I WILL NOT MOVE WHEN FLAME WREATH IS CAST OR THE RAID BLOWS UP

Frosty Foes: The All-Purpose Karazhan Guide

(Frosty Foes is a series of posts outlining various Boss Fights in heroic 5-man dungeons as well as 10-man raiding dungeons. Here, I will try to outline a number of strategies to employ when fighting the boss as a Frost-specced mage.)

What originally started as a matrix comparing the different Opera Event strategies actually expanded to become all of Karazhan. So I decided to go the distance in the form of a neat little .bmp

Step 1: Click Picture.
Step 2: Right Click, Save as.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!



Just a few things about the above picture that I will clearly edit later.
- I only mentioned that Water Elemental is capable of tanking the other Elementals because it is immune to waterbolts, but the adds are also immune to waterbolts, meaning that your pet will not attack them, and thus will not tank them. I will change this.
- I've had invisibility "work" on BBW when I got turned into RRH. The timing is so important, because you're VERY likely to get hit while waiting for the effect to tick down. Even then, when the invisibility effect occurs, you can still get hit. When it happened to me, the "leaving combat" message turned up the same time I lost the RRH debuff, so I can't really say at the moment which it is. I encourage you mages to try it out anyways.

Here's to 50 More!

/cheers!

This isn't exactly the sort of celebration I wanted to do today, since I consider posting milestones (by quantity) not as important as actual duration (by weeks/months/years) milestones, but this is probably the first milestone a blogger could probably reach in his long career, aside from the 1-month milestone that I completely forgot about and simply breezed through. Holy crap that was a long sentence; quite indicative of my progress as an author. But I didn't mean to do it, honest!

I'm actually quite surprised that it happened so soon. I blame work, really. Little to do workwise, and hour long lunchbreaks where I only spend 5 minutes eating. I also blame my waning interest in fanfiction (it's cyclical, so I'll get back into it soon inevitably). Double, and sometimes triple-posting within one day helped, but posting nearly every day really helped, and I'm actually quite surprised that I haven't run out of things to post about. There's just so much about the world inside and outside the game, and I hardly doubt that well is going to dry up anytime soon.

There's a bunch of people that I really want to thank, but it's just easier to group them into groups to reduce the amount of linking that I have to do (you expect me to WORK on Fridays? Please!), and ensure that no name is left out. If you blog about mages, you belong on this list. If you blog about RP, you belong on this list. If you blog about raiding, you belong on this list. If you blog about casual play, you belong on this list. If you blog about lore, you belong on this list. If you blog about casual roleplaying, lore-mongering mages who find time to raid, you belong on this list. Okay, that last category doesn't count; I simply made it up because it describes me quite well as a blogger in this community. After a nice 50 posts (a soon-to-be irrelevant statistic), I have settled into a comfortable niche within the blogging community.

And quite honestly, even if you don't fall into any of these categories listed, you're still a big part of my own development as a writer and a WoW player. So really, disregard what I just said about wanting to thank people specifically. You are all amazing people who are part of an amazing group of people who play an amazingly awesome game, and I thank you just for being there.

Ultimate cop-out post complete. Hope to see you all again after another 50, 100, 1000, and more!

A Twist on Things, The "Big Watch"

So there's been some stirrings in regards to the whole "Big Read" topic going on in several blogs. I'm not too big on supposedly classic literature, but I do see the validity in culturing oneself by reading such titles. Of course these lists are compiled solely on subjective opinion, but it does have some merit, even if it is to a minimal degree in some other's opinion.

However, I will not be revealing my big read statistic/score or whatnot. Instead, I'll throw a curveball and shed light on another association, the AFI. In 2007, they released a list of 100 supposedly best movies of all time. I will do the same Underline/Bold/Italicize thingamajig to the list as others have with the NEA's list. What I can say, however, is that at least they provided some form of criteria, which can be found on their website:

1 - Feature-length: Narrative format, at least 40 minutes in length.
2 - American film: English language, with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States.
3 - Critical Recognition: Formal commendation in print.
4 - Major Award Winner: Recognition from competitive events including awards from organizations in the film community and major film festivals.
5 - Popularity Over Time: Including figures for box office adjusted for inflation, television broadcasts and syndication, and home video sales and rentals.
6 - Historical Significance: A film's mark on the history of the moving image through technical innovation, visionary narrative devices or other groundbreaking achievements.
7 - Cultural Impact: A film's mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

So without further adieu, here's the list in all its glory! (Code: bold = watched, italicized = want to watch, underline = watched and loved)

Citizen Kane (1941)
The Godfather (1972)
Casablanca (1942)
Raging Bull (1980)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Schindler's List (1993)
Vertigo (1958)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
City Lights (1931)
The Searchers (1956)
Star Wars (1977)
Psycho (1960)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The Graduate (1967)
The General (1927)
On the Waterfront (1954)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Chinatown (1974)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
High Noon (1952)
All About Eve (1950)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The Sound of Music (1965)
King Kong (1933)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Shane (1953)
It Happened One Night (1934)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Rear Window (1954)
Intolerance (1916)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
West Side Story (1961)
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
MASH (1970)
North by Northwest (1959)
Jaws (1975)
Rocky (1976)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Nashville (1975)
Duck Soup (1933)
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
American Graffiti (1973)
Cabaret (1972)
Network (1976)
The African Queen (1951)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Unforgiven (1992)
Tootsie (1982)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) (ELUNES GRACE, YES!)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Forrest Gump (1994)
All the President's Men (1976)
Modern Times (1936)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Apartment (1960)
Spartacus (1960)
Sunrise (1927)
Titanic (1997)
Easy Rider (1969)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Platoon (1986)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Swing Time (1936)
Sophie's Choice (1982)
Goodfellas (1990)
The French Connection (1971)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Blade Runner (1982)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
Toy Story (1995)
Ben-Hur (1959)

34%, I think. Not too bad, I suppose.

Wimzig's Whimsy: Goldshire

((A little peeved about not going to ZA yesterday. Don't want to start any guild drama, despite the fact that I'm 100% sure that nobody there reads my blog anyways, but as I looked at the list of names in Vent on the 10-man channel, there were a few that I didn't recognize. Some were alts (ALTS!), some were new recruits. Made me wonder a little bit about where I stood in the guild. I'm going to hold my tongue here, because it's useless to QQ about content that will be irrelevant in a few months anyways. So instead of being on standby alongside other regulars, I bowed out of the raid politely and logged onto Wimzig for a little RP action.))

