Who's chopper is it ? Its Impadin's...

Yeap, finally after nummerous mining rounds in the basin. Melting, more mining and AH grinding. I finally manage to scrabe togheter 12,5K gold, 12 titansteel bars, 40 bolts and 2 arctic fur's. What does that give you ? I will let the picture talk... :)

Is/was it worth it ? Hell yeah, only got it last night, but I have already had loads of fun with it. Be able to go to some start zone, grab a buddy and go for a ride, is just priceless.

Had some fun with a guy, Kimen, who also is a proud owner of a bike in dalaran as well.
But the best was starting my new ride and take a ride through Dragonblight with my great friend grandad. Both on each our bikes ofc... ;)

It is well worth the money if you ask me. Easy rider ftw... lol.
Had a quick run into an old school instance last night. Blackwing Lair. Havent been in there for ages. Wasent even attuned to it, but seems like ubrs can be soloed easy now at 80. We took all but Nefarion down in there, we had a try on him. But as none had the Onyxia cloaks, we died more or less on the first burn. Time was close to 03.00 so we called it a night.

If I dont get the time to write more before new years eve. I wish you all a happy new year and hope to see you around next year as well.

Have fun and good luck in wow and in the real world.

Christmas is near... ho ho...

Last day before christmas, and problaly some days with a bit less wow and a bit more family. Which im looking forward to.

I have been doing some raids with my new guild, Epiphany. And I must admit im very positive over it. I started the week with a 10 man naxx. We got 2 wings and 2/3 of the next on the first night. Very smooth run, very good pace and and cozy and friendly attitude all around.
Next up was a 25 Naxx, we started up with a clear of spider wing, easy mode. Went onto Military wing. Got the first bosses down no pain at all. Then we had 4 horse man up, there was a little talk about gonna go take some of the more easy bosses. But we decided to head for the riders. An what a good call. We took em down first try, was really easy. All did good, and it ended in a really good kill. So that got me my Military wing cleared in 25 as well.
Amaggeddon dropped, but didnt have any dkp, so it went to a Death Knight from the guild. I will get mine at some point.. hehe
We then ended the night, with a patchwerk kill. Last night we picked it up again. Clearing Abonation wing, and then went on to construct. All went smooth with I think first kills all the way, untill we came to Thaddius. There was alot of people that didnt knew the fight. So we needed a few try's untill people got the hang on the buffs/debuffs. Ended the night with a kill, after 3-4 try's. So full clear of all the wings in Naxx 25 with my new guild the first week.
Even got a new pair of legs from thaddius. As I didnt have any dkp, and no one bidded dkp on em, dont ask me why. They came up for a roll. I rolled fast, 100. lol. I dont know if more would have rolled, but none did. So got em for a cheap dkp price.

It was these babies : Riveted Abomination Leggings, I was in need of more hit so they where very welcome.

Which get me the following stats atm (unbuffed):

Attack Power : 2929
Crit : 32,83%
Hit : 294


As im the only Retribution paladin in the guild I cant really compare to any raid dps wise. But im laying on 3K-3,5K dps in 25 man naxx atm. I normally lay on around 2,2K in heroics.
So this guild may very well be the christmas present I have been looking for... ;)

Will end this post with a picture of my char as of now, and wish you all a merry christmas. (Will try to take the time to make another post before the new year.)

Merry christmas.

A few wise words

Was reading a post about guild finding, on World of Matticus, and in one of the responses these wise words came. They just say so much about it all.

Gear is cheap, good guild members and players are priceless.

Loken and healing as a paladin

I read a large amount of blogs and forums around the net, most ofc wow themed. Today there have been nummerous post, blogs about Loken. And how to defeat him from a paladin heal POW. It seems like all the fuzz comes from a post about paladins ofc complain about there lack of AOE healing. A thing im pretty tired to hear about, and no I dont think paladins have a problem. I think rather many have a learn to play moment they need to come over.

Back to Loken. He is the final boss in Halls of Lightning or just HoL. When he is encountered on hc, he is one of the hardest bosses ingame atm. Or atleast the boss in wrath that have had most kills on his list.

I will start with a little story. The day I hitted 80 on my paladin, I specced holy. I was in quest blues and greens. Some from guild needed a healer for HC HoL. I thought what the hell im in. We went in one shotted all bosses, but wiped one time on Loken before e went down. Where is the problem ? I will make a guess. I think its up to 2 things, a glyph and some practice with bacon.
To start with the glyph, Glyph of holy light is a must imo for every holy paladin. It makes our biggest heal, alot more effective and most important off all. It heals multiple targets.
Bacon is a practice spell, to get the most out of it. Figure out who to cast it on, and then spam the others, if they need it. Rmb it only returns actually healing to the bacon target.

My approah to the fight. I used bacon on the tank, I like it that way. And then I actually didnt heal him alot more that fight. Ppl ofc have to move at the right time. As my gear wasent up to heal it trough. But when the grp take dmg, spam holy light. That will heal all, and give alot of heal to the bacon target. And thats more or less a done deal then.

Not much to it.

Some rest in my soul

After I left my former guild, I have been using more time thinking about wow than ever before. How much emotions and such I have in the game, have scared me a bit. After alot of head crunching I decided to not come back to NCM. Even though alot of ppl would have liked me to come back, I had a feeling that alot didnt want me back. And after judging pro and cons. I decided to say goodbye to NCM.

As I have been on my server for quiet some time, I know quiet a few ppl. I have been following a project some of my other friends had started about a year ago. A guild called Epiphany. It is a guild which is more down to earth than NCM. They do have some serious raiding, but its all handled in a bit lower pace. Which is excactly what Im after. So after a few nights guildless, I decided to make an apply on there forum.

Tonight I got my invite and a new home, a fresh start. Im happy, relaxed. Really nice to have a home again, a home im sure im gonna enjoy, while I enjoy the game I love so much.
Just done a few HC's tonight with a few from the guild, HoL and VH. Im really looking forward to get into some raids with these new guys. To really see how it all is. First impression, is a good and friendly guild. People seems to be very down to earth.

