O Hai Thrall

O Hai Thrall!

I heard you are getting the shaft… Errr I mean getting a cushy diplomatic post.

Guess it was all that mishandling of Sylvanas and letting the competitive Orcs usurp your position.

I hear they are going to clean up out Orgrimmar too…

About time!

As if the smell of Orcs isn’t fetid enough without all that Tauren dung littering the streets.

Take it from me, the best Tauren is the BBQ’d Tauren. Marinated in Belf tears is best, but there’s nothing wrong with a plain old slab of Bessy on the BBQ!

TooFewHorde

I’m beginning to think your crew are already deserting you… This place is as desolate as Exodar…

Where they all go?

I could have used a slice of Fikkle Sylus Pie for Xmas lunch… Those BGs make me hungry and I have a sweet tooth.

Anyway, I think it’s time to head off… Before I do I think I’ll mark your throne… That should drive the Hunter’s pets crazy… The scent of Gnome pee… They will be gnawing on whoever sits on this throne for years to come.

If you happen to see the folks from For The Horde, say G’day to them for me…

Ohh and wish all the readers a great holiday season while your at it!

For Gnomeregan!

Gnomer and Out!

One Week Without Wow

Yes folks, I had almost quit cold turkey without even trying to quit wow. I hear something about if you can make it past your first week you can be home free…well folks, it’s a lie. I’ve had the craziest week ever. I ended up with several semester projects due at the end of this past week. Now, between all of the extra school work, a PS3 with blue ray player(lets face it, I’m all about the High def movies!) and the bundle of joy reaching 8 weeks old, my parents needing a hand moving, and then the general nuttyness that surrounds me, I went just over a full week without even so much as logging into world of warcraft. Very sad, I know. Then tonight I sat down to work on a drawing for a guy for Christmas (he’s gonna love it) and decided that I needed a break. It dawned on me how long it had been sense I last logged into Azeroth. I had to remedy this. So, two minutes later I’m sitting in Dal on teh ol’ rogue ready for some action. I throw the invite out to Omega to see who can hit up HTOC. Not two minutes later we’re rolling into the instance. Now, there has to be something going on. Apparently Blizzard realized I hadn’t been in game for a week or so, and wanted to lure me in. They threw every piece of rogue gear that place had to offer at me! Well, not every piece, but I had at least one drop for every boss. Now, mind you a hunter got my helmet off of the black knight…meh, on well. I did however end up with the boots and bracers from the previous two bosses. I think wow wants me back in, and they have succeeded. I must now try to make some wow time over the next few days. School has slowed down so that is a plus. My rogue will be getting more playtime, she’s a blast. Yes, I said She. And she’s a Belf, yes,  BELF! Check her out. I know she needs a ton of gear/work as she’s new to the end game of life. Catch you all in Azeroth! You’ll be seeing a lot more of me!

I leave you with the inspiration for playing a female belf rogue. The music is lacking (Fikkle would disagree, I hear he likes buble gum pop?) but the video is all win.

~Sylus

Need more cowbell..

Shh don’t tell the others I rolled a gnome DK on Gnomer’s server.

The Push for 100

Heya hordlings and evil allianc-lings(that’s you gnomeagedon and DCL…or is it DLC?!?). We’ve been bad bloggers here at 4theHorde. How bad? This bad.

Yes, we’ve been bad, sorry for the gap in the wondrous writing that is 4theHorde…wait, this just in, we’re not wondrous, just odd and slightly Canadian(well, Fik is Canadian, so technically, that’s 1/5th of the writing staff…wait, we don’t get paid, so we aren’t a staff…what are we then? Oh yeah, hobbyists. Where was I going with this? I forget.

Now, onto the main event. My world of warcraft time as of late has been spent earning mounts. Last time I felt you with a number, that number was 73. Then number of mounts I had at that time. Now, I’ve been avoiding the netherwing drakes because I had always heard it was a crazy stupid grind. Lets face it, by now in my wow career, most things I do are stupid grinds. It was time to get at it. I started the quests, and some ten days later, I was exalted with them. I found a few eggs in there as well,lol. Now, a few things about the netherwing ledge quests. I liked them. They were fun. I mean come on, where else can you roam around as a GIANT RED ORC?!?!

Honestly, Gozz was a sweet looking orc before, but  he’s awesome looking as a big red fel orc! This, combined with the ease of doing level 70 quests at level 80 made the time fly by. I spent 30-45 minutes per day doing the quests and flew through to exalted. I bought all six netherwing mounts and will probably never go back again! Now, if you are keeping track, that brings the count to 79. Now, I’ve still been doing argent tourney quests, not every day, but most. I hit another hundred marks, and went after another mount. I was under the impression that the argent tournament mount(the horsey) was paladin only. I was wrong!

Pure awesome.

