Sideshow & Syrana

Reading my last post about Lunar Festival is not required to enjoy this one.  But for the heck of it, go ahead and read the last one if you haven’t already.  Go on~ /peerpressure

Before I go into an update on Syrana’s Elder Tour, I have to share this question that made me /giggle and /facepalm all at the same time while I was on my lowbie druid in Thunder Bluff.  Unfortunately, I forgot to screenshot it.  (But it really did happen, I swear!)

Lowbie Belf says: hi

Me looking around, trying to figure out if he’s actually speaking to me or someone else.

Lowbie Belf says: do you know where the guy is that has the sun shining down on him?

…

I start to respond 3 different times and just decided to give directions rather than explain that this was the Lunar Festival.  Especially since the Elder he was asking about was Elder Ezra Wheathoof.  How sweet of Blizzard to honor him. /salute

Northrend Elder Tour

I met a few of the Northrend Elders on my hunter, Alynedarra, but since she cannot fly yet, I didn’t complete the circuit.  Well, Sideshow and I have had a detour on our leveling tour (yes, everything is a tour!), so I went on to do my cooking daily.  (Which, I think is bugged… ever since they lowered the number of Northrend Stews needed for the convention, it has been the only daily I’ve gotten…)

Then I decided I might as well visit the Elders up nort’.  I mean, I wasn’t going to get that far ahead with experience than Sideshow while doing it.  Plus, I need the rep boosts in my quest for mounts.  Man, the amount of gold on runecloth this will save me! I continued to reference this guide for coordinates, as needed.  With flying, meeting all of the Elders in Northrend didn’t take long.

Kalimdor Elder Tour

Once I get on an achievement kick, I just can’t stop.  So, I decided to finish of the Kalimdor tour that Sideshow, Kelinarra, and I had started.  I even met the Elder in Darnassus with little trouble.  I did, however, take the wrong boat at first and arrived at Azuremyst Isle.  Oops.  I saw a couple players, but not many.  One stupid brave level 7 draenei hunter marked my flagged butt and shot at me.  I barely flexed my fingers to put a lone DoT on them, which barely ticked before they collapsed to the floor of the boat.

I /cackled.

So, I had fun positioning myself upon the boats to try and avoid as many NPC’s as possible.

Wrong boat...

Right boat!

No sense in drawing more attention to myself from other players, such as the level 60something Death Knight riding the boat with me.  Now, why would I be fearful of someone that much lower than me? Well, I wasn’t really.  However, to save money on repairs from guard beatings, and to try and appear peaceful, I was only wearing my green dress.  I mean, I was going into enemy territory all by my lonesome.  And a lot of my power is drawn from my gear, so, best not to provoke… even though that’s usually my style when it comes to enemy players.

So, anyway, the correct boat arrives at the docks for Darnassus.  My trusty mount (the green one, to match my dress and eyes) takes me through the portal and towards the Cenarion Enclave.  The trees attack me as I talk with the Elder.  But that’s ok, I toss out a Howl of Terror to get them off my back for a moment while I complete my conversation.  Then, I just let them beat me with sticks.  Why? Because then it took me to the graveyard outside Dolanaar, where the next Elder was.  Elder Bladeleaf was my the last stop.  But, I figured I might as well explore while I was there.

Eastern Kingdoms Elder Tour

Now, this is where things got really interesting.  Sideshow and I teamed up in Undercity, where we met with the last Elder inside a Horde capital city.  We hit up all the northern zones and ended outside Kharanos.  Well, Sideshow ended and logged.  I decided I was not going to back down from Ironforge just because I was alone.  It was between 10pm and 11pm server time, so I knew it probably would not be a complete ghost town.  Although, it was more empty than I expected.  So, I strip down to my green dress again and charge on in there.  Thankfully, I’m sorta familiar with the layout.  I’m doing pretty well, I get knocked off my mount by some guards and have a line of them following me.  I can see the beam of light.. almost there…almost to the Mystic Ward…

Netted by the Thief Catcher.  Bastard!

The guards proceed to bash my head in.  We look on the bright side though: we can rez right next to the Elder! We do this, and attract guards immediately.  We have no time to health/mana up or mount up.  We get the coin and RUN.  I thought I was doing well, I was back towards the entrance.  (My brilliant idea to just back track to head for the tram…)  Then a gnome mage decides to finish me off.  Then sit on me.

I hate gnomes.

