Losing my sanity

Oooh Dark Phoenix Hatchling.

Hmm...raise 55 reputations to exalted. Seems easy enough as a guild achievement. Ahahaha no...

This is how I imagined this achievement would be done.

'Oh hai guys, as part of this guild I think it would be uber awesome if we all chipped in and raise a faction to exalted each. So you super friendly guildie megachum, you get Aldor. And you bff, you get Scryer!'

Yay, and then I imagined the guildies would go and exalt their assigned factions and we would live in a land of rainbows and unicorns and dark phoenix hatchlings would spew out of our overflowing guild bank.

In reality however, this achievement is seriously aids, and I'm not talking the helper kind either.

No, instead this achievement is assigned to the poor assface with the highest number of exalted factions upon hitting Revered with the guild. Unfortunately in this guild, that assface is me. So needless to say, that when I hit Revered, much rage was had when I discovered that with my 47 exalted reps the guild was eight short.

Seriously how can an a GUILD achivement depend on one person???!

Still, at least this achievement relies on rep grinding (which to be honest I was always going to do anyway), and it does reward a nifty pet.

So what's the equation like? Well since dinging Revered with the guild, the Darkmoon Faire and the Booty Bay grinds are done and dusted which brings us to 49. Now I'm six short. So lets break it down...

Bilgewater Cartel: 18579/21000 - I've recently finished the other Cata grinds so I'm back to wearing this tabard for dungeons. Huzzah!
Everlook: 15047/21000
Gadgetzan: 18989/21000
Ratchet: 20443/21000 - All the possible quests with the goblin towns have been down and now I'm stuck. Relying on grinding a gajillion pirates is super fun! (Note: The universal conversion for 1 gajillion is 2,382 pirates).
Hydraxian Waterlords: 16293/21000 - Yes, grinding to exalted with Hydraxian. I must be crazy. This grind is still another five weeks away.
Guild: 8435/21000 - If I finish on average six dailies a day with each daily yielding 40 guild rep this is 53 days away from completion. I say six dailies a day because more than that and I want to neck myself.

So there you have it. I was considering grinding Raveholdt by handing in lockboxes but seeing as you need Exalted guild rep anyway to purchase the dark phoenix I decided to save myself from the irony that would have occured if I had finished the Raveholdt grind and then realised I didn't have the guild reputation to purchase the bird!

Wrath's most irritating list

I like to think of myself as a pretty patient player, however I just feel that sometimes Blizz just likes being a jerk. So I had a look back and here are the most irritating things and events to happen this expansion...

*Most irritating daily quest*

Without a doubt in my mind I cringe every time I do the argent tournament citadel daily. Its because even after I finish knocking off the three commanders and about a dozen gargoyles that are blocking my kite path, they will be there again tomorrow, waiting to suck.

*Most irritating raid achievement*

I would have to put down the Immortal/Undying achievement. Not only can no-one not die for a solid 4 hours straight, you need to ensure that things totally out of player control don't happen during that time that might cause a DC; blackouts, partner/parental rage and dodgy ISP's are the main culprits here.

*Most irritating heroic instance achievement*

Less Rabi. *shudders*

*Most irritating holiday achievement*

I'm going to go with the 'Be Mine!'. Whether you obtain your What a Strange Long Trip its Been holiday mount or not can hinge on this dreadful bout of RNG. Why this achievement in particular? Simply because it takes two levels of RNG to complete it. Firstly you need to hope you actually get a bag of candies to drop. Secondly you got to hope that out of the bag of candies, the right combination of candies comes up. These pesky candies almost derailed my year long effort and I feel for those that missed out on their drake this year because of this.

*Most irritating heroic instance*

If you tried to put together a group to do Oculus pre nerf, you would know the pain. Even now that the instance is actually fun to do, there are a lot of mental scars. The fact that Blizz put in lures for groups to not bail on the instance such as gems, badges and even a mount, proves how much of a failure this instance was.

*Most irritating raid*

Similar to Oculus, a lot of guilds and players avoided Malygos like the plague. When the new weekly raid quest came out and Malygos was the boss, I still can't believe how many times I saw 'The Spellweavers Downfall' achievement appear in guild chat and in PUG raids!

*Most irritating thing about phasing*

Phasing in a starting zone like the DK starting area is brilliant, you see a changing landscape and feel the impact of your DK making a difference. That's pretty awesome.

Phasing in an end zone like oh I don't know, Icecrown is not! So many quests in Icecrown require groups to finish and when they're phased you have no chance of putting a group together, especially later in the expansion when you're leveling your 2nd or 3rd toon.

The new ICC raid has also shown how bad phasing can be. For example, when you're hanging around outside the zone in waiting for someone to do that last minute gem or enchant and realise that they're in a different part of the phase!

and finally....

