My Alternate Reality

Stabby Stab Stab!

 Yes. I have ventured away from my beloved hunters and entered the dark, shadowy world of the Rogue. The official ninja of World of Warcraft.

Running with a rogue is an experience I can't quite describe. It's flat out amazing! I managed to ding her 80 last week and ever since then, it's been a whirlwind of activity. Aurendar, my hunter hooked her with with a few pieces of gear while some guildies crafted me up a set of Eviscerator gear.

She's stylin' but damned deadly!

The goal now is to get her into some heroics to see how she fairs in real world settings. I must admit, I'm a bit apprehensive. I've never instanced with anything but a hunter. Not sure what to expect!

And yes, your thinking is correct. I have leveled my rogue all the way to 80 without so much as peeking into a dungeon. 100% questing did the job!

Well, that is going to change. I want to hook up with some good guildies and have them put me through the paces. Man, where's Teliko and Suntzu when you need them! Okay, I'm off to get some Argent Tournament dailies done!

Laters!

SjN

15 Minutes of Fame!

Greets Azerothians!

Today is an exciting day! You see, my guild over on Blackwater Raiders was featured on WOW.COM's 15 minutes of fame segment!

My affiliation with this guild has a bit of history to it. I've played a very long time as a so-called "hardcore raider". Even if my previous guild didn't fancy themselves as hardcore, the fact that they ran 4 nights a week 'progression' and 3 nights a week 10 man's and whatever else...

Yea. Summit was an UNBELIEVABLE guild and I miss them dearly but yea TOTALLY HARDCORE! LOL!

Any way, I ended up posting a thread on the official Blackwater Raiders forums titled "Do Retirement Guilds Exist?" As usual, I got the plethora of comments. But a comment from a fellow named Diamenae got my attention. They claimed to be exactly that - A group of guys that grew tired of the daily grind of spreadsheets, mat farming, gear websites and schedules.

So I joined up with the Vanguard of Norrath.

To be honest, I've had a BLAST with this guild! They are exactly what I have been looking for. A group of guys that understands that there is life beyond their keyboards and mice. Things like wives, kids, jobs are kinda important so they don't bother themselves with the rigors of hardcore raiding.

So head over to WoW.com and read up on my humble little guild! Hell, if you have an alt that you've been deciding what to do with or if you too grow tired of that grind, look us up!

Time to run a dungeon!

~Aurendar

My Quest for a Guild? COMPLETE!

Yes. I have conquered the dreaded burnout by joining a fantastic guild!

They fit the bill perfectly. My criteria was:

• Laid back, easy going folks
• Raiders that basically wanted to take it easy.
• Level headed about wiping on bosses
• Viewing WoW as FUN rather than business
• Adults that recognize the value of fully typed words and grammar.

I found that in the Vanguard of Norrath over on the Blackwater Raiders realm. These guys are great. Love spending time with them and getting things done in game. Yes, we still raid but the raiding is on such a laid back level it's actually a pleasure diving into dungeons rather than a chore.

These guys are all former EQ players (hence the Norrath) and they all migrated over to WoW where they continue on the tradition of EverQuest. If you're ever around the realm and want a laid back easy going guild to park your toon, look them up!

I love the fact that my interest in the game has been renewed! Okay, back to WoW. Busy regemming some of my items!

See ya around the Meeting Stone!

~Aur (errrr, SjN)

Another Achievement Down!

Yea yea...

I know most everyone will think this is lame but I FINALLY got to Champion at the Argent Tournament! It's been a long haul but I finally did it!

Why is this a big deal you ask? Well, frankly, I suck at PvP and more importantly mounted combat! I must have fought those damned Defenders hundreds of times before I finally got lucky enough to actually beat them!

After many bouts of tossing my mouse around my desk and a plethora of "colorful language" passing my lips, I got the Argent Champion down. I gotta tell you, it's quite a relief to have that behind me.

I just finished up the Black Knight quest chain and I enjoyed that a lot! Really easy fight reminiscent of the Black Knight of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Quite funny I must say!