Will fill you in with more, when I have more to write about. Time to relax some, get some raids in and just enjoy the content that awaits me.

Bucket got to full last night.

I have been a bit frustrated over my current position within my guild. I had been set some criteria up for what to do to become a raider once again. Gear up, so my gear was upto what we raided. Fair enough. I was then told that I needed to show some good results in a raid to be judged upon. Fair enough once again.
But as our system are right now, raiders get prio on spots. Meaning if there is more raiders than spots, the deal is closed. We then have a thread to write in, if we get left out, so we are certain to get a spot next raid. But that is for raiders only. I then ask how the hell should I be able to show anything for em.
I could ofc, be online everyday at raid time, and if im lucky get a spot 3 weeks ahead. But case is im not online all days, I do have a live and family outside wow as well.
The guild have turned into some kind of hardcore guild, where the top have it well and the rest can more or less go f... off.
I have been a member since they was in the build up phase for 25 man raids back in tbc. And all of a sudden I feel like they dont give a shit. I must admit this have been like a slap in the face.

Back to last night. When I logged on, I found out that another melee dps class has been promoted to raider. This guy is wearing blue items, have no raids with the guild to be judged upon. Newer member than me, I could go on. That was what got the bucket to flow over. So decided to whisper a few and then make a /gquit. I was so frustrated and angry at that point, that I could have screamed and wreaked something into oblivion. I decided to get a bit more calm before I wrote my goodbye post on the forum. This was what I wrote :

I have a shit load of things I want to say, but not sure how to say it all. Just gonna get some of my thoughts down as they are now.

Im disapointed, im angry and sad......

But im not gonna sit night after night, hoping to get a spot there most likely will never come. Im here because I wanna raid with the guild. But apperantly there is no room for me here anymore, it sure dosent feel that way. Guess thats what you get for being loyal since I joined back last year.

I got told that I had to fight to get my spot back. I had to gear up in HC's, get enchant etc sorted. But we was to heavy on melee dps. But funny enough I just saw another member being promoted earlyer today. And guess what he is also melee dps. I have gotten some of the best pieces able to get outside raids, gemmed, enchanted. He is freaking wearing blue quest items.
You can say what you want, but that just feels like getting a bucket full of piss down my back.

Once again tnx psy for you time, effort and loyalty to the guild....... Ncm is sure not the same place as I joined last year. Im lucky its just a game, but guess what the ppl behind the chars are real. Think about that from time to time.

(The sad part comes by leaving some good friends behind, you know who you are.)

Late last night or this morning my GM have replyed. That he is a bit sad about it all, and would like me to reconsider.

In all honesty I dont really have a clue what to do. I in some way already miss being a part of the guild. Actually miss is alot. I have made some very good friends, and I have had a blast being in it. But on the other hand I feel myself alienated towards it. I really dont feel like it is my old nice home anymore, that it has been for over a year. What to do....

Im a happy man for now

Im atm doing all I can to upgrade my gear to be viable for the guild in raids. Still a good long way to go gearwise, but more important alot more practice in Retribution dps.
But nevertheless I was determent to be online at raid invite time, just in case there should be a spot open. I must admit I didnt think there would be. But BAM!, you are invited to a group by Zappadpj.
We where aiming for a 25 man kill of Achavon. He was more or less a walkthrough the first time I encountered him, and so he was again. I was so lucky he dropped 2xRetribution chest pieces. So me and the other Ret in the raid, my good friend Gaweg looted one each.

The raid should then continue on the last wing the guild had up, Construct quarter. As im not a raidmember and we had some other community members with us as well. Some of us had to drop for raid members at this point. We was 4, two had to leave. I rolled second highest which got me a spot in Naxx as well.

My performance was utterly shit in there tbh. My focus was not that good, which resulted in a few very poor deaths. Something I normally dont do. But most important to me I got to raid in the specc. Which was awesome, my dps was down with the tanks, but gave me alot of insight in. What to do and what not to do. And now have something to build on.

So here is my personal progression list :
1. Get more regular raid time
2. Get judgement as my primary dmg output
3. Get into top 10 of dps
4. Get some more gear upgrades

The first says it all, that is my current goal. Number 2, is one of the first things I need to work on. As judgement is our primary dmg source, and my primary last night was melee swing. Not good.
Third and forth is a help to get 1 obtained.

But it was a great night, being back in a raid. Something I hope to get into again, as soon as possible on a more regular basis. On a sidenote I also looted the T7.5 shoulders. Which was an awesome upgrade on some blue quest one's I had. So I have flywing shoulders now... :)

Retribution, is my thing in Wrath.

After I have been juggling around as holy, I have found out that, its not my kind of style. So im back as retribution. Its alot more to my liking. Pretty decent dps, with a few tricks up theyre sleeve, which may be able to save the day.
Not quiet sure why, but I have not been a raiding member of my guild since I left my officer spot. Which is pretty sucky, tbh. I do really enjoy to raid, but as the guild is currently, that dosent look very promising.

So im in a bit of a mess atm, on what to do. Stay and try to fight my way back up. Leave and try to find another guild to raid in, starting all from scrath... Wish there was a simpel solution to it, but there problaly is'nt.

Well, a few good things. Ran HC Halls of Lightning last night, and yes the fine 2h axe dropped. So that was a great start, on my gearing up for raid. Had the Spiked titansteel helm made today, and will problaly have the boots made later tonight. Along with a pair of wrist, I have found. Which is awesome to start on, BS ones as well.

Im getting the meta gem for my head made as well. But desperatly need an item or two with sockets to make it work. Can get one on my belt, so one more is needed. Was thinking about trying to get a HC UK, to see if I could get the pants to drop for me in there. As they are damn nice, with 2 sockets in em.

Ohh, well lets see. I just hope my raiding would become more bright soon.

