Misdirected

Back into my old blue jeans

2011-12-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

A few days in and it is almost as if I never left. There is a certain comfort to returning after a long absence to any past-time - a feeling like slipping into that one pair of jeans that you are not sure you can get into to anymore, only to discover that they are perfectly comfortable.

Thus has been my return to LotRO. While I do have a few toons up in level 40-land, I realized that I would have a heck of a learning curve figuring out what everything did on any of them, so I just started a new identity. Shortly thereafter, Hawkwynde the Guardian was born (Hawkwind being unavailable, darn the luck). I went tank-y, to give myself the maximum chance of survival as I reacquainted myself with the game, controls, etc. I also went Twink-y, getting a full setup of gear from my already existing Armorsmith and Weaponsmith to cover development from birth to level 20. After all, why not, right?

And, we are now at level 21 - just having finished the Great Barrow quest at the end of Volume 1, Book 1. I still stop to stare at some of the graphics within the game frequently - the sense of immersion with Tolkien's world is overwhelming at times. I have read quite a bit of commentary speculating about the ongoing popularity of the game with the general public, but firmly believe that there is nowhere else to be for Tolkien fanboys and girls.

I have sort of made up my mind to follow the Epic story-line this time through, something Lor and I never did since we have the collective attention span of an epileptic squirrel. An awesome guide to following the Epic story line exists at Casual Stroll to Mordor which I will attempt to follow along with more or less. It is a little sad to be MMO-ing without Lor as my sidekick, but since I intend to take over ALL of her free time the minute Diablo 3 comes out, I can cut her some slack for now. Onward to Volume 1, Book 2 - a desperate fight upon Weathertop...

Cheers,

- Hawk

Once More Off The Wagon

2011-12-13T10:20:00.001-08:00

Once again, and this time permanently, I think, the WoW experiment has ended. We suspended our accounts again in September due to household finance issues, with the vague idea that we would fire things up again during or after the holidays.

Then, the announcement came - World of Warcraft's next expansion was going to be...Mists of Pandaria. Really? I mean, REALLY? WoW has lost a couple million subscribers, so the newest idea is to capture that ever so important 6-10 year old demographic. Kung Fu Pandas. Unbelievable. Lor and I looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to wait for Diablo 3 to come out. Not another dime to be spent on WoW, now that we can see where the road is headed.

Now, Lor is good at not MMO-ing. She runs a successful business, has friends, a real life, etc. - AND she is good at Facebook gaming. Me, not so much. Tons of empty time in my not-a-real-life. I thereby threw myself wholeheartedly into XBox-ing. Arkham Asylum and Skyrim would surely fill my empty hours, yes?

Then the television bit the dust.

Now, in a fixed-income household where $15 a month is a serious consideration from month to month, television repair is just NOT going to happen without a whole lot of planning. Which has left me with books, Facebook gaming, and long empty silences in which I may contemplate my navel.

I lasted almost 2 months. Then, 3 days ago, I dusted off my Lord of the Rings Online account. I apparently am not able to live without MMOing. And LotRO is mostly free to play, so surely I can amuse myself long enough for something else to come up, right?

Wish me luck,

- Hawk

(Currently playing Hawkwynde on the Silverlode server)

The Rift between WoW and I

2011-08-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

Another day, another bleary-eyed blog post. After staying up WAY too late last night at the ball park watching our Albuquerque Isotopes obliterate the Tacoma Rainiers 20-7, I find myself sullenly staring at the WoW icon on my desk, daring it to come to life without me.

The problem is simple - discontent with existing content. I want new and shiny things to look at, cool new mechanics, epic new interactions with a group of friends. I am normally able to just keep pushing onward through these feelings, but I made a grave error last week - I downloaded the Rift 7-day trial. And that glorious experience has now pushed me over the edge into "oh-god-not-another-fishing-daily" land in WoW.

Rift is really, intensely, cool. It has excellent graphics. The story isn't really all that just yet, but what story is when it is being introduced? And the character mechanics are nothing short of awesome. 4 base classes, with 9 variants to each, out of which you can be picking and choosing talent from 3 talent trees at any given time. It is a total blow for all of us who have learned to loathe min/maxing in WoW, even as we are forced to embrace it if we want to push forward into "srs bzness" raid content.

An example - take a rogue-type character, with deadly marksman skills. Add a pet to it. Then, use the pet to tie up an enemy whilst lobbing sticky explosives at the enemy which are then detonated all at once. This is an example of a Marksman/Ranger/Saboteur setup in Rift - it is not unlike eating at the PC-All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet, add whatever the heck you want, then figure out how to make it all work.

And the PvP...oh, my, yes - the PvP. As a long-time hater of the Warsong Gulch Honor Farm, I was totally blown away by the simplicity of Rift's low-end PvP arena's solution - take capture the flag, and then add a pretty fast Damage over Time effect to the item being carried.

Yes, you read that right - in Rift the flag kills your ass. No more putting the flag on the strongest toon, guarded by the best healer, and then let the painful 1/2 hour of HK farming begin. Nope, in Rift it is a constant cycle of death-by-flag, followed by pickups or returns to center. A gloriously simple and effective mechanic.

Oh, and the RIFTS...a random hole in the space-time continuum opens up in front of you. Bad juju starts pouring out. Not only you, but everyone in your immediate area are drawn into battle with these creatures as you go through 3 round of trying to get the Rift closed, plus possibly another couple of bonus rounds if you did the first 3 fast enough. Some are small enough to involve only a couple of people in the immediate area. Some are large enough to turn into instant Raid-like events, where you are required to defend 4 different bases spread out across a zone, while also killing of 50-some critters (at a minimum), as your team tries to shut down 15 Rifts...the scope is amazing. A Raid without having to wait for a freakin' Raid group to form. And the loot aint bad, either.