*Most irritating toy*

Ah the good old Toy train set. Gee I really love that moment in raids when a shrill gnome voice pierces my ears with 'choo choo choo choo whooooOOOH'. Its no wonder that through the flood of complaints Blizz would've received that they brought out the smasher. I've seen people kicked from raids for popping one, and I have to admit, it feels strangely satisfying when they do.

Who do you save?

You're sitting down eating your steamed fish with oranges and see a single arrow flying from a hunter's bow, hurtling far into the distance toward the boss. The pull has just gone horribly horribly wrong. You hear a oh sh*tf*ck on Vent (coming from yours truly). Raiders start dropping off like flies and you start 'DI me' getting spammed in raid chat.

Do you DI...

a) Tank
b) Healer
c) DPS


You know the answer before I even ask it, and the answer is of course b) you DI a healer. Well that's not rocket surgery and yet I see pallies get it wrong all the time! I've seen pallies DI whoever they can just to skip out on repair costs. The healers are the guys that are keeping you up and don't think they won't remember your clutch. Its your way of saying thank you, that the person you DI'd was at the top of your mind and your favourite person in the raid... left alive.

Congratulations, next fight you will notice more heals coming your way and its no mistake that you can find yourself still kicking when your fellow melee have long been faceplanted in the dirt.

Okay new scenario.

All the healers are dead, so your next choice is to DI one of the following:

a) Fellow ret pally
b) Warrior main tank
c) Elemental shaman
d) Boomkin
e) Shadow Priest
f) Hunter with Goblin XL Jumper Cables


If you chose a) you selected the second best answer. By DIing a fellow ret naturally you have chosen to DI a resser and what goes around comes around the next time something goes wrong. Secondly, by DIing him you have taken him out of the fight and have pretty much said...

'I know I am going to die when I DI and there is no way I'm going to let another ret paladin outdps me on meters while I'm dead (yes even on wipes)!'

The correct answer is d) the boomkin. They are big, fluffy and easy to see. These oversized soft toys have the power to let you perform your own Jesus impersonation next time you step on that mine or take too long on that void zone. You've got a second chance to dps and you'd better do it right this time.

Oh and finally, never ever pick f) because that was the reject that caused the wipe in the first place!

Death's Verdict: The holy grail

How hard is it to obtain this trinket? At this point in the game, the answer is 'extremely'. Those that have it are the envy of melee, and it probably ranks up there with the coveted Dragonspine Trophy of BC (not so much for rets but I remember a lot of unhappy rogues, hunters and enhance shammy's).

With the guilds raiding nights being spent in ICC, the opportunity to bag one is scarce and the prospect of scoring the heroic version all but gone. That leaves the bleak prospect of trying your luck in a pug *shudder* or acquiring one through a gdkp run.

I had been wanting an upgrade from my well worn Pyrite Infuser for some time, so last Sunday, I was in a gdkp TOC run and judging by the makeup of the raid there was all sorts of melee biting at the chance to bid on Death's Verdict. In the raid were five DKs, a rogue, two ret paladins, a warrior and a hunter. Judging by how fast things were dying, the group was well geared and really only there for the trinket.

The twins fight eventually came and I started shaking at my keyboard as my character bent over to bring up the 'Death's Verdict' loot item from the boss. Cheers rang out on vent, from everyone including those not bidding on the trinket as they knew that they had just landed a whale of an item that would sell for a hefty sum. This run was going to be profitable. But making gold is not what this particular post is about.

Before going on with this story, you should understand that how much an item is worth by how much dps it adds is not something that can be easily measured in gold value. A small increase in dps in an item may be exhorbitant (just think of the increase in price from low grade to epic gems for what is really a minor increase in stats). Why is this? Well I think the answer is pride (or epeen), with meters constantly being spammed for one reason or another if you are in that 'top 5', the guild is constantly consciously or subconciously reminded of who the top 5 best dps are.

Getting back to the auction, DV began with bids starting at 500g with a 100g increase. Furiously, the bidding price quickly rose to 5,000g, and then bidding started to slow at about 6,500g mark. There were some softly spoken voices and awkward silences on vent as several people had noticed that I had refrained from bidding. As the countdown for the auction began to close I showed my hand. '7,000g' I typed into the raid screen.

A new wave of bidding erupted and more cheers went up on vent. Vent began to heat up as the price quickly soared upward past 10,000g and those with not enough gold to bid started dropping out. The number rose to 15,000g and at this point only two bidders were left, myself and a DK from a top guild sporting Bryntoll and Whispering Fang Skull. Mono et mono, the game was on.

The number kept rising and soon we smashed through the previous record set for an item on Dreadmaul, 19,000g for the Reign of the Unliving and a new record was set at 20,000g. Not seeing any signs of weakness in his bidding I tried to go for knockout blows raising the bids each time by 2k to which the DK would quickly respond to with a counter-offer. The raid leader started commentating on the auction like it was a boxing match; 'who out of these two players will take home the prize!' he announced. I then saw raid chat come up with the words 'what are the odds on two gold capped players bidding on the same item?'. My heart sank, this was getting expensive.