Wow error

I have for about 2 weeks ago bought a new graphic card. If you read the blog regulary you would know. But it havent been a success, it have made my wow make some pretty weird errors. Between 5 minutes - 2 hours, my wow can all of a sudden go all black. I can still hear ingame sound, and my machine aint crashed. Windows still running fine. It has nothing to do with cooling, thats tested. Can be almost cold and still do it. Not my power supply, as I have run benchmark test, up to 4 times in a row, and no crash. Actually never had a chrash in a benchmark. Very strange.
So I thought today what the hell. Im gonna give good old Nvidia another change. So off to the local hardware pusher, and im now sitting writing on my machine with a brand new GTX260. (The second edition ofc, with more shaders.)

So wish me luck... ;)

My first kills in 25 man Naxxramus

Hey there. I promised to come up with a few kill shots of me and my guild kills in Naxx 25 man.

Anub'Rekan
We started up to deploy into the Arachnid quarter. First boss to encounter is a fellow named Anub'Rekhan. He has two phases. First phase is tank and spank, next phase is a bit more tricky. He will then do a debuff to all there is close to him. It ticks rather large numbers and it silence. We did like this in phase 2, that we took him for a run with the tank as kiter, and me as I was main healer. Stood at the other side of the room. And when the tank came in range, he got a few big heals and I then moved further away. To not get silenced. Worked like a charm, and got us this image.

Grand Widow Faerlina
After some loot distribution we went after the next one in line. Grand Widow Faerlina. She is a woman with 6 adds. There is 2 kinds of adds, Followers and Worshippers. The followers are off-tanked during the whole encounter, the worshippers in off-tanked as well. But these are to be used during the encounter. At some point the lady enrages, by mindcontrolling one of the worshippers you can debuff that enrage. I think it supposed to be a tank kill, if she is enraged to long. But as our shadow priest, which got interrupted quiet alot during his first MC, took ages to get her debuffed she was enraged for a long time. (Love you Redrah.. :) )But we had no problem healing through it. Think that part of the encounter is tuned, a bit to easy.
So down she went, here is the image.

Maexxna
This big spider is the last one on the Arachnid Quarter. A pretty easy fight as well. He has 2 abilities to counter. One is he random puts 2 ppl in nets along the wall. Which has to be released by dps'ing the web around em, and heal em as they take dmg when nettet. I was on healing duty on the nets, and it was almost only one FoL pr victim. Very little dmg.
The other to counter is when she, besides the tank, nets all ppl in nets. She will keep pounding on the tank at in the time you are nettet. So fill the tank up with hots just before, she does it and then fast heals on him when you are out. Pretty easy execution as well. Here is the shot.

That was the first Quarter done on Heroic. Just a quick sum up, it was nice to finally see some more content raidwise. But must say that these encounters wasent any wow factor worth and besides that, was they way to easy imo. It is a start instance, but these 3 could more or less be done by anyone. Just conquered the Plague quarter last night, alot more fun in there. So my hopes are even higher on the next 2 quarters. Will fill you in with more info on that quarter when time allows it.

Ding 80 and first impression as holy

I have been 80, since thuesday. I had decided a bit before I hitted 80 to go holy at 80. I wanted to try healing again, after doing TBC as tank/dps. And as we had a shortage of healers in the guild, it was not an hard choice.

First impression ? I started of with a jump right into an heroic instance. Drak'ter Keep. It was my first try as holy and my first time ever to use several of the new abilities. Beacon of Light and Sacred shield. I have heard alot of bad things about BoL, mostly from ppl around forums QQ like mad. But damn, what an awesome spell. It so rock in 5 mans. Cast it on the tank, and when the other grp members, take dmg heal em up. And in most cases there is no need to get back on the tank. As the Beacon will handle the healing on him. Awesome spell.
Sacred shield is hard to determen just how much it helps. As my FoL crits pretty often already, maybe a bit more when the buff is active on the target with sacred shield. But had a few incidents where the shield absorb was nice.

So I must say that was a real challenge and a great ride. For a long time I have had some real fun in a 5 man. Great.

I have since done The nexus and Halls of Lightning Heroic. Both very fun instances. WIth Halls as my favourite heroic so far. I want into wrath raiding last night, with a 25 man run. Will get a post and some pictures up later today. Untill then have fun.

Instances so far better or worse ?

I have so far tryed four different instances, The nexus, Utgaard Keep, Azjol-Nerub og Drak'Tharon Keep.

Just a few facts, the instances is in lenght like Ramparts is in TBC. They are very compact and with 3-4 bosses in each. They aint long runs with alot of thrash. And there hasent so far been any really tricky thrash or pulls. Not alot of tactics on em, more or less just tank and spank. Some bosses are tank and spank, some requires some tactics. And some which I will go a bit further into, have a little extra up there sleeve. The endbosses in Drak'Tharon Keep and Azjol-Nerub, they are another more thing among alot of the new stuff that raises the game to higher levels.
The one in the Keep, presents you with 2 phases. One normal tank and spank phase, and one skeleton phase. The skeleton phase makes a new side of the game. You all get turned into skeletons, and you get, like when you enter a Siege weapon a new bar with speciel skeleton abilities. It makes it more hectic, and force the players to be a bit more switched on. One thing I really like.
The one in Azjol, is a creature which goes up and down into the earth. When he is down, he spawns adds you have to deal with. That recipe is seen before and have nothing new in it. But the way the adds come and the boss gets under/over earth, made the whole fight fast paced and fun.

I guess those 2 fights gives a good picture of how the instances seem to shape. A short run, with alot of speed and action. Packed with great monsters and bosses and some small twist's. I really think they have stepped up here. I enjoy it all alot. Im the only one thinking Diablo when I write that.

My own paladin is now almost level 77, and atm questing in Zul'Drak. Last zone was Grizzly Hills, a great forest area, with alot of good quest chains. Zul'Drak is a cool place, its really evil and destroyed in its look, and there is more or less obscure creaters everywhere. With small outpost of Argent Dawn, fighting everywhere. It really have an feel, as a zone in constant war. And I can promises you that it is.. :)

Just did the new "Ring of Blood", which is located in Zul'Drak in this expansion. You get to fight some cool bosses, especially a fire guy. And the last boss it worth seeing. The last boss is riding a big mammut. After 15-20% into the fight he jumps down from the mammut, the tank then jumps on the mammut and tank the boss from the back of the mammut. Cool twist once again. A event you should not miss out on.