After some experimentation, I finally settled on a Melee Cleric with hand-to-hand combat triggered healing abilities. Kinda fun not being able to heal seriously until you have smacked a few critters in the face. I went through a few quests, closed several Rifts, did a couple of the afore-mentioned world events...then hit level 15, and quit playing.

Why? I think you can see why. If I went any further, I wouldn't have been able to stop. If Rift wasn't subscription based, this might not have been a problem, but since it is, I had to choose. So, I chose WoW - where my wife and my barely-breathing guild are located. This is life - a world of hard, hard choices.

Since I was having such a good time with Rift's PvP, I have hauled Lor and I into WoW PvP full-steam. It isn't Rift, but it is something that isn't the same old dailies. Hopefully this will pass, and I will eventually fall back into my love affair with the cartoony graphics and silly atmosphere that is WoW. But I will probably always look back fondly on these lazy summer days, that glorious, free week spent in the land of something new and shiny...

Adieu, Rift.

Cheers,

- Hawk

The Long and Winding Road

2011-07-29T08:34:00.001-07:00

The Bullcephalus leveling experiment is officially over. For those keeping score at home, he reached level 75 earlier today at 2 days, 16 hours of /played time.

I had originally intended to push him all the way up to 80, but a couple of things convinced me otherwise. First, it became apparent that unless I just left him sitting alone unsupervised for hours on end, Bull was going to wind up hitting 80 right around 3 days, 2-4 hours time invested. This so far exceeds my wildest expectations that I was no longer terrifically concerned about proving anything else to myself. Secondly, with the permanent retirement of Threbek earlier this month, I was in desperate need of a different toon to carry the burden of Inscription duties for us, which is such a time sink that I could not in good conscience say I was pursuing both goals at the same time. I also was really, really wanting to start ducking Bull into an instance or three - something I have been unable to do as long as he has been power-leveling.

So, why have these last few hours/levels taken weeks to complete? As our guild population had fallen once again to just Loralia and myself due to vacations and other assorted time sinks, Lor hauled me kicking and screaming over to a different server to try her hands at something completely out of left field: A Gnome Mage. Lor has always been extremely anti-Alliance, feeling that the Alliance side of the game gets way too many advantages and easier quest chains. I can't totally disagree with her, but she was determined to push through at least to level 40 or so, to really experience that half of the game. Hence "Bangle", her level 40-ish Mage, has taken up the majority of her time. Keeping her company, I also tried an unusual toon combo - a Night Elf Druid tank.

Her experiment succeeded, mine failed. She loves her little Mage, I hate my gigantic Bear. So, as usual, I am running another couple of alts, trying to get into the swing of the whole Ally thing until Fortuna comes back to life. With Bull now at the end of his power-leveling journey, I will probably also spend some time running instances and picking flowers as well. I also look forward to hauling my Tauren Shammie through some PvP and grabbing some gear, in order to attempt to reclaim that feeling of Powerful Awesomeness that started this whole process in the first place!

Cheers,

- Hawk (Currently leveling Bullcephalus)

North to Northrend...a?

2011-07-10T05:57:00.001-07:00

(With apologies to Johnny Horton's "North to Alaska" :-)

With 2 days, 2 hours and 33 minutes /played time, Bullcephalus has exited Outland and made Warsong Hold his home. I would like to think I could have made up the 2 hours and 33 mintues somewhere, but given that gathering professions now also give XP I can't really come up with any clear ideas on where I might have moved things along faster. It isn't a huge deal, I just like round numbers :-)

The idea that this far into the leveling process our average time per level is still close to 3/4 of an hour is astonishing to me. Most of the levels in Outland took 2 hours or less to complete. I departed Hellfire Penisula at level 61, completed all the quests I could in Zangarmarsh, getting up to level 64 in the process, spent about 3 hours in Terrokar getting to 65, then cleared everything but the group quests in Nagrand - resulting in exactly level 68 as I turned in the final Nesingwary's quests involving multiple critters. No time at all was spent on group quests or instances, with the sole exception being the "pity-instance" granted me back at level 57 by Pheydra.

Northrend promises to be a challenge. When I was power-leveling Bullcephauls 1.0, I recollect that no matter what I did I was unable to manage less than about 4 hours per level. That would indicate a benchmark of 36 hours to get get to level 80, or a total goal of 3 days, 14 hours of /played time to get to 80. Let's see if I can get it done!!

Cheers,

- Hawk

The Bullcephalus Report, Part 2

2011-07-05T02:31:00.000-07:00

As I had expected, I ran into the wall of slowed leveling as I entered the Outland at level 57, having completed Winterspring and being unwilling to run all around the Blasted Lands in endless, Ogre-hunting circles. At an hour and 50% into level 57, Lor took pity on me and hopped on her Rogue, Pheydra, and ran me through Hellfire Ramparts once. That was enough to get me over the hump to level 58, and into the opening quest chain for the Thrallmar quest hub. Once that occurred, I was able to restore a more regular rhythm of about 1 level per hour.

As things stand today, Bull is at level 60, with only 1 day and 13 hours /played time invested. Not bad for a toon created one week ago.

Further updates will follow as I attempt to plow through the Burning Crusade and into Northrend. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

- Hawk

Fly Me to the Moon

2011-07-03T05:12:00.000-07:00

Meet Bullcephalus 2.0. 72 hours ago, he didn't exist.

