Dialect coach.

Okay – so this is a funny coincidence. Last night in guild Vent, I detected an accent that is very uncommon, from the area in question from my barfing beer mug story— and sure enough, this guildmate has been to that pub many times, and was from that area. I know my accents, at least US ones. 

According to a PBS story, researchers detect or classify the US dialects from three to twenty-four. Three? No way. There are probably twenty-four distinct dialects in the state of Texas alone. And does this count immigrants, and their interpretation of English? And heaven knows I am such a hybrid, having lived from coast-to-coast and everywhere in between, I think any accent has been washed away to generic “woman voice #3.A/456.” I know sometimes I’ve laughed too loud, or asked someone to repeat themselves (can’t hear them over the awesomeness), and sometimes my mic has been screwy. I can mumble sometimes, and have been accused of forgetting that there are vowels in the world (Hawaiian and Samoan names are tough ones for me).

In any case, if you get me on Vent, I’ll try to be polite. But mostly I’m just listening for you to tell me when to Hero. Unless of course, like last night, the dungeon leader allowed me to think for myself.

Heard that loud and clear.

No regrets.

Nothing like a good old-fashioned night fight…

I have no regrets about not studying for the 4.3 Patch–last night was a blast. Got through most of the new dungeons easy-breezy, and wasn’t too distracted by how beautiful they are. I can see how they can become tiresome later, but that is always the way, and not my problem now. Plenty of new content to learn and play. If I have any regrets at all it may be that I did play grasshopper a bit too much when others were being ants, but really, not sure it matters. I don’t like to farm, and making a lot of gold doesn’t appear to be a big priority for me. I do wish I could have glammed up with some new things I bought, but ya know? In time. It’s all about the pacing for me. 


But, thought it was time to review the patch notes. These are the items that are important to my shaman, Mataoka “Please call me Matty and No I won’t be an Elemental Shaman but Might Try to Heal You,” Zeptepi the Confused Holy/Shadow Priest, Luperci the Reluctant Paladin, Haanta the Hillbilly Huntress, and Magadora “the Gas Tank” Mage. 


Some love:
Enhancement

• Improved Lava Lash now causes Lava Lash to spread a Flame Shock debuff from the target to up to 4 nearby targets. This excludes crowd-controlled targets and those who already have a Flame Shock debuff from the shaman.
• Improved Lava Lash no longer increases base Lava Lash damage by 15/30%. This increase has been rolled into the base Lava Lash skill.
• Mental Quickness has been redesigned. Instead of granting the shaman spell power, Mental Quickness now causes Enhancement shaman spells to behave as though the shaman has spell power equal to 55% of attack power. Enhancement shaman spells no longer benefit from spell power from other sources.
• Maelstrom Weapon can now also proc from fully absorbed melee attacks.

This I probably should have known:


Wind Shear’s base cooldown has been adjusted to 15 seconds, up from 6 seconds.
Oops. That would have come in handy during a certain rainbow dinner party fight.


Oh, guess I’m not so dumb after all: Mages

• Mages
  • Pyroblast’s initial damage has been increased by approximately 26%, and its damage over time has been increased by approximately 100%.
  • Fireball damage has been increased by approximately 17%.
  • Talent Specializations
    • Fire
      • Living Bomb damage over time has been increased by approximately 10%, and explosion damage has been increased by approximately 120%.

Official Hour of Twilight Patch Notes


Blood Diamonds: Dangit, Blizzard. Why’d you have to go and make access to the wealth so much like real life? And with pepper spray, too?


I’m already enhanced. 


Thank you RNGs: 

• Zul’Gurub
  • Players now only have to kill two of the four initial dungeon bosses (High Priest Venoxis, Broodlord Mandokir, High Priestess Kilnara, and Zanzil) to face Jin’do the Godbreaker.
• Zul’Aman
  • Players now only have to kill two of the four Troll avatars before they may face Hex Lord Malacrass.

And a few “What the hells?”: (Did I even have these spells? What the heck have I been doing?!)

• • Priest – Holy 
    • Spirit of Redemption has been rebuilt to address a few functionality issues and make it more responsive. Spirit of Redemption otherwise remains unchanged.
    • State of Mind has been redesigned and is now called Heavenly Voice. Heavenly Voice increases the healing done by Divine Hymn by 50/100%, and reduces the cooldown of Divine Hymn by 2.5/5 minutes.
    • Guardian Spirit’s healing bonus has been increased to 60%, up from 40%.
    • Holy Word: Serenity now has a cooldown of 10 seconds, down from 15 seconds.

Paladins (I don’t think I’ve ever understood my hammers from my seals…yikes.)

• Holy Radiance now has a 3.0-second cast time, no cooldown, and requires a player target. That target is imbued with Holy Radiance, which heals them and all group members within 10 yards instantly, and continues to heal them by a smaller amount every 1 second for 3 seconds.

• Seal of Insight, when Judged, no longer returns 15% base mana to the paladin. Judging Seal of Insight still causes damage, and melee attacks will still restore 4% of base mana.

