How about a Brat, peppers and onions?

A bit of mustard.

But not as tasty as it looks...

As promised for Roz.

This is not my Retirement Post!

How in the world…of Warcraft, are ya? It’s been a while, and for that I’m sorry. Alot has been happening over the past few weeks in my crazy nutshell of a life, and I wanted to take a minute to share all of the good news with you guys, the loyal 4thehordies.

I handed over the guild leader position last night, and I feel really good about it. I’ve played a total of maybe 5 hours over the past few weeks, and that means I wasn’t even coming close to being a “good” guild leader.

Not that any of the things keeping me away from Azeroth were bad things, but they were things none the less. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m working with guildy Spiffy. He’s what you would call a “macho man.” He’s got the whole construction thing down. He’s worked me to the bone, but it’s been good for me. I’ve learned alot of new skills that I will be able to pull out when needed. (yes honey, I can get to that fence eventually!)

I’ve been working my normal part time job as well, so between teh two jobs, that’s six days a week….eek! Then I’ve been helping out a VBS at our church, and that has been fun. I’m getting my teaching degree next spring, so working with elementary age kiddo’s has been a blast, and has confirmed that this is what I want to do with my life.

Also, as mentioned previously, the wife and I are having a baby in October. Crazy huh? We went in this week for our usual monthly appointment, and there were two nursing students there. The doctor offered to give us a second sonogram for free so she could show the nursing students. SUH-WHEAT. This time, the baby was very cooperative, and showed us all that she is definatly a girl. No mistaking it. So, world, meet little Lily.

I say all of this to lead up to this statement. I’m not retiring from world of warcraft, blogging, or gaming in general. I’m just slowing down. I assume I won’t be making my regular Monday posts until the fall semester starts back up and I can at least comment on what is going on. Right now, I have no clue what is going on. I mean, seriously, I hear there is a big patch coming, but I had no clue how big until yesterday when I FINALLY got around to looking online at the notes! So, until I see you all around, here or in Azeroth, have fun, and stay classy. Also, if Pie gives you too much of a hassle as GL, show him this!

~Uncle Sy

Warcraft Gourmet!

A conversation that started yesterday in email, and that has now boiled over onto the blog has brought up a few interesting questions. Lets go back to the beginning.

I’ve been working construction with a guildy, One Mr. Spiffy. It’s been a blast. He found out early on that I go above and beyond for our lunches, as we have a grill at the work site. I usually pool everyone’s resources, and prepare the items to be grilled the morning of and bring them ready to cook. This day was different. I had no time to prepare, so I brought everything with me, and would cut and prep on site. A true work site gourmet! Here’s the picture Spiffy snapped of me while I worked.

Yes, I’m using the cooler as a cutting board to cut a bell pepper. Yes the cooler looks dirty, but I cleaned every surface with soap and hot water before I used it. The stain is a plastic paint that bonds, and will not come off. It may not look appetising here, but when it is done, mmmmm so good.

mmmm, here they are.

Okay, so that is a ripped off pic from the web, but mine totally look like this with peppers, shrooms, and onions bursting forth from the perfectly grilled bacon wrapped brats.

Here are a few pics of what I have actually done in progress on the grill.

mmmmmmmmm.

This leads me to my warcraft related question for the day. It took me a bit to get here, but here we are. What warcraft dishes that can be prepared in game, would you like to see cooked in real life. If you can come up with a good one, I will write up a post for my favorite one, complete with pictures of me cooking said warcraft inspired dish. I might even have a loot card lying around I could give out as a prize. I’ll have to wait and see, if not I’ll give out a drawing of your toon for free. You may not know this, but I haz art skillz.  Give me your best wow inspired recipes folks. I’ll even have Mr Nimrock from this here blog taste them, and give an open, and fair judgment of how they are! Have fun with this one, get as wild as you can!

~Uncle Sy

Thursday Thoughts…with Pie

As a confessed Altaholic, I love the new mount changes that will come with 3.2.

Note to melee DPS: Charge stunning the skull before it’s reached melee range of the tank is a bad idea, mmmkay?

Gnomeaggedon has serious issues.

Preventing a guildmate from completing their work because you are chatting on Google chat is…win.

The new “Throwback” versions of Pepsi and Moutain Dew, very good. I will be sad when they stop making them. Luckily, I can always get Dr. Pepper the way God intended it. If I travel to Texas. Which isn’t a bad thing…just a long drive or lots of shipping.

Sy posted pics of carrots and hot dogs. Oh..they claimed (Sy and Nim) they were peppers. But Slig and I both thought they were carrots. Roz said it was a daily cooking quest. Sewer Stew

If you don’t read Big Bear Butt Blogger…You should. This post is why you should never give a bear leaves….

