Sideshow & Syrana

(Part 21) For a complete list of this series, please go here.

Aerissa could hear her heart thumping within her head.  A sense of dread washed over her, chilling her, as she emerged from the cave.  Locke generally did not stay too far from her for long, and was quick to return at her beck and call.  Aerissa stood slowly, placing her hands against the outer cave wall to aid her balance.  Closing her eyes, she tried to focus her mind and silently call for him.

She sighed, leaning heavily against the cave wall.  Then suddenly she doubled over, retching into the grass.  Aerissa’s eyes stung as she spit and coughed, clearing her mouth of bile.  “Ungh,” she groaned as she wiped her mouth.  Her stomach had been feeling more and more uneasy lately.

She waited outside for about an hour.  It didn’t appear as though Locke would be returning this evening.  Aerissa decided it would be best to go back inside the cave for the rest of the night.  Before doing so, she gathered a few sticks and twigs and made a small fire.  The flickering of the flames mesmerized her as she lay staring at the fire.  Eventually, she fell back to sleep.

The fire died out as the morning sun bathed the entrance of the cave, warming it up nicely.  Aerissa was still alseep, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.  Her head rolled and face twitched as she dreamed.  A painful searing in her mind woke her with a start.

~isssssa~ (continue reading…)

Last Friday while I was raiding, I started getting hit with a new water based spell.  It appears to be an AOE spell, but it only hits in one spot… from above.  Unfortunately,  am required to ranged DPS at this stage of the fight.  I tried moving… If I move out of the spell damage area, then I’m out of range, but if I stay in range to DPS, then I’m taking damage.

It is making the fight extremely difficult since I only have so many self-healing abilities, and they just don’t cut it.  Plus, being hit with it causes a motivational debuff that can stack infinitely and also gives me the buff [Sour Mood] which has no duration and will randomly disappear based on an unknown proc.

I submitted a ticket requesting for this to be hotfixed.  I’m told it’s a minor bug, but it should not be cast this often, and ideally shouldn’t be cast at all within this room.

Phew! This week went by fairly quickly, but lookie, posts each day! Yay! /rejoice

For today’s shot, I thought I’d send some of ya down memory lane.  Please remember, this was before the reconstructive surgey and Syrana is quite sensitive about how her face looks.

Step 3: Profit!

Step 1: Find Baby

Step 2: ???

I did make a Syranaish sim in The Sims 3.  She actually is a descendant of my sim, which I suppose in a weird way is just about right… I mean, Syrana’s persona is of my creation.  The above screenies are from Syrana’s teenage years.  She was quite rebellious and liked to dress punk.

But seeing has how there aren’t any warlocks in The Sims 3, I had to do the next best thing… pick traits that would be considered warlocky!  (And to those of you that Google’d for “sims 3 warlock” and arrived here at S&S, I’m sorry to disappoint you:  There is no such thing! /sadface)

So what do these mean? And how are they fitting to Syrana the Blood Elf Warlock and Syrana the Human Sim?

Let’s take a look at the definition of the traits and then it might be clearer how they are befitting of a warlock!  (Although, I imagine “evil” seems obvious, no?) (continue reading…)

Anea of Holy Discipline poses the question:

“Are you ashamed that you play WoW?”

I was going to chime in with my 2 cents in her comment section, then decided it was great fuel for a post.  Rather than crit her comments with a wall o’ text, I’ll just answer her here!

Then I remembered something sitting in my drafts that fits well with this topic, so let’s combine the two!

(Taboo) Table Talk

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I don’t have anymore coworkers that play WoW, and I don’t have many IRL friends that do.  Sideshow works with several people that play or used to play.  My parents now play.

But I find plenty of opportunities to talk about it outside the game anyway.

Sure, Sideshow and I often talk about gaming with each other.  We do this at home, at the store, and at restaurants.  Sometimes I wonder what others are thinking, but usually I just don’t worry about it.  I figure they’ll either think I’m geeky-cool, justadork, or foreign (y’know, not speaking a “language” they comprehend). (continue reading…)

• Larísa of the Pink Pigtail Inn has some sound advice on how you, as a player, can sparkle and shine in game.

• Fulguralis of Killing ‘em Slowly explores thoughts and misconceptions of the impending ‘WoW Killer.’

• Krizzlybear of Frost is the New Black takes a look at the seemingly unwritten new PUG guidelines for invites.

• Lodur of World of Matticus explores the different categories of guilds and players that may experience the ‘raider lulls‘ and how to help your guild work through them.

• Kimberly of World of Warcraft Wanderings has been experimenting with her dual spec – Tanking! Besides the awesome infographic, she talks about issues she is experiencing as a new tank and how to overcome them.  If you have any helpful tips, send ‘em her way! (Because she is sooo better than the inanimate carbon rod, I just know it!)

• In case you missed Euripedes of Critical QQ’s discussion regarding the badge changes, you might want to check it out.  Agree or not, there are some interesting points of discussion raised not only within the original post, but in the mountain o’ comments as well.

• Too Many Anna’s, Lorecrafted, and WTT: [RP] have combined forces to bring you a writing contest!

• Samodean of Hardcore Casual and Spinks of Welcome to Spinksville have very informational “first looks” at a new MMO comin’ our way: Aion.

