Zoom Zoom

I took a sick day from work yesterday and parked it in front of the computer. Best sick day ever.

First, we were just minding our own business beating on the Scarlets (just like old times!) and OMG MAL'GANIS!!!



Major character from WarCraft history humiliated by a PUG of undergeared newbs...check!

Then, I ran PUGs and got two achievements: Archavon the Stone Watcher and Heroic: Azjol-Nerub.

Five Emblems of Heroism and some new kickers...check!

And finally...several years late, Arawn finally has an epic flier.



Red goes faster, bitches!

"I Can Has Dragon Mount" Watch:

• 11,112/12,000 rep to Revered with The Wyrmrest Accord (must be Exalted);
• 2k gold needed to purchase Reins of the Red Drake.

OH HAI I UPGRADED YOUR DING

OMG 80!

I'd like to thank the last exp-granting mob that made this all possible.



"I Can Has Dragon Mount" Watch:

• 8,715/12,000 rep to Revered with The Wyrmrest Accord (must be Exalted);
• 4,620/5,000 gold for epic flyer skill;
• 2k gold needed to purchase Reins of the Red Drake.

Patch Day: Terrorist Safe Haven

One of these things is not like the other:

President Barack Obama says he's not going to allow al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden "to operate with impunity" from safe havens in Afghanistan.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday night, Obama also said that while the political system is working in Iraq, that is not the case in Afghanistan.

Well, erm, what I mean was, like, we're not going to let terrorists over there have a safe haven from which to operate with impunity...

Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.

Torture is terrorism. Those who tortured should be prosecuted. Those who ordered it should be prosecuted. If Obama feels Afghanistan should not be a haven for terrorists, why doesn't he believe that America should not be a haven for torturers?

By the way, you too can participate in extraordinary rendition and torture people in the Amber Ledge quest called "The Art of Persuasion." Blizzard should take this quest out. "Pretend" torture is like "pretend" rape.

Patch Day is a new regular feature on l2lock. Every patch day, I'll post one some non-WoW related topic.

Almost...There...

Woot...79.

I'm in the process of converting a level 70 PvP character's gear set into a level 80 PvE set, so my stats are all over the place (1007 +spell damage, 161 hit rating, 19.4 crit chance, 169 resilience, LOL).

My biggest deficit in PvE stats had been hit rating. I believe my PvP gear carried a hit rating total of 32. I considered this Problem One, and have geared up to address it. Some guidance on needed hit ratings:

This question has been asked time and again to Alex Ziebart's frustration in The Queue or TCFKAAABT (The Column Formerly Known As Ask A Beta Tester). I'll cut straight to the chase. It's 446 Hit Rating that will give you a 100% chance not to miss anything in a raid because 26.23 Hit Rating is equal to 1%, and you'll need +17% to touch raid bosses.

...if you have 3/3 Supression and 3/3 Cataclysm (which is both in this Affliction build, incidentally), you gain 3% more chance to hit with Affliction and Destruction spells respectively. This brings down the Hit Rating requirement to 368. Still a pretty steep number, isn't it? That's just for raids, though, where bosses are Level 83 (or three levels above you, which is a Skull). In heroic 5-man dungeons, where most mobs will be Level 82, it's a measly 78 Hit Rating with the talents above or 157 without.

I'm set for heroics with my 161 hit rating, but still in the hole re: raids, which is fine with me for now because I don't see any raids in my near future.

After I get a respectable PvE set, I'll turn back to PvP. I'm pretty excited about the idea of doing more content and less PvP this time around, but I know myself, and it's only a matter of time before I feel the need to get an Arena team together.

This Weekend's Damage:

• Instances: Violet Hold (normal), Drak'Theron (normal);
• Achievements: 1,500 Quests Achieved, The Empire of Zul'Drak, Guru of Drakuru, Explore Zul'Drak, Of Blood and Anguish, The Violet Hold;
• Amphitheater of Anguish quest done, got my Chilly Slobberknocker.

"I Can Has Dragon Mount" Watch:

• 6,000/12,000 rep to Revered with The Wyrmrest Accord (must be Exalted);
• 3,500+/5,000 gold for epic flyer skill;
• 2k gold needed to purchase Reins of the Red Drake.

