Welcome Back

I have a lot to cover today:

1. I'm done with school and graduating on Friday. /hold for applause

2. So Kryptonite (aka Biohazard) died when my friends and I left. We all joined Blue Pants Crew, but then got tired of being by ourselves. My good friend Ed joined Blood for Blood. Me and my healer made a new guild called Koopa Troop. Then I left Koopa for BfB, which then disbanded. Now I'm in Sword of the Horde with Z. Is that complicated enough?

3. I'm actually level 66 now. And I'm in all blues.

4. I ran around ZG the other day and solo tamed Son of Hakkar. Easy but fun. I've always wanted one, too. Back in the day, Kaliska was my hero. I had to abandon Fenrir to do so, however. He was falling behind anyways.....

5. I also got the Hakkar run on film, if anyone is interested in seeing it. Basically at my level you don't aggro anything.

6. My first MC run was a total disaster. I logged on and found Ed in a big raid group full of people going, so I hopped on in with Z and hit the ground running. Turned out that no one was attuned. So the couple of us that were (there were some CDG people that were obviously decent players and were attuned) zoned into MC, then promptly had to summon every single level 60-65 noob that we had gotten to fill the raid. Z wanted to kill something. Anyways, lotsa annoying chatter and demands of summons, heals, and resurrections later and we wipe for about the millionth time on Core Hounds. I was the only one that survived. I dropped the raid and hearthed out of there. Good riddance.

7. The above makes me realize how difficult this might be for me. My guild is a raiding guild, that's true, but they don't have time for a lowbie hunter that got in because of a good word from a friend. It's a little ironic, too, that my guild actually does an Ony run every week, but only the RL's friends get to go....

8. What happened to people? Lots of WoW bloggers I love have been dropping off the map. I'm puzzled.

9. The blue cat still needs a name. I know, right?

10. I've got some good stuff coming your way, so stick around!

Krypt

Kryptonite/Biohazard is dying again. And I'm still 63.

Superman Returns

So the guild stuff worked itself out.

Probably because GM and I gquit and reformed. We've been able to snag most of our members back, and have also added some new ones. Even some of the people who came into the guild when evil GM took over have joined us. Eat that.

The evil GM also disbanded and started his own guild. It has three people in it: GM, and his two right-hand men.

All this has brought the guild closer together, and we're excited to start raiding next Tuesday (Kara Kara, boys).

And here's a picture of our new tabard and such (designed by me and GM):



Looks a bit like guacamole in this lighting, but it's really dark green and quite lovely. We have the gem because we're now called Kryptonite. (lol)

Unfortunately, I'm not playing WoW during weekdays (AP exams coming up and such), so I doubt I will ding 70 by next Tuesday for the Karazhan run, though they want me to.

School Spirits

So, school has started up again and it's the final stretch until graduation. As of today I have approximately 25 days left, plus a week for AP exams, and prom, and the actual day of graduation. In two weeks I have to enroll in one of my schools and start all the housing forms and whatnot.

Here are some of my roommate requirements/things that would drive people insane:

- I'm both a late nighter and an early riser.
- I play WoW.
- I snore and sleep with my eyes open (at the same time).
- I have no tolerance for bad behavior, annoying behavior, or stupidity.
- I don't like to talk on the phone, but when someone does call me, I end up talking for hours.
- I sing.
- I'll most definitely spread all of my art supplies all over the room.
- I quote movies and books.
- I talk through movies (reciting lines).
- I'm a musical theater major.
- I don't like rap. End of story.
- Mac > PC.
- I like to whine to people.

It's an ongoing list.




Also, sat in on a Kara run in vent last night while I was doing some homework. They seemed like okay people, until, that is, they wiped over and over on Maiden and started cussing each other out. Our real GM (not the new boob) says our new GM sounds like a woos. I agree. And our new healers suck.

More old people have left and joined real raiding guilds. I'm really happy for them all, but I think it means the possibility of reforming the guild is shot. Probably the true GM and I will gquit in time and then go our separate ways, just like everyone else.

More on the Guild

Hostile takeover much?

Apparently, there was a smooth move by our GM. He let a random class O have GM for a day while he was fixing some account stuff.

Well, uh, that didn't work out so well.

Everyone who has been a big part of this guild from the beginning has now been demoted or gquit. All the noobs are ranked higher than us old peeps. The you-know-what has hit the fan.