Surf control blocks a lot of WOW places at work. Luckily Google and it’s reader isn’t one of them. So, I keep up on WOW throughout the day on reader. Sadly, if the whole post isn’t sent through the feed, I can’t read it all. That makes me sad.

Gnomie was bad and got caught by Surf control recently. I think it’s because he has too many screenshots of himself. Vain gnome warning. Not to mention it’s epic in it’s length.

Fikkle popped into game the other day. He’s busy getting ready for his move to his new job. Apparently he has to pack or somesuch. This is where gnomes would be a good thing.

Going to the Royals Game tomorrow. Big fireworks show after the game. I am hoping I can get some good shots of them. If I do, I’ll post some over the weekend.

Edit:

Here is the pic referenced above.

What do those look like?

Christmas Came Early this Year!

Wait, I got that backwards, Sy’s post came late…. Yes folks, sometimes, christmas comes early, but this time my post came late…Over the past few weeks my play time has been almost non existent. I’ve had a huge increase in the amount of time I’ve been working, so therefore my wow time has goe away. It’s all good of course, but it makes for less “blogworthy” material. When I have been popping in to say hi to the gang, I’ve been leveling my death knight. If you all remember, I was almost anti-Dk for the longest time. I like so many before me, have now fallen to the grasp of Arthas and his army of death knights.

Abadon, my DK, is up to lvl 69 19/20ths. In fact, when I log in after I finish this post, he will be lvl 70. So, where might he be questing you ask? Is he finished with Howling Fyord? Is he tearing through Borean Tundra? Dare he be in Grizzly Hills at this dastardly level? Maybe Dragon Blight?Nope, Nope, Nope, and Nope again. I’m still happily plundering my way through Nagrand. Nagrand? at 69 and 19/20ths??? Yup, Nagrand. When I hit 58 leaving the DK starting zone, I decided that I would get loremaster of outlands before I set foot in Northrend. Now, here I am, not even four zones into Outland, and I am perfectly ready to go to Northrend. But I’m not gonna! I want to see how high I can get before stepping foot on the zeplin at Org or UC. Where will the madness stop? 72? 73? 74? Even 75 maybe? I’m predicting level 74 by time I finish with the rest of the zones. Thus far I have Hellfire, Zangermarsh, terrokar, and an a little over halfway through nagrand. That leaves alot of zones to bust through.

Now, moving onto more pressing topics. I am predicting an expansion announcement at Blizzcon this August. My question to you fine readership, is this. What will the expansion be, and what new hero classes/or races do you think we will get wiht the added 10 levels of content and grinding reps? Surprise me guys, I am curious what you are thinking. Also, if you happen to come across rumors etc, throw em up here…like, not literally, Pie gets sick of cleaning up after everyone regurgitating on everything! That last one Slig left on the rug took forever to get out! A battlemage? A Melee healer? A panderan race? Goblins as playable races with an engineering class, not profession? the sky is endless with this one guys, have fun!

~Uncle Sy

Recruitment update.

As you can see if you are actually visiting the site and not just reading this in your feeder, I’ve removed the Recruitment post as a sticky.  It’s not that we are done recruiting it’s that I want to give each author’s post their time at the head of the class…so to speak.

Several things have changed since we started recruiting.  Fikkle and Slig are on and indefinite vacation from the game.  Sy was…/shudder…given the role of GL.  Nim decided to work on his druid and probably heal or dps, I forget which. I switched from ret to maintankadin.  We’ve added two level 80 Disc Priests who think it’s fun to heal and dps at the same time.  We’ve added a level 80 Troll Mage who thinks boy trolls are the best.  We’ve added a level 80 Lock who seems to have a desire to fill all our bank tabs with goodies!  And we’ve added a few folks who decided to start over rather than transfer their characters, at this time.

To be honest we’ve added a few folks I am not sure I’ve met.

Ashes of Tirisfal has grown and we’ve added good folks.  We are still open to adding a few more, so if you’ve wondered what it would be like to be apart of this crazy guild, whisper one of us in game and comment in this post.

Nim’s Tuesday Tidbits

Feeling a little out of touch here today. So you get the first, and likely the only*, installment of Nim’s Tuesday Tidbits!

• I haven’t had much WoW time and the time I have spent lately is mostly fishing for that blasted mount.
• I’m actually not a mid-twenties, shlumpy, bearded, math teacher. I am, in reality, a supermodel. Just like that movie, the one with the supermodel.
• All of the personalities of 4thehorde are written by the same supermodel (see above tidbit) who is me. Commence disappointment.
• I will quit WoW the day Star Wars: The Old Republic opens.
• Druid kitty forms look magnificent. As do the bear forms. I’m casting my vote for a tree form that looks like this:

• Love grows where my Rosemary goes and nobody knows like me.
• This is all fake.