The story is sorta like this: during a random rolling restart this week, I happened to hop over to the Elune server to take a look at my other stable of characters. And there, in all his ilevel 232 glory, was my original Bullcephalus: 1.0 if you will. He was big, he was bad, and until the release of Cataclysm he was the most powerful toon I had by a long shot. And he was also much cooler than the rest of my stable...what with the black armor with rivulets of molten lava cracking through and all that. Nothing I had currently even came close to his aesthetic appeal.

And I was tempted. Sorely tempted to whip out the debit card and spend another $25 I really don't have in order to transfer him back over to Mok'Nathal from whence he had originated. I was reaching for my wallet when a more simple idea hit me...

After all, Lor was rebuilding Loralia on Mok'Nathal rather than transfering her, right? So I, too, would just rebuild Bull from the ground up. Make him stronger, faster, etc. And should he, at some unimaginable point in the distant future, catch up with Threbek, I would simply use Bull instead and blow Threb away, freeing up a valuable character space rather than trying to play two Shamans at the same time.

Now, keep your eye on that whole "distant future" thing. I hopped on Urfeck, used some of his honor points to buy a set of Heirloom shoulder armor to get the ball rolling for Bull 2.0, and away I went. I also enrolled him in Fortuna, not really understanding what that was going to mean.

You see, Fortuna is a level 7 guild. Which means we get a 10% bonus to XP among our many other benefits. Bull was also getting a 10% bonus to XP from wearing the heirloom armor. And oh, also, it was during Midsummer Festival - which meant if I was willing to whirl around like a top for 60 seconds every hour or so I could get another 10% bonus for anything I might kill out in the world. All told, Bull started his life with a 30% bonus to XP.

And boy, did that make a difference. 3 Real World days and/or 27 hours of /played time later my replacement shammie is at level 50. This kind of leveling speed is totally unheard of, at least it used to be. Once upon a time, getting to level 60 in anything under 8 days /played time was a huge accomplishment. As it is, I am so far averaging a half hour per level. This is fast enough to give you motion sickness. I have forgone instances, with the exception of Deadmines very early in my career before I knew what was really going on. I have blown through entire zones in under 2 hours. The leveling is so fast that travel speed to and from my trainer is the major bottleneck. I am now only getting trained every 5 levels or so - only when it is convenient.

Now, though, the real work begins - in a few short levels I will be entering the Outlands, where leveling speed used to go to die. Incidentally this is where Spirit and Loralia are right now, after months of real world time invested, not to mention over 4 days /played to get to level 60. Can Bull maintain any kind of real momentum here? Dare I dream of exiting the Outlands at level 68 with somewhere around 2 days /played time? Most insanely of all, could I actually get to level 80, Cataclysm ready, in 3 days /played time??? Stay tuned!

Cheers,

- Hawk

Recount is the Devil

2011-06-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Update: 28 hours after the update, Recount was patched into a functional status.

After a lovely morning of waiting impatiently for the new patch to show up, I finally logged on only to find the game totally unplayable. We're talking 5.0 fps wandering around Origami, and a lovely 0.5 fps trying combat - I would get freeze frames of combat animations every little bit, and just had to hope for the best.

Well, after a patch the usual culprits are add-ons, so I disabled everyone. Sure enough, lag stabilized at 25fps in city/15 or so in combat. Still not great, but manageable. I then began the thankless task of turning on and off every single add-on in my considerable stable trying to narrow down the culprits. Lo and behold, nearly at the end of the list thanks to alphabetical order, I found our demon-child: Recount.

Turning Recount on made the game unplayable. Turning Recount off and activating all other add-ons left me at a comfortable 25fps in combat, which raises some interesting questions as to why I was performing worse without my other add-ons.

The final verdict - until a stable update is released, you'll have to live without your ePeen measuring stick of DPS, provided you actually want the game to work. Hopefully a repair will be out soon.

Cheers!

- Hawk (currently hanging around on Hawkwind, trying to figure out what to do next)

"My" First Single

2011-06-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

(Not WoW related)

From 1998 till 2003, I was lucky enough to be part of one of Albuquerque's premier cover bands - Graceless Age. We spent 5 years practicing, drinking to excess, and playing the local club and casino circuit. Those years were some of the happiest times of my life.

Now, we were broken up into two little "camps" - 2 of us were song-writers, and 3 of us were dedicated performing musicians. This created some confusion as we would tend to argue about the band's focus over and over again, with 3 professional musicians wanting to continue playing covers and making money, and 2 of us wanting to pursue our artistic integrity and starve to death. Back and forth we went, and finally, in 2002, we cut a 4-song CD of original material. I think we sold 5 copies, sent out 20 or so in press kits, and that was the end of it. The band broke up in 2003, never to resume operation.

Why all this lengthy lead-in? It turns out one of the singles we recorded, "Eternally", was uploaded to Myspace Music at some point in 2004. This song was one I wrote back in 1990(!!!) as a Christmas present to my wife. In the intervening years, Myspace Music has apparently streamed the song a whopping 64 times :-) So, I did what any author would do - I jumped through the appropriate hoops, demonstrated my ownership of the original copyright, and now, without further long-winded ado, the song is available on iTunes! Just search for "Jeremy Schofield" on iTunes, and it is (currently) the sole song that will pop up.

The song is posted under my name, as I was the sole songwriter, but all of us in Graceless Age were the folks who turned it into an 80's Hair-Metal ballad. Feel free to preview it, and if it seems like your thing - cough up the 99 cents to make a copy all yours. More recent material will be coming soon to iTunes, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity :-) Enjoy!

- T.J. Schofield

Finally!