The next task on my "tournament plate" is to finally face off with Chillmaw and get him down as well as the daily at the Citadel. Looking forward to those fights. Yes, doing things like this keeps me interested in the game.

Oh, I LOVE having my own Squire! Having a little man-servant is quite entertaining! Just wish he'd go run to the taverns and fetch me some Darnassian Ale! Guess that's too much to ask for.

Well, back to it! I've got Ironforge to champion next!

~SjN (errr.... Razor)

Stuff...

Wow.

A lot has been happening over the course of the week! To start off, Blizzcon landed in Anaheim and the 'Blizzardy Goodness" came oozing out over the Internets like a warmed up Caramello Bar. For the most part, I'm pretty stoked about all of the new content getting ready to land in our laps. Here's a nifty little short list of the official SjN likes & dislikes coming out of the expansion:

• ONYXIA! Definite LIKE! Of all of the raid bosses I've ever encountered, Onyxia holds a special spot in my heart. Not only was the attunement to the Onyxia Lair one of the most epic quest lines ever to grace the World of Warcraft, Ony herself is so tightly woven into Warcraft lore that the game just isn't the same without her.
• Class Changes: Like. Rolling with a hunter as I do, not having to worry about mana is going to be a godsend. Oh, and the whole "agility vs. attack power argument is getting thrown out the window! No more AP for hunters. Yay!
• Azeroth continent revamps: I'm a little on the fence over this change. Azeroth as it is today, IS the World of Warcraft! Gone will be the days of taking a flightpoint from Theramore over to Azshara when you just want to get away from it all. Auberdine destroyed? Say it isn't so! I love Auberdine! This will take some getting used to.
• Gilneas & the Worgen: This is probably the most exciting news for me! Looking at Gilneas, it reminds me of a 19th century England township. The roleplayer in me is already dreaming up "Dickens'esque" story lines to play out over on my RP realms! I can already imagine wandering the streets of Gilneas as people stroll by in tuxedos complete with tails, tophats and canes. The women dressed in ornate Victorian gowns all speaking proper common. As for the Worgen? ROLLING ONE!
• More Dungeons! Since I've been out of the raiding loop, it's been nice to just relax in Azeroth and breathe the air and take in the sights. But I must admit, my bow finger has been twitching lately. It will be good to get down and dirty again!

As for the Horde? Well, they get Goblins... Yea whatever. I don't run hordeside...I could go on and on and on but I will save it for another time. In other SjN Toon news:

Aurendar finally gathered enough funds to score a Nobles Deck off of the AH. 4500 bigguns later and she had it in her inventory. Looking forward to the Darkmoon Fair to redeem my LEWTZ! While Aur waited for the Fair, she made her way around the continents to finally get her Explorer Title! I figured with the changes coming, it'd be best to get that now just in case that title goes away! While in Feralas she also picked up her very own Sprite Darter Hatchling! Was pretty happy to finally get that. Have always wanted it but was always too busy. Again, I see the opportunity to get this pet going away when the expansion hits. LOTS of things are going to be changing! Anywho, check another task of my list! All in all, I'm having a blast with Aurendar lately. But I am getting incredibly lonely over on Blackwater Raiders. I'm considering a transfer (or sweet talking Loveth into moving Summit back!) We'll see what direction I'll be taking Aur. More to come on that.

As for Razorwyn, she landed back into her old guild - Sterling. Razor has been on cloud 9 since rejoining. RP'ing along side her guildmaster, Bjorke really has no equal. Oh, for those wondering, "Why two hunters SjN?" Aurendar is my raider. Her job is to kill stuff. Razor RPs. She's happy with her blues and occasional epic but get Razor into the Pig & Whistle in Stormwind and she's a happy lil Draenai! Well, this week Bjorke the GM announced that she is stepping down and taking a hiatus from WoW which could turn permanent. I'll be honest, Razor's future in Sterling is questionable right now. We'll have to see. There is a very real possibility that Razor will be running solo for the long term. I recently created a test toon over on the Wyrmrest Accord realm. Really NICE RP going on over there. Packing Razor's bags and moving is always an option too!