Scientific fact, dear readership: Drinking water does not increase the rate of sobriety if you have already become drunk.

Yesterday, I took an oppotunity to rest at an inn in Goldshire, in hopes that I could leave for Westfall in the morning. It was early in the evening when I arrived, but it certainly seemed that the "festivities" had been in full swing for goodness knows how long.

Night Elves dancing naked on the tabletops. An overemotional Dranei (whose hooves immediately reminded me of a term that I picked up on the internether, "Drama Llama") skulking in front of the fireplace after a lengthy argument with a Paladin of her race, in their native tongue. A pregnant human rogue, possibly in her teens, begging for the Dranei's attention, without avail or any hint of success. And quite possibly the worst quality drinking water this side of the Eastern kingdoms. I've seen Crystal Lake, located behind the tavern; I don't doubt for one second that the Murlocs are peeing into the river that feeds it.

Yes, I concluded that there was not much to be optomistic about in this place. Even the ale that inebriated me for the time being convincingly tasted like urine, and rightfully so. I had an endless supply of waterskins that I could consume to not only wash out the taste, but hopefully lessen the effects of inebriation.

Quick science lesson: the state of drunkenness is dependant on the relative amount of alcohol in the body in relation to the body's total water volume. Let's call this the Blood-alcohol content level. By breathing into certain goblin-designed devices, it is possible to measure such levels of alcohol and water vapor, and extrapolate that into liquid form, and approximate a ratio statistic based on the user's race's average total body water volume. For gnomes, I had initially thought that our tiny frames meant that it would take less water added to our system via external consumption to lower the BAC. According to calculations that I would made the next day, this volume added by drink was negligible, and I had paid the price for my naivety with gnomish bastardness at its finest.

I wandered around with my tiny self as the bar swirled and spun around me. I had found the outside, but contrarty to popular belief, the pink elekks had not come. I sat down and leaned against a pole somewhere, possibly near the blacksmith; I could smell the singe of embers against cold hard steel as I blanked out.

Somehow, when I had woken, it was late, but only reasonably so. Sobriety had returned quickly, despite the amount of liquor I had ingested, and thanks to the horridly large amounts of water that I myself consumed.

Another scientific finding: Drinking excess amounts of water upsets the body's water balance. If not under the effects of alcohol, the body's natural system adjusts accordingly by removing fluids from the system to restore normal volumes. Fortunately, this process also results in the removal of remaining traces of alcohol as a waste product, whether it be in the form of urine or (more commonly) vapor, which is expelled via exahaltion.

When I regained awareness of my surroundings, I realized I was back at the nightmarish inn at Goldshire. I couldn't get to sleep, for I still felt quite hungover. I reached into my bag, and took out a book, one that I constantly doodle and write in, with anything that comes to my mind at the moment.

Wimzig's Whimsy, it was labelled. Inside was filled with everything, from water filtration schematics, to maps of Westfall and Stormwind, to amateur sketches of dancing female Night Elves. I scribbled in it constantly, whenever I found moments of reprieve.

A Dwarf and his pet sat across from me, and yelled out, perhaps to the entire bar, "Let's play a game of The Floor is Made out of Lava!"

I replied, muttering to myself, "I've played that before back in Gnomeregan, except that instead of Lava there's radiation, and that it wasn't a game."

I don't know if I was serious or not, but somehow it evoked some laughs. Especially from one in particular, a human priestess. She whispered to me about my amusing joke, and asked if I was being serious or humorous. In my defence, I did not know, but we did get into some talking. Turns out this girl is quite young, and a failure of a priest, according to the other patrons with whom she served the Light. She was chastised frequently for her conflicting views about religion. She felt that there needed to be faith more placed on each other's strengths and values rather than some ideal.

A natural gnome, if I ever saw one.

We made our formal introductions, and I mentioned my business. Trying to take the vending enterprise on the road, I revealed to her. I even voiced out my lack of satisfaction for the water quality around these parts, even to the point of escorting her to Crystal Lake, and using my self-engineered, self-develloped hydromatic qualitificationator on its contents. Not great at all. I offered a waterskin, free of charge, and convinced her of its finer tastes. I had made a friend and client as well!

I escorted her back to the inn, where we made our farewells, and I had assured her that someday we would meet again, hopefully not within the confines of a house with such debauchery.

And with that regard, I made my way to bed, looking forward to when I would wake up and enlist myself in an expedition that would send me deep into Defias territory. The Deadmines.

A Novel Idea

I surely hope the readership of this blog enjoyed the gnome lore post that I put up yesterday; it was perhaps one of the most enjoyable posts that I have done so far in my experience blogging thus far. Maybe it was because of the lore, or perhaps I'm just a huge fan of gnomes. Regardless, That bit of research that I did made me really itch for more lore, so this morning, I stopped by a bookstore on the way to work, and picked up not one, but THREE warcraft novels. Yay!

Originally, I have already read the War of the Ancients trilogy, by Richard Knaak. It depicts the events leading up to the creation of the Great Sea, and the formation of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. The author also introduced the dragon aspects, some of whom you will likely meet up in Northrend (Malygos in particular), as well as the night elf love triangle of Malfurion Stormrage, his twin brother Illidan, and Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind. A fascinating read throughout.

This morning, I added Rise of the Horde, Beyond the Dark Portal, and Tides of Darkness to my collection. I'm not exactly sure which book pertains to which parts of the Warcraft timeline, but I'm quite interested in Rise because of the spotlight supposedly put on Thrall (Correction: Thrall's father is spotlighted in RotH; Thrall gets his moment in Lord of the Clans).
So this is a call out to the lore nerds and novel junkies out there: which one do I read first?

About This Sunjun Guy...

You know who I'm talking about...the chinese commentor that spams people's blogs (I think blogspot users are the only ones who seem to be affected) with Chinese text and such. He's quite the peculiar fellow. I'm going out on a limb and assume that the majority of people in the blogosphere do not know how to read chinese characters. It's one thing to have to deal with spam, but it's another to just sit and stare at a wall of "WTFISTHATGUSAYING!?!?!"

So, to educate myself, I have run his comments through some online automated translators, and see what exactly he had to say.