2011-06-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Normally, this would be the Weekly Status Report, but it is pretty obvious what I have been doing all week :-) I spent the majority of Urfeck's time in PvP and Archaeology, but as soon as Twilight Highlands opened up I zoomed over there to check out all the cool dragon vs. dragon action. I must admit I was disappointed that after all the dragons I rode there, I didn't get to keep a one of them. Seems rather selfish on the part of the Red Dragonflight.

The VERY first thing I did at 85 was head over to the Honor vendor and buy the level 85 PvP leggings, to get rid of the horrible short pants he was wearing in the picture above. Why any self-respecting Orc would want to look like Angus Young is beyond me. After my first adventure in Tol Barad I had enough Honor to also pick up the gauntlets, so I now have the big Resiliency buff from the 2-piece bonus. I also found out that I have lots to learn about level 85 PvP, as I kept getting my head handed to me on a regular basis. Like they say - the game begins at 85.

Our other major accomplishment for the week was getting our guild, Fortuna, up to level 7. It may not sound like much, but since we turned level 6 there have only been 3 of us on - Docktah, Pheydra and myself. Everyone else is suffering from Summertime WoW Syndrome - i.e. "Let's go see what the real world looks like!" But with 3 of us plugging away, we have managed to drag the guild onward and upward. Things will pick up come September, when everyone gets bored with being outside in the fresh air and all that.

Our next major foci (nice word, huh?) will be getting Threbek and Pheydra over the hump into 80-land, and continuing to work on our Worgen duo when we are in the mood for Sugar Coated Alliance Snacks. Meanwhile, Urf will continue getting his head beat in while trying to put together a basic set of PvP gear. Sounds like a full week ahead!

Cheers,

- Hawk (currently leveling Urfeck)

What does it cost you?

2011-06-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I took my trusty Enhancement Shaman, Threbek, and converted him over to Elemental. I figured level 75 was the right time to do this, to start getting him in the Ranged DPS groove, as well as begin gearing him up with various reputation rewards to start the climb to level 85. I was sad to see my spirit puppies go away, but I figured the upswing in DPS would more than make up for it, right?

As with many things in life, the answer was both yes, and no.

After my conversion to Elemental, I began using the LFG tool so I could get into practice. And, sure enough, my DPS went from my melee-centric 1200 damage per second up to a whopping 1700. Wow, nearly a 30% increase!! This should have been totally exciting!!

But I was bored. Bored silly. Bored stupid, even. It fell into a 3-button rotation, watching for a single DOT to fall off my target so I could renew it. And, that was it. Throw Lightning Bolts to fill in the blank spaces. Mind-numbing. I felt like I could have been watching television at the same time with no appreciable decline in my efficiency.

Now, before any other Elemental Shammies get offended, let me explain the OTHER problem. 7 times I entered the LFG tool. 7 times I was sent to Drak'Tharon Keep. Don't know what the deal with THAT was, but between the simplified rotation and the same instance over and over again, I was ready to go play Farmville or watch Sesame Street or something. And, after a couple days of this, it dawned on me: I was violating the very rule I quote to every single person who plays this game: "Do what YOU think is fun." All in the name of a (substantial, admittedly) DPS increase. So, I had to ask the question - what is this DPS costing me, really?

I had been sucked into the numbers game. And this at level 75-76, nowhere near needing to focus on keeping 9 or 24 other people plugged in and moving a raid along. Just doing it for the sake of a bigger number in Recount.

Needless to say, I have gone back to my Enhancement spec - all glorious 1300 DPS of it (gear upgrades :-). And I am once again really enjoying myself. I have learned my lesson, for now.

What are YOU doing just for the sake of doing it, rather than for the sake of enjoyment?

Cheers,

- Hawk

Currently leveling: Threbek

The Saturday Progress Report - 6/11/2011

2011-06-11T19:05:00.001-07:00

So, where were we? Ah, yes...progress reports.

Hawkwind: Hawk, Hawk, Hawk...you were supposed to be the guy I was totally focused on the minute I installed Cataclysm. Instead you are getting to do occasional fishing and cooking dailies. Part of this has to do with patience - I am kinda waiting for Lor's Rogue alt Pheydra to catch up so we can start running all the new material together. But, let's be honest - the main reason I am not power-leveling my Tankadin is for fear of tanking all these shiny new instances that I know nothing about. I could make myself real unpopular in a hurry, you know what I am saying? So, instead, I have been spending some time on...

Urfeck: Mr. Old Reliable himself. He skins, he flies, he runs some stuff in Deepholm and now he does Archaeology! That has been a major time sink and XP fount so far. I may go so far as to do the majority of his leveling via Arch XP alone, I have been digging (hah, get it?) the lore tie-ins through all the dig sites. And, lest we forget, there is...

Threbek: There is a reason that Bullcephalus became my main back on the Elune server: because Ele Shamans are some of the most powerful toons out there, DPS-wise. I made the conversion at level 75, tearfully bidding my Enhancement puppies goodbye, and have settled into the land of 3 shot kills. I have also been using him as a major money-maker, via Herbalism and Inscription. Life is good in Elemental land. Lastly, to the Alliance side and...

Loupgarou: Seriously, who can pass up a Worgen DK with a werewolf name? I couldn't, anyway. He's been so much fun that I have actually been enjoying the DK class for the first time ever. The Worgen attack animations are just too much fun! He's kinda working his way thru Herbalism and Inscription as well, trying to raise money for our desperately poor Alliance guild.

That has been it for this week, Lor has been pretty busy. Hopefully we'll get back to our lowbie Worgen dualing as well as getting Phey up to 80 so we can start the Cat-zone ball rolling! See you all (eventually) at 85!

Cheers!

- Hawk

And now for something completely different...