Time to get back to questing, catch you at 80.. ;)

First days of the expansion

What have I been up to since launch ?
Alot and then less than I use to. I started launch day to take my warrior Psysica to Howling Fjord in Northrend. I thought that the place would be a bit less crowded than Tundra. And it was ok from the beginning. As I now have played fully through both start zones, I must admit that Tundra is alot easyer to come by. But had loads of fun in the Fjord. I had taken the two days after launch off from work to get some xp under his skin. So played my way through the Fjord. The Fjord is like an old Scandinavien country. The inhabitants reminds me alot about Vikings. And so does the houses and such. Could be something taken out of a old nordic mythology. I came across, alot of different quest's, from normal kill that, get that quests. To a quest where I had to arm a big gun, shooting at houses and imcoming dragons. In Tundra I had a quest, where I was dressed like a Golem Harvester, like the one from old Westfall. Had to inflatrate a Iron dwarf digsite, and recover some relics. Lore and story lines is something that we see alot more of in this expansion. One person I have seen a few times, is Ymiron. Apperently King of the Titans, as far as I can understand. Seen him a few times now, one time in some kind of vision in a cave. A cave located at the mentioned digsite.
I must say that the quest's chains in general are really well made, you get alot more story in em. And alot of em have, instanced endings and scripted story line. Just to name a few, a line in Coldarra where you in the end stand face to face with Malygos himself. Ends with giving you a quest, for the end boss in The Nexus, The Nexus is one of the first instances in Northrend.
In Tundra, you also follow a questline to find a lost soldier. And in the search and in your effort to help him, you come across The Lich King himself, confronting the soldier you have to find. Turns out he is a Death Knight.
Seems like alot of the story will continue and cross over each other, the more you come into Northrend. Its a real pleasure to be a part of.

After completing Howling Fjord, I took my warrior to Tundra, to not miss out on anything. He is almost done with Tundra and around 2 bars from 74 already. He's been running a few instances as well. Utgard Keep and The Nexus.

Yesterday, I got a need to get my paladin into Northrend as well. And what a good call.... hehe...
Been having a blast on him, he finished Tundra last night, and moved onto Dragonblight, wanted to see a new area. And even though I only took a few quest there, was getting a bit late. Im convinced thats it going to be even better there. The Landscape was looking really amazing. And as I grouped with a druid, waiting for a named monster to spawn for a kill. I see a lvl 74 Elite, Gigantium or something was his name. After we have got our kill for the quest, we decide to give him a go. Druid taking and me dps'ing, with the occasional instant heal on him, we get him down. He was a bit tougher than the others elites I have come across so far. Cool, way to end the evening... hehe.
My paladin is now halfway to 73. And must admit, I dont feel any real urge to get back to my warrior for the moment.

On a sidenote, as you may already know a new guild formed for this expansion, cant remeber the name. Nihilum and SK gaming, have togheter formed a new super guild. I think we can say that this is the best players atleast from Europe there is, maybe even in the world. It took em 68 hours from release to finish all of the current content... :)

Aeden a Druid in my guild, first from my guild to hit 80. Was pugging Naxx last night, and they managed to get 4 bosses down in there. So seems like Naxx is gonna be cleared pretty easy. But lets see, even though im afraid the game is gonna be even more casual friendly in the future, My guild is certain we will get some real challenges, I hope they are right.

Looking back at my time in TBC

Ohh, the wait time. It feels like im a little child again, waiting for gifts on christmas eve. But it's not christmas time, but time for Blizzards "big" child to breed another expansion. An expansion around 10+ million players are waiting for. And im one of em. So thought I would use the time, to write my thoughts thinking back on my time in TBC.

The start
To get the start sorted. I started very late in Vanilla wow with raiding. First on my holy paladin, later on, my warrior as fury dps. We got to Nefarian, just before the expansion. (Still a kill I miss to see... :( ).
As I had most fun on my warrior, that was the character to travel into Hellfire with. As I will do this year, bought the expansion at midnight, and had it installed without any problems around 00.45 or so. And logged on into Hellfire. And what a trip I began. When I logged on there was'ent masses of ppl yet in the game, so had no wait time for mobs or any major lag. I was around start of Zangarmarsh, when the time came to 06.45 or so. And could feel and see on the server that, the masses started to come online. So rmb, went to bed there with my char on his way to 62, if I rmb correctly. I focused on leveling him, when ever I had the time, and was pretty fast at 70.

Level 70 - the first steps into raiding
At that time I was in a guild called Exodus elements, the same guild I had reached Nefarian with. I got my Karazhan attunement sorted and was ready to step into the first raid in TBC. We had a lack of tanks in the guild at the time, so I for the first time ever specced prot and went into karazhan as a tank. An what a blast, I still love Kara today, its an amazing instance. We struggled our way into the instance taking a new boss or two each reset. I cant really rmb how it all went down. But one thing I rmb was the thrash before Opera. Those skeleton guys, they where immune to CC. So it was heavily relying on warrior tanks to time there spell reflect right. Damn they caused alot of wipes.
After some time clearing kara week after week, we started to look at Grull. We managed to take Maulgar down, but Grull never happend. A split in the guild, broke it and Exodus Elements was no more.

Master Brewers
I was guildless and was looking for a new home. Im one of those players with kids and all. So I can start raiding at 19.00 servertime. And thats an huge issue as most guilds start raids at that time. But after searching around I found a guild. The guild was called Master Brewers, a guild I had seen years back on my former server Bloodscalp. They had like me, transfered to Trollbane. I got into talk with there Guild master, Malkar. A great great guy, which today is one of the best persons I have meet ingame.
They where clearing kara and wanted to push Grull, so there point in progress was same as mine. I rmb getting into the first raid with em, I got assigned to MT. I was very surprised, but it went well. And I hanged on as there MT for a long time. But the problem in the guild was that is was very casual-social-hardcore. Meaning there was way to many opinions on what and how we should do things. Which made the guild go no-where. That was very sad and bugged me, as we had the potential to raid and take bosses down, but the ppl wasent into it. So I decided I would look around for other options. But was not happy with the thought, that I had to leave. As I had found alot of very nice ppl within the guild, which I enjoyed being in the company off.