So old-GM and I are gonna stick it out for a bit and see what's gonna happen, but we talked about reforming. It is a small possibility. It is more likely that people will just go off and join real raiding guilds, though the demand for guilds has been pretty high on our server since BC.

In any case, when I do gquit, I'm going out with a bang.

I'll keep you all informed on my plans........bwahahahahah.

Who Are You, and What Have You Done with My Guild? /cry

It seems like these days, every time I log on WoW from having been gone about two days, there is something screwy going on with my guild. One week it was Billy. Almost every weekend someone I like leaves for some stupid reason. Last week our GM went MIA for a while and everyone just PvPed. This week no one showed up to Kara. And finally this weekend I logged on to find that we had a new GM, a bunch of new officers, tons of old officers had been kicked, I had been demoted (quite a bit), our old GM was missing again (he logs on and off very quickly), and almost everyone online I didn't recognize. I'm sure they were wondering why the hell there was a 63 huntard logging on.

All my attempts to get in touch with my old guildies were futile. The only one I could reach last night was Fal (who I've really come to like; he was also an old class leader), but he was busy and I got muted by his Deadly Boss Mods. Well, I should have looked before I whispered anyways.

So I guess there is an ongoing investigation there for me. If this is a permanent change, I'll probably leave the guild and go it alone again. I really really liked my guild. They were good for me. But if it's come to this, then I guess all I can do is either stick it out or quit while I'm ahead.

Transferring is starting to look like a valid idea now, Z....

Billy is a Guild Bank Stealer

So apparently, while I was gone, some major guild drama went down, which is pretty ridiculous if you ask me, seeing as how we barely run Kara and barely have more then ten to fifteen people on at once.

Anyways, I guess I should start at the beginning:

My GM is an interesting guy. He keeps us in check, is fun to be around, and is pretty fair with the Kara/loot/and DKP thing. Most of the people in the guild respect him well enough. Those that don't have left for various reasons (some awesome people, I might add, but what are you gonna do).

Anyways, some people are still transferring from the guild's old server, and the GM, being the trusting guy he is, makes many of them officers like me. They are his RL friends, you see.

I think we all know where this is going.

One of the GMs friend xferred over and got promoted while I was not online to witness it. Almost every time I log on I check the logs and see what's been going on, and I either ask the GM or one of the other officers what the story is. I just gotta know. Have to be organized. I can't stand being out-of-the-loop when I am supossed to be partially in charge.

Anyways, new friend of the GM. Let's call him Billy. I come back, ask who he is, then I settle uneasily into my daily WoW routine. Check mail. Check quests. Check alts. Make some bandages. Log. That's really all you can do with lag as bad as mine (another post). By the way, this was some weeks ago, before I took my refreshing two week WoW break (I highly suggest it, I feel great!).

So I get home from my trip to SF and find that I have been gkicked from the guild. Okay, I'm suspicious. I am generally well-liked, I don't cause "girl drama," I don't hog raid spots, I'm not a loot whore—the only things wrong with me are my low level and my four day absence (SF trip).

I politely whisper my GM, get invited back, get promoted, and stuff, and things go back to normal.

Well it turned out that Billy, one of the GM's RL friends, had gkicked everyone over the weekend and then had stolen everything out of the bank. 'Scuse me while I go fume in a corner.

Its not that we have tons of valuable stuff in the bank, and its not like we'll lose that many people (only inactive members will remain lost)....

But honestly, where is the thrill in doing that? And for what reason? My GM said he had no clue (but the GM can be kinda clueless at times), and if it was a real life friend....

I dunno. People are stupid. Whatever, it's just a game.

Why do scientists disconnect their doorbells?

And we're back, though only to say hello and extend our WoW break time.

Play was awesome! End of the quarter on Thursday, so lots of tests and lots of work. Got into another college. Then to San Fran Thursday (till Sunday) for choir festival.

So that unfortunately means no WoW for about another week. Or fortunately—I'm enjoying the break. There's a lot less pressure. Maybe another post to explain?

In other news, my internet connection is too bad to play anyways, and my graphics card/whole computer is in its final stage of life. It is now a senior citizen. I'm gonna have to put it in a nursing home soon, I'm thinking.