The graveyard is all the way back by Kharanos, but this does not deter me.  I want to take the tram to Stormwind.  That’s my plan, and I’m stickin’ to it!  I return to my body and see this:

Moonlight. Spotlight.

I was famous.  So, I duck back around the corner, closer to the entrance.  This puts me just at the edge of my rez distance.  I see a death knight mounted and pacing near my corpse.  Is he really dumb enough to think I’d pop in plain sight?  Little does he know, I was born and raised on a PvP server before moving…  I time my rez with the patrolling guards, mount up and head for the tram.  It doesn’t take long for more guards to notice me and I die by their hands as I enter the Tinker Town tunnel.  Soooo close to the tram!  That death knight found me as I died.  Man was he slow.

When I ran back to my body, there were no players in sight.  I was able to rez and run into the tram without any problem.  Once I got to Stormwind, it was pretty easy to take the back streets to the park.  I easily grabbed the Elder and another achievement.  At that point the guards became interested in me.  (Green must really be my color.)  I take off running and just know I need to get out of the city.  I decide I might as well have fun and headed for the most crowded area in Stormwind.  Some death knight snagged me with his purple grabby mcgrabster hand before I had a chance to run into the crowd.  But that was fine.  He killed me and I spirit rezzed by the Eastvale Logging Camp.  After that, it was easy for me to finish off the rest of the continent.

Only the Elder Dungeon Tour left now, which can’t be completed until I’m 80, so meh.

This post will hopefully serve as not only a learning experience for myself and my guildies, but also for some of you.  Or, perhaps it will spark a discussion and generate helpful feedback.

Quick Rewind

I need to give some quick background information for those of you unfamiliar with myself and/or my guild.  We are a casual guild.  We focus on providing and promoting community.  We do, however, have an increased interest in raiding.  Some of our members have raiding experience, but many do not.

I honestly can say I love my guild.  I appreciate our members and our community.  Sometimes, I get a bit anxious about trying “harder” content because I do not want people to get frustrated or discouraged that we can’t flip through one-shotting everything like other guilds can.  Sometimes, I feel like a parent in this respect, because I don’t want to see my children fail, but I have no power to provide them with some wins to boost their confidence and self-esteem.

There are times when you experience something and it seemed incredibly frustrating and horrific at the time, but it really wasn’t what your mind made it out to be.  I had to take a few weeks to really go over this particular event in my mind so that I could vent out my negativity in order to sort out the lessons and positives that were there.  I just had to find them.

The Event: Sunwell Plateau attempt

The Players: 17 people ranging from level 71 to 80

The Result: Made it through a couple trash pulls with multiple wipes

The Lessons:

1.  Know your limitations

This covers a lot of areas, so I’ll try not to crit you with a wall o’ text.  The Sunwell attempt was scheduled to take place roughly a week after a successful Karazhan run.  Yes, celebrate successes, but keep in mind progression.  Sunwell was Blizzard’s toughest tuned raid and a fairly small percentage of guilds have cleared it.  Am I saying we can never do it? No! But, all in due time.

Limitations to know include: your experience, the experience of your guildmates, gear, level, class composition for the raid, and number of people available to fill the raid.

Despite Blizzard’s emphasis on “bring the player, not the class,” an appropriate number of people to fill certain roles still need to be considered.  For example, a 10man raid cannot necessarily be made up of 2 good 5man groups stuck together.  Some fights may require more tanks and fewer DPS, or fewer tanks, but more healers.

Know when to call it.  Maybe have a discussion about when to call the raid, whether it’s a set amount of time or a set number of wipes.  Be able to recognize a significant challenge that your group is not ready to complete at this time.  It is true that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the exact same thing, but expecting different results.

2.  Organization

It is important to notify your guildmates of the date and time you are scheduling the raid.  Post it up with enough notice so interested members can sign up or ask questions.  It can be difficult to post up a day with no time, because people may be unsure about committing if they don’t have a time frame.  Can the time frame be tweaked? Certainly! But try to give everyone a starting point to go from.

Have an idea of what roles will be assigned, such as main tank, off-tank, who’s healing who, who’s doing crowd control, who’s soul stoning who, etc.

