That Ability Is Not Ready Yet

Waiting on the cooldown.

I sat down at the computer the other night and stared at my Raptr login screen. A couple of folks were online and it said they were playing WoW. I opened the Curse client and updated addons, logged onto the guild website and crossed Ignis off of our progression chart, monkeyed around with my Myspace and Facebook profiles, and called it a night.

WoW was sitting right there on the desktop. Would have been easy to log in, say hi, cycle my auctions, and log off.

I didn't, though. Why? Just not ready. I know the second I log in I'll be bombarded with questions. I just don't have the patience for that right now. I don't feel like running an instance, doing dailies, or farming.

Will my desire to do those things come back? Absolutely. I'm seriously considering jumping into a raid or two this weekend if the opportunity presents itself, but a couple of nights ago I just couldn't bring myself to log in.

I'm on my way back. Not quite there yet, but I'm working on it.

Still need to build up some rested XP.

October Already

There's been a chill in the air the past couple of days. Chicago weather being what it is, it's best to relish the real fall weather when it's here because winter comes fast. Spring and autumn are more like holidays here than seasons.

Seems like a month or two ago I was in Tennessee on New Year's Eve. The day I started this blog feels even more recent...weeks, maybe. I'm shocked to think that I've already chalked up over 120 posts and people actually stop by to read them.

What's the point? I'm not sure. I'm feeling sentimental, I suppose. I lost an uncle today, my wife's been digging through her family's past for long-deserved answers, and my niece is fighting a battle no 14 year-old should have to endure.

The last several times I've logged into WoW it's felt empty...pointless. The work we do now...heroics, raids, dailies...is becoming obsolete at a startling pace. Why scratch and claw to collect better gear now, when in no time we'll be able to get comparable gear from a heroic 5-man?

It's the MMORPG treadmill, I know that. WoW's an escape, though. It's a chance to forget about real life and all the difficulties it brings. It's a chance to go from, in my case, a cube-dwelling spreadsheet jockey to someone who matters...at least until somebody in better gear comes along.

Obsolescence, whether referring to the gear we're wearing or our characters themselves, creeps in and makes WoW more frustrating than an escape should be. It's hard to feel like a fantasy hero when you can't keep up with the bleeding edge and, subsequently, you're neck-deep in mediocrity.

Bottom line: Real life sucks. Sometimes WoW life sucks. When they both suck at the same time, though, that's a problem.

Defection

Yesterday on Twitter, I asked the community if they had a gun to their head and had to change factions, what race on the other side would they pick.

Kudos to Outlandish Guild for having my favorite answer: Pull the trigger #forthehorde

I didn't answer my own question on Twitter, so I figured I'd answer it here. If Misneach had to shed his Human form and join the Horde, he'd be an Orc. I don't really know why, but I feel, after knowing him for 80 levels, the Orc race would fit him best Horde-side.

However, if I had to make a new Warrior from the ground up, I'd probably go Tauren. In fact, I have a Tauren Warrior (very, very low level) on Undermine named Mishnock (the phonetic spelling of Misneach). Again, I can't really tell you what the reasons are...just seems to fit.

So, for those of you who didn't answer on Twitter, gun to your head...what would you pick?

Blizzcon and the Best of Intentions

I know a lot of bloggers out there are headed to Blizzcon. If any of my readers are going, have a drink or two for Uncle Mis.

Hopefully we'll have some really great announcements to blog about this weekend and some speculation will become anticipation. 

If you're going, have a great time.

~*~

I've had the best intentions to play this week. Our internet was down Saturday and Sunday thanks to the cowardly actions of an evil squirrel, but since then I've gotten home from work every night thinking I'd get to log in and do a ton of heroics, get a bunch of EoCs, and get a couple of gear upgrades.

Unfortunately, life has a wonderful tendency of getting in the way. We've had a new puppy since Saturday, an American Bulldog named Delilah (after the Bible character, not the horribly overplayed song). She, like any other young puppy, sucks up a good deal of energy and attention.

Also, yesterday was the kids' first day of school...Baby Tank included (She's three! I can't believe she's riding a bus to preschool). That means school supply shopping, figuring out first day outfits, calming down those who have the biggest changes (like our niece who just started high school where we live, which is a brand new town for her), and generally dealing with a higher level of insanity than normal...which is saying something because we have five girls in the house not including Cheesi or the dog.

It's been nuts.

Last night was my best shot to get online, but hormones were raging with the older ones and the excitement of the first day of school being over was still driving everyone to an energy level with which I simply could not keep up.

By 9:30 I could barely keep my eyes open. Had to call it a night.

The good news is, the leadership crew in our guild is very, very good. I've been in touch with several of them who have been online and things seem to be in working order. I can also still communicate to the guild as a whole using the website.