'30,000g' I found myself typing. This was my psychological limit and in my mind was as much as I expected to pay, but even that amount was not enough. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I'm not sure whether I really wanted the item at this point or whether I just wanted to crush this guy with my wallet. The DK responded and the auction rose to giddying heights with the DK putting in a bid of 40,000g. I tried one final bid of 42,000g, 12,000g more than my limit. Alas the DK responded with 42,500g. It was over.

In the space of 3 minutes the DK had lost 42,500g and each member of the raid had pocketed an extra 1,700g from a single item. I received a couple of consoling whispers and thanks for the extra gold, but I was too broken to respond. I was in shock, and even now, I still can't believe that I lost with a bid of 42,000g, especially when previous gdkp auctions of DV went for amounts of 13,000g and 5,000g.

Ripped in just four weeks!

Well not really.

I'm back for 3.3, and looks like just in the nick of time. In that time, I've been trying to shape up for summer and have gotten tanned up and shed over 11 kgs. But now all that hard work will go to waste as I risk DVT from sitting hours on end as we head into the most addictive chapter, the finale of Wrath.

I'm expecting to see little sun from here on and I'll probably look pasty as soon, like a light jaundice skin colour. Actually the whole 'yay i <3 vampire craze' might be in a blessing in disguise.

Why did I stop? Well hmm... would I rather enjoy the horse racing, beers, bbq's and warm drinking nights or sit and play the dogs balls of content that is TOC 10 and 25. No brainer. On the flip side my absence has pulled me back in the pecking order in the cut throat world of quadruple raiding rets. I have managed to scrape enough gear together to get my four piece together and a few other bits and pieces (thank you gdkp runs!) This has kept me within striking range of the other rets, and my key mashing is making up for the gear difference.

So heading into 3.3 I'm ready for Icecrown, get ready yo, Rexkicker is coming to town... Ho ho ho...

Capped

Mmm the sweetest words that an AH baron can hear hear, and in my case thats 214,748g 36s 46c. For some reason, this is 2 copper shy of the supposed gold cap of 2^31 (although its really really close). Why its 2c short I just don't know, maybe its some kind of weird wow developer in joke.

If you're wondering how to get there, well there is a lot of truth to the saying, it takes money to make money. Think back to when you were a level 10 running around Elwynn forest with your mining pick and collecting copper ore. At the time I was stoked to sell a stack for 1g 50s. A fortune for that level, and it was enough to buy up a whole suit of white vendor mail armor from the blacksmith in Goldshire. Well naturally as you open up access to larger amounts of potential gold (such as earning 13g for a quest), 1g 50s seems pretty trivial.

A similar kind of thing happens when you have access to a large bankroll. You gain scale that can be used to purchase items in bulk or purchase expensive items. For example, I have no qualms buying up several thousands of gold worth of uncut and cut gems to resell later at a premium. I don't blink an eye purchasing cheap nobles decks at 4k to flip at 6.5k (sounds weird I know). I love trading in bulk with farmers for their entire stock of herbs, eternals and ore, I get a bit of a rush, as I wonder how much stock he has.

Unfortunately its a mixed blessing as that brings me to my next phase, what now? Since the 3.2 patch, accumulating gold has been the only real driver for me to play wow and the Crusaders Colosseum is hardly worthwhile content to keep me interested long term. I'll have a think about it, I might start pushing for the 500k gold mark. I might take a break from WoW or then again, I might stay to simply kick Arthas' arse.

WTB axe racial

Is it just me or is anyone else sick of axes? What is with the dev's love of trying to turn my toon into some sort of glorified lumberjack? Don't get me wrong I love wielding big two handers as much as the next guy, but I like to picture my pally whacking the boss in the knee Tonya Harding style. Its not like I'm asking for some extremely rare unheard of weapon either, I mean being human, there's a nice 3 expertise from Swords OR Maces. That's half of the available 2h weapons and yet the last mace I wielded was the titansteel destroyer and my last sword was the Jin'rohk!

My weapon progression this expansion has been....

Jin'rohk > Whale Stick Harpoon > Titansteel Destroyer > Death's Bite > Betrayer of Humanity > Worldcarver

So needless to say, when 3.2 hit, I eagerly hit up MMO Champion loot tables and found a sweet weapon called Justicebringer. Obviously a name that belongs to a pally mace, but nope, its another freaking Axe.

Then when I heard that Shadowmourne was announced as a legendary weapon my heart skipped a beat, imagining a twin to the Frostmourne like on my Wrath load screen, I would finally have the chance to weild a legendary weapon, kinda like the big ass Cloud sword in FFVII. But an axe...again? Seriously, wtf?!!

Surely Blizz could make a legendary 2h sword that I could earn. It could have been a ridiculously long quest chain like oh I dunno something akin to the 'Insane' achievement and I would have been happy to do it. For a measly axe however, it had better just be a drop off Arthas, because that's all I can really stand.