For example, on Ratshag's post on how he could never follow instructions, Sunjun eloquently points out, with the help of babelfish:

"East Wenling the big assembly line transports the plant is engaged in the non-sign equipment design, the production, to sell and to serve a body's enterprise, the main product includes: The production line, spreads installs wiring, dustlessness room equipment, the welding apparatus, the decontaminatin unit, the non-sign equipment, and the physical distribution system fitting and so on."

Ah. I see. Sunjun, my dear friend, I do wish you luck in the future. May your assembly line transports engage in many non-sign equipment designs, and your non-sign equpment and distribution systems be fitting...whatever that means.

Gnow Your Gnomes: A Mini-Lore Lesson

(EDIT: Re-clarified and modified information based on blizzplanet's information, which seems to grab most of the lore information from the WoW RPG books.)

As a rule of thumb, it's generally required to know a little bit about the race you play in order to adequately roleplay. This is achieved by doing a little bit of research into the lore of gnomes in the World of Warcraft. By doing so, you would know what an appropriate age your character has to be, and to have the appropriate backstory that fits both the age of your character and the timeline of events in the Warcraft story. As a beginning roleplayer of the gnome class, I researched a few sites that detail the lore behind the gnomes of WoW in an attempt to try and solidify a backstory for Wimzig. Two sites in particular, wowwiki and wowroleplay provide a good start with regards to that, and I would be more than happy to share a bit of my findings with the rest of the blogging community.

Racial History

Gnomes have had relatively recent debuts in the historical records in the World of Warcraft. According to Wowwiki, the earliest historically recorded contact with gnomes was with a Dwarf, occurring 200 years pre-BC. After continuous interaction between the two races, an alliance grew, resulting in the construction of Gnomeregan, a bustling techno-city nestled deep within the mountains of Dun Morogh, close to Ironforge. They served as allies to the Bronzebeard clan of Dwarves during the dwarven civil war known as the War of the Three Hammers. If you have a character that is approximately 100-200 years old, you may be a veteran of that war, having participated in that war, serving under King Bronzebeard.

During the Second War, the gnomes of Gnomeregan were enlisted to help the Alliance due to their talents in engineering and technology. If you're a Gnomish engineer of 100-200 years, you may have participated in such technological assistance. You may have been a pilot of flying machines, sent on scout missions during the second war, or perhaps a nautical operator of a gnomish submarine.

The Third war marked a significant change to the Gnomeregan gnomes. Their city was invaded by the Troggs, who mysteriously appeared after the unearthing of ancient Uldaman. According to blizzplanet, High Tinker Mekkatorque, the current racial leader of the Gnomeregan Exiles, ordered that the radiation valves be opened from within the city, in an attempt to ward off the troggs. It worked temporarily, but the troggs were not the only ones affected. Numerous gnomes were stricken with radiation, and as a result, the surviving population of Gnomeregan fled to live in Ironforge with their dwarven allies. If your character currently lives in Ironforge, you are a refugee from the city of Gnomeregan, and your relatives may have died during the ivnvasion and defense, or may have been converted by the radiation into leper gnomes. Perhaps your character may be tinkering around with alchemy and/or first aid to look for a cure for their leprosy.

Life History

Generally, the life span of gnomes range in the several of hundreds. Warcraft gnomes reach their "coming of age" phase in their forties and fifties, become middle-aged at around 100 years old, and will live to around two hundred on average. Well-versed heroes of gnomekind can live to up to twice as long, but will be of only symbolic importance at such an old age, meaning that if you can't be 300 years old and out slaying 10-20 beasts at once, unless some sort of magical effect was involved (hooray for mages and warlocks!) to extend your lifespan, preferably at the cost of something important (sanity most likely).

At birth, gnomes are given a first name by their parents, and their last names will initially be that of an important person their lineage. As they come of age, they will either earn a last name from a social group overlooking gnome society based on their accomplishments, or will have invented a name for themselves. Depending on your character's specific age, you may have already been given a last name, or still carry the last name of an ancestor and are literally making a name for yourself.

Gnome families tend to be small and close-knit, simply due to their priorities placed on R&D, as well as their long lifespans. As such, they are normally either the only child, or have only one sibling (two is probably pushing it). Due to the lifespan of gnomes, the offspring of a gnomish father might stay with the family for up to 30 or 40 years, until he or she is deemed of age, and will be given the opportunity to explore him or herself and discover their "calling" in life. Due to this timespan of social proximity to the parents, combined with the common occurrence of "only child" gnomes, parents themselves are often overprotective of their children.

Personality Traits

The reason why the gnomish race is technologically superior to nearly all other earthly races is because of their high intellect, creativity, and curiosity. Generally, they are good-natured and down-to-earth, and get along well with different people. They are generally introverted as a society, but are willing to accept aid in exchange for their coveted skill sets. This is especially true in regards to their situation with Gnomeregan.

As a result of of all this, gnomes tend to be quite self-centered. Their curiosity knows no bounds, and they will continue along the same line of thinking no matter what the cost, often resulting in cases of tunnel vision. Such self-centeredness combined with their intelligence causes gnomes to also be quite cunning in nature. Likewise, it is faulty to think that all gnomes are absolutely good-natured; if you happen to cross one the wrong way, do not expect much mercy. Perhaps it is because of their outwardly good nature that they are overlooked as possible vessels of pure unadulterated evil. Either way, a gnome is aware of the way they are viewed, and use this as a means of deception, striking fear when the enemy least expects it, if at all. This is why gnomes make excellent rogues.

Gnomes are neither political or religious in nature. They do not heavily rely on the leadership of a monarchy, not having any concrete lineage in several centuries. Instead, an elected council leader is given the position of High Tinker (such as Mekkatorque, who is the current political leader). The title of High Tinker, however, is more reflective of their technological accomplishments, rather than political savy. As such, society simply relies on overall common sense governing, and will obey such laws to simply establish peace with each other and their allies, as they have with the Ironforge Dwarves. Due to their ways of thinking, gnomes keep themselves grounded and attached to the material, and are thus not reliant on any forms of religion; they get by on their own strength and on the solidarity of fellow gnomes.

In my opinion, gnomes are a truly neutral race with regards to alignment. Their origins prior to the events of Warcraft signify that they simply keep to themselves, and have no allegiance to morality or immorality, but rather the material. That is not to say that they are incapable of being either. Their adherence to law is minimal, they just do enough to get by and make themselves sure that they don't fall out of any sort of order, as it goes against their social progress, symbolically and emotionally represented by the technology they create. If anything, they're more attentive of the natural laws of science rather than society.