Ding! 77

Cold weather flying!

Confession: I don't have an epic flying mount. After purchasing cold weather flying, I'll need just more than 2.5K gold to purchase the skill and then go get a cheap-o Red Riding Nether Ray. Then, just 2K more gold and some rep needed for the Reins of the Red Drake.

I plan to make the money through quests through and after 80. I'm intentionally saving some zones for cash purposes. I've burned through the Borean Tundra, Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills zone quests, and am saving Howling Fjord, etc. so that I can get the post-exp. cash rewards for those. Should go pretty quickly.

Scroll of Resurrection

I blame Durthoo / Andarius, who sent me a [Scroll of Resurrection].

Now I'm 76, geared like a noob, and playing all the time.

In other words, l2lock is back online.

Be the Love Generation....

Well, I made it. Arawn is dancing with the trolls.

Getting there was interesting. I had not completed the Noggenfogger Elixir quest, and I'm not an engineer to craft a parachute cloak. So I ran to Hinterlands and got the mushroom to complete the elixir quest and bought up a bazillion of them (the slow fall effect needed only procs rarely).

From there, it was a simple task of following directions:



I died once (once w/o a soulstone, that is) and had to make another run for it. I died the next time too, but had a soulstone handy and popped it.

Here are some photos from the trip:

Here you can see the terrain tile border between Winterspring and Felwood. The village is hidden in the terrain border regions.


The deep breath before the last plunge! Village in sight!


WEEEEEEEEE!


/whistle... hey explorers have to eat! Here fishy fishy...


Peace at last. /dance.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. — Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3

Stay safe out there kids. Peace.

"Death is the Only Adventure You Have Left"

Real life 1, WoW 0.

Well, more like real life 1, WoW 50 days /played.

I cannot continue to play WoW for the next few months. I have a political job, and this cycle is really starting to take over my time. I have an outside project going as well, and it is taking more and more of my free time. I am walking away for a while.

But not to go out without a bang, I am planning Arawn's last adventure: a ride to the dancing troll village for the final logout.

I will post about the preparations and, if I can get my Mac video capture working, film the descent to the village and my sign-off.

Stay tuned.

The Difference One Piece of Good Gear Makes

One new piece of gear
Leads to +70 resilience
Leads to...

...29 HKs in Warsong Gulch, and 1 death.

Oh You Better Run Now, Scrubs

'Cause my shoulders are merciless...

For those keeping a close watch on my stats, that's 419 resilience.

Don't drool on the new lewtz kkthx.

UPDATE: New logo based on the above.

Yeah Megan, I Stole Your Cartoon. WHAT?!

Servers and 3s and 5s, Oh My!

Okay, so I really stretched for a clever title. Shut it.

A brief update: I am back from my trips and have my horned helm and my spellblade, and they are all enchanted and I'm just lacking a better red gem for the hat, which I will grab up tomorrow after I get some honor points tonight. (+12 spell damage, shiny!)

This week I joined a random 3v3 and a random 5v5. The 3v3 was fun since it was a 1400+ rated team and my Season 3 helm provoked a very silly flame from a rogue we toasted. He accused me of 'smurfing' and I don't even know what that means. If you see Sadnev on the Cyclone Battlegroup, wave at him for me. Wanker.

The 5v5 was actually surprisingly good. It was a new team with random pickup players, but we ground out a 7-4 record. We *should* have had an additional two victories, but the server crashed - twice - while we were mopping up scrub teams. And then, while sitting at a very respectable 7-3, we fell for the "just one more game" curse. Gets you every time.

Last night I ditched trying to out-DPS everyone and stuck to my role as the Prime Annoyance. Howl of Terrors, DoTs on everything, Felhunter on healers, etc. Worked well.

How were your games this week?

