was "let go" by the other 2. Problem is, that partner was the only other employee in Utah, so what do we now do with the one remaining Utah employee? Yeah, I was thinking that I'd be out of a job, but it doesn't look that bad just yet.
Then I went to NY for 2 weeks to work from there while there was a lot going on. That was good for visibility reasons I guess. One of the partners has an "out of sight, out of mind" kink of mentality. While in NY, we decided to close the Utah office and have me work from home. So that's what I'm doing now.
I've been looking for a house over the last few months and not having a lot of luck. This is compounded by my work schedule which is from 10-6, and does not have a lunch hour. This means I have no time in the middle of the day to go look at houses. So I was only able to go looking on Saturdays. And when you find a house in Utah, it's got an offer on it within 1-3 days.
And then, my company went through some major changes. WCGS was owned by 3 equal partners, but is now down to 2 partners. The 3rd was "let go" by the other 2. Problem is, that partner was the only other employee in Utah, so what do we now do with the one remaining Utah employee? Yeah, I was thinking that I'd be out of a job, but it doesn't look that bad just yet.
Then I went to NY for 2 weeks to work from there while there was a lot going on. That was good for visibility reasons I guess. One of the partners has an "out of sight, out of mind" kink of mentality. While in NY, we decided to close the Utah office and have me work from home. So that's what I'm doing now.
2006-04-23
BigGuyWhoKills
A friend of mine (from WoW) designed a shirt for Threadless.com and it's being voted on. If you would like to see it, follow the link:
Threadless.com has a bunch of really cool t-shirts, and even more really odd shirts. Every now and then you'll find one you like more than anything in your closet. I used "you" in that sentance, because my closet pwns all your closets combined. But even I will sometimes find a new shirt there.
Threadless.com has a bunch of really cool t-shirts, and even more really odd shirts. Every now and then you'll find one you like more than anything in your closet. I used "you" in that sentance, because my closet pwns all your closets combined. But even I will sometimes find a new shirt there.
2006-04-20
Work trip
So I'm in NY for 2 weeks. All I can think about is how much World Of Warcraft I'm missing.
Last week we defeated Majordomo Executus and opened the Cache of the Firelord, where I got the Eye Of Divinity, one of the requirements in the quest for Benediction! Benediction is the premiere healing staff in WoW, and I now have it. In fact I'm the only person in my guild of over 400 people to have this. And it's sitting there, not being used.
On the plus side, I might be able to meet up with some of my guild members while out here (if I'm not too busy). Keep your fingers crossed.
Last week we defeated Majordomo Executus and opened the Cache of the Firelord, where I got the Eye Of Divinity, one of the requirements in the quest for Benediction! Benediction is the premiere healing staff in WoW, and I now have it. In fact I'm the only person in my guild of over 400 people to have this. And it's sitting there, not being used.
On the plus side, I might be able to meet up with some of my guild members while out here (if I'm not too busy). Keep your fingers crossed.
2006-04-04
An interesting date
On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
That won't ever happen again (in our lifetime).
That won't ever happen again (in our lifetime).
2006-03-20
Why do I bother to title these when they're all about Warcraft?
Well, you'll be happy to know that we've defeated the first 6 bosses in Molten Core. The last 4 we took down on our second attempt on each of them. That's a sign that we work well together. Most groups can't do that much that fast, so I'm very proud of our team. Getting 40 people, most of whom have never met one another, from diverse backgrounds, to all work together towards a common goal is a real chore. A lot of our leader's time is spent dealing with drama amongst the various players. But we now have crossed some threshold.
It all goes back to Lucifron, the first boss of MC. We wiped on every attempt during the first run, and gave up eventually. On the second run, we figured it out on our third attempt, and we haven't wiped on Luci since. We had some minor problems on Magmadar, but we got it on what was surely our last attempt for that day. From there on out, we have defeated every subsequent boss on our second attempt.
And so far I haven't missed out on a DKP yielding kill yet. Here's our current DKP standing (which should always show the current listing and will change this Wednesday). DKP stands for Dragon Kill Points, and it's an old Everquest method of making sure that everyone gets a fair shot at the awesome rewards given after every boss kill. Since each boss kill drops about 2-5 very nice items, not everyone is going to get something. To make sure that nobody get's too far ahead of the rest of the group, each item is given a point value, and all the points from all the drops are added up, and divided by the number of participants. So if a item worth 40 DKP drops and there are 40 people, each person gets 1 point. And if you want that item, you have to "spend" DKP in order to get it. Obviously we allow people to go into negative DKP, otherwise nobody could get anything on the first few runs.
