Phyllixia on Holiday

It's highly unlikely that there will be any blog posts for the next couple of months, as I'll be away and not playing WoW.

Then again.... I *will* probably be keeping tabs on any hunter previews for Cataclysm, so who knows? :)

On a related note: apparently my 25man ICC PuG subconsciously threw a going-away party for me, because not only did we complete a smooth 9/12 run this morning (I'd been 6/12 in 25man previously), I also won the roll on Deathbringer's Will!

Rather amusing how it's usually the tier pieces people upgrade first.... and now I find myself completely in ilvl 264 gear *except* for my 4 pieces of T10. WTB Hunter tokens, PST! :P

Hunter Tank!

So I finally got to tank in a raid the other day.

No, not using a pet tank - that day will come, I'm sure! - but a boss hunters are legitimately asked to tank occasionally, Prince Keleseth of the Blood Prince Council.

Not only did I have fun (Kill Shot as an opener? Close to 50,000 hit points in full PvP/tank gear, even minus a couple of buffs? Hell yes!), we even got an Achievement at the end of it:

Thanks to our great healers, I didn't even feel the need to use my emergency shield (and we didn't have a warlock for healthstones... which is actually why I was tanking in the first place), so it was a pretty comfortable kill.

Definitely a lot better than my usual job of running around chasing after orange balls, anyway!

(Side note - having to put up Rank 1 Serpent Sting on all of the purple nuclei really does drain your mana... I was surprised how quick it went, even in Survival spec)

WoW Spam

It's interesting how I take ad spam in WoW for granted these days.

Whether it's the floating orcs (as shown above) or everyone's buddy "Susan" in Trade Chat, I don't bat an eye.

Usually I take the time to click and report them for spam, but sometimes I don't even notice... and others, I just couldn't be bothered.

Sometimes I wonder, though... is everyone else as apathetic about it as me, or are there people out there who still care? Does Blizzard even care, or do they just mass ban the accounts that got reported and move on?

Most Expensive Quest Chain Ever

Yeah, I finally paid for the hilt.

Not the best way to spend gold, perhaps... especially since I have Distant Land already and Quel'Delar wasn't even an upgrade.

Still, it's definitely a cool quest chain and would recommend doing it to people if you have enough gold to throw away :)

My Guild

I have had many, many discussions with people as to why I do the things I do.

One of the more common questions, particularly from dissatisfied guildies or curious non-guild friends, is:

Why do I stay with my guild, Southern Wardens of US-Proudmoore, where raiding progression is slower than I'd like, wipes from silly mistakes are frustrating, and first kills are often obtained through PuGs weeks before the guild as a whole even sets eyes on the boss?

My short answer tends to be: "Because I want to".

Of course, people are rarely satisfied with that answer, so here's a slightly longer one:

• My guild doesn't care if I raid as BM.
• My guild doesn't immediately replace me if I'm running late for a raid.
• My guild /rolls for loot and often pass in favour of someone else who needs it more.
• My guild helps people who ask for it, and don't mind "carrying" people who are good-natured, grateful, and at least try their hardest.
• And more importantly, my guild are a friendly, cheery bunch that accept people for who they are... even if you're a mage called Wildence.

Would I recommend this guild to a hardcore raider? No.
Would I recommend this guild to someone who doesn't mind a few wipes as long as everyone has fun? Hell yes! Southern Wardens rock :)

(If you're wondering what inspired this post, we ran Ulduar 10 hard modes last night in preparation for seeing Algalon. Sure, we wiped a couple of times despite now having double the HP and DPS as when we did normal modes, but it was better than stressing over ICC10 progression. When the most important loot /roll of the night is over who gets to push the Big Red Button, you know there's fun to be had :D)

The other side of AH Arrows

After complaining about arrow etiquette on the AH, I thought I should also post the other side of the story - the times when I actually like several pages of arrows being listed:

Gotta love it when people put blue arrows up for less than vendor arrow price!

The Aussie Ping

Everyone on US servers that aren't based in the US are aware of our higher latency, particularly when some uncaring Yank makes a complaint that - ZOMG! - they have 200ms, how terrible!

(200ms is the type of latency us Aussies only see in Exodar at 2am... 3-400 is more normal)

However, we're all used to it - and unless your Arena team is hitting 2k rating, we don't really notice. I don't, anyway.

Until last night.

Every strat I've read for hunters on Sindragosa states that if you're quick enough, you can hit Disengage on her Icy Grip and not move at all.

I'm here to tell any hunter that hasn't done Sindragosa before that if you have 500ms like I did last night, that "tip" is bull&#$@.

Yes, I still got a headstart on the rest of my crew in running out.... but the best I could manage was the edge of melee range. Definitely nowhere near where I started.

I've heard horror stories of the timing that used to be required for Naxx40 back in the day and now I wonder - if any Oceanic guilds were actually raiding that place successfully, they should probably have their guild name plastered next to the old Nihilum guild for world firsts back then, because they deserve it.

Even more annoying pea-shooter

Usually I scoff at BoA items, since my hunter is always the leader of the pack and I don't care much about gearing/levelling alts.

I am, however, going straight out to buy a bow after reading a post in the hunter soloing thread on the EJ forums by Brightlol (Brightofday of Aman'thul), the first hunter in the world to solo Nefarian.

Not only did Brightlol solo something pretty epic, they also provided an absolutely epic tip: the BoA Charmed Ancient Bone Bow has no durability, and therefore can't be broken in Nef's hunter class call!

...and I guess another good thing about it is if you ever forget to repair, you know this bow will never break. Almost never happens to me, but hey - I remember some pretty close calls doing Hyjal retro runs where the mass AoE was enough to make me worry :P

Auction House Arrow Etiquette

If you insist on listing a single arrow for sale on the AH to try and catch people out (eg. listing 1 arrow for the same price as the average stack of 1000)... at least have the decency to only list, say, 4 pages' worth.

Not 10, 20, or some other obscene number of pages that gives everyone trying to find the first decently priced lot of arrows RSI.

Trust me, there aren't 200 stupid hunters that will each buy a few of your single arrow stacks within the 2 day AH limit, so there's no need to provide for that many!

Was that really heroic?

I had to double check that the ToGC10 raid I'd joined was heroic or not - it was one of the smoothest runs I've ever been on.

...Also, I won the horse. Woot! :)