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Anonymity and Assholes November 25, 2009

Posted by Sharny in : Gaming,Internets,World of Warcraft , add a comment

There’s no doubt that the reason why the internet is so rife with trolling and abuse of people is the factor of anonymity. It gives people a chance to say what they could never say in the real world due to their knowledge of the consequences. It’s one of those things that is often cited as why the internet is bad for human empathy and communication. I’ve never really agreed with this. The fact is that every single group of people in the world has within it assholes, and people often use that fact to attempt to degregate and entire group of people. I’ve done it myself in the past, before I realised how utterly stupid such a thing is.

But that’s not really why I’m writing here, I’m writing because of a small but quite heart warming encounter I had whilst playing World of Warcraft (yeah, I resubscribed).

Earlier this year when I played for a couple of months I was keen to try out the Death Knight class, I’d been saving the gname I wanted for my gnome (because quite clearly gnomes are the most badass choice for a Death Knight) for a while, using my wee Grillywiggin as a banker until finally I could create his level 55 form. I had good fun with the starting Death Knight quests, I really like the way Blizzard handled it. But that’s not really the point, the point is that because I have a level 58 that I want to continue playing I have to get my professions going. I went for herbalism and inscription as this is the perfect shot to be try out the new profession.

Leveling herbalism means a lot of wandering around in low leveled areas, I’d already hit Westfall and the surround areas and was at about the level of the Wetlands so I was wandering around there whilst simultaneously playing some battlegrounds (it’s a lot of fun as a Death Knight and I’m usually top of the charts).

As I was doing this I took a herb from right next a level 20-something paladin who was fighting something of the local wildlife. Right as I was taking it I realised he was probably fighting that creature in order to get it but my herbing autopilot had just taken over. It hadn’t been my intention to take from the guy, I hate it when the same thing happens to me. My thoughts about what had happened were confirmed when he whispered me a few seconds later, just calling me a loser. This rather lame attempt at insult was deserved in a way, so I made note of his name.

Later, on my banker, I sent him an apology letter, complete with 1g to hopefully make up for it. I was really touched to recieve a reply the next day, returning the money and telling me not to worry about it as well as good luck for my herbalism levelling. It just goes to show that actually even people who would call someone a loser and call it a day there are actually just as human as anyone else underneath and will actually respond very well to honest apology.

So I’d urge anyone out there, any time you do something that you know was wrong accidentally, take a minute to say sorry and just see what happens. It might just make your day.

So much for that then July 24, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Gear,Instances,Paladin,World of Warcraft , add a comment

After my last post you can imagine my surprise when logging into WoW 5mins before raid time hoping to maybe run Kara that I saw the guild message of the day saying we were doing Magtheridon.  I quickly flicked up the guild roster to see that we had 20 people online, which I’ve not seen for a while.  So yeah, so much for never seeing 25 mans again.

I’m happy to say that we got him down on the third attempt, after some bad luck on the first attempt with the cave in coinciding with a blast nova and then one of our cube clickers lagging right before a blast nova on the second try.  No loots for me there but he doesn’t actually drop anything I want now anyway, my chest is better than the T4 one now.

In recruitment news, we seem to have paladins growing out of our ears now.  There were a total of 6 paladins in that raid, four of them holy.  I wouldn’t mind this so much if they weren’t all so much better geared than me.  As it seems we’re picking up stragglers from all through Tier 4, 5 and 6 we’ve got some people with very nice gear, some for more than one spec and it is making me feel a little inadequate. I am slightly doubting whether I’m up to this hardcore raiding malarkey – I got called out twice before the raid about the lack of enchants on my gear, which is of course a very fair criticism. My main issue with the enchanting of gear is the difficulty of finding an enchanter. I seriously can’t wait till WotLK where enchants will be trade able on the auction house, once that happens you can pretty much guarantee that my gear will be enchanted up as I have no problem spending money at the auction house so simply.

After downing Maggy we got two Karazhan groups together and headed in.  As not everyone had that much time we only did the first 3 bosses. However, I’m very pleased to say that the lil Paladin wannabe – The Maiden of Virtue – finally dropped the Shard of the Virtuous and so that is one slot finally epiced out.  As I intend to get this enchanted I decided not to continue saving for the badge healing mace and instead spent it on the belt instead and also bought an epic gem to help pay for said enchants.

Overall, a pretty satisfying WoW evening. It looks like I may get to see SSC and TK once more, perhaps even Hyjal and BT one day…

Zul’Aman = Cleared July 20, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Gaming,Instances,Paladin,World of Warcraft , add a comment

Tonight I took part in my personal first downing of Zul’Jin.  This means that I’ve personally cleared Zul’Aman.  Surprisingly, the fight is kinda easier than I expected. As our raid leader was saying whilst we tried to down the previous boss, Zul’Jin is probably a bit easier.  It’s only his very last phase that gave us any trouble and we downed him at some point around attempt number 5.

