Goodbye for Now, but see you in Cataclysm!

Well, as my ADS friends have noticed, I have been scarce on that realm for quite some time. I had been reduced to doing the weekly Wintergrasp, and the occasional random daily Heroic for frost badges. But I've come to the conclusion that I just can't keep up with 4 level 80 toons being played on a regular basis.

Since my horde guild broke up, and re-formed under a different name (sans a couple of officers from the original version), we've actually become much stronger with a much higher guild population. And our raiding has gone to a much higher level - we have two ICC-10 groups going, one on weeknights and one on the weekends, and we've been pugging ICC-25 with another guild. Even on off-raid nights, there are usually folks in guild wanting to run Onyxia or ToC. Our new guild is also much more inclusive than our old one was, welcoming raiders, casuals, and socials alike, and as one of the founding officers of the new iteration of our guild I need to spend my energies there.

Suffice to say, I probably won't be picking my gnome mage back up for quite some time - not until Cataclysm at least. As much as I've enjoyed being in ADS with my brother Ert, its simply too hard to split time amongst realms. So I guess this is goodbye for now, but see you in Cataclysm!

P.S. - I extend an open invitation to any of you ADS'ers who've always wanted to see how the other half lives to roll a hordie on the Coilfang PvP server and join us in "Thralls Hammer". If nothing else, the low-level quest lines might be a change of pace if you get bored with Alliance stuff :)

April Fools Day, Blizzard-Style

If you haven't checked out your profile on April Fools Day, you may be surprised to find you've become a Tuskarr, with Recent Activity listings more appropriately stated...

Running of the Gnomes

A couple of years ago, I was questing in upper STV on my very first toon when a parade of approximately 50 or so very low-level naked gnomes passed me by on the trail. Fascinated as to their objective, I trailed along for awhile and watched as every few steps one or the other would get picked off by the lvl 30-ish tigers in the area, while the mob continued on. Alas, I had levelling on the brain and didn't follow them to their final destination, forever curious as to the point of the exercise.

Recently, a co-worker who plays on another server (Stormscale) filled me in on the Running of the Gnomes event. Every year, a guild on his server would sponsor a Running of the Gnomes contest. Anyone was free to enter for the chance to win a huge pot of gold. The rules were simple - any lvl 1 gnome that reported to the starting line in Coldridge Valley completely devoid of any gear and was able to successfully navigate the race course all the way to Booty Bay and cross the finish line first, won.

The rules further restricted racers from entering Ironforge (no tram shortcut) and there were high-level monitors along the way to ensure the official course was followed - Dun Morough to Loch Modan to The Badlands to Searing Gorge to Burning Steps to Redridge to Duskwood to STV. As you can imagine, this course presents challenges to a starting lvl 1 gnome (even accounting for the levelling you'd do along the way just discovering new map areas) in the form of high level monsters with a huge aggro range to a low level toon. Further, Stormscale is a PvP realm, and Hordies would be out trying to fill their bag limit of gnomes. Multiple deaths for any participant would most assuredly be expected, but the sheer outrageousness and audacity of such an event is hilarious to my way of thinking, and an example of out-of-the-box fun events that I wish we saw more of in playing this game.

This event has apparently taken place on several other realms - if you're interested, google "Running of the Gnomes" or "Gnekkid Gnome Race" and watch some of the youtube videos, very funny.

I haven't seen anything similar since that day in STV years ago, but I for one would love to see this event brought back onto our server - I KNOW I'd roll a lvl 1 gnome to take part.

What?? An Actual Offhand Upgrade?? For ME???

Offhand upgrades for casters are few and far between after item lvl 200 - I've yet to even see the Shriveled Heart drop in HoR on ANY toon, let alone one of my casters, and was beginning to think I'd be running around with my Handbook of Obscure Remedies (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40699) forever.

So last night the composition of guildmates on Coilfang wasn't right for ICC right at raid time, so we decided to pop in and do a quick Onyxia. Since range is at a premium, I'm asked to take my mage. Lo and behold, look what I won off of Ony: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49308.

So Ony goes down quick, and by then we've got our core raid group together and head over to ICC10, picking up from where we left off the previous night having downed Lord Marrowgar. Lady Deathwhisper is dispatched in rapid succession and check out THIS sweet drop I won on the roll-off: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50781. The succession of drops was so quick I was able to give the Cornerstone Grimoire to one of the other casters who'd been in Ony, as the group trade timer had not yet expired.

So screw HoR - I no longer have even the slightest thought of having to run it again on my mage hoping for that darned shriveled heart.

Mage to the Rescue!

One of my level 80's is a Troll Mage, almost identical to Nosnum the Gnome Mage in gear/accomplishment. And, for lack of other subject material, I thought I'd post something generally mage-related, as a LOT of ADS'ers play mages (I mean a FEAKING LOT).

I've pretty much never PVP'ed outside of my frost spec, unless caught by surprise (Coilfang is a PvP server, after all) and never really considered Arcane very useful in PvP. Well, our guild was running VOA this week, and as is typical for Toravon, they wanted me on my Mage for the ranged DPS on his Frost Orbs. So, as we're at the stone throwing out a couple of summons, our GM, who happened to be out in the courtyard, says, "Hey, there's a crowd of Alliance out here ganking everything in sight.... Eeaarrggg!!" (the last bit was my little embellishment to illustrate his health bar going from full to dead in about 4 seconds). So, 5 or 6 of us answer the call to arms and go running out there in our PvEs, I of course made sure I was one of the last through the door portal (I am squishy, after all, even more so in PvEs with Molten armor). There's a group of about 7 alliance destroying everything in sight, with whom we immediately engage. The long and short of it is we put the beatdown on them. My point is not about Horde vs. Alliance so much as it is that I was SHOCKED at the effectiveness of my Arcane spec against toons wearing PvP gear - not really having used Arcane in battlegrounds it came as quite a surprise to me, and I'm sure to both the warrior and the hunter who bore the brunt of my damage. Of course, I wasn't alone out there, and as a guild we were working well together in the brief 1 minute furball - their healer went down first.

Now I'm thinking about giving Nosnum a run in battlegrounds in his Arcane spec just to test whether my brief experience with it will bear more fruit. So how about it? Have any of you other mages done much PvP in Arcane? Do you like it? Or do you find that you're just giving up too much kiting ability to survive?

Where is Everyone??

Although he isn't my main, I've been logging on Nosnum pretty much every day to at least knock out a daily heroic to get my 2 Frost badges, as well as take care of other associated chores (burn my Titansteel CD, run the weekly raid quest, do the weekly WG raid quests), and I've noticed a pronounced downturn in guild activity - even accounting for Luela's treacherous defection (just kidding, Lu), a lot of the stalwarts have been lacking of late.

Is everyone on vacation? RL taking up your time?? Inquiring minds want to know...

Nerf - Its not just a Football

Since I'm not a big forum reader, and I usually only glance over patch notes for class-specific changes, sometimes I miss important details that apply to gameplay. Some of these have to do with the occasional changes to instances, and I rely on guildies to fill me on them.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people STILL leave random pugs when they zone in and find themselves in the Oculus, despite the fact that this zone was nerfed and Blizzard added extra rewards - a goodie bag after the final boss, as well as a chance at a Blue drake mount.

Now, I was notified of this change by a guildie when it came out, so I never abandon Oculus when it comes up as the selected dungeon. So this is just a tip to anyone who might be a casual like me and may not have been aware of the change - make sure that after the final boss everyone loots the chest to get their goodie bag (which contains 2 extra triumph badges as well as a blue gem). This makes the Oculus more than worthwhile.

Happy WoWing - Nos