I got the blues

I got the lowdown, end of expansion, Cata is in Beta, StarCraft 2 just came out blues…..

No, I’m not experiencing the ennui that many bloggers get towards the end of expansion. I’m still playing every day and enjoying it immensely.

My little 10 man guild is bleeding raiders, though. Both the GM and the RL, as well as the raiders in the guild, are getting a bit frustrated. This is the second week in a row in which we haven’t had enough people online to push progression ICC content. The GM is fiercely against pugging people into our group (unless its my bestfriend, then we make exceptions). Last week we 9 manned up through Saurfang and called it quits. This week we haven’t gone to ICC at all. We 8 manned the weekly dungeon boss and that’s it.

What have I been doing if I haven’t been raiding?

• Well, the baby taurens are now level 14,
• Farming Sha’tari Skyguard rep,
• And attempting to fish up Mr. Pinchy while I’m at it.
• I’m also occasionally hitting up the Baron in Stratholme for an attempt at the mount.

But mostly I’ve been:

Yep, running Battlegrounds.

Its a little more fun when you have friends or guildies with you. Besides, now that I’m off of the PVP realm and back on our little backwater Battlegroup, I’m finding that I may have picked up some skills while I was on TFC. I’m a little beast sometimes in BGs. Sometimes I’m just squishy, but sometimes RAWR! OOMing in a BG means you’re doing it right. Plus, I kinda feel sexy in my red pvp gear.

Another Picture, Another Thousand Words

Quick take the picture! There's no dragon goo dripping on me is there?

When I killed Onyxia for the first time, I was level 70 and she was still level 60.  Having started playing the game very late in Vanilla, I hadn’t even made it to 40 yet when BC was released. It still felt epic to kill her, even at 70.

My guild was the first on our little reroll server to kill Ony on the Alliance side. No one bothered with it Alliance side, since 70 was the new 60, who cared about old content? The only people who thought this stuff was srsbsns were the people duped into getting Kue his Scarab Lord title, and that was Horde side anyway.

My guild cared about old content, if for no other reason just to see it. This was back when we were still just having fun. I’m fairly certain it was a Saturday or Sunday and one of our Paladin tanks sent ripples out seeing if anyone wanted to see if we could down Ony. Of course I wanted to go. We trudged through the attunement quests and made our way to Onyxia’s Lair.

I think there were 13 of us, and we wiped a few times, since none of us had seen the content before. In the end, we succeeded despite the MANY WHELPS! I left there with a spiffy level 60 hat that I wore when I was in Shatt for the entirety of the expansion after (and I still have in my bank even though I’ve replaced it with the level 80 version).

It was incredibly dramatic marching into Stormwind with Onyxia’s head in tow. The excitement of the event of placing Ony’s head on the gates was amazing. The guild made a march of it with the Alliance soldiers, and people kept coming up to us asking what was going on.

It was nice of Blizzard to revamp Ony for level 80, but it never felt as epic as that first time.

I’m hoping with Cataclysm there will be something equally dramatic for the downing of Deathwing, and not just a statue in the middle of Dalaran.

The Random Project: Week One

Midway through last week I began the Random Project, an effort to see what servers the “bad players” are mostly from.

07/23/10 – Heroic CoS - Amaranthine (healer) and Holyspell (tank)

Balur – Nazgrel – Mage

Xard – Nazgrel – Ret Paladin

Lorette – Mok’Nathal – Warlock

All dps behaved well and performed decently for a heroic. Nothing to make this instance stand out positively or negatively.

07/24/10 – Heroic HoL – Amaranthine (healer)

Boggiebear – Antonidas – DK Tank

Ashtron – Antonidas – Hunter

Gstone – Borean Tundra – Warrior

Lorena – Mok’Nathal – Mage

This was one of the most fun heroics I have run in a good while, largely because the tank was playfully bantering back and forth with me. All of us performed well, and joked about whether or not we had set the dungeon on heroic, because it was too easy. If I could rate people instead of just ignoring, Boggiebear would have gotten several thumbs up!