*I don’t like throw-away posts, which for all intents and purposes this is. I apologize.

Don’t you wish your tank was sexy like me?

Normally on Wednesday, you would have been reading the smooth writing of Slig…

But Slig, due to computer issues and “losing that loving feeling” with WOW, has left the game. For Now. And Ashes of Tirisfal and Azeroth as a whole are less fun. We have some awesome new recruits. Recruits Slig will love when he (hah!) returns. But Slig is part of the family that is our guild, and nothing short of her return to the game will lessen that loss. This is in by no means a way to try to get Slig to come back. No, she made a decision that is right for her, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hurt. I will miss playing my druid without a hunter’s mark over the mob. I will miss getting her own brand of Bloodlust. I will not miss the player as much because we chat in emails. Apparently she has one more post to do about those emails. We will await that post with expectation. We will continue to visit her own blog…. We will miss you Slig and Calysong and Solareclipse.

And other changes have been made in game as well. First, Fikkle gave the GM role to Sy…which is scary. And Piepal became a tank.

Yeah like your tank never tanked in a dress.

I am enjoying tanking because it is something pretty new to me.  I started a paladin to give me something different to play when I wasn’t playing my hunter.  I am finding that I really have to concentrate and study the fights, things I never really had to do as much with my hunter.  Oh, when I was raiding I did, just to keep up, but really most fights were, here’s your target, kill it. Oh and don’t stand in stuff.

So now I tank.  I am really practicing my rotation because it’s important as the tank to not threat cap the DPS.  If I do my job right, then the DPS can do their jobs right.  And the healers don’t have to do their jobs for as long.

There have been loads of blog posts and threads and insane amounts of pixels devoted to how raiding has changed in Wrath.  It really hasn’t.  It’s still the same.  Tanks still tank, healers heal and DPS, kills things.  How you go about these roles may change fights, but in the end, the basic core of raiding or grouping or even leveling is, can you kill the mob before it kills you.  You might need to dance every so often, or get in a vehicle or dragon to do it.  And on that point, what makes reasonable players lose their minds when they get on a vehicle of sorts?

This post has rambled. Not because I didn’t have a topic, but because I had too many thoughts rambling around in my head.  So many changes over the past few weeks.  Sometimes you just have to talk it out.

For those of you that read this blog, AoT and 4thehorde are still strong.  We will be stronger if/when our prodigals return.  And if they don’t, we wish them the best on their journey.

Aka’Magosh

Thoughts on Old World Heroics (Part 1)

When BC was first announced one of the things I was most excited about was the concept of heroic modes. I of course hoped, along with many others, that heroic modes would be released for old world dungeons as well as for outlands dungeons. Sadly that never materialized but it’s been in the back of my mind ever since. Several dungeons stand out as perfect candidates for revitalization. The first I’d like to share my scattered thoughts on is Wailing Caverns.

Heroic Wailing Caverns

For those of you who haven’t done WC in some time or haven’t ever done it, a quick review:

It’s long, confusing and full of raptors, druids of the fang, slimes, boglords, plants, snakes and windserpents. There are 4 Fanglords you have to kill before starting an event to wake Naralex the Dreamer and eventually fight his nightmare: a huge murloc. The pulls are varied, the trash is interesting and it’s long enough and has enough bosses and mini-bosses to be a progression raid.

And from Blizzard’s own World Dungeons page:

Recently, a night elf druid named Naralex discovered a network of underground caverns within the heart of the Barrens. Dubbed the ‘Wailing Caverns’, these natural caves were filled with steam fissures which produced long, mournful wails as they vented. Naralex believed he could use the caverns’ underground springs to restore lushness and fertility to the Barrens – but to do so would require siphoning the energies of the fabled Emerald Dream. Once connected to the Dream however, the druid’s vision somehow became a nightmare. Soon the Wailing Caverns began to change – the waters turned foul and the once-docile creatures inside metamorphosed into vicious, deadly predators. It is said that Naralex himself still resides somewhere inside the heart of the labyrinth, trapped beyond the edges of the Emerald Dream. Even his former acolytes have been corrupted by their master’s waking nightmare – transformed into the wicked Druids of the Fang.

So what can we expect from a Heroic version?

Kresh-It’s a big blue turtle. The introductory tank and spank. He can be upgraded with massive health, maybe an enrage timer.

 

 

 

 

Lady Anacondra-The first of the Fanglords. She puts a party member to sleep so group coordination will be important. Also watch out for her serpent pals.