• I think Fulg already highlighted this new(ish)-to-the-scene Warlock blog, but now I’ve had a chance to officially welcome Draxi of The Noob Lock to my Warlockery Cohort!

I forgot to post up a bit of glee /happydance of a RL achievement…. my mount is paid off!

Woo!

Now, if only I could save the gold to buy an epic…

Goals Schmoals

I can’t believe June is almost over already.  Half the year is gone!  A tweet tonight about the Loremaster achievement reminded me about the goal list I posted at the beginning of the year.  I figured now would be a good time to take a look at what can be checked off and what still needs to be worked on.  Hopefully it will help refocus me as I ease back in.  (At least after I play firefighter!)

….

Eesh only 2.5 of my 10 gaming goals have been completed so far! Let’s take a looksee, shall we? (continue reading…)

(This is a follow up of sorts to the first Work Raid Encounter post.)

I expressed interest to the GM of taking over as the raid leader for our guild. I feel it’s something I am ready for and have been preparing for for the last couple years of playing.

Unfortunately, they declined to take me up on that offer and wish to keep me as merely an officer/class leader/sometimes co-raid leader. I don’t know.. something about wanting to eventually rebuild a guild or 2 they disbanded months ago and run them either through a merger or as a raiding alliance all under 1 raid leader. Apparently I’m not qualified to “maybe someday” run such an alliance or merger.

How far ahead are we looking? Seriously? We can’t fill raid spots now and benching more members isn’t completely off the table that I’m aware of.

Blarg. I need another expansion so I can level up to the next cap and train s’more skills, me thinks. But damn, that gets expensive. And our guild bank doesn’t give out loans.

But they do “appreciate” my dedication and willingness to co-raid lead for the time being… as well as all the farming I do and helping my guildies gear up.

(Part 20) For a complete list of this series, please go here.

After speaking with Krizkix, Aly decided to head back to the Salty Sailor Tavern and pack her bags.  She went to the bank to leave most of her belongings and withdrew more money.  She figured she’d be flying out soon and would need to travel lightly.  She would also need to have coin on hand to buy information, for that never came cheap.  Aly tended to the bank quickly and returned to the tavern to wait for Krizkix’s report.

Several hours went by and no Krizkix.  Aly began to grind her teeth as she attempted to keep her anger in check.  The waiting was making her anxious.  She tried to nurse her drinks for as long as she could.  She needed to keep her head clear and alert, but couldn’t raise suspicion about why she was loitering at the tavern.

Just as Aly was about to give up on Krizkix, the disgustingly smug little Goblin came bursting through the door.  She could see from where she sat that he nervously twisted a piece of parchment in his hand.  Krizkix squinted, his eyes darting around the dimly lit tavern, but he didn’t see her.  Shuffling to the bar, he motioned for the barkeep to come closer. (continue reading…)

eric.surfdude @ Flickr

Well, it was over 3 weeks since I’d logged into WoW.  It almost starts getting to the point where it’s scary to go back in…. you don’t want to be bombarded upon your return about your absence, you don’t want no one to not notice you’d been gone, you don’t want to second guess mail expirations, you don’t want to think about the dailies/money/rep etc. gains you missed out on… I could go on, but I won’t.

And you don’t want to think you forgot how to play. (Had to throw one more in, sorry.)

In some ways, it’s sort of like returning to work after a long vacation… you have mixed feelings about returning and it takes a bit of easing back into the routine before it feels comfy again.  (And I hadn’t even taken the break based purely on burnout, so it was all sorts of odd)

No Longer /AFK

First indication it’d been awhile since I’d played… had to dust off my authenticator.

No, seriously, it had a lil’ film o’ dust over the screen.

Second indication it’d been awhile since I’d played… my login failed like 4 times.

Wrong effin’ password.

And it doesn’t tell me that until after I enter the username, password, AND authenticator code that something was wrong with my login.  So the first time I just thought I missed a number for code.

Third indication… I had to download a patch and load out of date addons.

Fourth indication… I had trouble figuring out how to hold my cell phone between my ear and shoulder while playing, or how to even try and manage it.

So, we took it easy.  We figured out logging in, managed to half ass maneuver with one hand (except, I like to hold the phone with my “mouse” hand…) and were excited about Midsummer Festival!  It starts today! What timing, amirite?!

Gimmie Fuel, Gimmie Fire

Well, we were excited about Midsummer Festival until discovering it was in fact true that last year’s quests had not reset.

*grumble*

It’s, like, my favorite holiday.

I felt a bit jipped to be honest.

Sure, there supposedly are new bonfires in Northrend…. I managed to find 3.  (Remember, I was slightly distracted by the phone too.)  I just didn’t have the patience when I know where all the Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and Outland bonfires are.

Although… I remembered there was JUST ONE Alliance fire I hadn’t desecrated last year and set out for it.

To Teldrassil! /charge

For fun, I went ahead and desecrated stole the Darnassus flame right away too (which worked although the rest I did last year were NOT working).  Then portaled into Darnassus so that I could wait and be killed by the guards.  Much easier than trying to navigate out the front.  Spirit rez outside Dolanaar and ta-da!

2 Birds, 1 Fire

Now, hotfix the other fires already, kthxbye.

So, hour and a half in tonight… that’s the way to ease ‘er in back to normal. *nodnod*