2011-06-09T18:07:00.001-07:00

(Not WoW related!)

As I mentioned previously, I have recently returned to creating music, hopefully for eventual placement out on the web via iTunes, etc. There are about 4 songs I am working on currently, with another half-dozen in the pipeline behind them. However, over the last couple days I have written an interesting "framework" for what could turn into a decent New Country tune. Having no immediate plans to place it ahead of the other tunes in the pipeline, I had a thought - why not share it with those of you that have expressed some interest in what I am doing musically?

Now, remember - you're hearing a couple of tracks of acoustic guitar with a raw ("scratch") lead vocal over the top. But...it is sorta like hanging out here in the studio with me, to give you an idea of where stuff is coming from before it matures into full grown songs. Hence:

Things We Never Say

Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

- TJ (Hawk)

WoW Economics 101

2011-06-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

For the Nth time yesterday, I was approached by someone via whisper asking for money. This guy(?) was at least cordial about it, and after I refused to hand over the dough he asked how I was MAKING money in the first place. Turned out to be a good question for him, because after I gave him a tip or two, I also threw him 10g to get started. Hmmm...now that I am thinking about it, I am apparently financially vulnerable to ego-stroking. Ah, well. We all have our weaknesses.

But the question has come up before - occasionally within guild chat. So, without further ado, here are the tips that I have learned over the years from the Queen of the Auction House, Loralia:

1. Set aside a specific period of time every day to work on AH-ing. Just like running dailies, or crafting, or what have you, making money requires some time. Eventually this can turn into a very small amount of time, 15 minutes or so, but to get rolling I would dedicate no less than 1 hour a day.

2. Get yourself an Auction House add-on. Auctioneer is cool, Auctionator is what we are using currently, but get yourself something that will help you post auctions and track market activity. Spend a little time pressing buttons and figuring out how it works. Start running an AH scan EVERY day to see what your market conditions look like. After a week or so, you should have a solid idea of what the economy on your server looks like.

3. Knock off the crafting. If you are dedicated to crafting, great - but you will not make any money until the very end of the line. Crafting skills are intended to be money sinks, and are very good at it. Instead...

4. Get with the gathering. I strongly recommend going with Herbalism and Mining. Skinning is also ok for a money-maker, but it tends to make less money over time due to market saturation, AND you get XP for grabbing mining and herbalism nodes! Two bonuses in one! Also make sure that every, and I mean EVERY non-vendor trash item you collect that you can't use gets put on the AH. All those cloth drops, animal parts and random greens will all sell to someone out there, as long as you are keeping good track of appropriate pricing via your daily AH scans.

5. Dedicate a character slot. Make yourself what is commonly referred to as a bank alt - a character whose purpose in life is to stand around in a city in close proximity to an Auction House and a mailbox. As you travel through the world with your other characters gathering up raw materials, your bags will fill. When they do, send full stacks of whatever to this bank toon, and then spend your dedicated hour a day with collecting items from the mailbox, creating new auctions, and then gathering up the leet loot you will be collecting from the 90% of people on your server who are too damn lazy to farm items themselves, and therefore just buy em off the auction house from diligent workers like you. Take the money you make from this operation to...

6. Buy bigger bags. Seriously. This is the biggest time saver you can find.There is a HUGE price gap between each level of bag, but there is really no good reason to not have every one of your characters outfitted with all 16-slotters at least. Picking up Mining and Herb bags for your main might also be a great idea, though you will probably have to move up to 20-slotters for your other 2 bags. But time spent running back to town to mail stuff is time not spent in the wilds leveling and gathering.

That's it! No, really. If you want a reliable daily income stream, the preceding steps will provide it. Yes, there are lots of advanced techniques available - undercutting, craft cornering, etc. But just doing the above will keep you from standing around in Lagwind or Origami with your "Will Raid For Gold" sign. Maybe we'll cover the rest in a later article!

Cheers,

- Hawk (currently working on Loupgarou)

Since February???

2011-06-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

...really?

Huh. That's a long time! So, just to give everyone an idea of what has been happening in that time:

Lor's spa closed. The economy finally did in the larger operation, and after nearly 2 years of diminishing returns we were forced to shut the operation down. But...
Lor's new office opened! She has returned to being a solo operator in a much smaller space containing only herself and one other therapist who are sharing the operation. And the fact is that every single one of her clients has loved the new space. I think that a return to specializing in massage practice rather than being an employer and spa-manager may be just what the doctor ordered. We'll see!
I began my new line of work - writing and recording in order to release music out to the World Wide Web, thanks to some encouragement from my buddies Jim Mooney and Jeff Hendrick. Hopefully I will have some stuff ready for release to an unsuspecting public soon!
We briefly took a hiatus from WoW, in order to get all the logistics of the closure/re-opening straightened out, and returned to operational WoW status in May. And...
We finally moved up to Cataclysm!! Yay!!

Of course the move to Cat has meant we've been overwhelmed by fun things to do, one of which is that we created some Alliance alts to check out the Worgen. Since our Horde guildies seem to have all taken summer-time time off, we even went so far as to buy a defunct Alliance guild to house our new alties: "Heavens Warriors". I know, the name blows, but we'll change it as soon as we can.

So, hopefully we will be back to normal (for us) operations now, and I can continue blogging on whatever springs to mind. Hope to see you online!

Cheers!

-Hawk (Currently focusing on Threbek)

Epilepsy Kills

2011-02-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

(Warning - no game-related info, and pretty serious/scary stuff here. Read at your own risk.)