That's it for now. This week we hope to finish the last 2 bosses before Majordomo Executus. Wish us luck.
It all goes back to Lucifron, the first boss of MC. We wiped on every attempt during the first run, and gave up eventually. On the second run, we figured it out on our third attempt, and we haven't wiped on Luci since. We had some minor problems on Magmadar, but we got it on what was surely our last attempt for that day. From there on out, we have defeated every subsequent boss on our second attempt.
And so far I haven't missed out on a DKP yielding kill yet. Here's our current DKP standing (which should always show the current listing and will change this Wednesday). DKP stands for Dragon Kill Points, and it's an old Everquest method of making sure that everyone gets a fair shot at the awesome rewards given after every boss kill. Since each boss kill drops about 2-5 very nice items, not everyone is going to get something. To make sure that nobody get's too far ahead of the rest of the group, each item is given a point value, and all the points from all the drops are added up, and divided by the number of participants. So if a item worth 40 DKP drops and there are 40 people, each person gets 1 point. And if you want that item, you have to "spend" DKP in order to get it. Obviously we allow people to go into negative DKP, otherwise nobody could get anything on the first few runs.
That's it for now. This week we hope to finish the last 2 bosses before Majordomo Executus. Wish us luck.
2006-03-02
Lucifron got OMGWTFBBQPWNED!
We downed Lucifron! 39 of my good friends and I went to Molten Core (MC) last night and proceeded to terrorize Ancient Core Hounds, Lava Surgers, and all sorts of magma related bad guys. This was our second real attempt at Lucifron, the first of 9 bosses in MC.
We picked up 3 pieces of epic gear, none of which was useful to me, but I hope to get something on our next run. I was Main Healer (MH) for this run, which means I am responsible for keeping the Main Tank (MT) alive throughout the fight. And I did a very good job, if I do say so myself. The MT is the one person designated to be the punching bag, and usually has the best armor. If the MT dies, we might as well sit down and let the big monster feast on us.
We had our first Onyxia run a week before last Sunday, and though we failed to bring her down, we did get to phase 3 without her taking a single deep breath. Tomorrow we will try again.
For those of you that don't play World Of Warcraft, Onyxia is a very powerful dragon. The Onyxia fight requires 40 people (traditionally), and has 3 stages. In stage 2 she takes to the air and has a particularly devastating flame attack that does a lot of damage over a very large area. You know that this attack is coming when the game tells you that Onyxia is taking a very deep breath. Her fire breath can wipe out 1/3 of your 40 person group. The key to avoiding the flame breath is to keep spaced out so as to not present a group target for her, and to bring her down to 40% health quickly, which is when she lands and goes berserk on everyone. That's when it gets tough. From what I understand, she goes even more loco at about 7% health. I hope we get to see that tomorrow night.
We picked up 3 pieces of epic gear, none of which was useful to me, but I hope to get something on our next run. I was Main Healer (MH) for this run, which means I am responsible for keeping the Main Tank (MT) alive throughout the fight. And I did a very good job, if I do say so myself. The MT is the one person designated to be the punching bag, and usually has the best armor. If the MT dies, we might as well sit down and let the big monster feast on us.
We had our first Onyxia run a week before last Sunday, and though we failed to bring her down, we did get to phase 3 without her taking a single deep breath. Tomorrow we will try again.
For those of you that don't play World Of Warcraft, Onyxia is a very powerful dragon. The Onyxia fight requires 40 people (traditionally), and has 3 stages. In stage 2 she takes to the air and has a particularly devastating flame attack that does a lot of damage over a very large area. You know that this attack is coming when the game tells you that Onyxia is taking a very deep breath. Her fire breath can wipe out 1/3 of your 40 person group. The key to avoiding the flame breath is to keep spaced out so as to not present a group target for her, and to bring her down to 40% health quickly, which is when she lands and goes berserk on everyone. That's when it gets tough. From what I understand, she goes even more loco at about 7% health. I hope we get to see that tomorrow night.
2006-02-28
Home on the range
I was approved for a home loan today! I could have something picked out this week.
But don't worry, this will NOT affect my adventures in World Of Warcraft for the worse.
But don't worry, this will NOT affect my adventures in World Of Warcraft for the worse.
2006-02-06
WoW - Part 10^35
Just a preface, I'm not commenting on any one person here. This is an observation that I've noticed over the past 12 months of playing World Of Warcraft.