Also grats to Vigilanti on hitting 70! He passed me and dinged in like a week. I hate you.

Also grats to Sbeleg and Kiyari on 70! (a couple weeks ago now) You guys make an awesome arena team.

Also grats to Z's Nachos, who dinged 40 the other day and got his mount. Now he go fast!

And finally grats to the guild on clearing Kara (I think) and planning some ZA runs to come. Though I am sad that people are leaving due to lack-of-progression. Some really awesome people were alienated and left, but hopefully they'll get the loot and the boss kills they want wherever they end up.




*Why do scientists disconnect their doorbells? To win the Nobel Prize!

Me Is Officer!

Squee I was made an officer of my guild! That's above tons of seventies and the class leaders!

And I am the guild website manager, which is why I think I got promoted.

Dude I am one of the few lowbies in the guild and I'm an officer.







Loves! <3

Biohazard

Dunno if I mentioned that after I dinged 60 I was recruited by a guild that had just xferred to NZ. I was their first and only hunter for a while before some 70's joined, but now I'm a pretty high-ranked guild member since I was, ya know, one of the first, I guess.

Anywho, I really like them. Love the druid, love the GM, love the "late-night-humor" shadow priests, love all the officers, love the tabard. Now they are only recruiting 65+ and did their first raid since joining the server earlier tonight. Half-clear of Kara. They are doing second half Saturday night (which I guess is tonight....)

So look them up, and if anyone is interested in joining, pst me in-game. We do casual Kara right now while everyone is waiting for character transfers and attunement. Once everyone settles we'll be starting ZA and some other random stuff. Great group of people, even if I am the only girl!

Biohazard on Ner'zhul. (when I get less lazy that will become a link to armory and/or website)

More On My Guild

I can't decide what I am going to do about my guild.

I am apparently now one of the main people in the guild, and thus I have some say in what changes are gonna happen. In fact, I am going through a lot of what Amava went through when his guild started running Kara.

I'm organizing my guild for Kara, even though I can't even run it yet.

And I am becoming friends with the GMs. I really like some of the people in the guild.

But 70s keep leaving for progression guilds and then the GMs go on a wild rampage and gkick people.

One of the GMs assured me that I'd always be welcome even if I left. She's having some of the same feelings I am.

So I tossed a few ideas to her. I think some stuff will be implimented, but I'll just have to do another post with an update on the situation.

Right now standing in Shatt I mostly feel embarrassed to have their guild listed under my name....

The Great Camp of '08

Rak'shiri Camp Day Five Down.

Level 58 Attained.

Trash pet has been named Cheesewiz. Lawl.

We're getting way too attached to Cheese. We kinda sorta love him now.

Officially Outlands bound (although I did grind in Hellfire the other day), but I'm not going without my cat.

I will tame you!!

/seizure

More guild drama about starting Kara. Sigh. Another post.

Leveling a troll healer for the guild as well, and playing with the GM, which granted Gal a promotion in the guild. Yay.

It's kinda annoying listening to the two GMs, who are boyfriend and girlfriend, fight, though.

And more seventies left today for more progressed guilds. It's a confusing situation, but it ended with a bunch of people getting gkicked. I kept my mouth shut, mostly.

I Hate Guilds

You know what I hate? Guilds.

I hate them. With a flaming passion.



I am so annoyed at my guild right now that I am minutes away from gquitting in frustration. I have my reasons to quit, and I have my reasons not to.

One of my main reasons not to: why can't I just be patient, grind to 60, and then start to get myself recruited as I crawl towards 70?

Another one: where will I go if I leave them? Sure, I was on my own before, but being on my own again will just be counterproductive to all the work I have been putting towards eliminating my PUG career.

And I need their ugly tabard to cover my uglier bright banana yellow chest piece (yes, even the upgrade to the last banana yellow chest piece is banana yellow).



So, after fuming to Z for an hour while he was in TK, I came to the uncomfortable decision that I should just stick it out for the time being. I mean, the hate comes in waves usually anyways.

So Ima try and make some friends. I am starting by participating in guild conversations and running guild/raid leaders through low level instances on their alts. I think talking will be good, as I was labeled "quiet much?" earlier today.