07/25/10 – Heroic HoR – Amaranthine (healer)

Rorke – Nordrassil – DK Tank

Corko – Nordrassil – Hunter

Horagalles – Shandris – Shaman

Mangler – Drenden – Ret Paladin

We wiped twice. The tank was struggling to hold aggro the entire time. I don’t think it was because the dps was being overly aggressive either. The hunter died during the first group of waves before Falric and released and ran back in, only to be locked out of the room. I explained that he shouldn’t have run back, I could have rezzed him at the very least after Falric. We managed to get through this dungeon relying on the strength of myself, the shaman and paladin, who ended up tanking stray mobs that the tank apparently couldn’t handle. The tank thanked us at the end because he hadn’t thought he would be able to tank this dungeon. All in all, not a good showing for Nordrassil. They were nice people, but not the best players.

07/25/10 – BRD – Vivacious (healer) level 53

Redhammer – Drenden – Paladin Tank

Assassin – Moonguard – Hunter

Sueaside – Antonidas – Mage

Sranthony – Nazgrel – Warrior

Bigwager – Antonidas – Hunter

So, I have had my first experience with a jerk from Moonguard. On entering the dungeon, Assassin, the hunter, immediately started pulling 2-3 packs of mobs, before we could even get buffs out. We wiped. The tank asked Assassin to stop pulling mobs, and asked that if he wants to go faster or pull more to say so and let the tank make the pulls. This didn’t slow Assassin down. He kept pulling and pulling, and never said a word. We wiped twice because of his over-pulls. We were trying to be patient with him. After the second wipe he was still doing this, at which point the tank and I agreed to let him die. With him dead we were finally able to kick him (can’t kick while in combat).

Assassin was replaced with another hunter, Bigwager, who behaved very well in comparison. We moved on, but unfortunately none of us were familiar with the dungeon and we didn’t know which boss we needed to kill to get our satchel. We wandered around and killed probably 8 bosses, but never got our satchel and finally gave up.

Shared Topic: A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

Jezzabell and Amaranth at the Fire Festival

Jezzabell and Amaranth attended their very first Fire Festival in the Summer of 2008. Together we spanned the globe, honoring the Alliance flames and desecrating the Horde’s. Together we traveled to the Horde cities, died together to desecrate their flames, and together we wore the Crown of the Fire Festival.

It reminds me of all the other things we did together. We met in Booty Bay, as she was chatting with someone else about hats, and as I walked by in my Whitemane’s Chapeau, she said “Nice hat!” I knew right then that I had met someone special.

Jezzabell and I first truly fell in together during Children’s Week that May. We did the orphan quests together. We ended up in the same guild. We went through the Dark Portal together. We leveled together. We ran dungeons together. She tanked or dpsed while I healed. She was my playful kitten and my aggressive bear. We geared up through heroics together. We raided together later, her a tree and me the priest balance to her HoTs.

This screenshot reminds me of my relationship with Jezzabell. This was not a character to character relationship. This was soul to soul across oceans within the game. She was my first WoW love, and there can be nothing else like it. We opened each other up to new potentials within this virtual world. She will always be near and dear to my heart.

As befit our relationship, she is busy playing with fire, while I watch safely from the sidelines. She taught me to love hats and to traipse across country away from the safety of the well-marked path. While she pushed me to be more daring, she could not change who I am. Being worlds apart, we drifted away from each other. I will always cherish my memories of her, of us.

I like to think that while she helped to make me a better me, that I also helped her to be a better her.

What’s in a name?

Amà used to be Amaranth, until I transferred her to The Forgotten Coast. While there she was Amaranthe. When I returned to Cairne, I found my name taken. I didn’t think of Amaranthine until a few months later. When I found it available my initial thought was to make an alt with that name. As time went on I found I really hated having the odd character in Amà, so hence the name change. Amà is now Amaranthine.

Why Amaranth?

My parents keep a 1938 dictionary in the basement. It is massive in two volumes and contains many anachronistic entries. When I began playing in simple chatrooms on the internet I needed to come up with a handle, and I wanted it to be meaningful. I started paging through the old dictionary, starting with the As and reading about any words that I didn’t recognize. When I hit Amaranth something in my heart went ZING! I have been using Amaranth as a handle on the internet for over a decade since.

What is an Amaranth?

Amaranthus is a genus of plants which can be used for grain, leaf vegetables, dyes, and for their beautiful flowers. One of the most commonly known species is Love-Lies-Bleeding (seen above).