Gnomish Mages

Arcane energy is something of a wild phenomena in the scientific world seen by gnomes. Having lived for centuries under the worldly assumptions of matter and energy, Arcane magics are a marvel for being capable of warping the laws of regular physics. As such, gnomes view the learning of arcane magics with the same approach as they do with science. They research the nature of the arcane, and how to harness it by first understanding the laws of science, so that they know how to break it. While other mage races are concerned with how to turn humans into sheep, gnomish mages want to know how humans can turn into sheep in the first place.

As a side effect of wielding arcane energy, the feelings of power obtained from being able to harness the arcane can result in the thirst for more power. As wowroleplay put it bluntly, a mage "is not unlike a drug user." As a result, mages are seen by other classes as formidable foes or intimidating allies. Others often fear mages for their potential to simply go insane from their lust for arcane energy. For gnomes, however, due to their fascination with the arcane, they are less feared than other mages, due to their lust for knowledge rather than power.

As a mage in a party of other adventurers, gnomish mages are called upon for their power, but are expected to keep a close eye on the battle, making sure that they do not draw attention from the enemy. However, the gnomish mage will often let the curiosity get to the best of them, and will often stray from the group to study their surroundings, or to examine specimens nearby, especially if its technological in nature. As a raid leader, good luck trying to get (let alone maintain) a gnome's attention if you happen to be in Tempest Keep!

Gnomish frost mages in particular are talented in the arts of water and ice manipulation specifically because of their knowledge of the scientific properties of water as well as kinetic theory of particle movement. Having metric precision, as well as knowledge of those properties allows a skilled gnomish mage to accurately harness arcane energy to create the perfect temperature fluctuation to cause nearby water vapor molecules to form the desired manifestation of ice. The theory is intense, but the gnomes know all the ins and outs of it, which makes them extremely dangerous assets to the alliance. If you're roleplaying a gnome frost mage, it would do you some wonderful good to look back to your high school science notes or even wikipedia.

Conclusion

As a science major as well as a true neutral alignment personality according to Wizards of the Coast's D&D personality test, I can begin to see why I was drawn to the race when I first began playing the game. As a result of what I have learned in my lore and RP studies, I have made special consideration to the backstory of not only Wimzig, but even the normal server characters that I have already made, particularly Bashertin, Miyo, and Lopen. Hopefully, once I make the appropriate retcons to wimzig's character, I can make character posts for him, as well as the other gnomes, and link to them from the sidebar of my blog. Until then, ciao for now!

Frosty Foes: Murmur

(image courtesy of Wowhead)

(Frosty Foes is a series of posts outlining various Boss Fights in heroic 5-man dungeons as well as 10-man raiding dungeons. Here, I will try to outline a number of strategies to employ when fighting the boss as a Frost-specced mage.)

Murmur is the last boss in Shadow Labyrinth. He's an ancient elemental, and is considered to be the primordial essence of sound, which is quite ironic since his namesake is an understatement of his status...

The stage of battle consists mainly of a generally flattened circular area, with Murmur standing in the middle. He is surrounded by a slightly raised ring that can be walked over.

Super-Cool Paint Diagram of Super-Coolness


(Image courtesy of ME! Image took over 300 hours on MSPaint)

A - Murmur. No haphazardly drawn stick figure face can ever accurately portray his badassery.
B - Area inside the raised ring. Pew pew occurs here.
C - The ring. Don't try your luck with the pew pew while standing here. My lag issues have caused me to get hit while standing here.
D - Outside the ring. No pew pew allowed. Run here to avoid AoE attacks.

Relevant Abilities

Non-melee damage dealt by Murmur is of the Nature type, unless otherwise stated.

Sonic Boom - A chat message will indicate that Murmur will begin to draw energy from the surrounding air. After the cast finishes, Murmur will release an AoE attack to everyone within 34 yards of himself, dealing damage appoximately 70-85% of your health, plus a DoT that saps 12% of your health for 6 seconds. Also slows.

Murmur's Touch - Debuff is applied to a single target, drawing the party towards it. After 10 seconds, the target explodes for approximately 4k damage to all targets within 10 yards of the target, and will send him flying high up into the air. Players hit by the AoE will also be silenced.

Resonance - If no players are in melee range, this attack will apply a debuff to all members that initially hits for approximately 2k damage, and will increase nature damage (essentially all non-melee damage) by 2k for each stack of the debuff applied.

Magnetic Pull - A player is drawn towards murmer, and will get hit by a melee attack.

Sonic Shock - Shocks for around 2-3k damage, and leaving a DoT debuff.

Thundering Storm - Hits players standing in an area (D) outside of the raised ring for around 2k damage.

Strategy

DO NOT STAND OUTSIDE THE RING!

Just don't. You'll get hit regularly by Thundering Storm, and the Healer will not be able to keep up, and you'll just die. Instead, it is safest to stay inside the ring (B), but make sure to not be too close.

In heroic mode, Murmur's Touch will move all party members, including the tank, to the debuff target. Instead of having all members run away from the debuffed guy, make sure the debuff guy runs away from the group, in any area outside the ring far away from the other members. If you get debuffed, your Ice Block will protect you from the explosion, but will still hit your party, so it's not advised to use it while still close to your team. Instead, use it after you run away from the group.

Pay attention to chat. When you see a message saying that Murmur is drawnig in energy, Make sure to run out of your own Frostbolt casting range, otherwise you'll get hit with a Sonic Boom. To be efficient, use Blink to get out of range.

Water Elemental Management

Pop your Water Elemental as soon as the fight starts. Park him outside of the ring (D); he will not be targetted by Thundering Storm (at least, in my experience, he hasn't been hit yet.) He will not get hit by the damaging AoE attack either, since he is out of range by a confident margin. Thus, he will last for the entire duration, and will always run out of mana before his time runs out.

Be sure to talk over with your team regarding where the player with Murmur's Touch will run. When this spot is established, make sure that the Elemental is far away from that spot, to ensure that he doesn't die from the explosion.

When your pet expires, use Coldsnap when appropriate, then repeat the above process.

Cooldown Management

Icy Veins/DPS trinkets - Use as soon as you get into ranged position, and when the Tank has built up enough threat. Effective subsequent cooldowns should be spent after a Sonic Boom, d you get back into range.

Ice Barier - Use while running away from Sonic Boom, just in case you happen to get hit. Otherwise, you shouldn't be taking damage unless you get debuffed.