3.  Be prepared

I definitely would encourage every member planning to participate in a raid to be prepared ahead of time, but the leader most definitely needs to be.  It can be very difficult and chaotic when no one at all has ever set foot inside the door and do not know what to expect.  Don’t re-invent the wheel, there’s a lot of information out there on boss encounters and even about clearing trash.  Make use of this so that you can explain important information to the rest of your raid.  Better yet, post up that info in the sign up thread (if your guild uses a forum) so others can check it out too.  No one has to have it memorized, but a general idea is very helpful.  It will make learning the strategy easier if someone has an idea of what it is.  It is a lot of work to try and figure out the strategy when your raid is wiping each pull.

Being prepared also means bringing food, drinks, bandages, potions, etc.  Be prepared to wipe.  This is very important.  You’ll be less frustrated about wiping and repair bills if you come to expect it.  If everyone walks in thinking this is going to be a cake walk, the mood shifts quickly with the first death… with the second… and with the sixth.  If you don’t end up wiping, that’s terrific!

4.  Practice

Practice teamwork and communication.  Although the game changes from 5mans to 10mans to 25mans, you can still learn to work together.  With our guild being able to clear Kara, for example, that is a good “training ground” to practice teamwork.  Many of us are familiar with the encounters, and we know we have the appropriate stats/gear to move through it.  That makes it a good place to practice and rotate people in who have never raided before.  Why do so many people dislike PuGs? Because they aren’t used to working together.  But don’t lower the challenge of the “training ground” too much.  For example, your guild can clear Kara, but Zul’Gurub would be too easy.

5.  Watch for emerging leaders

This is especially helpful for guilds that do not (yet) have class and/or raid leaders.  Oftentimes, more casual guilds are used to the group leader (or whoever posted the instance/raid sign up) as being the leader.  While the guild leader and the officers are important, it’s important that you see and recognize leaders within the guild community.

Those leaders will emerge, and how you respond to them can make a difference.  If things are not going smoothly, do not publicly criticize them or be negative.  We learn by doing and trying and will succeed with patience and encouragement.

6.  Know when to let go of your position

To be honest, this was difficult for me that day.  Some of my guildies know this and some may not have realized it.  It wasn’t my show to run.  It was my duty, as a member that signed up and an officer, to be supportive and offer assistance as needed.  Unfortunately, as I was trying to lend some help with information, I was feeling like no one was listening to me.  This was not true, but I had to recognize that I needed to step back and let someone else be a leader.

Take Home Message:

Watch for leadership qualities and lessons to be learned in every situation you encounter.  If you are in a position to help an emerging leader to grow, please do so.  I think the above lessons were good lessons to take away from the unsuccessful raid attempt we had recently.  I also think they are good lessons for anyone wanting to make a transition into raiding – whether they intend to lead it or not.

Never miss a photo op!

That’s right, RockBand fans, Amongst the Ruins is back after taking a short hiatus due to the holidays and other scheduling conflicts.  We got together tonight (via the magic that is Xbox Live) and performed well.  It was almost as if there had been no break at all!

Before I let you take a peek at tonight’s setlist, let me introduce you to the band:

Screechin’ and screamin’: Syrana (pictured above, front ‘n center)

Wieldin’ the almighty axe: Deekow (on the right, wearin’ a cape like nobody’s business)

Crashin’ and thrashin’: Sideshow (to the left… in drag?)

The Setlist

Godsmack – “I Stand Alone”

Nine Inch Nails – “Capitol G”

Offspring – “Low Self-Esteem”

Soundgarden – “Spoonman”

Ratt – “Round ‘n Round”

Coheed and Cambria – “Welcome Home”

Rage Against the Machine – “Testify”

Testament – “Souls of Black”

Lacuna Coil – “Closer”

As I said before, we had a great night.  Everyone stuck with hard for the most part because we like to have some challenge, but enjoy ourselves.  Although, I decided to up the ante to expert vocals on “Round ‘n Round” and “Welcome Home,” receiving 96% and 95% respectively!  /cheer

One more for the road...

Now… if we could just find a bassist, we’d be complete!

(Part 2) For a complete list of this series, go here.

“Mmhmpf,” Aerissa mumbled as she stirred slightly in her sleep. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to focus on the source of the warm, wet, sensation on the palm of her right hand.  She sat up with a start as she realized it was a Lynx licking her hand.  Aerissa trembled slightly, fearful of what this creature may do.

The Lynx lowered itself to a submissive position, its stomach inches from the ground, but not quite laying down.  It sniffed at the air and gently nudged her hand.  Aerissa froze in place, uncertain what to do.  Just as her stomach rumbled loudly, the Lynx darted off into the woods.  Aerissa breathed a sigh of relief, uncertain what to make of the creature’s actions towards her.