Derived from the Greek word Amarantos, meaning unwithering, in Greek mythology the amaranth was considered a symbol of immortality, the everlasting flower said to have healing properties. It is from this definition that I took my inspiration (yes, I was once a Goth romantic).

From Aesop’s fables:

“An amaranth planted in a garden near a Rose-Tree, thus addressed it: “What a lovely flower is the Rose, a favorite alike with Gods and with men. I envy you your beauty and your perfume.” The Rose replied, “I indeed, dear Amaranth, flourish but for a brief season! If no cruel hand pluck me from my stem, yet I must perish by an early doom. But thou art immortal and dost never fade, but bloomest for ever in renewed youth.”

Alternative Meanings

Over time I have run into other meanings, as I’ve met people and they have commented on my choice of name.

The first I ran into was a reference to Vampire: The Masquerade, in which Amaranth was an alternative name for Diablerie, the consuming of another vampire.

Amarant Coral was a character in Final Fantasy IX.

Musicians and poets have often written about the amaranth. Most recently I’ve run across the band Nightwish and their song Amaranth.

Moo!

My bestfriend and I decided to make a couple of horde alts in preparation for the goblins we plan to make with the release of Cataclysm. It’s nice to have a set of alts for just the two of us for when neither of us is busy raiding or working. We only play these toons together.

So, despite my racism, we’ve made Taurens. I’m actually really happy with the choice. I’m getting used to being a big boned, hairy, hooved monster. The only part that still gives me trouble is Thunder Bluff.

He has tried to freak me out by pretending to jump off the bridges a few times now. Apparently those ropes can hold a person in pretty well. I still don’t like the heights. It’s beautiful, but terrifying.

Introducing Nàturemade and Moochalatte

He’s a druid and I’m a warrior. I still kind of want to relegate him to healing me, but he wants to bear tank. So right now, I am a bandage spec Fury Warrior. See my two points in Armored to the Teeth?

RP Hate

There is a member of my guild who is very vocal about disliking Roleplay, I’ll call him Mack. To be fair Mack is also very vocal about just about everything.

Mack has told me over and over again how horrible the players from Moonguard and Nesingwary are when he runs into them in random heroics, ending his comments by spitting, “Fucking Roleplayers!” I find it amusing because Nesingwary isn’t an RP realm, and he never mentions Wyrmrest Accord or Farstriders which are RP realms. My guess is he doesn’t really realize which are RP realms and which aren’t. If they’re bad they must be RP. I’ve done my share of pugging, and personally, I’ve had more trouble with players from the PvP servers on our Battlegroup than the RPers.

Are we talking about Tirion?

With the plethora of newbies invading the realm, I guess Mack has run into some roleplayers. Mack is very against the invasion of newbs, and it gets even worse if he thinks they are RPing at him.

So I found it incredibly amusing when someone said in trade, “If you don’t know who the leader of the Argent Crusade is then get off our server.” Mack said, “Yeah! If they don’t know that shit they need to gtfo!”

Last I checked, knowledge of the primary faction leaders and storyline is what we call Lore. Knowledge of Lore would be a primary criteria for Roleplaying. I called him out on it, and he had no response.

This one time at the Aldor bank…

It reminds me of this one time back in BC, a friend and I were outside of the Aldor bank chatting in /say. Some random person came up to us and told us to go find an RP server to RP on, because no one wants to hear us. The funny thing is that I was talking to her about taking my cat to the vet IRL.

I recognize that I’m not on an RP realm anymore, but it still makes me a little butthurt when I hear people trashing Roleplayers. I think a lot of times most mainstream players have no concept of what RP really is. It’s human nature to fear and lash out at that which you don’t understand, I suppose.

Guild Concerns

Mack’s viewpoint is infectious. The entire guild has taken to making fun of the Moonguard players whenever they appear in a group, even if they are playing well enough. “Oh the Moonguard Mage is doing 100 dps less than me. Stupid Moonguard.”

Even more frustrating, they start talking in Old English, as if that is how real RPers talk. “The Moonguard people are too busy saying, ‘My lord, perhaps we might visit the lumbermill this day, for they hath the finest oak in the realm.’ to perform well in a BG.” I’ve actually threatened to gquit. I know I should just let the jokes go, but I know I am a Roleplayer at heart, and it hurts.