Blink - Use while running away from Sonic Boom. Also, use when you get the Murmur's Touch debuff to quickly get to your designated spot, away from your party.

Ice Block - Use when you get the Murmur's Touch debuff. Make sure you are already at your designated spot away from the group before the explosion occurs, otherwise you will be sent into the air. If by any chance you're sent into the air by the explosion, you can use the cooldown to prevent damage done by falling. You can also use it if you know that you're not going to be able to get out of range from Sonic Boom, but because of the cooldown time on this spell, it's best to eschew this spell in favor of Blink.

Cold Snap - If you get debuffed early in he fight, save the cooldown for when you have already used up both Water Elemental and Ice Block. If you used the Elemental already, but did not get debuffed, use your judgment on whether or not to use the cooldown.

Fire Blast - Use while moving away from your party if you get the debuff, or while running out of range from Sonic Boom, but only if you cannot use your Blink. Survival is more important than DPS in this fight, so make sure to use the more important cooldown, since the global cooldown may prevent you from using one spell after casting another.

Notable Drops

Silent Slippers of Meditation - decent overall stats

Greatsword of Horrid Dreams - Spell Hit. Wonderful 1-hander for pre-kara raiding preparation.

Kirin Tor Master's Trousers - 3 sockets, +Hit socket bonus, Epic Drop
Belt of Depravity - Spell Hit, Epic Drop, very low drop rate. Also drops from the last boss of Heroic Arcatraz.

Pattern: Spellstrike Pants - If you're a tailor (highly suggested), this is a godsend for decently high-tiered raiding.

Rune Covered Chrysoprase - decent gem, but there are better options in its colors.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to add your input!

Work Hard, Play Hard

WoW, I've had such a busy weekend. Fan Expo was a blast! I got to meet a bunch of interesting people and the celebs of the geeky world. Buzz Aldron was there for meet and greets, so was Henry Winkler of Fonzilicious fame. I picked up a bunch of Nintendo themed T-shirts to go with my Wii baseball cap that I obtained when Brawl came out; now I'm 2/5 in Fanboy Regalia, and looking for the pants, shoes, and the old-school Nintendo power glove to complete the set (omg I'm such a nerd).

I also sat down to check out a few matches of Major League Gaming (MLG) action. The MLG pro tour stopped by Toronto for a nice little Halo team tournament and showcased some competitive Gears of War as well. No WoW pvp tournaments this time, to my disappointment. Oh well, maybe next year, when Lich King PvP is in full swing. It's going to be so much different this time around than it was when BC or vanilla WoW came out.

I (unsurprisingly) managed to visit the Blizzard Booth. Albeit smaller this time around than last, they had a few terminals to allow the sampling of their famous MMO. No wrath content, but I did get the chance to log on for a while to try out their WoW-branded laptops. And my goodness they are pretty fricken sweet. I pugged the last boss of Regular Mana Tombs just to get the feel for it, and the framerate and aesthetic output quality is quite delicious. Definitely worth the price if you don't know how to look around and barter for a quality machine.

Either way, I only managed to go to the Expo on the Friday after work, and didn't return on the Sunday. I ran into an old friend of mine on the morning train on Friday, and invited me to an outing with a bunch of other old high school friends. As gamer-obsessed as I am, I still hold real life over anything else, which included the convention as well as a Kara Raid that was scheduled on Sunday.

We all hung out from 1 to 7pm on Sunday, doing a few rounds of laser tag and a 711 slurpee raid. Coincidentally, there were 10 of us there, and you can probably say I was DPS'ing quite hard on my microwave rib sandwich. At the same time, I managed to catch up with a bunch of amazing people, most of whom I have not seen since I graduated high school, which was about 4 years ago.

Coming home, I managed to catch the later half of the in-game raid on Vent. Unluckily enough, the T4 helm dropped off of prince for mages, hunters, and warlocks, and one of our newly recruited locks managed to grab it with the minimum DKP bid. POO! Another reason to despise warlocks even more! Oh well, one day I'll get a hold of the helm, and my uninterruptible frostbolty goodness will shine!

The weekend was quite busy, and as of right now, I'm actually half-dead at work. In between a convention on Friday, friends on Sunday, and a family birthday party on Saturday, I managed to do the following in-game:

- get Wimzig to his 17th season
- gemming my previously obtained badge pants with AH-bought rare-quality damage gems.
- On Bashertin, buy my way into exalted with scryers
- farmed 6 primal manas for self-crafting rune thread
- farm the weapon spellpower enchant and enchanted my Honor Hold rep sword
- combining the previous two points, getting my spellpower up to the 900's!
- powerlevel my first aid from late 100's to 375
- get both cooking and fishing to from 200-ish to 225
- replace my netherweave bags with imbued ones
- made back all the money spent on scryer rep (600 signets approximately), 4 primal manas, AH gems, mageweave cloth for first aid (the former being quite expensive on my server), and enchanting mats (somehow ran out of planar essences due to imbued netherweave bags and weapon spellpower), by farming Legion Hold for Aldor rep items and making bags out of cloth drops, ending the weekend with a net loss of only 40g.

As it stands, I'm still about 3 thousand gold away from epic flight, but with my new choice farming spot established, I will have plenty to do in between raids until Wrath comes out. Again, I'm glad to be back in the office to get back into the swing of things blogging-wise, and in particular I hope to offer my two cents regarding the Lezipig WotLK Cinematic (which was quite cool in its own right). As the old Simpsons saying goes, "We work hard, we play hard!"

Wimzig's Whimsy: Inside the RPer's Studio

((This edition of Wimzig's Whimsy is inspired by Anna (from Too Many Annas) and her post and hopefully ongoing series, Friday 5. Being a huge fan of "Inside the Actor's Studio," I envisioned what it would be like for Wimzig to be a guest on Lipton's show. Yes, I know I said I was going afk this weekend, but I wrote this little thing up at work. And Anna's topic is just too cool to not respond to! See you all Monday!))

*audience applauds*

Jimmy Liptonspring: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to the show. Joining me today is Wimzig Wintersprug.

Wimzig: Howdy, Lipton.

Lipton: We're now going to do the Bernard Pivotswitch questionnaire. Are you ready?

Wimzig: Ready as ever!

Lipton: What is your favorite word?

Wimzig: Evaporate. It just sounds so chaotic, destructive, yet controlled and necessary.