• Seal of Truth, when Judged, now benefits from a multiplier of 20% per stack of Censure, up from 10%.

Oh, I know one little dwarf hunter who is going to be PISSED: The achievement Tol Barad Veteran now requires 25 victories in Tol Barad, down from 100.


Here is the cautionary tale: If you begin to grumble about the grind of the game, all you need to do is stop grinding. Goals are wonderful to have, but when they lose their original purpose, they cease to bring happiness. That’s right, grasshopper. You just got fabled.


Yes, content of this post liberally borrowed from joystiq.

Aggressively passive.

Oh, the list of things I didn’t do to prepare for 4.3 The Hour of Twilight.

• No PTR
• Didn’t add up any justice points or valor points to see what or who needed what when or why
• Haven’t visited Mr. Robot in a while. He’s like the bitchy fashion designer who tells you what to wear, but doesn’t give you the credit card.
• Didn’t farm anything. Nothing. “Oh, Sir Orc? You want this node? Be my guest, after you…”
• No gold, no materials, emptied out pockets on professions that will probably be worthless soon, like training to be a wheelwright or farrier. (Look them up–you have Google).
• Didn’t read notes again, didn’t preview squat. I heard there is a rumor about a monkey with a fez, and if that is true, it will be mine. Oh yes…it will be mine.

That would be sho kewl.

Now, what did I do this past week, besides make too much stuffing, enough mashed potatoes to feed all of the Stormwind orphans, and scuttle under the darkness of a northern Pacific coast gloom? I leveled my beautiful mage, Magadora. I realized that when I get the “Explorer” title that may be a bit awkward, so I may have to change her name. In any case, between the heirlooms (shoulders, staff, and chest) and the WoW 7th Anniversary buff, she went from zero to hero in no time flat. She is now level…35? 36? Yes, she is a Fire/Arcane mage. Yes. I know it’s wrong to use Fire. I have seen how slow it is, the casting time takes an eternity, especially after having Mataoka wield the weather like she owns it. But, dang: it makes me happy when I see a huge fireball hurtling toward its target, SKABOOM, down. So, on those boss fights, the little mage that could is usually top or second DPS. She is a slow boil, but look out when she’s cooking. I have prepared myself to get plenty of gruff from other players, although it hasn’t happened yet. So far I’ve heard “solid group,” or “great group” and been asked to re-queue repeatedly.

But the real thanks goes to my partner-in-crime who has the patience of the world with me, and will just grind through older content just to get the cool mace or ax, no hidden agendas or demands.

I asked myself this week, concerning a few issues, “What do I want?” Do I want to be GREAT, or do I want to have fun? I feel that much of Azeroth and real life make these two mutually exclusive, but not always. I have known moments when greatness and fun unite. Maybe that’s what we all do: define it for ourselves.

As far as raiding goes, I am not looking forward to LFR especially. As long as I get to bring my monkey, then I guess it’ll be okay. 

It’s not so bad.

This Monday morning was brought to you by the Krusty Krab: (just click the link – trust me)

http://www.wimp.com/everydaybeach/

Picture is worth…

She is the Annie Leibovitz of screen shots (in my opinion): If you want to see how a screen shot is done, please go to the Tome of the Ancients blog and review her amazing portfolio project:

http://tomeoftheancient.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/intpipomo-forty-of-fifty/

Hey, that looks a lot like Ice Crown…

/sigh

Getting my righteous geek on means having a marathon of the LOTR series this Thanksgiving weekend, and I realize once again the true lord and master of fantasy: Tolkien.*

*Although I am pretty sure he’d roll over in his grave if he imagined two troll-masked punks taking over a monastery…

Liv Tyler galloping like an angel away from the Nazgul like she owes them money across the New Zealand, err, Middle Earth countryside still gets my heart racing, even though I know how it ends. It never matters. The great stories ensnare us and don’t set us free until it’s over, and it’s never really over.

Anyway– can’t wait: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/11/peter-jackson-geeks-out-on-3-d-in-latest-hobbit-video/

Theme video: Get your swoon on.

A retraction, of sorts…

Those who know me know I am a moody [insert epitaph here] little shaman.

In my impulsive need to leave, I forgot one thing, one critical thing: I can be a *itch, too.

There is a reason why I kept hearing the Eric Cartman’s song about Kyle’s mom in my head for the past week, and it took a very good friend to reveal to me why. Ah, epiphanies. Such exquisitely sharp tools.

So– I am sorry. I can be too much Walter and definitely not enough Dude. Thank you Donny for trying to help. I think, however, in that scenario, I played Maude.