She rubbed the palm of her hand on her dirty pants, trying to remove the drying spittle left by the Lynx’s tongue.  Aerissa tried to sit up, but her left hip was aching and sore.  Aerissa gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand and stretch out her tight muscles. She began to hobble through the brightly lit woods in search of a pond or a stream.  She soon found a gently bubbling stream.  Aerissa sighed as she gingerly removed her clothing and carefully lowered herself into the water.   She gasped slightly as the water was cool at first.   She carefully washed her wounds.  As she inspected the deep cut on her left hip, her body began to feel hot with a mix of anger and fear.  It began with a tingling in her hands and traveled throughout her entire body.

His blue eyes flashed hot with anger.  He turned at her quickly, snarling and baring his teeth.  The Human woman gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.  She looked around nervously as she clutched her shirt to her chest.

“How… how could you?” Aerissa wailed, tears spilling over and onto her cheeks.  Her chest ached with betrayal and hurt.  The world wavered before her.  She shook her head, trying to swipe away the tears.

“Why couldn’t you mind your own business!” He spat through clenched teeth as he sprinted towards her.

Aerissa rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, but the tears were coming much too fast.  As the elven man closed the gap between them, she heard the faint sound of a dagger being unsheathed.

“Wha-” Aerissa froze up as she saw him gripping the dagger in his right hand.  Realizing what he meant to do, she fumbled for hers, her ears deafened by the sound of her own heartbeat.

Her foot met his chest in a powerful kick as he loomed closer.  His mouth opened, but no sound came out as he staggered back.  He rubbed at his chest, then came at her again.  She reached into a pouch at the small of her back, then flicked her wrist at him.  The throwing knife nicked his shoulder, but he continued moving, oblivious to it.  She flicked another one, which embedded itself in his right hand.  He reflexively opened and closed his hand at the pain, dropping his dagger.

“Why you little-” He growled as he reached for her.  Aerissa tried to sidestep him, but he was more agile than she.  He clamped his hand around her throat, driving her head back into a tree.  The throwing knife was still embedded in his hand, blood flowing from it down his arm in rivulets.

“Xan-”  Aerissa jumped and splashed at the sound of the Lynx’s low growl.  He had returned and was just beyond the edge of the stream.  Aerissa’s body tensed, full of fear from the memories and of realizing how vulnerable she was at this very moment.

The Lynx pawed at the ground, dropping something carefully from its mouth.  He let forth a throaty “mroaw,” before taking a drink from the stream.  Aerissa stayed as still as she could while treading water.  The Lynx seemed to roll his eyes at her as he backed away from the stream.  He sniffed at the object he had dropped, then darted off into the woods again.

Aerissa eyed the edge of the woods careful as she approached the shore.  She carefully dried and dressed her wounds, wincing at the mixed feelings her hip wound invoked.  After she finished redressing, she hobbled over to see what the Lynx had dropped.

She raised her eyebrows as she recognized the coppery smell as she got closer.  Aerissa drew in a sharp breath as she attempted to squat down and ended up awkwardly kneeling.  She frowned at first, seeing the broken neck of the rabbit, its white fur stained with its own blood.  But then, she noticed that there were two, and the only damage was from the Lynx’s strong jaws around their necks.

“Food…” Aerissa felt her stomach rumble.  “He brought me meat!”

** Please note that some of the events included in RP pieces are based upon actual in-game role play.  Also, some of the events and/or character names may have been altered during the transition from in-game RP to story formation. **

Ah yes, it’s that time of year again: Lunar Festival.  The time to honor the ancestors of Azeroth.  Be it friend or foe, these Elders deserve some respect at least once a year.  And boy do they dish out some good rep!  Thank you, Elders, for helping me work towards my 2009 gaming goals!

To all the moons I've loved before...

So, I’m trying to knock out some of these Lunar Festival achievements.  But, sadly, I will not be able to complete them all for the Elder title until next year.  What?! Yeah, I know.  Well, since I’m still taking my sweet time leveling to 80 it is neigh impossible for me to visit every Elder, (all 75 of them! Yipes!) since one of them likes to hang out with a heroic-only boss up nort’ der hey.

Fire hazard!

I easily completed the fireworks and firecrackers achievements on Saturday.  For some reason though, the first round of firecrackers didn’t count.  So, like any good pyro, I bought another stack to set off right away!