Lipton: What is your least favorite word?

Wimzig: Punt.

*audience laughs*

Wimzig: I'm serious! It's not just taurens. But horde in general. When Alliance says it, it's okay, but still! Think of our feelings!

Lipton: What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Wimzig: Water. It should be obvious to people who already know me, but still, it needs repeating. The wonders of dihydrogen monoxide, its molecular properties, and its cultural importance in the world, it's just so fascinating. I'm one of few people who are happy when it rains.

Lipton: What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?

Wimzig: War. Needless violence between ignorant people, I say. Can't we all just sit down, have a cup of tea and debate the merits of arcane research? Sure, there are a bunch of crazies in the world who are out to get us (damn Troggs come to mind), but when individuals are capable of communication, there needs to be a chance to simply talk, is there not?

Lipton: What sound or noise do you love?

*Wimzig flicks a pen against his cheek, making a water droplet sound. ((omg that girl in the video is too cute! lol!))*

*audience cheers*

Lipton: Hey you're pretty good!

Wimzig: Thanks!

Lipton: What sound or noise do you hate?

Wimzig: WARRGLLLAARGGLLAARGGGLLLAAAARGGGLLRRRGGLGLLRRRGGGLLL!!!!

*audience laughs*

Lipton: What is your favorite curse word?

Wimzig: Curse of Elements, for sure. When a fellow gnome warlock casts it on a bad guy, I feel so much more powerful!

Lipton: Curse word, Wimzig. Not curse.

Wimzig: Oh? Sorry then!

Lipton: What class other than your own would you like to attempt?

Wimzig: If I weren't a mage, I would probably try to be a hunter. I am quite fond of animals. Particularly crabs. If they weren't so tasty, I would probably keep one as a pet. Yep! Hunters are quite good at not eating their pets, I hear.

Lipton: What class would you not like to do?

Wimzig: Priest. There's just too much dogma that you have to learn and have faith in. I don't care much about the light, or elune, or whatnot. We gnomes are self-reliant, and get by on our own terms and our own power.

Lipton: If she exists, what would you like to hear Elune say when you first meet her?

Wimzig: Anything really, as long as she doesn't ask me to make her a table or a portal to Shattrath!

*audience laughs, applauds*

AFK, Fan Expo

Every year, Toronto gets a convention for the geeky masses. No, I'm not talking about Anime North (although it's the preferred event for strictly otaku and the like), I'm talking about Fan Expo. The Metro Toronto Convention Centre gets invaded this year by the likes of people obsessed with Anime, Video Games, Comic Books, Science Fiction, and Horror. It's a wonderful smelting pot of different hobbies and pasttimes, enjoyed by a large community of people.

For me, this convention holds dear to my heart moreso than ever. Now that I've gotten into WoW, there's extra reason for me to head on over. Last year, a very large 5v5 arena tournament was held live for all to watch. Unfortunately, I knew little about the game, and didn't really appreciate the level of competition. While there is a possibility that it won't come back this year (hasn't been mentioned in the advert that I received in the mail), any sort of WoW related showing will definitely get my excitement going.

As for the anime fans out there (Spicy, I'm looking directly at you), there's a large amount of stuff to do as well, including your usual masquerade and cosplay contests, lots of pictures to take. Special guests this year include essentially the entire English voice cast of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Why is this significant, at least from my perspective?

Ok, so here's a, well, sad sad admission of absolute nerddom of mine. At Anime North last year, I participated in a Hare Hare Yukai dance-off contest. The contest was judged American Idol-style by none other than the English cast of the anime. I essentially pugged a group for the contest since none of my friends were otaku enough to know the dance. We didn't win the contest, but here's the kicker:


I won the judge's choice award for individual performance.

Nerdgasm galore. Who would've known that the prize I got was Volume 1 DVD of TMoHS, signed by each judge in the panel? "WOOT!" is all that comes to mind. And with them coming back this year, I surely hope that they recognize me from last year (probably not), but I still need a few more autographs from 2 of them (Wendy Lee and Johnny Yong Bosch, who do the voices for Haruhi and Koizumi, respectively) for my autograph book (NERD ALERT: It's a replica of the Death Note, and I have convinced the anime celebs to write a short description of how they would like to die along with their name).

So yeah, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are a go! Unfortunately, Saturday will be cut short due to family obligations, and I'll be missing day 2 of Kara on Sunday. Overall, no posts until Monday! Oh well, the give-and-take life of a WoW/anime geek.

This Blog is About Death Knights, Too!

Well, frost-specced death knights anyways. As much as I love Bashertin, my 70 frost mage main, I am eagerly looking forward to frost knights when Rich King (it prints money!) comes out. In a way, I'm already set on levelling one to 80 alongside Bash. I still haven't decided on a name, unlike other people, but I'm sure that I am interested nonetheless.

The reason why I haven't posted anything about death knights and wrath is that I simply don't know enough about them to make any sort of opinion about them. By default, I love them, and regardless of how broken or OP the class (and spec) will turn out to be, I will keep him at least as a secondary main, or my highest priority alt, whichever one makes the most sense.

Another reason is simply due to the fact that the level of anticipation that I have for the class is just so much that I have spoiler-proofed myself from the class, other than initial information that was revealed at Blizzard's event in France earlier this summer. Other than that, I really have no idea of what's going on with them.

Oddly enough, I spend a lot of time looking up information regarding frost mages in the beta, but not death knights. While I don't want to be spoiled of information with dk's, I don't mind reading up on the progress of mages as each new beta build is put up. If it makes sense, I presume it's because of my invested interest in the mage class, and my high hopes of Blizzard making progress on tweaking the class so that it stands out on its own against other classes. With death knights, I haven't gotten a chance to play them or invest time into them, so I have this blank slate that I want to retain when the game comes out, so I can have a fresh experience with a potentially awesome class.

Don't worry, I still love frost knights, but I conveniently have enough patience to wait for the time to come so that I can play them. And once I get my hands on one, you can be rest assured that they'll have a good chunk of attention on this blog.

Frost Mages own Alterac Valley

See that? That's 4 Frost mages defending our general against perhaps 10-15 horde, simply by spamming blizard on that bridge leading to the general's base. We also had a sweet Tree druid rolling HoTs on all of us and a few melee classes weaving in and out of the chaos to finish off strgglers. Hunters generally did the dirty work on offense. Not exactly a successful zerg against the RH, but eventually they found a tank and took down the horde general dude while Alliance fell to the 200's in reinforcements.