 

 

 

 

Lord Cobrahn-Surrounded by tons of little snakes that must be AOE’d down. At a certain health level he’ll turn into a snake and his damage is increased. Watch out for poisons. Maybe even implement a constant poison tick on the whole group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord Pythas-The melee boss. He’s also surrounded by druids and shamblers, making CC or tanking priority a must. Lots of physical damage on the tank combined with coordination make this one a great heroic upgrade.

 

 

Serpentis-Make him the caster boss. He’s already capable of casting sleep and throwing around lightning bolts.

 

 

 

 Verdan the Everliving-Casts Grasping Vines that immobilizes anyone caught in its grasp. Upgrade his hitpoints massively, maybe add an armor debuff.

Mutanus the Devorer-The great white murloc. In Wailing Caverns’ original incarnation one must kill all 4 fanglords and then speak to the Disciple of Naralex near the entrance to start a fairly exhausting event that takes you to the room where Naralex is trapped in his dream. Then the group fights several waves of mobs until Mutanus shows up. I propose instituting a 5-man ‘hard-mode’ of sorts where a group can go to the disciple whenver they choose to start the event. Of course, leaving the various Fanglords alive will make the showdown with Mutanus harder. Probably either the living fanglords join the fight or possibly just grant Mutanus buffs of various types.

I have also left out Skum the lightning lizard. I suppose he could be put in as a sort of loot pinata but honestly the only interesting thing about the fight is that he flees in fear when close to the end of his health.

Overall, considering Blizzard’s tendency to ‘press ever onward’ I doubt we’ll ever see a revamping of the old dungeons. It is a fun mental exercise however and I’d love to see what ideas others have for other dungeons. The next one I’ve got in mind to talk about is Ulduman.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

To blatantly rip off the words of the mediocre spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility.

Now I’m the head of Ashes, and I’m like, uh, okay, what now? I guess we’ll keep on recruiting as per usual, and continue to bolster our ranks.  I’d like to give you a bit of an update on how the recruiting has gone. Now, going into this, if I for some unforseen reason, miss any of the new recruits in this post, I AM SORRY! I AM A NUB!!! So, meet the new guys!

First we have Grubbs.  Grubbs came to Ashes a bit differently than the other new recruits. She didn’t show up during actual recruitment, but rather just prior. She was the winner of the “name mah spirit beast” contest. Grubbs has been leveling her Dk with us, and is lovingly called “Woyms.”

Next we have Rozjin. Roz comes to us from my original server Earthenring. Roz has jumped right in and done heroics, arenas, and many other things with the guild. She’s not a shy one that’s for sure! She has even been recruiting for us!

Which brings us to Fiak! Fiak made the jump to Dawnbringer from Earthenring when Roz bribed, I mean, convinced Fiak to come along!  Fiak is a Disc Priest, he’s feisty, confident, and loves the horse races! I’ve had the opportunity to run a heroic and do a few(very few) arena’s with him so far. It’s been fun, and I’m looking forward to actually pushing him to see what he can  do(by push him, I really mean /target priest /cast misdirecton/ /cast volley.)

Now, lets say hi to our other new disc priest, priestgiblets. Giblets, or Gib, as I’m going to henceforth call him, hales from Germany for the time being. He’s a serviceman, I believe in the army(hope I got that right) and is about to be headed back to the states. He’s a good guy, and I look forward to playing some with him in the near future.

Next we have Flanksteak. Flank has been a longtime reader of 4theHOrde. We’re glad to have him jump on board. He’s already started leveling a cow warrior(hence the name flanksteak). You may know him from teh comments he posts here as youngbro.

Finally, our newest, as of this morning guildie to join the ranks is Invidia. Invidia is the newest member, and as such, I haven’t been able to chat with her for any length of time yet, but I know she twitters, as that is where I met her first! As she posted on teh boards, I was in touch with her via the twitter! Small world…of warcraft.

Well, that’s the new people, and I think everyone of them are amazing guildies. I’m looking forward to hanging out with them, running stuff, and general shenanigans at every turn. Speaking of, we have our first guild fun run scheduled for tomorow night at 7pm server time. It should be a hoot. Depending on how many people show up, we’ll decide where to go.

In other news, the argent tournament is done for Gozz. He finally hit exalted champion of the Horde.

And, no title….I misunderstood it, and did all of that work, for a title that comes with 100,000 honor kills….that’s a TON of BG’s.

So, no new title, but I am still a Champion of the Horde.

So, if you are still looking for a guild home, we are still recruiting. Have fun Hordies, and remember, friends don’t let friends roll night elfs.

~Uncle Sylus