Syrana did acquire the pink dress last year as well as the dress tailoring pattern.  She still had 10 coins in her bank, so I promptly headed to Moonglade via the exclusive teleporting invitation (oh, anyone can get one? Bah!) to purchase the green dress and the pants suit pattern.

Elder Tour 2009

I’m not sure when or how Blizz started tracking what Elders Syrana visited last year, but about half of the Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms Elders were already checked off.  Oddly enough, Syrana only had the 10 Coins achievement.  Now, if I had 10 in the bank, bought a dress last year for 5 and the pattern for 5, that would be a total of 20.  But, the progress for the 25 Coins only said “10.”  Bah.

Sideshow, on the other hand, had some coins in his bank, but none of the Elders were checked off in his achievements section.  No sweat, since I could visit them again for another coin and more rep!  Sideshow, Kelinarra, and I started the Kalimdor tour to get some of them, fetching me the 25 Coins achievement.  We also helped Kelinarra (at level 43 now, yay!) get some flight paths in Feralas, Tanaris, Un’Goro, and Silithus while on our tour.  (And I’m truly, truly sorry that the big dino got you.)  We have more to go, but this festival lasts until February 12th, so I’m not going to rush it.  If you are looking for a handy-dandy Elder guide, check this one out at wowwiki.

Honoring Thy Alt

I’ve been working on Alynedarra, my hunter, a bit more recently.  She made it to level 75 last night! I also decided to start her Elder tour.  Now, Aly has a purple dress from 2 years ago.  She also still had 3 coins in her bank.  None of the Elders were marked off in her achievements list.  I honestly cannot remember if I played her during Lunar Festival last year.  I’m thinking I was too focused on Syrana at that time and Aly was left on the wayside.

Fishing Goal Update

You know… I think Syrana just might become an expert fisherwoman by the end of the year!  Syrana has caught over 100 Fish now and has broken 100 fishing skill!

Seeing as how Sunday has always been sort of my laziest day of the week (even within the World of Warcraft) I thought I’d try to keep up with a Sunday posting of a screenshot of some sort.  Right now, I’m on an NPC kick.  Sometimes we miss the humor in the names and/or looks of these non-playable inhabitants of our virtual world.  Oh, and I also figured I should start numbering these so I don’t get confused by having multiple posts with the exact same title.

Last week’s screenshot recap

Last Sunday brought you “Hacksaw” Jenny.  She is hanging out in New Agamand in Howling Fjord, and keeps busy (you guessed it) hacksawing stuff.  She likes to sing while she works and will even ask you to help her gather some… umm.. “parts.”

Introducing…

I found this little ball of fur this week and figured with the release of Patch 3.0.8, he’d be the purrrfect screenshot for today!

Has anyone else seen him?

This post is a Blog Azeroth shared topic started by InspiredOgre.  Enjoy!

Only in WoW…

…can you wear headgear, but turn off the look of it in order to still enjoy fabulous hair.

…can another WoW player make you feel like a loser for playing WoW.

…can you fit a ginormous sword, a large chicken, and a flying beast in your backpack.

…can you store a dead guy’s head in the bank without anyone getting suspicious.

…can you pay more for your license to ride than the cost of the ride itself.

…can you have more than 3 cats and NOT be considered a crazy lady.

…can you be rewarded for being a crazy lady with lots of pets.

…can you have same day sex change surgery for a minimal cost.

…can you add someone to your ignore list and not “hear” what they are saying while they are still talking right at you.

…can you hear so much about Chuck Norris that you automatically think /leave channel when you see him on TV.

…can you have a Forsaken with no bottom jaw actually speak to you.

Soul shards.  Those lovely little purple gems that Warlocks carry with them everywhere.  We drain our enemies souls in order to create them.  We then use these captured souls to call forth hellish demons, store our own soul (or that of a friend) to recover quickly from death, create candy (err, healthstones) that keep us alive, and summon our friends.

Oh, right, they are used for some spells too.

I love the mere thought of draining and capturing an enemy’s soul (and I love the animation for it too!), but I’m not thrilled with the current state of soul shards.  Yeah, sure, we no longer have to use one per individual being summoned now… but I still have to drag around a bag of them.  I know other Warlocks have called for stackable shards in the past, and I think that would be a great idea.  I mean, clams are stackable now… So, why do we still have to use so much bag space?  I know hunters lose an entire bag slot for their ammo like we do, but they don’t have one bullet or arrow per space.