And the reward for pwnage on defense?



Now that's winning with style.

Learning from Other Classes

I started up a hunter last night. I'll reveal him to you via screenie once he gets his pet. Looked up a bunch of stuff from BRK's site as well as Pike's. In particular, I made great use of their jump shot tutorials. Got all the way up to 7 for now.

After a bit, I logged back onto Bashertin, and noticed a peculiar thing. The Jump Shot works for mages as well! Go check out BRK's and Pike's videos, and replace the words Arcane Shot, Concussive Shot, and/or Serpent Sting with Fire Blast and/or Ice Lance, and presto! You just learned the "Jump Blast," or "Jump Lance" technique!

Taking today off to work on my fanfiction. Ever since I started blogging, I've totally neglected my current story. As amateurish as I am with my writing, I do have a bunch of people who do subscribe to that particular story, and have started rioting over a lack of updates. So yeah, see ya on Wednesday!

I feel like an idiot...

It was one of those weekends...

So, um, today was supposed to be the day my Blizzard AoE Grinding guide goes up, but um...nope. I messed up my home computer. Big time. To make it as simple as possible, I was trying to delete certain key registry folders to make my fraps work (since the previously installed demo caused my full version to not start up), but I guess I ended up deleteing the ENTIRE REGISTRY.

So um, give me some time to get my computer up and running again when I come home from work, then maybe I'll be able to get some semblance of a AoE grinding guide. In the meantime, any advice would be appreciated regarding which screen capturing program (ie fraps) is ideal for setting up on my computer without accidentally sys32'ing my computer.

So until then, um...whatever, I feel so dumb, lol.

Turning the Corner: Overcoming Pressure Situations in WoW and Real Life

You'd think you truly know people, and at the least expected moment, you'd find out new things about them. For me, that's the blogging community. Take Loronar, from 35 Yards Out, for instance. His post about the existence of raid fright as a parallel to stage fright evoked responses from the community who had also experienced raid fright.

My goodness, that really opened my eyes. I did not expect such people to actually experience that. I suppose it makes them better people to freely admit it and to know that they're not alone. Heck, I've experienced raid fright as well, and I've had it affect my performance early on in my WoW experience.

But no more. I've moved on, I've learned to channel that fear into positive. In the past weeks, I've really felt that I have turned a corner on my WoW performance, and I realize that I attribute it to my real-life personality.

You see, I have experience in public performance, both in drama and music. Even though these experiences are limited to high school, I must say in my defence that in high school, everything is so much bigger than it is. Imagine performing a script in front of the whole school during opening night of the play, or playing a complicated jazz solo in front of a panel of judges at the annual school band competition. When you're so young, there's just so much pressure, and somehow I learned to thrive.

I'm going to use the band example, simply because it was perhaps the most pressure-driven situation that I have ever been in. This was a region-wide jazz band competition, and it was my senior year at high school. This was my final chance to perform in this setting before I had to move on to university. For our competition reportoire, we performed three songs, the third song requiring me to perform a unique solo.

Now this solo is not that complicated or difficult note-wise, but it required a very unique techniqe called "growling," where you literraly growl into your instrument while you play, so that the sound that comes out sounds scratchy and dirty, which is the intended effect.

It was a very difficult thing to do at first, but I was the only person in my instrument section who initially had the best grasp on it. We spent the entire year practicing these three songs, but for the whole year, I was under intense pressure to learn the technique and the solo. Another fellow trumpet player had the opportunity to play the solo lead part of the second song. He was amazing, he was ripping it up during each of our practices. I had full confidence in him.

Then came the competition. Him and I were both focused on our own tasks at hand, doing equally important roles in different songs. When the time came for the band to perform, we started off really well. The first song was great, and to put it into a raiding analogy, we cleanly one-shotted the song.

But hold on. The second song came, and it was time for mister big-shot trumpet to take the spotlight and solo it out along to the rest of the band accompaniment. And my goodness, he lost his chops (ability to play his instrument) early in the song, and it looked like we were about to play the entire song without a melody. In WoW terms, our main tank died early in the fight.

I don't know what came over me at the moment, since all I could think about was my own solo that was coming up, and I was scared for my life that I would end up failing as well, but I realized what was happening to him, and I started playing his solo alongside him, so it sounded like he was playing it. (WoW: I, the offtank, picked up aggro.) And I could see in his eyes that he was starting to regain his confidence and was able to finish the rest of the song by himself. (WoW: He got battle-rezed and regained aggro, and we were able to down the boss either way.)

I felt really good about what I did, and it certainly helped me perform my own solo in the next song, and we nailed it cleanly (WoW: another one-shot on the last boss).

In the end, we didn't get a gold rating, but we received a very solid Silver+ rating. It was a result that the entire band felt proud of receiving. I in particular was praised as the hero that day, and it really affected how I viewed myself and how others in the band viewed me. I felt that I really turned the corner, and it continued on to additional amazing band performances in our following concerts.

Looking back, I believe it was the following things that I did that allowed me to overcome my "stage fright".

I took initiative. To me, it was originally about my own selfish view regarding how I was going to perform, since it was a difficult performance. But what good would my performance do (with regards to getting a good band score) if the solo before me is a flop? I realized then and there that not only did I have to be accountable for my own actions, but for those of others. I had to show a willingness to be a part of the team, and to contribute even to things that don't concern my own role in that team.

I channeled my adrenaline. Sientifically, adrenaline is something your body creates you get when you are frigthened by an intense situation. This chemical that spreads throughout your body increases physical and mental performance, giving rise to a "fight or flight" response by the individual. In nature, this allows prey to run away from a predator, and similarly, it allows predators to catch their prey. It's up to the individual then, to be able to use their increased abilities based on the adrenaline that they get in pressure situations to be able to perform to the best of their abilities. This, unfortunately, takes a bit of experience to be able to control effectively. Thus, the only way to be able to channel your adrenaline into positive energy is to simply put yourself into more pressure situations, so you can get used to it and use it for constructive use.