You Know You've Done It

/farewell....for now

I'm leaving tomorrow for at least a 10 day absence, so I leave you with this to ponder until I return....locks are op:

Personally I think that the only class that can consistently beat a lock is a Rouge. Even then, the rouge has to have quite a bit of skill... I've heard it can take weeks of working on technique starting on n00b locks that are easy to beat, but help you to learn. It must suck.
I've also heard that if you're an engineer it helps, cause you can blast them with your blasting charges, but that's annoying to skill up in and isn't very helpful against high-level locks. Lower-level ones may be caught off guard by the bombs though and fly every which way.
The final strategy tends to not work in high-level locks either, as they employ complex strategies to not be so easily cracked, but you can use a Skeleton key if you have your Blacksmithing up.

Anyone else think we need to make some other way to open doors and chests? If you made it a Mage it'd be easy to get past... even a Spriest would be better!

/endirony

2.3

It is upon us.

I have enough honor points to buy the Season 1 Spellblade, and I will have plenty of points for an OMGpwnzor!!!1one1!! horned helm (with WINGS) when Season 3 starts.

I may be MIA for a while on the blog as I am preparing for a 10 day absence from work (and the country for part of it) but when I return, I will resume this essential work of non-fiction literature.

Insta-Corruption...Trainable?

I like it. You?

Newbie Guide to Farming Lower Level Instances, Part One

For those of you who have seen Hobbs's videos on how to farm shards in lower level instances, you know that paladins rock. You should also know, however, that we locks rock as well, and in addition to trade skills and daily quests, shard farming can earn you a lot of cash per hour in WoW.

There are some basic differences between a paladin or a mage and warlock mass-pull farming. Pallies want you to hit them and get inside their AoE aura. Mages want you to get close so they can freeze you to the ground or AoE you and your NPC buddies to death. But for a lock in a mass pull situation, having the mobs get close to you can be deadly. You'll learn this from ugly experience: low level mobs have spell interrupts and lockdowns that will get through your resistances and kill you if you don't have a parachute.

The key, then, is to get out your voidwalker and turn the autocast off of its Suffering ability. Suffering is an AoE, highly effective taunt effect. You must not use it until you are done gathering the mobs for your pull. Once you've got them all, you punch Suffering to make sure the mobs stay on the voidwalker, and then rapidly pepper 3-5 mobs with Seed of Corruption.

Timing is important, as slowness in casting the Seeds will cause them to pop out of synch, and you will either break the taunt or cause the mobs to run away in fear, and in a mass pull situation, if either of these happen, you are screwed in an instance.

Try it out. Let me know how it goes. Scarlet Monastery is a good place to practice.

Revised Revised Action Plan

Thanks to a reassuring reply on the boards, I have a much better, much more exciting plan for the start of Season 3.

We do not have to have a certain rating to buy shoulders and weapons from previous seasons, so I am in no danger of missing out on Season 2 shoulders. That means (and this makes me so happy) that instead of saving up for a hood and blowing the full current-season-point cost of a set of shoulders that would become old news, I can instead continue saving for my awesome horned hood that gives you periodic wings -- OMG -- with great stats, and pick up my shoulders at a reduced price a few weeks later.

And, I will also be able to replace -- with honor points!!! -- my Continuum Blade with the Season 1 Gladiator's Spellblade. I am very, very excited about the first day I'm back in town during Season 3.

Cloistered

I went back to SM last night with a friend to help run his warlock alt (yay!)through SM Library and SM Cathedral. The library didn't really give it up for us, although pulling it in 4 pulls plus boss was fun. It was so fun, in fact, that I got cocky and we died once in each of the two Cathedral runs.

It's okay though, because on the second run, he got Whitemane's Chapeau...that wonderful hat that took me a month to grab when I was coming up as a new lock. Grats, dood...you look like an evil caster of pimpness.

I spend so much time in SM that I might as well start wearing the tabard I snagged a while back and ask Mograine for my own cell.

...And Knowing is Half the Battle

Season 2.3 starts on November 20th. (via WoW Insider)

Revised action plan: get Arena shoulders next week, then save up any points I can accumulate for a small head start on next season's gear. I will have to do a LOT of honor farming between now and the 20th to get ready to get the new season's honor gear.

Man...I need 60k more honor to max out before the 20th. That means....60,000 points / 13 days = 4615 per day. That's a tall order for every single day...ugh...

Time to get to work!