Grandad and non compos mentis
I one day came into chat with a fellow warrior named Grandad. I rmb'ed him from old wow. I had been playing alot of BG's with him. And he had become one of the legendary Grand Marshalls back then, I only made it to Knight... :)
To sum him up, he is a top notch guy. He is alwasy completly honest and by far one of the best ppl I know. Period.
Well, he told me that he and some other former raiders, where about to start up a new guild. non compos mentis. A guild which had a goal, to not rush with invites, but to steady build up a solid core of good players. And by that reach there goal. The Black Tempel before the next expansion. A pretty high goal, but they all seemed very determent that, it would be possible. I think we are in May/April this year.
After many nights with talks, back and forth, I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to try to move on. A move that caused a shit load of drama and bad talk at me as a person. I was accused to be a loot stealer, and what not. Claims I today, still dont understand. There it hit me, how much ppl put into this game, and how low ppl can be upon each other. When all you know of em is there name. A thing I hope I will not see again. I have always been fair in whatever I do, and I think most ppl that know me from online, can say yes to that.

non compos mentis
I more or less jumped into where I left off, at Grull. And quickly I was also the MT in most the things we did. We got Grull down, Magtheridon dropped his head. And we started upon Tempest Keep. We got Alar and Voidreaver down. And moved upon into SSC. We have had a long, very learning and fun road togheter. My time in this guild, have by far been the best time in wow for me. And ofc also where I have had most success. We today have a very high reputation on our server for being a good guild to be in. We have a very strong core of raiders and a very solid community part as well. As I think the only guild, with out progress on the server.
We are a quiet guild, which dosent scream and spam in public. We still try to recruit only ppl that share the same goals and have the same idea on how to act mature and fair against other people.
We had 4 bosses down in Mount Hyjal and 3 in Black Tempel before 3.0 hit us. So our goal was reached. We today have all down in Serpentshine Cavern, Tempest Keep, Mount Hyjal and Black Tempel. And have taken first boss down in Sunwell. A place I know we will keep working on, untill we see Kiljaden drop, no matter when it will happend.

The X-span
Im still very happy to be in the guild. I have recently stepped down from my mentor position to "just play the game" for some time. We are trying to push the guild to another height in the X-span. We have upped our raiding days from 3 to 4. And have taken some measures to go a bit more hardcore. I hope it succeeds, and not breake the guild into two. It was actually my intention to lower my playtime, so im a bit afraid I will not be able to make the requeriments to make it into the raid core. But lets see, I may once again get drawned into it all and go balls out to do the best I can and be there as much as possible.
I just hope I will get a blast doing what I do, and enjoy my game, friends and guild in new epic adventures which I know awaits us in Northrend.

New game rituals

I have a thing when I get a new wow expansion. Even though I have seen the cinematic like a million times already, and I never play with music on ingame. I always soak it all up, to get in the right mood.
I start with installing the game, while looking at some book I get with the expansion. Then when the installation is complete, I let it all roll. I never skip any logo's, cinematics whatever, to get is started. It's all part of my journey into a new game. I get my headphones on, so no outside noice can distract me and then I dive into the game. I make sure to get the ingame music on as well. To get all the small sounds and music clips, from the various zones and such. I dont know why, but I guess its in some way a tribute to the developers and such, to get the full blown impression on a new game. The full package, and then after a while, when the music gets boring and such. I replace it with my own.....

But the first time, it has to be all or nothing I guess.... ;)

More Death Knight Preparation

I have been ending up my Death Knight preparation over the last couple of days. And besides that used my time to make some more money on the AH. A bit tight on that atm, as the prizes are so screwed this close to Wrath.

I have gotten my self a blade to use from 60 and atleast to 65. The Blade of Misfortune. At 65 I can get the Honed Voidaxe from the circuit of blood trial. But not sure I can get any ppl to help on it, when they are progression in Northrend... :)

And I have decided to level in a Unholy build. So got myself the following glyphs, waiting for me in the bank as well.

1. Major Glyph - Glyph of Death Strike
2. Major Glyph - Glyph of the Ghoul
3. Minor Glyph - Glyph of Death's Embrace
4. Minor Glyph - Glyph of Pestilence

So im pretty rdy for it, when I decide to start leveling one. That being in a few nights time at midnight or further into the expansion.

If you want to get more info on preparation to death knights or just more info on em, I suggest you visit these places and read more :

General Guides
DK Leveling guide from 55-60

This side has also loads of info for you to read :
Deathknight.info

And if you want some good leveling guides, well I would say the best there is go tjeck this guys work out, this is he's blog :
Jame WowPro blog

(Its also linked in the left side, under my favorite blogs.)

Paladin and some DK farming

I have been running a bit around on my paladin lately. I have used it to grind alot of the mats, which will help me level my DK a bit faster when he is done with the starting DK area. All turn-in quest's with none-BOP items. Some of the farming have been done in blasted lands. And with that being one of the Scourge attack places, I have had some nice grind phases with em. The place has been pretty deserted, so have had em for myself more or less. So got the full plate "Scourge" set now, and the mail pants as well. Like em better than the plate ones... :)

So now he imo looks really awesome, for an alt atleast... hehe.

Wrath is really closing in on us now. Just got myself a new Graphic card today. A Ati 4870, with 512MB DDR5 ram on it. So far it seems very nice, atleast it has no problems so far in wow. Running wow in 1920x1200, with all settings on max. Yet to try it out in a raid.