Filler Post

Filler post to do some Gal updates:

1. After initial bad BRD run, Z ran me through on Malzara. Got many hunter goodies. Go look at armory.

2. After initial bad BRD run, joined guild with people my level. Huzzah. They talk too much, though. Very distracting.

3. New tabard due to above. It's not great, but now I match my new armor! And I got a fancy shirt to go underneath. I spoil myself, heheheh.

4. Haven't run anything with aforementioned guild yet. They do Kara, though, with their seventies. Interesting.

5. Sucked it up and queued for Sunken Temple.

6. Got into sa-weet group!

7. Downed whole instance. Twas amazing. I might have to give it it's own post.

8. Dinged 53.

Untitled

Forgot to ask for a favor!

Any name suggestions for my wolf?

In the past I have had names like Sebastian, Luca, Sarai, Esteban, Nawat, etc.




Also, I think it might be time to go look for a real guild. I am tired of pugging.

To Alt, or Not To Alt, That Is the Question

Burning Out in WoW:

We all burn out. And that's okay. When I burn out it's pretty bad. My last WoW hiatus went from December of '06 to around September of '07 corresponding to the loss of my leveling partner (the shammy*).

Since then I have had multiple mini WoW burnouts. And I don't mean that like small gaps in my play (although those occurr, too, but are less burnouts than breaks due to real life complications). I mean mini burnouts as in getting tired of a specific character. I like to call it WoW ADD, which I have a severe case of. It's also called "altahol abuse" (i.e. someone can be an altaholic). It's Warcrack for a reason, people!

Anywho, why are we talking about this, you alt abuser?! you ask.

Have thou burneth out on Wow? Have thou made thy lastly alt, and thus vow to turn over a neweth leaf? Art thou leaving us?!

Stop freaking out or I'm going to smack you upside the head with my laptop.

The reason why I am talking about this is thus: a friend of mine thinks he has burned out on WoW. Again. Z and I were talking about this the other day. His guild is officially done with Kara. They do some ZA runs when they can. He claims his server is a dying one (and I can't blaim him). He has no patience for alts. At all. And he's sick of WoW. And he wants to stop.

Hmmm....

Okay, not that I really want to convince him otherwise. WoW is really an addiction, and if you burn out, then let yourself burn out. Especially for us—we're just now applying to college and finishing up high school. This is probably the best possible time for a break from the game.

But listening to him talk about how the game is ruining his last few months as a high schooler really got me thinking about my own addiction. And the addiction of other friends I have. And the addiction of all of us.

These are my WoW addictions:

• I play too much. I am a casual player and I still feel like I play too much. Hence why I blog about it now instead of spending my time actually playing. I think this is better.

• I have too many alts. Plain and simple. I know I preach that one can never have enough variety, but the emotional attachments I get to some of my >10 characters makes me crazy. Why can't I just delete them? If I want more space for alts on servers I actually play on, then why not just delete more than half of the 50 alts I have?

• Out of my alts, I think I play too many hunters. Gasp, I know, right?

• The Auction House.

• And a newer addiction: addons and user interfaces. This is a biggie.

Okay, bear with me here. I have some points I want to make and then I want discussion to follow.

Mostly I want to talk about WoW ADD. Anyone who has taken a look at my Big Page of Alts knows that I have got major WoW ADD. And that’s not even a complete list. It is missing some key alts still.

I have ADD when it comes to leveling Galileyo. On many levels, too. I tame hundreds of pets. I just haven’t found the right one for her yet. I hate her current pet—a yellow boar. And I am having a hard time leveling her at all. Quests just don’t appeal to me, and I never have enough time all in one chuck to run instances. I have goals for her, yes. She not going into Outland until sixty. She eventually is going to just be a PvP character, and not a raider. She needs her epic land mount above all else. I can get away with not having a flying one if I’m just doing bgs all the time.

The more time I am wasting with her, though, is more time I will have to put in to catch up with current seventies—gear and game play experience –wise. This is a problem.

What do I do when I don’t want to think about/solve said problem?

I roll an alt. Hence the recent birth of Khuza, the rebirth of Galileo (she’s a shammy again), and the instance I ran on Trikk.

I have WoW ADD so bad that I can’t even level Zocks at the moment. I had some real focus going on him for a while, but when things at War Party subsided I stopped playing him, too. Now, he is GM of War Party, so he’s got to stick around and do some moderating, especially with the hiatus of the other two GMs. And since we are resurrecting our dreams for War Party he will have to level to keep up with the guild.