Even if this mount isn’t paladin specific, it’s hard to not imagine I’m a paladin when I ride it! This brings me up to 80. Then, with teh addition of another pvp mount, the wolf, I’m sitting at 81. I have 19 to go for my 100 mounts goal. This is no easy task. There are some that are going to be a grind. I have three more pvp mounts I can get, 7 tournament mounts, bringing me to 91. Then it gets rough…and expensive. I still need to purchase the red drake from dragonblight and blue armored windrider at roughly 2k each…1600 with rep? that’s 93… Then I can get the 300 spirit shards one from wintergrasp, 94…. the 200 emblems elephant from dalaran, 95… the exalted hodir elephant, what 8k gold, ouch! 96… I will run stratholm until the baron finally caves and gives me his mount, 97… I can switch my mining to tailoring and get two carpets, woot! 99!! Then it either gets hairy, or expensive where I go from here… I can get all of the mats for the mechanohog(what 12k+ im mats and gold?) I can purchase the traveling tundra mammoth(ouch) or I can run karazan, zul garub, HMr. T and pray that one of the mounts comes my way, or give my druid healy friend(yeah you Nim) the money for his epic flight quest and run crypts for the archlord thingie over and over again… Either way, I can get to 99 cheapish, but the 100th mount might be tough… I’ll get there, just wait!

Anyway, mounts are on my mind, as well as my rogue. I’ve been playing the rogue a bit lately, but more on that in a later post. You may be surprised to hear my motivation for playing roguey Mcrogerson again…

~Uncle Sy

This is too Much

Wow. I’ve run around saying “I’m a Night Elf Mohawk!” as much as the next guy ever since the over the top wow commercial featuring Mr. T. But wow, this is just ugly. I never want to be a night elf mohawk again…

Man is that ugly…

~Sy

Mounts, Mounts and Moar Mounts

Before I start this wonderful list of mounts I currently own, mounts I’m currently working on, and mounts I will never see, let me just take a moment to thank Fikkle. Jerk. This whole mount obsession started a few days back. Fikkle, his bro, and myself were all on vent. He asked a simple question, and my mount obsession, nay, addiction kicked back in. Thanks dude. Thanks.

The Winner’s Prize

Thanks again for everyone’s comments and entries for the win some art contest. I wanted to take a quick minute to show you guys what we ended up with. First, the image I was sent to work with, DCL’s Shaman.

Now, here’s a look at what I ended up sending his way.

Not a bad representation for a dirty alliance! Just playin Larry, you know you’re all good in our books! Now remember, if you want a piece of artwork done for yourself, go over to either my blog, or my etsy shop and I’ll start leaving this blog back to the Horde, where it belongs!

~Uncle Sy

FINALLY!!!!

After what, three months now sense HToC came into the world… of warcraft, I finally have my grubby little hands of the one item I’ve drooled over. It’s finally mine folks, it’s finally mine! I figured I’ve run it 2-4 times per week from the beginning, and only seen it drop for a group I was in twice. I lost the first to a warrior… Yeah, I know, fail. Then I picked this beaut up. I’ve seen the shoulders get DE’d a few times, the necklace, gloves, boots, Morrowstrike, anything a hunter might potentially want drop. I’ve seen everything else enough to not only have a chance to win the rolls, but to sell a few to vendors when we have no enchanter with us! But finally, SHE IS MINE!

Lets take a look at these stats compared straight out to my junky ol’ Nesingwary. ( I love the gun, really I do, but it’s trash compared to this one!) True-aim Long Rifle Binds when picked up Ranged Gun 309 – 575 Damage Speed 3.00 (147.3 damage per second) +34 Agility +35 Stamina Durability 90 / 90 Requires Level 80 Item Level 219 Equip: Increases attack power by 42. Equip: Increases your armor penetration rating by 34.

VS.

Nesingwary 4000 Binds when equipped Ranged Gun 254 – 472 Damage Speed 2.80 (129.6 damage per second) Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +8 Attack Power Durability 90 / 90 Requires Level 80 Item Level 200

Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 21 . Equip: Increases attack power by 78.

I mean come on, they aren’t light years apart stat wise, but it is making about a 200 dps difference on the few runs I’ve went on sense getting this  fine piece of machinery, so well worth the effort in my opinion. (Yes, I know it could be better, I could go run raids and get ubber leetness guns, bows, and crossbows, but I’m casual. Not that hardcore… so I guess I’ll settle for this!)

~Uncle Sy

It’s not a meme if you don’t tag anyone

From the healing survey at Miss Medicina. So what if I’m late to the party and no one tagged me? Gotta do something to avoid working on my NaNoWriMo novel.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer? Fangorn/Druid/Resto

What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans) Heroic 5-man instances and the occasional raid

What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?  Rejuv! It packs a whallop, it’s efficient and the icon is so darn pretty.