/2 WTB a little tolerance, paying with kindness, pst.

My GM and I spoke about the issue a few days later, and all is well. They have had nothing but abysmal experiences with Moonguard. It has nothing to do with RP, although, since they know it is an RP server, the jokes tend to turn that way. At the time I didn’t feel like I had any means of standing up for RP. He gave me a few suggestions that he thought could diffuse the situation if it came up again. He apologized and explained that he meant no offense to me.

Special Project Time?

Personally, I have had nothing but good experiences with the players from the 3 RP realms on our battlegroup. I think it may be time for a new pet project in which I document what realm different players in randoms are from and grade them on skill and behavior, just to get a test of where the scrubs really lie (at least in my opinion).

The irony is that Cairne has a reputation for being the shitty server on the Battlegroup.

Amaste’s Tale: Part Three

Author’s note: This would be my entry for the Blog Azeroth shared topic: RP a scene with your favorite mount. It is also the next chapter in my story about Amaste Lightweaver. Ironically, this is where the story was headed, even without the shared topic coming up.

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Tripping over the rubble of the broken door, she stepped through the entrance way. She grabbed her cloak, drawing it over her mouth and nose to keep from inhaling any more of the acrid smoke. As she blinked away the tears from the smoke, what recently was a body filled her vision. A dark pile of ash lay on the floor in front of her. The person this once was had not been burned naturally. There had been a lich among the undead that had invaded here.

Among those ashes she could see the gleam of an emerald, an emerald in a beautifully filigreed setting. It had been her aunt’s.  She scooped it up and stuffed it into her pocket, fighting back tears. She glanced around in search for any signs of her sister. She had to stay strong until she found her sister.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement in the shadows at the corner of the room. She urgently hissed, “Dhoti!” but no answer came. She tiptoed forward, carefully avoiding any burning rubble. As she approached the corner, she heard a high pitched squawk and a rustle of feathers.

Her aunt had been attempting to hatch an orphaned hawk strider egg. In the turmoil of the invasion the egg must have hatched. She made soft cooing noises as she inched towards the corner.

Still wet with the fluid from it’s egg, the bird was huddled behind what once had been a bookshelf, shivering and squawking occasionally. Her feathers a jet black, as dark as the ashes of her aunt, the bird looked at her knowingly, calming as Amaste approached, and allowed her to pick her up.

Allowing herself a moment to cope with the series of events, Amaste bowed her head, hugging the bird tight to her chest and whispered a solemn prayer:

Out of death comes life.

Out of violence comes peace.

Rest easy, Aunt Zoe.

I will see that this life lives,

Even though you have died.

Amaste made a silent vow to herself. The bird’s name would be Zoe, and she would be the best hawk strider that ever lived. She wiped the bird clean with the end of her cloak and carried on in search of her sister, the newly named hawk strider in tow.

Ama Evolution

My Priest has been my main for over 2 years now. In that time, I’ve watched her change and grow. Here is a little commemoration in screenshots.

I Got Yer Tank Right Here!

Yet another PUG story:

I zone into AN. I can see that the bear tank is at 18% and is already heading down the tunnel to pick up the first mobs (or so I assume). I buff everyone up anyway and the shaman and I inch forward, to find that the first group of mobs is right in front of us and the tank is beyond them. He must have stealthed past them or ran ahead before they spawned.

The shaman and I back up out of aggro range. Meanwhile, the tank runs back to us, in cat form, still at 18% health, and he gets hit from behind while in cat form. He gets one shot.

I zone out before I die. And this precious gem is what I get to see in my chat window:

names not edited for protection of the innocent, the innocent being those not talking shit

The funny thing is, I feel like I’ve run with this asshole before, except he wasn’t such an asshole the time before, just enough of an asshole for me to be thinking it, but complete the dungeon with him anyway. Well this move makes him more than asshole enough to land a spot on my ignore list. To me this reeks of pure healer griefing. Why would you do that otherwise?

So if you’re on the Emberstorm battlegroup, I’d suggest putting Themónarch-Tortheldrin on your ignore list. The accented o is alt 0243.