Nothing interesting dropped of course but the 3 badges are always nice.

This puts my personal raid progression at

When I first dreamt of how awesome raiding must be, I never even imagined that I would get into the 25 mans, never mind all the way in to Tier 5. As things happen, it may be that I don’t get to see another 25 man until wrath.  Unfortunate drama within the guild (which I wasn’t present for and don’t really know what happened) caused a chunk of the raiders to leave and summer brought about inactivity in more.  We do have a core set of raiders big enough to do 10 mans successfully but I know most of us would love to be killing the big targets in the 25 mans. Our active raiders are trickling away but they are also being replaced. Tonights raid had two trial members in it, the same classes as the two core raiders we recently lost, and both of them seemed to perform very well in their roles so there is still hope to get back on our feet.

A nice Deadmines surprise July 3, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Instances,World of Warcraft , add a comment

I’m a registered Altoholic and primarly play Alliance so naturally I’ve done Deadmines a lot across many characters, and I do mean a lot. I ran my friend through it so many times to try and get twink drops for his warrior it was insane. From this long history (well, y’know, as long as it can be for just over a year of playing) I’ve come to expect the worst from your typical Deadmines PuG. So when I get a whisper from a level 15 warrior I don’t have great optimism for the potential of completing the dungeon.

It didn’t look any better once I was in the group, we had me playing my level 19 warlock alt (who I’m really enjoying at the moment), another warlock- level 18, a mage – level 19 and a level 19 ret paladin serving as a healer. Given that, I was worried this was gonna be a complete waste of time.

We actually managed to get through the whole thing, without a single wipe, or at least without a full graveyard run since we had soulstones and used some sneaky tactics. Using a combination of off tanking using my Voidwalker we managed to get through most of the situations. I was having to use every warlock tool available to keep things in check and it made for a very fun experience. The fact that it took 2 and a half hours doesn’t even bother me because it was such a satisfying experience. I was also pleasently surprised that I managed to pick up the Emberstone Staff, even despite the caster competition for it.

Who knew it was even possible to complete Deadmines with a level 15 tank (who did ding 16 during the run)?

On this note, I’m having a lot of fun on this warlock. I’ve gotten a warlock to 19 before (blood elf female, not really keen on the character and also horde side so not much use for farming) and it was alright but this time round I’m really enjoying the play style, I may actually try and keep it up, it’s good soloin’ fun

Vampires: NHS Style June 13, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Druid,Gaming,Life,World of Warcraft , add a comment

So yes, if you have any understanding of my title you’ll know that what I’m talking about is blood donation.  I first registered as a blood donor last year when they visited my school and tried to donate but due to not being 100% I hadn’t receive blood in the past meant that I can’t donate.  I found out that evening that I hadn’t and managed to forget to go last time they came round.  So, anyway I headed along and got through it all.

I had an appointment but it still seemed to take a while.  It was quite busy.  Overall it was alright, not particularly painful or anything. It’s just one of those things that it’s important and it’s something I can do to help and there’s no reason for me not to do it.  Simple really.  A bit of time and discomfort once every 4 months is worth it for the lives it could save.

In other news, my druid hit 60 just now.  I sent over 515 gold (!) from my main to pay for epic mount training, the druid would have the money if it wasn’t for enchanting…

Still, it will pay for itself once I hit 70 and can farm a bit better.  I was looking at a gold making guide and paladins ranked last in farming ability. Last. And I’m the lowest damage spec. I have no idea how I’ll ever manage to get epic flyer, I’m down to belowe 1000g after maxing alchemy and this mount training. I think its gonna come down to some hardcore grind after my exams are finished.

Alchemy Mastered… June 10, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Druid,Gaming,Gear,Paladin,World of Warcraft , add a comment

I just hit 375 alchemy on my main character.  I decided to do this as I’ve not really had a crafting profession for so long and also because I had read that the trinket is so good that BT/Sunwell guilds have healers dropping other professions to get it.  Thankfully its also probably the cheapest crafting profession to level, at first I gathered herbs on my druid alt (who dropped mining to get herbalism) and used them to level but once I hit 300 I would need Outland stuff exclusively and a 59 druid became a bit useless.  All in all I am about 1000g poorer than when I started, not too bad really.

The only problem now is that I don’t have the reputation with Sha’tar to get the recipe for the alchemists stone which I would then turn into this Uber trinket.  Looks like I’m in for a lot of Tempest Keep instance runs…