Well, it's maintenance day today and an extended one at that. So no WoW for me until this evening. Think I will spend some time pouring over the new content getting ready to be released! Oh and Mae, if you read this, FIND ME! I miss talking to you in game! I also need to find my old guildy Hesston and get him to update his damn blog! That goes for you too MAE! Oh, and tell Loveth to compose an entry into Electronic Escape! Would love to hear his take on Summit and the future of the guild. Lots of changes have been happening over there! It seems all of the people I knew and loved in WoW are slowly melting away. It's a disheartening feeling but I'm determined to trudge on and find fun in this game!

Time to run. Stay tuned. There is change in the air...

-SjN-

Decisions Decisions...

Well, for about a month or so (I'm horrible with time), Aurendar has wandered around all alone over on the Blackwater Raiders Realm. My days consist of running dailies, building rep and just hanging out in Dalaran or Stormwind.

Lately I've been contemplating a return to raiding. I have an alt over on Silvermoon where my beloved guild Summit now resides. While there, the guildies mentioned the need for additional DPS. Since they moved over to Silvermoon, they have steadily progressed leaving me well, behind.

Nonetheless, I can still DPS my ass off! It just won't be up to par with the rest of the guilds output. What to do, what to do.

Come September, the Darkmoon Faire will be going strong in Elwynn Forest and I will finally get to make the journey there and pick up my Darkmoon Card - Greatness! That will definitely help on the DPS output. I've also been scouring the Elitist Jerks fourms to tighten things up in the DPS arena. I found an awesome web bases tool called the Hunter DPS Analyzer! It's based on Shandara's DPS Spreadsheet. This should do wonders in tweeking every drop of DPS that I can possibly muster.

Bottom line though, more DPS means getting my ass into more heroics and for now, 10 man raids.

This, however, begs the question: Is my current lifestyle condusive to raiding?

I love raiding with every fiber of my being. The problem is the frequency that most raiders engage in the event. Being a family man, wife, dogs, job, picket fence, yard etc...etc....etc... Will I be able to carve out the time required to actually raid?

Summit (my guild of choice) raids Monday - Thursday. This is mainly 25 man progression raids. Friday - Sunday are 10 man optional raids. If I were to make the jump, I'd probably stick in the latter.

However!

A recent issue reared it's ugly head regarding casuals in 10 man raiding. It seems that if a "raider class" toon wants that 10 man spot, any casual lined up to run will get booted so the raider can go. Being a raider has to have it's perks after all. Just not sure how often I would actually see a raid if I go in as casual. I'm definitley not geared enough for 25 mans without being carried through so this will take some thought.

Oh, one other requirement, Maeliegh or Majesty MUST rejoin SUMMIT for all to be right with the world!

I'm giving it some thought and will make the decision soon!

~SjN (Aurendar)

Of Azeroth & iPhones?

Greets all of you WoW-oholics! SjN here with another dose of WoW goodness!

 In case you haven't seen it yet, I just HAD to chime in about the new Blizzard App for the iPhone! I had read about it yesterday and decided to head out to the App Store, grab it, and take it for a test spin.

First off - IT'S FREE! Yes folks, Blizz threw us a bone. It's called the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory. As it's name implies, it's basically the Armory for your iPhone. The good news however is it doesn't stop there. Oh no. It does SO MUCH MORE!

This screenie here is your front page. Your door step into the magical world of Azeroth. As you can see you not only get your character screen but you get PvP Leader boards, your in-game Calendar right at your fingertips, talent calculators and so much more!

I love being on the go and able to pull up my Calendar to see the latest goings on with my guild. It truly makes WoW mobile! To be able to hang out with my buddies and talk WoW (which we do A LOT) then whip out this bad boy to show off my spiffy characters is just the coolest thing EVAR!

Blizzard added some very nice touches to the application as well. For example, you turn pages much as you would a book. There is a nice animation of a page flipping when you run your finger across the screens accompanied by a cool sound of a page turning. I giggled like a little school boy! The Character Profile gives you everything it's daddy does. You can even detail your gear to get more information on certain items you may have equipped.

Really slick.