What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?  Healing touch. I’m much to impatient for that spell.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?  We look like trees and we have a righteous tree-dance. Also, flexibility. I feel like I can jump back and forth between raid healing and tank healing as well as 5 and 10 man instances pretty well without any major gear or talent changes.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?  I feel like, and this is based only on my experiences, the HoT healing system strongly discriminates against lower gear levels. If you don’t have the spell power to get those big ticks, you’re going to be spamming heals the whole night.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you? Raid healing. I pretty much just cast rejuv on everything friendly and watch Dexter.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?  Shamans, gotta love the totems.

What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?  I’ve never payed enough attention. I guess priests, but only because shields are dark magic and I have no idea how I’m supposed to work with them.

What is your worst habit as a healer?  I forget about swiftmend constantly. It’s annoying because I’ll be chain casting regrowth to get a tank back up after a big hit, and I’ll only realize after that I could have hit swiftmend and gotten an instant buffer.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?  People asking for summons when I’m the last person to get invited. Also, people who link the DPS meters.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?  Sure, I dunno. I don’t get calling for nerfs of other classes, why be jealous? It doesn’t matter if your heals are green or white or yellow, we’re all here for the same reason: to make fun of stupid DPS.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?  Did people die? No? Good deal.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?  I have a tank dual spec.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?  How to balance the HoTs with the direct heals. It’s a tough dance to get used to and it’s still one I’m trying to learn. I also see timing as an issue. If some splash damage hits a DPS, just give him a rejuv and let it go, don’t waste time and mana healing people to full when they’re not taking any damage.

If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?  Tons of overhealing. I mean extravagant amounts of overhealing. See my raid healing strategy above.

Haste or Crit and why?  Haste. I have a moonkin offspec for dailies, farming and the occasional guild “goof-off” run. I’m also lazy so I don’t really want to keep two full sets of gear. When bloodlust goes off and I’m spamming wrath like my mana pool’s on fire I’m singing BOOM BOOM POW like Fergie herself is in the raid

What healing class do you feel you understand least?  Paladin. What is it exactly that those guys do? I’ve seen their healing spell list and it’s like, one spell and a list of blessings.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing? I only use grid and this big old macro I dug up somewhere on the internet. It basically heals whatever my mouse is floating over, be it the character on the screen or their portrait or their grid icon. Reduces my clicking to zero. I use decursive too, and that feels like cheating.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? I just stack spellpower and pretty much everything else seems to fall in line. Did I mention I’m a tad lazy?

And the Winner is…

First of all, let me say thank you to everyone that came by my site adn entered my contest! If you came by my site, didn’t bother to say hi or anything, even enter the contest, well, you guys are cool too. (Unless you didn’t enter because you thought my art work was crap…then I’ll hunt you down like the little gnomes you smell like. Yeah, we know you were here, we have good noses…) Anyway, the traffic increase here and at World of Sylus was amazing. No sales of toon picks yes, but I’m assuming that’s because you all want to know if you won the free toon drawing first. (that’s what I’m telling myself to keep from crying at night. )

We had many great comments, and many more people pimp my art work via twitter, blogs, and even facebook. Thank you all for the kind words(even if they were to get in my good graces to win the artwork) I still love you! So, here’s how I picked the winner. I wrote down all of the people that pimped my stuffs on the internets. (Twitter posts with links, facebook posts with links, blog posts, etc) After I had all of your names on little pieces of paper,(Gnome, you had your name in there like 6 times I think, YOU ANIMAL!) the lovely LadyGil drew one random name out of the bucket. (it was this candy thing for Halloween, scary!) Now, I know who that name is, heck I want to tell you who that name is, but I think I better not just yet. Let me spend a little bit more time rambling on and on about how awesome this contest was, how cool my artwork is, and how amazing you all were for entering and visiting the site.

Is that enough rambling? If not I can do some more, seriously. I can ramble for hours and hours without slowing down. Okay, I”m boring myself. The name drawn out of the hat, against all odds(seriously, how the crap was Gnome not drawn, he was in there so many times!) the winner of one custom toon drawing is none other than DotComLarry. Yes folks, DOTCOMLARRY. Good Ol’ Dot threw out a tweet during the second day of the contest I believe and came back here telling me to check it out. I did, and thank you for the kind words Larry! I’ll be contacting you via twitter to get your info on what toon you want, the screenshot, and where to send it too.

As soon as I’m done with this fine piece of artwork, I’ll post it out here on the interwebs for all to see. Now, I wasn’t going to do this, but Gnome, send me a direct message on twitter. I’m giving you a second place prize. I feel you earned it. I mean seriously, I got so much face time on Gomeageddon’s blog I was beginning to feel like I was a co-author or something, sheesh. It kind of creeped me out a bit, seriously, the view from down there is scary!

Well guys, thanks for the great contest and traffic. Keep stopping by, and remember if you want to purchase a custom piece of world of warcraft art for you or a loved one, check out my etsy shop, or leave me a comment at world of Sylus.

~Uncle Sy