Been having major trouble the last few days dealing with depression, auras, lousy weather making me unhappy, ongoing financial crises, etc. Just can't seem to get my act together. And, while doing some of my usual on-line work talking to other folks about epilepsy, drug treatments, etc., I found a lovely quotation from Jerod Poore, the inventor of the Crazy Meds site:

" In addition to having a suicide rate second only to the bipolar, epileptics have a mortality rate three times higher than the general population. We can have a seizure that causes an fatal accident, such as an absence seizure or complex partial seizure while taking a bath. Or we can have a super-seizure, known as status epilepticus, that will literally fry our brains until we die, or turn into a vegetable. Or we can have a quiet wacky seizure that will kill us in ways medical science does not yet understand. That's known as SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death from Epilepsy. As opposed to all of the explained deaths from epilepsy. Depending on various factors, like the types of seizures you have, if you're prone to having them at night or during the day, if you have the flopping-around kind, and stuff like that, the chances of dropping dead from SUDEP range from 8-17% as far as anyone can tell. Perhaps higher if you're also bipolar. I'm in the 17% bracket, if that because of the comorbid bipolar. So, basically, I have, at best, only an 83% chance of waking up every day over the course of my life. As far as I can tell, the odds favor my dying in my sleep from SUDEP, so at least I have that going for me.

Puts some of those less-than-1%-chance side effects from meds into perspective, huh?"

83% chance of waking up every day. Sheesh. No wonder I am so exhausted all the time. Days like today, I am just really, really ready to hit my 17% lottery.

- TJ

Guild Split Part Deux

2011-01-24T06:22:00.000-08:00

Apparently guild drama exists in all possible worlds, no matter how you try to hide from it. Only a couple nights ago, our kinship on Silverlode (Rising Phoenix) lost about half of their leadership in an hours-long exodus full of regretful goodbyes on the part of those departing, and scathing observations on the part of a few of the remaining kinfolk. The rationale behind the departures?

Top-end Raiding, of course. The old bugaboo that destroyed our WoW guild, the Rusted Iron Rats, has reared its ugly head here in the previously peaceful confines of LotRO. There just never seems to be any sort of agreement between the "Casuals", who want to experience the game at a more leisurely pace; and the "Hardcore" who want end-game experiences and want them NOW.

The interaction between the kin members grew bitter enough that Melissa finally logged off, too sad to continue watching another guild split. I stuck around, finding myself oddly encouraged by the words of the only remaining guild officer online, named "Peaches" of all things :-) She counseled everyone to stop reacting harshly, to allow people to go their own way in search of the game experience they wanted, told those who were most obviously wounded by the experience to step back for a bit, maybe log off and have a beer or something. I was impressed, and a little ashamed. I wish I had handled things as well on Hawkwind when the Rats went through this same thing.

Oddly, I came away kind of encouraged rather than disgusted. If this kind of thing happens to a 1,000+ member kinship on LotRO, competently led for years, then maybe Mel and I weren't such horrible screw-ups after all in our leadership. Maybe the raiding issue is just part and parcel of the system, like inflation in a free-market economy? In either case, we simply wish the best for our kinnies still in Rising Phoenix, as well as for those departing for more uber-raiding type stomping grounds. May everyone find what they are looking for out of this form of entertainment.

Ciao,

- Byrl, Silverlode Server

Why Not LotRO?

2011-01-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

To those that have asked since I began dipping my toes into the crystalline waters of LotRO - "Why?", I offer the following observations:

1. Tolkien: Really, it is an answer unto itself. The man invented most of the concepts we as fantasy gamers recognize as basics. Elves as an immortal, tree-hugging race? Check. Orcs as bestial, evil humanoids? Check. An evil, god-like overlord threatening to take over the world, opposed by a small group of freedom-loving heroes? Check and check. While Tolkien took many of these concepts from even older writings, he was the dude that shaped them into the forms we recognize today as the "fantasy" genre. And the folks who have created LotRO have been awfully diligent about sticking as close as possible to the professor's vision, I must say.

2. Art: The game is beautiful. No two ways about it. The first time our characters cruised down into Rivendell I just about cried. I have a very tough time accepting that my older computer, with a second-rate video card, can produce an environment this lovely. It is such a change from the more cartoonish, hard-light primary colors stuff that I am used to from most other MMOs. The music is awesome - I will frequently park a character in an area whose music I like and go about other business on the computer (like I am doing right now) while enjoying the ambiance created by the musical score. Thumbs WAY, way up for the art department.

3. Community: I do not know the reasons for it, but the community on LotRO is simply the best I have interacted with. Blame it on mature interest in the subject matter, the atmosphere created by the environment in-game, or simply the much smaller number of folks playing this game, but the awesome-to-asshole ratio here is simply fabulous. On our server, at least, you have to go looking to find a jerk. Versus WoW where the assholes outnumber the normal folks by about 10:1. Language skills are also refreshing normal here, without much l33tsp33k or "o eye m sury eye pssd u of". Call me old and cranky, but I sorta dig being able to understand the folks who are trying to communicate with me.

Just a few observations, not trying to convert anyone over to this side of the fence, but a few folks have wanted to know why we picked LotRO out of so many FTP games. Enjoy yourselves, wherever you make your digital home!

Cheers,

- TJ (aka Byrl/Bryladan/Byrlaran/etc., on Silverlode)

Cataclysm - The Road not Taken

2011-01-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

After several weeks of dealing with PC issues, family issues and Real Life issues, we have finally sat down and come to a sad realization - we will not be continuing down the WoW road post-Cataclysm. The spa business has more or less collapsed here in Albuquerque, and if we are choosing between either dual Cataclysm boxes + $30 a month OR paying our QWest bill here at the Spa...well, you get the picture. So, no more WoW for the foreseeable future. Kind of a drag, I know.