Tapping on the CHARACTER PROFILE drops down a window that allows you to select Talents, Glyphs, Achievements, Arena Teams, your Calendar and your Guild data! Everyone in your guild pops up and you can then drill down into them as well!

I'm really impressed with the sound Blizz put together with this app. When you tap the trinkets to detail them, they have that familiar "ding!" that you get when you drop a trinket into a slot. Nice touch.

Over on the Talent Calculator, you can pull up your talents (both primary and secondary if you have dual class. It also lets you play around with other specs which is really cool as sometimes I get a bit anal on specs and properly assigning them so I have fun dinking around with different specs while in board meetings ;-)

It's also cool to looks at others specs too see what the hell is making them DPS so damn much (Naminee, I got my eye on you!)

There's just so much you can do with this nifty little app that it's hard to cover it all! If you have an iPhone and WoW is something that consumes any and all of your free time, it won't be complete without this little slice of heaven!

As you can see, there's some TOTALLY cool stuff going on here! Kudos to Blizzard for the kick ass iPhone App! I was only able to find ONE problem with it however. You need an iPhone use it! Hopefully for you WoW-oholics out there, this will push you over the edge and you'll start scrimping for one. This app is a definite MUST HAVE if you enjoy your Alternate Reality as much as I do!

Oh, before I forget, here are some shots of the Calendar and the Achievement screens. Damn I LOVE THIS THING! Now go get yourself an iPhone! Love it, cherish it and GET THIS APP!!

********* UPDATE! ***********

HEY! Just a quick update. Was messing around with the NEWS feature of the application and guess what I found! My good friend Maeleigh formally of BLACKWATER RAIDERS is FAMOUS! Check it out!

EXCELLENT JOB MAE! I'll love ya ALWAYS!

Noblegarden. JUST SAY NO!

Okay. Take a look a this picture. A REAL GOOD LOOK. Here I am in Goldshire. I thought "what the hell, I think I will go hunt down some eggs and see what this whole Noblegarden thing is all about. I usually don't get too involved in these world event things but, since I'm not raiding much any more, I don't really know anyone in other guilds to run with and all of my good friends moved to SIlvermoon. I figured, what the hell. Let's collect eggs. I get to Goldshire. Grab a basket, a couple of quests and I'm off and running. After about 5 or 10 minutes, I was finding it odd that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find one single egg. "That's strange" I thought. I remember reading that the eggs could be found in and around Goldshire.

I kept looking.

No joy. That's when I noticed it. People standing very still in odd spots around Goldshire. Not moving, not saying anything. I decided to stand in front of Inn and watch these guys. Sure enough. One by one, they would kneel down and collect an egg. After making another round of the Shire, I realized that for every spawn point, there was one sometimes two or three people standing there, with finger on mouse button ready to snag that egg.

It was the most unbelievable thing I had witnessed in a long time and I've seen some doozys in my raiding career. I then decided to conduct a little experiment. I dismounted and walked over to a female draenai who was intently staring at a corner of the inn near a flower box. I stood next to her and waited.

Sure enough...

"Get the F*** out of here you Bi***! I was here first. Whispered this no life-having loser. I stood there for about a minute longer and even lauged a few times. This Draenai was SMOKING PISSED. She must have called me every name in the book. I finally had enough, mounted up and headed for Stormwind.

Well, needless to say, Nobelgarden is one event that I won't be participating in. Collecting those eggs in that kind of a situation is pretty much impossible and the rudeness of some of these players is almost unbearable. Blizzard really screwed the pooch on this event. The eggs really need to be zone-wide and maybe more difficult to find if they are way out in the zone. But hey, that's just me.

I've never been so dissappointed in a world event more than I have this one. I only hope and pray that Children's Week (one of my favorites) revives my faith in this game. Maybe I should leave BWR. I suspect however, the attitudes of these players spans realms. There is no escape.

All I wanted are some &#$^#%^@&#@! eggs. Why are people such pricks? I really try to see the good side in people but you know what? I'm finding it increasingly harder to see that side. I'm beginning to believe that it no longer exists.

Oh well, going to go be bored in Dalaran some more.

SjN

With Heavy Heart...