Feels good to know that real life can smack me around a bit and the guild will still be pushing forward. Wish I could say the same thing for my day job.

Mis out.

When Possibility Becomes Probability

...it never really stops being possibility.

Huh?

Woah. Head rush.

OK, where was I?

According to WoW Insider, Worgen and Goblins are going to be the new races in the "Cataclysm" expansion.

This conversation already surfaced when the Hallow's End masks were discovered, but now we're a step closer to confirmation.

It makes sense, really. The Horde will finally get a small race comparable to the Gnomes, and the Alliance will finally get a "monster" race (valiant effort with the Draenei, Blizz, but you just made those Draenei chicks too hot...even with the horns, hooves, and tail...I'd still hit it...mmmmm).

But, before we go any further with the speculation, we should probably just wait until Blizzcon to see what TPTB have to say about it.

Actually, you know what? Screw that. Speculation is fun.

Speculate away!

A Distant Thunder

Something's about to happen that will change the course of my WoW life, and maybe yours.

The announcement will be made soon.

Be prepared.

Apathy

Well, it's here. The long-awaited release of 3.2.

I couldn't care less.

I might try and log in tonight to poke around a bit. Can't imagine the servers will be stable enough to try anything too serious.

I suppose if I tried hard enough I could get excited about the Emblems of Conquest and the possibility for huge upgrades over what I currently have, but right now I have a bleh feeling about it.

I thought that maybe 3.2 would be the beginning of another WoW hiatus for me, but waking up today I realized that I'll keep pushing forward...running heroics for the new Emblems and working on getting as many upgrades as I can with the hope of seeing as much raid content as possible.

I'm still looking around for another MMO so I'm not spending all my computer time on WoW, or at the very least a new game to occupy some of my time so I'm not flying around Northrend for hours wondering what to do. I've considered giving Left 4 Dead a shot now that the price has dropped and there's a sequel on the horizon. My bro-in-law has been trying for ages to get me to play Call of Duty on the Wii with him. We'll see.

But anyway, 3.2 feels like filler content that wasn't entirely necessary. I'm not drooling over EoCs, but I certainly won't complain about getting them. There are a couple of other additions that seem kind of cool, but there just isn't anything that's got me wetting myself in excitement.

Happy Patch Day, everybody. Don't forget to update your addons.

Pre-Patch Blues

I've logged on several times in the past couple of days, but each time it feels like a chore.

There's just something about knowing that a patch is just around the corner that makes me not really interested at all in doing anything in-game. This patch, especially, makes a lot of things feel pointless (i.e. heroics).

I posted a week or two ago that WoW has not yet run its course in the grand scheme of things, but I'm wondering if it's run its course for me, personally.

I'm behind the raiding game...waaaaay behind the raiding game...and the prospect of a new patch with a new raid that I probably won't get to see is somewhat discouraging.

I've been poking around elsewhere, too, looking for a new MMO to play. I downloaded the trail for WAR but got remarkably annoyed at how long the patching was taking.

I don't know. Anybody got any ideas?

The End of the World

...of Warcraft...

is not going to happen in the near future.

Why am I making such a bold prediction? Have I discovered information about the Mayan calendar or interpreted a Nostradamus Quatrain? Have I studied eschatology in the books of Daniel and Revelation? Nope.

It's because of masks.

Yup, masks.

The discovery of female and male goblin and worgen masks caused a significant amount of clusterfudgery. Everybody went nuts making assumptions about the next expansion. Are these the new races? Is Cataclysm part of the name of the next expansion? Is the Maelstrom related? We have to know!!!

I'm fairly certain the UN had an emergency meeting on the topic.

Let's face it, a game on its last legs wouldn't cause that much commotion over a couple of files that relate to a holiday event. If WoW was close to dying, that discovery would have invoked a meh reaction that would have been forgotten in a day or two.

WoW's getting old, no question about it. Newer MMOs have much better graphics that make WoW look dated. Does that mean it's over? Nope.

Blizzard could lose half of its subscriber base and still own the internet. They've done what they do better than anybody else, and they'll be just fine for at least two more expansions. We'll see a couple of races and at least another hero class before they shut the servers down for the last time.

Don't jump ship yet, boys and girls. There's still plenty of WoW left.

Let's see what kind of insanity the inevitable big BlizzCon announcement inspires.

Misanthropy

Despite my religious, Southern Baptist belief system one of my greatest struggles is my tendency to assume the worst in people. I find that it's much easier to go into a given situation believing that someone is a jerk until I'm proven wrong. It just feels safer to me to make that assumption and be pleasantly surprised than think that everybody's a good person and be consistently defecated on.