6 days to go, and we are rdy to travel into northrend or start our travel on a DK. What are you plan ? Are you prepared ? (Seems like I have heard that one before... hehe... )

Cya if not before then in Northrend.

2 Incidents = less wow

Where to start, hmmm.... Well, better start from the start of the incidents. About a week ago, my beloved graphic card, 8800 GTX, burned down on me. Cause unknown, dosent seem to be a cooling issue, as it was almost dust free and my cabinet is cooled in all ways possible. So guess it just had enough of wow or something... lol...
That got my machine pretty useless, as my mainboard dont have any onboard gpu of any kind. So had to dust of a very old graphic card I had hidden away in a dusty box on top of my closet. As I play on a rather large monitor 24", it cant cope with anything... hehe. So wow is pretty useless to play for me atm. So have had quiet some time off wow, lately. And I dont miss it.

Incident 2, IRL. A girl in my biggest sons kindergarten was in a terrible accident with a rope and a slide. She got herself caught with the rope around her neck, down the slope. She was not breathing when the supervisors found her. They got her to breath again, via CPR and then into a ambulance from the hospital. She is still in the hospital trying to recover. The rumor goes she is ok, with no brain dmg, but no facts are out just yet. (Will be briefed tonight..)

Those 2 incidents have got me thinking alot. And my conclusion is, im more and more logging into wow, because I need to. Not because I want to. And then the alarm clocks rang. So last night, I decided to step down from my officer/mentor position within my current guild. (non compos mentis). As we are so close to wrath, im sure im not gonna stop playing wow, but my time online will problaly be cut down by a huge amount. Atleast when all the fuss about all the new stuff is gone. Im not sure I will be able to maintain the activity level there is required in the guild to become a raiding member. 51% attendence over 4 weeks time. But we will see, as im sure I will raid when I meet the lvl 80 sign. But lets see if its gonna be possible in my current guild, I hope so. As I have so many good friends in this guild.

So its with excitement, joy and a little bit oif sadness im looking forward to next wednesday. I should have a new graphic card tomorrow, Asus 4870, with 512MB DDR5 ram. Nevertheless im gonna be at the local games pusher to pick up my pre ordered version of Wrath at midnight in a little week.

Have fun untill we meet again.

Retro fun with Ragnaros

What have I been up to lately ? Well, it seems like the patch have hit harder than expected. We have been trying in our guild to maintain a normal raid cyclus. But it has so far showed to be impossible. As we cant zone into the raid zones. Seems like the servers aint making an instance for us, it just sit on the loading screen for a good while, no bar moving. And then it returns to game, with a error message. So atm is pretty sucky for us... :)


Been looking abit more on the achivement system with my warrior. And I must say I like it, there are alot of fun things to get in there. Saturday we didnt have much to do, so we gathered around 10 ppl and went into AQ20 to get the achivement, we more or less ran through it. Was so easy. After that run, we decide to move on, so we headed to MC, mostly just for the fun of it. But as we more or less ran through the bosses in there as well. We decided to go all the way, so after a few switch in and out on alts, to the the runes out of the way. We headed to Ragnas hideout. I just love the way he comes out, kills the poor majodomo and starts smacking.. :) We took him down well before the first fire spawn. Death easy, but got a few unlocks and some retro fun. I frapsed the Ragna encounter, will try to make a little video for the fun of it.. :)

What about you, what are you using your time on ?

A new world of wonders

A few days since I have been writing something here. Well in all honesty it has been some very hectic days. Wednesday we had the great new patch 3.0.2, Echoes of doom. I say great as I really like alot of all the new changes we get. Its like getting a new game, get's you to start more or less all over again. Learning new rotations, learning new classes to fight, etc. We get some new additions to the game, barbershops, a new harbor in SW. And loads of other things.

There though is a backside of the medal, atm it seems like they are having a shit load of problems keeping the servers stable and online. There seems to be alot of problems atm, but im sure blizz is doing all they can to overcome this.
My view on it is, that blizz have been pushed to hard behind from activision to get it out. And i have a small suspicion that they havent been all rdy for the first time, ever I think. And that said, new things are good, but I still better like to see a more done project and then wait a bit more. Thats atleast how I see it.

Back to some of the new things.

Archivements.
I think this is a great new addition, I like the whole idea. I like to have things to seek, and this just gives a whole new and big area to explore. Nice job blizz. Thats something I really look forward to get to work with.

Barbershop.
Nice new feature, it can give a little more spike into your char. If you are a bit bored about your look. You can change color as well, for RP reasons or just for looks.... :)

Calender.
There has also come a new button at your minimap. A calender function, where you can follow with all the ingame stuff happening. BG weekends, holiday time, fishing contest, and so on. As far as I know you can also use it to plan things in guild and such, but havent tryed it yet. So will come back with more info as soon as I have more to tell.

Inscription and glyphs.
A new proffesion has also seen the light. Which is a very nice new thing as well. Its combined with glyphs, which is a whole new thing as well. You have gotten a new tab in your spell book, named glyph. Its a gem like thing, that you can place in a major or minor slot. What they do is they change your spells. Could be longer duration on fear, less mana for spells. And so on. Where you can now, lead your character towards more specific things.
I have taken it up on my priest, and have got it to around 190 now. Im out of herbs, you use those to get the mats for inscription. And atm a stack of herbs go for 80g or so on AH, so im waiting a bit. No, rush and loose to much money.
Will get back with more on this one as well, when I have used more time on it.

So as you can see alot of new things that are implemented, so only was predictable there would be some errors with it, but lets get the servers back up... :) (Trollbane is atm down.)

My priest.
My dear lady is now leveled to 62, and I enjoy her alot. After this patch, we have gotten some very nice new talents. Especially improved shadowform. It now lowers spell knockback, so your mindflay is uber now. I use it without any shield now, and it rarely loose time on it, its awesome. I can chain pull 2 mobs at a time now, and keep em coming and more or less dont run oom or health. Its really cool. Also my dmg is gone up, I now do 2K+ MindBlast crits.