Saraii was going to be a 19 twink until I got bored with Warsong Gulch. I’m hoping for a 39 twink from her. I’ve got gear for her and everything.

I have profession ADD, too, but that is another blog post.

And I’m having ADD with this blog post. I’m starting to lose my direction. Okay, back to the main point: burnouts.

How do you deal? How do we all deal with this? How can you help a friend deal or not deal with a burnout?

Do you roll an alt like I do? Do you join another server? Do you spend hours tinkering with your ui? Do you peruse WoW blogs and write long posts that lack direction?

Do you alt?

This is ADD at work. It’s ADDiction.


Hi, my name is Galizocksaruzaleyo, and I am addicted to alternate characters.



*The shammy post is very long and very emo, and also is only in part one of two.

Take the Vow, My Friend

1. I will not steal loot from the rest of my party/raid.

2. I will not whine about loot in a party/raid.

3. I will not roll need on things I do not need.

4. I will occasionally hand over loot on mobs for my partymates.

5. I will not be as prejudiced against other classes and races of my faction as much as I could be.

6. I will not gank first without a valid reason.

7. I will toy with a member of the opposite faction and of lower level within reason.

8. I will always tip crafters.

9. I will not demand enchants, but will instead ask nicely and offer either mats or gold.

10. I will be a good hunter and not be completely selfish with what pets I choose to play in a party/raid.

11. I will be a good buffer and buff everyone, even pets, in a party/raid.

12. I will also change buffs if someone asks.

13. I in turn will not demand buffs or buff changes, but will ask nicely for them.

14. I will check my bags before I join a party/raid.

15. I will be a good healer and heal pets in a party/raid.

16. I will be a good partymate and let the hunter(s) pull in a party/raid.

17. I as a hunter I will know when I am in over my head on a pull, and will give up my pull privileges if the situation calls for it.

18. I will try not to be bitter about loot drops from a party/raid in public (sort of).

19. I will be nice to lowbies unless they are idiots.

20. In Warsong Gulch I will allow people I know are faster than me to carry the flag.

21. I will then help them keep the flag until they reach our base.

22. In Arathi Basin I will just stand back and let the guy who got there first cap that resource instead of trying to have a capping race.

23. In Alteric Valley I will not be a loner unless I am a successful one, I am not wasting time, or I know the battle is already won/lost.

24. I will cut others slack for lag problems.

25. I will not sit around and wait for a summon, because everyone else is probably doing the same thing, but instead will start heading to my destination so I can help summon others.

And more.

This is in no particular order.

The Elite

On my little dwarf alt (who is currently level seven and rising fast, I love her to death), I am in this guild of lowbies. I am one of the youngest, being still in the newb zone (I think the highest is twenty/thirty something), so I don't demand much respect from my elders, or anything, or the guy who invited me into the guild. I figured I'd probably be ignored like any other lower-than-fifteen lowbie in a lowbie guild is ignored.

But this guy joins the guild a few minutes after me and declares himself an Alliance know-nothing because he is a Hordie in disguise. He's playing a Night Elf rogue. He's never played rogue before either. I admire him for trying something new. Bravo. And my heart goes out to him because I am a hordie in disguise as well.

After I admit I'm one of him, I think that the people in the guild might be a little, well, disgusted. I mean, I am not saying that Alliance players are generally discriminatory against Horde players. Far from it. I have met some tremendously nice Alliance. I've even quested with them on Galileyo. They are some great people. However, for some reason the vibe I was getting from this guild was a little sketchy. I figured our declarations of Horde allegiance would be met with slanderous remarks and some "your orc mom" comments.

Instead we got nothing but love. It was joy and happiness for the two Hordelings that stumbled on this little guild in Dun Morough. We became their new fascination. We had an inside view on the Horde, which most of them had never experienced before. Not that we divulged any secrets or anything, but when asked which races were most popular and which race was best for each class, etc., we happily answered, glad to be welcomed rather than shunned in this strange new miniature world on the Alliance side of things.

So after some guild goodness, I have some newb funniness. The guy who invited me was playing a gnome warlock.

And I think he's probably never played WoW before, even though he says he's leveled a mage or pally or something before.

He had to ask if the warlock minions looked the same for Alliance as they did for Horde.

Among other things.