The good news is, our other MMO conveniently went Free-to-Play a few months back. So, we are jumping ship back to Tolkien-land and Lord of the Rings Online. We have a bunch of low-level alts there, tied into an Uber-Kinship-of-Uberness (Rising Phoenix) who have graciously forgiven us for heading back to WoW for a few months. With over 1,000 members I doubt they even noticed we had left, but they are real polite about it :-)

So, yet another topical facelift for Misdirected! It will henceforth be a LotRO blog, tracking our reintroduction to the land where Men are Men, Women are Women, and Dwarves are Ambiguous. I hope to see a few of you in our travels online!

Adieu,

- Hawk
...err...
Byrladan, Silverlode server

Depression Is...

2010-12-07T08:45:00.000-08:00

...the horrible whining sound emanating from your PC on November 6, 2010, as your shiny, new 4870 Video Card bites the dust.

...the wait on hold for 2 hours as you anxiously await word on how to go about replacing it under the "lifetime warranty".

...the sinking feeling in your stomach when you are informed that the return will take "anywhere from 8 - 10 weeks", noting on the calendar that this means you will have NO video card until January at the earliest...

...meaning you will miss the launch of Cataclysm. By over a month. Sigh.

Hope everyone else is enjoying themselves,

- Hawk

The SatuFriday Progress Report, 10/23/2010

2010-10-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Only one day late! This represents progress, in a certain way :-) On with the show!

Bullcephalus: Given my miserable failures as a healer (see earlier blog entries), I built out my secondary spec as Enhancement. Sadly, I apparently got rid of most of my Enhancement gear (cause I am a moron that way, sometimes), and have found myself back with nothing but garbage gear, the single exception being my Tier 9 Shoulders. I keep trying to get into Heroics, keep waiting for 20+ minutes, getting bored and going to do something else. Puppy-like attention span, yup, that is me.

Hawkstar: OK! So, the re-balancing act is swinging back in the direction of +Pallie, and I managed a 3K DPS Heroic Violet Hold earlier this week. I have also begun experimenting with the new tanking mechanics more seriously, but am having an enormous amount of trouble with whiny DPS toons who want to claim that my tanking issues have NOTHING to do with their instant Nukes before I have grabbed aggro. No, it is all the tank's fault, of course. I just clench my teeth, and after the second wipe in an instance I leave the group. Thus far, I have not found a group that is willing to take some advice about slowing down initial DPS. I am probably just going to no longer tank via LFG - why stress myself out to this level?

Phraggle: See my experiences on Hawk as a tank above - so Phraggle is spending a bunch of time in Arms spec. We are still progressing at a snail's pace through Outland...level 67 STILL, and chomping at the bit to get to Northrend. Ah well. All things come with time.

Plainswynd: Just so much fun doing this. Level 18, and most of my recent leveling is coming through instances - 3 runs through RFC, one each through WC and Deadmines. I did finally adopt a tiger down on the Echo Isles (named him "Blake") in the name of good instance mechanics, but am still embracing the PFoD for all things solo. One piece of weirdness, though - I keep having to retrain Skinning in order to use it. My skill stays the same, but I have to train in order to use the skill after every log in. Hope this is fixed soon.

And, in blog news, this week we have passed 500 hits on the blog since we opened operation in July. This is not a huge number, but the curious number is this - we've had over 100 individual visitors. So, don't know who you all are, but welcome! We're glad to have ya :-)

Vibrating With Desire To Wear My Cobalt Armor Set,

- Hawk

Bring Me the Head of...

2010-10-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hallow's End!! Easily my favorite "holiday" in the game. Trick-or-Treating, illness from too much candy, senseless violence, masks, and of course - the Headless Horseman.

The exciting part for this year is that, with the exception of Bull, NONE of the toons on Elune have been through a Hallow's End before. So there is a ton of free XP and money just waiting out there. I will be very, very busy for the next few weeks. Especially trying to get Hawk the coveted HHH. (Headless Horseman's Horse, for the uninitiated)

Sadly, poor Littlebottom will be cut off from the fun, I think. While XP does come in pretty quick from the endless trick-or-treating, it would not be quick enough to meet my "impossible dream" goal of 80 in 4. Maybe next year, Little.

Onwards to Glory and a Million Visits to the Scarlet Monastery,

- Hawk

Littlebottom's Big Adventure

2010-10-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Level 70 - 3 Days, 7 hours. I can certainly kiss goodbye any hope of getting to 80 before 4 days of /played time :-) But there is an excellent chance I can get there at 4 days + some change, which is pretty exciting!!

I am still not really feeling the Ret Pallie rotation, but having gotten Hawk back up to about 2.4K DPS in Heroics I have figured that the time is ripe to get moving on Littlebottom again. I have also surrendered a 10% XP bonus, though - the Shadowcraft Spaulders have been sent to Plainswynd, and replaced with prosaic old Green Mightstone Pauldrons. Just couldn't stand surrendering Strength and several hundred points of armor in the name of 10% XP anymore. I will probably regret it later, I know :-)

But this should be it...one final push and Littlebottom will stand at level 80 and we will see how close I got to my idol Khor! Wish me luck!

Grindingly,

- Hawk

The Friday Progress Report, 10/15/2010

2010-10-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

At last, a progress report! Maybe because we've actually made some progress, even if it is only overcoming 4.01 :-) Well, adjusting to it, anyway. Can't say I have overcome it precisely.