Priority.
What is my goals now, there is so many things I wanna do. But I must try to hold focus and not be mislead... :)

1. Get priest to 70
2. Get Inscription to max 350. (or is it 355?)
3. Get a few gear parts for easyer leveling.
4. Get a look at archivements.

And then all of the other stuff... hehe... What are you up for atm, looking at blogs, while your server is down ?? :)

The rumbus machine

Was reading some stuff on wowinsider, which lead me to a page, which is full of machinima action. www.machinima101.com. Its a page where all the ppl from the heavy league of wow machinima is hanging out. Baron and pinkhair, to name some of em.

A really cool forum, which I will use the next time reading through. That could very well be my next, forum to tjeck in on regulary.

While just skimming some threads, I falled upon this beauty. The Rumbus machine, a very funny movie.



Enjoy.

What do you look forward too ?

Im over eager to get the new expansion between my hands, to say the least. I have had a peek inside the beta, and I must say that what I saw looked amazing. To go a bit back, the best places and instances in wow to me was in Vanilla Wow. I just love the old zones, they brought a great feel of middel age into it all. And so did the instances, one of my all time favorite instances is still today Blackrock Deepths. And amazing place, where you could with a good grp spend hours and hours of playtime, with cool bosses and different pack compositions and the like.
Then TBC came, and I must admit even though I have used countless hours in it. It just didnt have the feel of middelage to it. It was imo way to spacy, im alot more into middelage style. Though I must admit, that the instance Black Tempel, has an epic feel to it, just like the old ones. It reminds me alot about Blackwing Lair.

Now Northrend awaits, and what I have seen so far thye have taken the style of it all, back towards Vanilla wow. Which ofc brings even more joy to me. Just the start where you arrive with the ship from Stormwind harbour, is amazing. And it really feels like you are traveling out as a seasoned adventure, rdy to battle against foes in a new and unfriendly world. Amazing, good job blizz.
And then they have added some more lightning and shadow effect to it all, which really get the graphic up a notch. One thing I really noticed was your own shadow. Looks amazing. Small things I know, but things that makes wow the great game it is today.

Well, back to the topic. What do I look forward to ? Hmm, well I look forward to seeing and explorer all of the new zones. Im looking forward to the new instances, and ofc the endgame start in Naxxramas. Which im sure gonna be an epic ride. And ofc I look forward to see how its gonna shape up in my guild, how we gonna cope with all the new stuff. And how our start is gonna be in WOTLK. All in all, I look forward to get my hands dirty, my nights long, and my characters reach 80 in Northrend.... Let it come.....

What about you, what do you look forward to ?

Level 50

After spending some more time on my priest, I managed with alot of travel to get her to 50 just now... :)

Dinged on one of the last quest's in the hinterlands, tanaris and ferelas cirkel I use. Now its time to dig some easy levels up in Ungoro and then move on to Plaguelands. Got planned a quick run into Sunken and then some strat runs, to get some more xp. Should be in Outland in no time... hehe

Have fun.

Priest Progress

I promised to get back to you with how my priest would be doing. I had the pleasure of getting some hours onto it last night. A few ppl from my guild is redoing a load of old quest's, to prepare for the archivement system there is gonna be implanted in 3.0.X. So I have had my ears out, to snap any ppl going into old instances I could use to boost my xp. The instance runs it selfs aint the best xp, but a full clear to get all the quest's in an instance done, is a nice xp boost. So even though the mobs in it, is a bit low level in the start, there can be some good xp to get.
A druid from my guild, Kalaya, was going a trip into Uldaman. So I thought, what the heck, let me get the quest's done in there. As I know that the quest chain you get in there, from the neck that drops, gives a fair share of xp. And not to forget the one you get when you have defeated the last boss in there. The Disc of Morga????, that chain is to good to miss xp wise.
So after finishing a few pirate quest's in Tanaris, and there after go do "Skull rock clean up" and a visit to the altar in Hinterlands. I ventured to IF to grab a few uldaman quest's there, and there after a short trip via the excavation camp in Loch modan, to badlands. I now had all the quest's I could make outside the instance. As those are all non-elite now. I did this for 2 reasons, one for the small amount of xp, but mostly to get the neck to drop, so I could get the chain started. As getting it inside, and then have to go to IF is a pain.
Got it and got all the preparation done, so we could make a fast and quick swipe of the instance. And so we did, so after a little hour the place was done, and I had got a good load of xp more, after turning in the quest's. I dinged 47 last night. Just with 2 days and 17 hours of playtime, who says priest's are slow to level, so far it seems ok to me.

Today im planning on going to finish of Tanaris, and then go to ferelas and make the quest from the alliance city on the island. Im more or less now just waiting to get to 50. So I can make a few fast levels in Ungoro, then I will problaly move to Thorium Point and make all the quest there. And after that its time to get to the plaguelands I guess... And that should get me close to Outland. Where my plans is to instance grind 1-1,5 levels, and then start on the quest's.

See you out there.

39 days to go.

If the date blizzard have come out with then, there is today 39 days untill we will be heading into Northrend. As my guild is planning, and calculating on how the raid setup will look in Wrath, we could see that we would loose some healers to dps. Ending in our healing pool, being a bit to small.
As my start point for wrath was that I wanted to heal again, but changed my mind later on. Reason was that I wanted to heal on my paladin, as my big hope was that it wouldnt be a 1-2 button spam bot no more. You had to get a bit more thinking into it. But unfortnaly it didnt turn out the way I hoped. So I took my hopes down for healing and changed my mind to go Ret paladin.
But as said above our healing pool aint big enough, so to compensate for that I thought about what to do. Did I have any healing viable classes up there, besides my 2 paladins. Not quiet, I had a lvl 40 priest, or she was that 2 days ago. I got myself a new mission, get her to 70 before wrath hits the servers. And venture into Northrend with her.
So here I am on a race against 70, before the expansion hits the servers. Im not 45, so thats 25 more level's in 39 days. Should be manageable, or atleast I hope so.
Wish me luck, I will keep you updated on her travel the last 25 levels.