Why is it that almost everyone (who doesn't play) listens to my fanaticism with more of a "golly, you're hardcore, and kinda nerdy"? It's as if people presume that it's ME, or my personality, that takes this to the extreme. Why does nearly everyone make judgments about it without even trying it? I rarely find people that approach this in a more logical way: "With so many people so addicted to the game, maybe the game is exceptional. Maybe it's even something that I'd like as well." I've met maybe 3 people that started with the presumption that I am normal and that it's the game that is worth this devotion. Sure, I proved that theory wrong in the end, but it was nice that they gave me the benefit of the doubt.
FYI, it was Blizzcon where I shed all concern over what people think about my WoW habits. So comment however you like. In the end, I really feel sorry for people that don't play. Most of you have no idea of what you are missing.
Why is it that almost everyone (who doesn't play) listens to my fanaticism with more of a "golly, you're hardcore, and kinda nerdy"? It's as if people presume that it's ME, or my personality, that takes this to the extreme. Why does nearly everyone make judgments about it without even trying it? I rarely find people that approach this in a more logical way: "With so many people so addicted to the game, maybe the game is exceptional. Maybe it's even something that I'd like as well." I've met maybe 3 people that started with the presumption that I am normal and that it's the game that is worth this devotion. Sure, I proved that theory wrong in the end, but it was nice that they gave me the benefit of the doubt.
FYI, it was Blizzcon where I shed all concern over what people think about my WoW habits. So comment however you like. In the end, I really feel sorry for people that don't play. Most of you have no idea of what you are missing.
2006-01-26
More bad driving
In the comments to my blog about how to drive part 1, a few of you mentioned how bad some drivers are. Claire said that South Western drivers are the worst. I've heard that Southern drivers in general are the worst. I can't say for sure because I've never spent much time in those areas, but I thought I'd blog about what I know.
The worst drivers that I've experienced were in Rhode Island. And the strange thing is, the driving goes back to normal the second you cross the state line. The bad driving doesn't leak over to Connecticut of Massachusets. I've never understood why this is.
Some of the more memorable RI maneuvers:
The Rhode Island Snake - When waiting in the left turn lane at an intersection without a turn arrow, gun it as soon as the light changes, and cut off the oncoming traffic as you make your left turn. They've got brakes, don't worry about it. But you alone do not make up the snake, it's the 3-7 cars behind you that follow in your wake that complete the "Rhode Island Snake". The snake can only be broken by a car with a CT or MA license plate.
The Rhode Island Crawl - Say you want to turn right onto a main road, but traffic doesn't have a gap large enough for you to merge into safely. What do you do? Slowly crawl your car out onto the main road to the point that traffic has to barely swerve to miss you. After a few cars, you will see someone slow down slightly because they are unaware of what you intend to do (or maybe they know and respect the Rhode Island Crawl). When you see them slow down, nudge out a bit more and watch them slow down more. After 2-4 nudges, you will have oncoming traffic slow enough that you can gun it to make it in. Of course by this time you are also blocking enough of the road that people will have to face oncoming traffic to get around you. And those cowards aren't gonna do that!
I often wanted to spend a day at an intersection with a camcorder. I'm convinced that in a 5 hour span you could record at least one accident, and 20+ near misses. As you drive around any major RI city, you are bound to see a few accidents each day. Such is the life of the Rhode Island motorist.
The worst drivers that I've experienced were in Rhode Island. And the strange thing is, the driving goes back to normal the second you cross the state line. The bad driving doesn't leak over to Connecticut of Massachusets. I've never understood why this is.
Some of the more memorable RI maneuvers:
The Rhode Island Snake - When waiting in the left turn lane at an intersection without a turn arrow, gun it as soon as the light changes, and cut off the oncoming traffic as you make your left turn. They've got brakes, don't worry about it. But you alone do not make up the snake, it's the 3-7 cars behind you that follow in your wake that complete the "Rhode Island Snake". The snake can only be broken by a car with a CT or MA license plate.
The Rhode Island Crawl - Say you want to turn right onto a main road, but traffic doesn't have a gap large enough for you to merge into safely. What do you do? Slowly crawl your car out onto the main road to the point that traffic has to barely swerve to miss you. After a few cars, you will see someone slow down slightly because they are unaware of what you intend to do (or maybe they know and respect the Rhode Island Crawl). When you see them slow down, nudge out a bit more and watch them slow down more. After 2-4 nudges, you will have oncoming traffic slow enough that you can gun it to make it in. Of course by this time you are also blocking enough of the road that people will have to face oncoming traffic to get around you. And those cowards aren't gonna do that!
I often wanted to spend a day at an intersection with a camcorder. I'm convinced that in a 5 hour span you could record at least one accident, and 20+ near misses. As you drive around any major RI city, you are bound to see a few accidents each day. Such is the life of the Rhode Island motorist.
2006-01-19
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