Bullcephalus: I've spent a little time conferring with Obeah, our Shaman expert, and have come up with a rotation that I kinda dig. Was able to convert a couple of Hit gems over to Haste, but still need to finish filling out the new Glyphs. Still not totally grasping the synergy between Earth Shock and Lightning Shield, but hopefully that will come with time. I am certainly having no trouble at all with Mana despite the absence of Water Shield. I have attempted twice now to get into LFG Heroics, and have quit both times after 20 minute+ waits. Either Heroics are taking much longer, or many Tanks and Healers have run screaming for the hills and respecced to DPS. Maybe a little of both.

Hawkstar: Ugh. Totally, TOTALLY pathetic DPS post-4.01. Like, cut in half pretty much. I had just cracked the 3K DPS barrier on Hawk and now find myself back at about 1.6. I note that Ghostcrawler and the rest are supposedly re-balancing skills still, so I will wait a few days and take another stab at it. Retribution seems very much at the whim of the Random Number Generator gods now - without lucky Holy Power procs, Retadins will be spending lots of time staring at the screen waiting for Crusader Strike to come off cooldown. Joyous.

Littlebottom: See above, and note that I have slammed on the brakes at level 69 on my "4-days to 80" project until DPS settles down and I find a rotation that doesn't allow me to take naps during fights. At current DPS speed he might make it to 80 in 10 days or less, and where would the fun in that be? Did find out that I can grab Cold Weather Flying at 68 for 500g, and did so immediately, so I am ready to rock whenever they fix my class.

Moomanchu: Have spent a little time playing with the teeter-totter Eclipse effect on my Uber-Chicken, and find it amusing but perplexing. I still don't understand why one bothers to go all the way from Arcane to Nature and back rather than going from the central point to, say, Nature, then to Center, then to Nature, etc... Seems like that would be faster to me. I will be watching the blogs of Druids much more intelligent than myself for a clearer explanation.

Phraggle: At last a Rose in a pile of...not roses. I love the new Warrior Tank DPS numbers (sorry, Arms & Fury), love the expanded health, understand (finally) what was meant by "normalized rage", the whole thing. My love affair with Warrior tanking has not abated. And Ragged and I are thisclose to Northrend, if we can just manage some joint PC time.

Plainswynd: The Hunter experiment commences! I gotta say that I really, really love many of the Hunter changes. I love being able to scan tamable critters and see what they do, I love differing buffs for each pet family, and I am finding the Focus mechanic very forgiving. Things will change the first time I run an instance and have some difficult targets to deal with, but the first 10 levels have been really enjoyable. Can't decide between Beast Mastery and Marksman so far, but have plenty of money to keep respeccing and experimenting. Will keep everyone posted.

And, a brief AH note - if you have a Jewelcrafter, sell NOW. Gems are going for crazy amounts since everyone has to regem and the proposed elimination of gem transmutes did not occur. Make hay while the sun shines!!

Supposed to be working,

- Hawk

RE-directed

2010-10-14T09:28:00.001-07:00

So, after creating a blog that was originally supposed to be about Hunters and Paladins, I thought I might actually spend a little time chatting about Hunters.

As soon as I found out that Hunters were getting a rework, I placed all my Hunters into cold storage. I just didn't want to put a whole lot of effort into setting up systems, rotations, etc. only to have them evaporate with 4.01. I also was intrigued by the idea of starting a new Hunter from the ground up, with the freebie pet, etc. So, Urfeck was rolled into cryogenic storage, Plainswynd was turned into my Horde AH toon, and Jimmu was...ummm....blown away to make space.

We will now pause for a moment of silence.

After a couple of days of experimenting with new toon effects, and dealing with Pallie DPS being in the toilet, I have decided to go ahead and start the Hunter leveling project. No WAY I am gonna try power-leveling my Dwarf while he is hitting like a kitten with pneumonia. So, I have gathered up my required items, and blown Plainswynd away, the better to recreate him at level 1.

I have been very excited about the idea of a "gimme" pet, starting at level 1. One of the things that drove me crazy about Hunters was that first 10 levels where you were either an underpowered melee toon OR kiting around the landscape like a madman. So, a free level 1 pet. Nice! This being a Tauren Hunter, I speculated about the nature of the pet...Maybe a Boar? Perhaps one of the Wolves that wanders around outside the newbie area? Maybe a kittie? Maybe A REAL BABY KODO OF MY VERY OWN?!?!?!

Yeah, should've been reading the Hunter blogs. What I got was a Flamingo. A Purple Flamingo, to be exact:

But, I would not be detered by a simple thing like an underwhelming free pet! Instead, I decided that he must be a member of an ancient and wizened order of Flamingos who had daily practiced a regimen of Tai Chi, Kung-Fu and Kung Pao (Chicken, of course). Indeed, he would become The Purple Flamingo...of DEATH.

PFoD, for short.

That done, I headed off to Bloodhoof Village to collect my "stuff" that would make leveling all worthwhile. To wit:

Champion's Deathdealer Breastplate
Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders
Sharpened Scarlet Kris
4 Misc. Bags (No More Ammo Bag!!)
100 G.

So, I have my 20% leveling bonus. I have a quasi-decent weapon...yes, I know it is a PvP weapon, but it is what I had lying around the house. And bags are, well, bags!

The 100g was intended for training purposes. Which brings me to my next revelation - Weapon Skill training is a thing of the past now! Open up your skills, click on weapons, and note that you already automatically know how to use every weapon you are qualified for! And for those of you who already knew about this change - kiss my butt. It was exciting to discover :-)

So, I am now prepared to hearth back to kiddie-Tauren land and get cracking on the newbie quests, and see just how fragmented having Energy...err...Focus really makes a Hunter. Should be interesting! More updates when I have more info.

Beware the Wrath of the PFoD,

- Hawk