I’ve been trying to rack my brain to think of a more fun and creative way to make use of our soul shards… something that could/would be worthy of suggesting to Blizzard.  And this here, my warlock brothers and sisters, is where I’m failing.  I can’t think of anything.  I’m just stuck on how clunky they are overall.

I suppose they could be used for more spells, somehow, but the current ones that require a soul shard I just don’t seem to use very often.  Maybe a manastone would be helpful?

…

Sorry, I zoned out trying to think of more ideas.  Unfortunately, my ideas are about as fail as what we’ve got, if not worse… or duplicates too much from other classes.. like a shard shield or a self banish.  Ooh, it’d be nifty if we could have Burning Nova, which is used by Keli-dan the Breaker in Blood Furnace.  You have to admit that would be fuuuun in PvP.  (Well, the tooltip for Burning Nova doesn’t show the AOE blast portion that he does at the end of the banish… that’s the part I think would be fun!)

What a day, huh? Two patches today!  That’s right, I said two: WoW and the U.S. Government had some updates for us today.  With both patches come changes:  some we’ll like and some we won’t.  Overall, we can just hope for the best that things will get balanced out.

The Good, The Bad, and The Mustard

I’m not going to go into a real deep discussion about Patch 3.0.8.  Plenty of others have covered this indepth and I don’t want to rehash too much.  I just wanted to comment on a few things.

• Tapping: As an Affliction Warlock, all I can really say is “YAY!”  That’s right, no more stealing my mobs after I DoT them up! (This had occurred again last night.  So glad to be rid of this!)
• Ritual of Summoning: I’m glad I won’t have to use a shard per summon, but really a “meh” change in my opinion.
• Bug fix of a wild mustard plant in Dalaran: I am SOOO glad this has been fixed.  You don’t know how much that mustard in the ground by that rock was driving me insane when doing that cooking daily.
• Alchemy Northrend Discovery cooldown reduced: Good I think, if I can ever get my herbalist alt to catch up.  It sucks no longer having my old herb dealer.
• Fewer bolts of frostweave cloth required per bolt of imbued frostweave: Yay.  Now let’s get that cost per stack to drop a bit, shall we?
• Some neglected creatures in Icecrown have found the contents of their pockets: This one just made me giggle.
• 1 Click Mining: My priest will be thankful.  Her arms are weak.

So that’s really all I have to say about Patch 3.0.8.

But for you RockBand lovers out there – did you enjoy today’s download content (DLC)?  I was quite thrilled to finally see some Godsmack, and can only hope it means more to come!

I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that there is still a Rogue here. Syrana and her Warlocks get all the fun (and probably rightfully so.) I am, obviously, no expert on the Rogue class and I definitely don’t claim to be. I play it the way that I have the most fun, though I try to read up on spec and theory here and there.

I started the Rogue class because I always enjoyed the stealthy, ninja-style of play in other games. Though, the Rogue isn’t exactly like that, but it has some similarities. Maybe it’s my pacifist nature. I’d rather sneak around the big guy rather than fight him. It also helps when needing to kill a named guy at the end of a cave. I can just pick him out and then leave without them knowing. Hehe..

I leveled Sideshow up as mainly Combat Daggers on my way to 60 and probably on through to 70 for most of the time. Towards 70 I did pick up an off-hand sword to see how that played out. After I was 70 for awhile, I spent some time grinding honor for some PvP items and I went Assassination/Mutilate for that period. With some of the new changes to the Assassination tree, I’m still playing that build now. I’ve always liked the daggers and I use Backstab and Ambush a lot, so I try to keep with those builds. I did play with Sublety on another Rogue that I leveled on Syrana’s old server, but he’s frozen in time at Level 53. It was definitely a lot of fun and killed a lot faster than I expected it to.

Well, all that PvP grinding helped me out in WotLK since I finally (at Level 78.5) replaced my Merciless Gladiator’s Leather Helm when I picked up the Helm of the Avenging Protector from the Reclmation quest line in Shalozar Basin. But, I’m sad to say that I now look like (more of) a freak. I was rockin’ the Skeletor look before, but now I look like some sort of mutated ram. Though, I still have my Guardian’s Leather Belt, which is the last pre-WotLK item I have on now.

I do have to say that grouping with an Affliction Warlock while questing is a very nice tag team. I start the pull with an Ambush or Cheap Shot and then she DoTs up and Shadow Bolts the crap out of it while I (usually) keep it stunned. We have it down to a science now.