As a result of this mindset, the very aspect of World of Warcraft that I enjoy, the social aspect and playing with my friends, is often the thing that makes me want to log off and do something else.

Last night, I was invited into a 25-man Vault PUG. In the event that I haven't made it clear enough in previous posts, let me restate that I hate PUGs.

I should have known better. I'm nowhere geared enough to tank a 25-man anything. As a result, the subsequent asshattery is partially my fault. However, I believe that a quick whisper from the raid leader telling me that they'd rather have another tank would have prevented this symphony of monkey crap from reaching a crescendo.

I zoned in to a half-wipe. This should have been a red flag. Someone grabbed a trash mob before hardly anyone was in the instance and we just managed to drop him before he killed us all. Rez, rebuff, start handing out assignments.

The wisest of us (not me, unfortunately) took this as an omen and started to leave. The main tank was one of those justifiable deserters. And so it begins:

Asshat: Please tell me Misneach isn't going to tank. I'll pull aggro off of him.

I shake it off. Let's get moving. We fill spots and a new main tank arrives. Cool, now I can fade into the background as an offtank and not get singled out as a mentally ill n00b by the 19 year-old virgin who thinks purple gear makes him a success at life.

One more trash pull:

Asshat: If the tanks can't keep aggro I can't dps. I had to feign and shadowmeld and I still pulled aggro.

OK, big guy. That's plenty. Can we just kill the boss please?

Main tank is assigned to the adds, I'm assigned to the boss. Very simple job on my part. Grab the big guy and hold on.

Asshat: Mis can't be the boss tank. He'll die.
Main Tank: Well, he can't AoE tank the adds.

Well guys, thanks for making assumptions about my ability and talking about me like I'm not here.

Boss attempt #1. Adds don't die fast enough. We wipe.

Asshat: Seriously, if the tank has blues we can't dps fast enough to kill the adds.

Funny, I wasn't tanking the adds. Generating enough threat to allow the DPS to burn the adds wasn't my responsibility. But hey, if 19 year-old virgin thinks it's my fault, he must be right.

Boss attempt #2. Healers don't know their assignments. I die quickly. The raid leader singles out the healers and tells them that they didn't pay attention to the assignments.

Asshat: Doesn't matter. If Mis is tanking the boss he's gonna die again next time.

That's it. I work a 9-5 job at a well-known corporation in a leadership position on my team. I spent the day doing a ton of my own work as well as helping others on my team, both my subordinates and superiors, get their jobs done because I'm a specialist and they need my input to complete projects from time to time. I go home at night to help my wife raise 4 kids, one with a disability, and a niece who's currently living with us. I also work a part-time job on the weekends.

I log onto the game to have fun. I like the vast majority of the people in our guild. They're fun to play with, chat with, etc. I don't have the patience, however, to deal with the jerkoff population that roams around Azeroth talking to people like they're second class citizens.

For those of you who think it's OK to treat people like that, grow up and show some respect. If anyone in the raid didn't think I was capable of running the instance, tell me, I can take it. Shoot me a whisper and say it. Don't blame every mistake that someone else in the raid made on me because I happen to be the guy who's still sporting a couple of blues. Treat me with respect and I'll walk away thinking that you're a pretty decent person, even if you're offering criticism.

If you're incapable of doing that, DIAF.

/rant over

Oh Come On

Laziest. Mount. Ever.

Poor City Planning

This isn't gonna work.

Commentary on Mount Changes

I don't care.

...

Alright, fine. Blogs are supposed to have content, right? (Like that's ever made a difference to me)

Here's why I don't care. The mount changes have no impact on anything other than a leveling character.

Seriously. Will the mount changes get your guild through Ulduar 25, or make it any harder on you to progress? No. Will the mount changes have any impact on you getting enough emblems for your next gear upgrade? No.

But, as always, people complain. It's not fair because I had to wait until 40 to get my first mount and my first flyer only had a 60% speed increase and I had to pay full price for epic mount training and Blizzard's making it easier for casuals and I don't have anything better to do than be a forum troll...Mom, can you bring me another Mountain Dew?

My advice: shut up and deal with it. Hey, here's a thought...try taking advantage of it. I've got a couple of lowbie alts who can be riding much earlier. The increased questing efficiency may be enough incentive for me to dust them off and maybe even get one or two to 80. I did the grind in hard mode once and I'll be glad not to have to do it again.

All I'm saying is that maybe people should take a break from their complaining about the game being made easier or "dumbed-down" and take a look at the bright side. When the next patch hits, go get your lowbie alts a mount. Plus, if you've got a friend who's new to the game it's an opportunity for them to get to 80 quicker and do "big kid" stuff with you.

Remember kids, games are supposed to be fun.

Now quit whining.