"With my heart just a little bit sad. I say my farewell to you. I'm hoping the times we've had will help to carry you through.

So farewell for now, I'll be missing you but wishing you the best. For I know somehow no matter what, you'll pass every test.

To your new destiny, I raise a toast. To all the fates will allow. From I who loves you the most, I bid you farewell for now..."

Today is a sad day.

I just received word that my guild is transferring to another realm. I honestly can't say I blame them. A progression guild like Summit has a very difficult time recruiting viable members/raiders from the rank and file there. Moving to a more PvE centric realm will probably be a good move in the long run.

It is with heavy heart however that I will most likely be parting ways with my beloved guild. Moving to a new realm right now is just not in the cards for me. I see retirement in my future actually. Aurendar's future will be one of farming and the occasional dungeon run if she is so inclined.

I will take away many fond memories of my time in Summit and I can honestly say that because of Summit, the World of Warcraft has become more than just a game. It truly has become an 'Alternate Reality'. I have met some the the most wonderful people due to my affiliation with Summit.

Loveth. The Guild Master of this band
Back in my early days, I would farm motes out in Shadowmoon Valley. It never failed, I would run into this strange, unassuming Priest named Loveth out there. Over time, we developed an understanding on "mote farming etiquette" and we never got in each others way. With a silent 'nod' to each other, we would go about our business. Soon, I would look forward to seeing my farming buddy again. When I found myself without a guild, a quick in game mail to Loveth got me on track. Summit took me under it's wing and all was right with the world.

Maeleigh. Summit's Master Mage
I've probably become closer to Mae more than anyone else in the guild or the entire game for that matter. We think alike and I have found her company grounds me and keeps me at peace. I will always treasure the times we've spent running together and I have no intent on severing our friendship. Love ya Mae!

Suntzu
In my opinion, the rock that holds Summit together. Suntzu's level head and wisdom helps bind Summit. Whenever things went astray, you could count on Suntzu injecting some kind of "sense" into a chaotic situation. It was an honor to be in his presence.

Dunari & Raugturi
Truly pleasant people. Dunari, hands down the best Druid tank in the realm and Raug, Warlock extraordinaire. A team no guild should be without! Miss those old days Dun! You've been a friend probably longer than anyone on my friends list! We go Waaaaaaay back!

Well, I am sad now. I think I will log off for a bit and ponder my future in the World of Warcraft. I honestly don't know where I am going to go from here. I will leave my fate in the hands of destiny.

We'll just have to see what happens. Farewell Summit, I will miss you dearly.

~Aur

How DARE you have an opinion!!

So-
A really good friend of mine hosts (or hosted I should say) a blog about her trials and tribulations within the World of Warcraft. I always got excited when a new post would show up as I really enjoyed her perspective on the "in's and out's" of life in Azeroth. Recently, she came under fire of sorts about her opinion regarding her class being, as she so eloquently put it "diluted down to nearly nothing" after the last major patch to hit the realms. Soon after expressing her opinion, she came under fire from those that believe EVERYONE is wrong and their opinion was the ONLY opinion that should be even remotely considered. You gotta love these trolls. I must admit, I take great pleasure in chewing them up and spitting them out like the cudd they are.

I'll be honest, I don't always agree with some of her opinions but with that said, I respect her opinion all the same. After all, it is HER opinion and last I checked, one's own opinion is theirs and theirs alone. Take it how you want. If you agree, all is good in the world. If you disagree, have a constructive debate about it. That is after all, why we do these types of blogs in the first place- To encourage debate and have meaningful conversation, not to be besmirched by trollish criticism. Yes, the Internet is a bit of a lonelier place without Mae.

Please come back Krystin! Don't let the Trolls beat ya down!

My blog gets nowhere near the readership that Electronic Escape did but that whole fiasco has motivated me to start blogging a bit more about my own OOC (out of character for you nubbins) experiences in WoW. Just need to find more time in my day! Between early morning farming for mats & repair gold, RL work & family and nightly raiding, I don't have tons of time but I is gonna try!

Well, I'm off! I have some rep grinding to do in Sholazar Basin!

Take care and see ya around the Meeting Stone!
~SjN