Time to hit the bed for me now, got a long day full of a big family party. And a big officer meeting in my guild tomorrow night. Sleep well....

More ideas for the recruitment video

Sitting here at work, with much to do, but not a great desire to do em. My mind has been thinking about the video im working on. It was a post Ruffe, a healer from my guild, made on the guild forum.

Quote : "I like the idea, add some story to it, and keep it coming mate, can't wait to see the end result ^^"

It was the bolded that got my mind into work. What about I do some shoots, different kind of dps, a tank or 2, and 1 healer, where they travel in different ways towards an instance. And end up in front of the summon stone or entrance. One of em steps forward and start to count the ppl and classes avaible. And when it comes to healers, the camera pans over and zoom in on 1 healer. And all go, WTF??!!!?? only 1 healer, we are never gonna get anything down. Thats why we need you !!!!
(We are mainly in need of more healers... :) )

Or atleast something like that, a short story line, with a outcome like that. I like the idea, I got to think it more through and get home and start up on it. I think it could work.

I actually made some stuff last night, this is the outcome of it. Push to view.

Already have some improvements cooking in my mind. First of im not to impressed with the font, think I need to find another. Then when the big letters roll by. I want some color on em, and then a background, which is a fly by over one of the TBC zones. To add some flavour to it all. Seems to dull now.

Well, I have a good feeling for it all, just need more time. Dont have enough hours in the day atm, and even raid the next couple of nights. Which I have promised to specc back to prot, to help on a tempeary tank shortage. (School, work and such for our normal tanks.)

Retribution damage in Beta

As I have the pleasure of being part of the beta, even though I havent been able to play in there just as much as I wanted. I have been trying out different speccs. One of the speccs I have tryed out is Retribution paladin. A build that after I tryed it, left me with a feeling. That for the first time the paladin feelt like I thought it would have been 3,5 years ago, when I created my first paladin. It feels like a melee damage class, which can support others if needed. I have two lvl 70 paladins today. 1 holy, which I have been raiding with in old wow. But put to a hold in TBC. And one new one, Impadin, which will be my main in WOTLK as retribution.

As a few ppl in my guild had asked for a view on the dps we could bring out, I recorded some fraps footage in the beta of paladin retribution damage. This is not a video displaying big crits and lucky strikes. Its a video which shows the general dmg a retri can do. Im mostly decked in the starting greens, from the first zone in Northrend. And im lvl 70.

I will let the video speak for it self, for now - Retribution beta damage in general

Recruitment video

As many might have it, my eager to push forward in content, is atm not as big as normal. All of the new things WOTLK will be offering and that your gear and effort in it, soon is gone. Makes me play a bit less atm, and instead using more time in Vegas and frapsing things ingame.
Normally when I listen to music and just travel around inside wow, I get ideas to make small movies. But this time I have a more specific task, and not many ideas... ;) I have set my mind into making a recruitment/advertising movie for my guild. So we can get the new ppl we want for WOTLK. As we intend to push more progressively in endgame content this time.
But as said im pretty empty for how I want it all to shape. My idea was to have the guild name in huge letters scrolling over the screen. So big so you only can read like 1-3 letters at a time. And then clip in between, clips of ingame footage, supported by some text. But what to have as text and in the actual footage is far away atm. Though I have some ideas, for the text atleast.

My idea for the text, was to ask questions like. Do you want to PUG your way through instances ? Do you like to be a part of a strong community ? Are you a skilled and mature player ? and so on.
And then in the end, something like "Then visit and apply. Become a part of non compos mentis". And then zoom out from the text that showcased the guild name, in close up.

This is just all ideas, and will problaly/hopefully come up with alot more. If you have any good ideas, dont be a stranger. Plz post em in the commentary field...

Wow movies

Been using some time lately to make short movies and other animated stuff, using Sony Vegas. Sony Vegas is an editing tool used for movies and the like. I mainly use it to create wow related stuff in one way or another.
I record stuff from ingame, using fraps, an program that can record ingame video. Then I play with it in Vegas, adding sound, text and the like.

I will make some more posts about more of this. Feel free to suggest what I should dig into for you. Just wanted to show you my latest work. Its a small intro, which displays my guilds name, in a imo cool and neat way... ;)

Judge for yourself. http://www.stoico.dk/wow/NCM.wmv
(If you have Windows Media Player 11, you can just click the link and the video will load into your player, and play it right away.)

Where did this one come from ?

hehe, it has been ages since I have last been in here on blogger. I actually forgot I had this blog. Oh, well alot have been going on since I last wrote here.
Yes, you guessed correctly. I still play wow, and still doing it on a regular basis. Problaly more than I should. But the game just continue to be fun place to hang around. Even though I problaly use the game in a differen way now. I have got myself a whole bunch of people I know now. I still play on the same server and that ofc get you alot of ppl you know by now. I sometimes just log the game, sitting chatting with ppl, and not actually get any play done. You could call it some kind of advanced MSN... lol.
The game it self keeps evolving and change. Everytime blizzard introduces a new change, a crowd of people, you should think automatic goes in mourn mode. Shouting loud about, what a fucked up change that was to make. Guess that is something that goes with a big game like this. One of the main reasons I hang out less and less, on the official blizzard forums. Nothing else than people complaining. I use alot more time on wow blogs and more specific forums. Forums that funny enough is super great, but when they get to popular, they get worse and worse. As the people from the official sites, start to infect those... ;)

If you havent seen it yet, the next expansion is coming soon to the game. Its the second expansion, named - Wrath of the Lich King. A expansion, which will turn alot of things around ingame, things that may not all look good in the first glimpse. But changes which im sure, will be to the better as soon as they are set into play. I have a huge confidence in blizzard to pull it off once more. Making the game I love so much, even better to play. Im in the beta atm, so have seen alot of the new stuff already. But have been holding back, so I get the full rush when I'm sitting here at my pc, with the game package. The release date it scheduled to run 13th of november this year.

So yes, im very eager and very excited to see what all the new stuff brings to my game. What about you ?