Anyway, I have this fantasy scene in my head where I’ve recast The Big Lebowski with WoW players:

The Dude: Walter… what am I going to tell Lebowski? 
Walter Sobchak: I told that f**k down at the league office… who’s in charge of scheduling? 
The Dude: Walter… 
Donny: Burkhalter. 
Walter Sobchak: I told that k***t a f*****g thousand times that I don’t roll on Shabbos! 
The Dude: Walter… 
Donny: They already posted it. 
Walter Sobchak: Well they can f*****g unpost it*! 
The Dude: Who gives a shi*t! They’re gonna kill that poor woman, man! What am I gonna tell Lebowski? 
Walter Sobchak: C’mon Dude, eventually she’ll get sick of her little game and, you know, wander on back. 
Donny: How come you don’t roll on Saturday, Walter? 
Walter Sobchak: I’m shomer shabbos. 
Donny: What’s that? 
The Dude: Yeah, and in the meantime, what do I tell Lebowski? 
Walter Sobchak: Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don’t work, I don’t drive a car, I don’t f*****g ride in a car, I don’t handle money, I don’t turn on the oven, and I sure as sh*t *don’t f*****g roll*! 
Donny: Sheesh. 
Walter Sobchak: Shomer shabbos! 
The Dude: Walter, how am I going to… 
Walter Sobchak: Shomer f******g shabbos. 
The Dude: Oh f**k it. I’m out of here. 
Walter Sobchak: Come on, Dude… 
[rolls his eyes at Donny] 
Walter Sobchak: F******g BABY… 
[Donny nods] 


I don’t kill Rag on Shomer Shabbos. 


Theme song: Kyle’s mom.

My my my my Garona…

So, not sure where I picked this quest up, and it took the spell power of Google to look it up*, but Rökkr received this lost libary book, and has been charged to return it tout suite. Now on this fine holiday weekend, there are Fridays to blacken and garages to purge, yet now I am compelled to go forth and figure this out:

Quest: Garona: A Study on Stealth and Treachery

It can be difficult to find the library, which can actually be accessed from either Dire Maul North or Dire Maul West. The simplest way is through Dire Maul North. After you enter the instance, go down the first ramp into the pit (full of ogres and dogs). To the left in the pit is a locked door which requires [Crescent Key] or 300 lockpicking. Through this door is a long hallway which leads into the Aethenaeum library (actually part of Dire Maul West). As you enter the library, Kildrath will be to the left (south), muttering about other lost books.

And apparently I will need a key:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Crescent_Key

Librarians are a tough crowd, so I’d better get this book back before the fines add up and deplete the guild bank. I’m sure Rökkr will stealth and put it in the night drop box without anyone being the wiser.

*Saw a Neil Gaiman tweet the other day that said something to the effect, “Google may give you millions of answers, but a librarian will give you the right one.” Amen, Sir Gaiman.

Theme song: Sam Cooke/Wonderful World

Drabble: Kings.

The Kurenei elder looked at her with crinkling wise eyes, and asked, “Liddle gurl, you vill tak car of dis talbuk, yes?” The tall draenei female resisted the urge to touch his face: too disrespectful. Her grandfather had always been cautious, worrying too much about everyone and everything. But he had kept them safe, and alive. The least she could would be to protect this talbuk from any harm. Family legends told of her grandfather fighting an army of orcs just to save her grandmother. Looking in his eyes, she believed this, and his protection lasting eternally. “Go on now,” he said.

I realize this isn’t Father’s Day. Lately, appreciating good fathers and grandfathers has been on my mind lately, mostly I guess because one of my best friend’s since I was a girl lost her father a few months ago, and we are both able to talk about it now. The other is I read Vid’s blog Manalicious regularly, and know her grandfather isn’t well. 

For certain, there plenty of wayward fathers, neglectful fathers, and simply disinterested ones. I know someone whose own father was the worst kind of vagabond blackguard, who would steal from his young mother, and leave her to fend for herself time and again. But I also know of plenty of men who are wonderful fathers, who love their daughters and sons, who protect and care for their children. Those are the men who are truly kings. I am thankful for the men in my life, living and passed on, who have loved me and protected me.

Well, if Felicia Day likes it…

I am fortunate enough to work with an IT guy who likes ME BEST (step off, peeps…ME – he likes ME). Actually, I kid, but me and my friends did get in a Facebook brawl over which one of us he favors. Again, pretty sure it’s ME. In any case, as a huge favor, I asked him if he could help me with my very old Dell. It was having issues a year ago, and in the layers of grit and archeological technological mess, I forgot the password. I never forget passwords, but, oh well. He hacked into it lickity-split, and before you could say “troll-bait” the creaky old Dell was back up and running. He knows I play WoW, and even just thinking about stepping plate or leather soles back in Azeroth makes him froth at the mouth. He did share that he has really been enjoying Skyrim. Toodling around on Facebook tonight while frying bacon and making cornbread for the cornbread stuffing (suck it, Yankees–cornbread stuffing is the only stuffing worthy of this princess’s lips), I saw that the lovely Felicia Day plays Skyrim, too. I should have known Sir Fixalot would have followed this lovely redhead into the fire. I am definitely going to check it out, too–it looks AHMAAAZINGGGG.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim/media/videos/behind-wall-making-skyrim-trailer/

PS On the desktop, was a screen shot of Mataoka on her broom from last Hallow’s End, 2010. Aw, she was so cute.

PPS What do you get a IT guy who doesn’t drink Starbucks? Do you have Felicia’s number?