I enjoyed what I did. It wasn't just the excitement of being in that situation, but rather the thought that I was one of very few people to have the opportunity to be in that situation. Not everyone can play a trumpet. Not everyone who can play a trumpet have the opportunity to play in a band. Not all bands have the opportunity to compete at the regional high school level. Whether you're entering Black Temple for the first time, or heck, even Karazhan, just remember that you are one individual amongst only a fraction of the tens of millions of WoW subscribers who get to experience that content. Enjoy it, and revel in your accomplishments. It will give you confidence and energy to continue exploring and experiencing new content. But most of all, it will keep you wanting for more, and that thirst is perhaps the most important motivator in successful performance in pressure situations.

I practiced and worked hard. Some individuals are naturally talented, much like that other trumpet player who earned the right to play the amazing solo. But talent does not necessarily equal to success. My band worked hard as a band to get the right sound, and because of the long hours of practice, I was even able to learn the other guy's solo. At the time, I figured that it wasn't really of much use to know how to play it, since I didn't have to know how to play it, but it turned out to be critical to our success. You have to work hard to constantly improve yourself, so that when the time comes that you have to do what you need to do in order to succeed, you will be familiar with all aspects of your required task, and will be more likely to be focused on that task.

Conclusion

As shown above, the ability to perform under certain pressure situations is not something you either have or don't have. It takes time and effort to make that jump in confidence and skill. But when you finally manage to turn that corner, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities for you to continue succeeding and improving in that field of performance. If it weren't for my experiences with the band, I probably would not be able to turn the corner in WoW, and I wouldn't be having as much fun as I am right now.

Wimzig's Whimsy: The Joys of Fishing

((Ok, normally today would be a Kara post, since I do Kara on Thursday and Sunday. But it's become a routine to me, so I find it very boring to write about. When we called the raid after Curator, I logged on to Wimzig for a few quick rounds, and some fishing before I go to bed. Wouldn't you know it, I had my first group RP experience! I hope you enjoy.))

Fishing is quite the mystery. If you spend a few moments in silence while fishing, you open up your ears to everything going on around you. How remarkable it is to have moments of omniscience, simply by sitting down with a long bit of string tied to a rod.

I was wandering the canals of Stormwind, taking a reprieve from my exploits in Westfall. As much as Gyran Stoutmantle expects of me to dispose of those Defias thugs, A beginner mageling like myself needs some time to let the mental mana replenish. So I sat myself down to lay back and reel in a few.

Not too distant behind me, Violan Hale, a quaint, unassuming Human, and Zacariah Maxwell, a Priest of the same race, happened to be fishing nearby.

I suppose that they were having a moment to themselves, chattering and giggling about things inaudible to me. But curious little gnome that I am, I was intrigued to learn more about the two, and I may have crept a little too close to the pair.

"Is there anything you want, gnome?"

"Oh nothing, just looking I suppose."

Oops. Was I supposed to say that?

((Oops. Was I supposed to say that?))

In a flurry of dialogue, it appears I was shoo'ed by the priest to a corner of the dock, beside the nearby fishing trainer. That man was supposed to be a servant of the Holy Light, right? So why am I under the impression that his manners were no lower than that of a blasted trogg?

Oh well, they continued on by their lonesomes, whispering sweet nothings, Violan playfully teasing her partner regarding his absurd ability to fish, as well as his comparative smell. I giggled inwardly as well; serves him right for banishing me to this side of the dock.

After a few handfuls of caught fish (and Journeyman fishing to boot! *Flexes mini-bicep*) Zachariah approaches me and apologizes. Violan appears beside him, holding him calmly by his hand. Ah, the wonders of women. They can sure change the way men think and act, especially when they're under the influence of love!

"Hail, friend...Sorry for before." he says, and continues:



Oh boy, that one never gets old. I should really work on my reportoire! I suppose there are a few book at the Stormwind Library about jesters and comedy. I guess when I wake up tomorrow morning, that's where I'll go.

I parted ways with the two of them, genuinely convinced that they probably needed some time alone. As I settled into my bed at the Gilded Rose, I thought of the two of them. The young lovers that they were. I thought of my own love.

Did I forget to mention that I have a wife waiting on me in Tinker Town? She's a wonderful lady of just as many seasons as I. A gnome at my age is quite lucky to have a faithful dame as her to hold the fort while I find new opportunities for enterprise in the world of Azeroth. She's quite supportive, and as silly as a gnomish woman could be.

I guess Violan and Zach reminded me of former days. Young love is quite fascinating to experience first-hand, but even more fascinating to witness amongst those around you, even those who you don't know too well!

Until next time, farewell, fellows of the internether!

Wimzig's Whimsy: Warsong and Westfall

((So last night, I spent most of my time levelling up Wimzig, while at the time, trying to prepare myself more adequately for the whole RP experience. Beforehand, I spent most of my day at work looking up numerous sites and blogs that have tips on how to roleplay, how to develop your character, and numerous other things. I commuted home with a few goals in my head regarding Wimzig:

1. I should turn off player names and titles and all that jazz. While in-character (IC), Wimzig doesn't actually know anybody's name. Maybe NPCs, since they're always in the same place, and he gets to see them often.

2. Use appropriate RP addons. This was my first time using IRP-Continued, which is a fantastic UI that shows extra RP-related information about a player character that you target. If the character is also using the UI, you can see a small tidbit of background information regarding the character.

3. IC (in character) vs. OOC (out of character). I got a somewhat general idea of when it is appropriate to use either. IC mainly in /say, /yell and /whisper, while OOC is allowed in global channels. If I want to use OOC in /s, /y, or /w, I would have to use double-parentheses to indicate as such, much like the ones I'm using right now, since this is supposed to be a Wimzig-perspective post.

So without further adieu, I'll leave the rest of the post to good ol' Wimmy.))

Gosh, Night Elves can be so peculiar. One minute they're begging you to help them fight the horde, and another, they're raining down arrows of death on three enemies at once.

I woke up yesterday at the Westfall Inn, only realizing that the inn's roof was yet to be completed. Oh, it was raining, too. I was drenched from my balding head all the way down to my muddled boots. Not that it mattered anyways. My clothes are a random assortment of gifts given to me by people that I have met in my journeys from Coldridge.

My pants? Looted a few bandanas from meany defias no-gooders. My Cloak? Retrieved some oats to feed an old woman's horse. My Gloves? They're actually oven mitts. My wardrobe is as jumbled as a goblin's invention. Just a smatter of random parts, assembled with very little thought. At least I haven't experienced any malfunctions...

I checked the mailbox as I exited the Westfall Inn. Received a letter from an anonymous battlegrounds enthusiast. "Thanks for participating in competition" or something like that. The note was attached to a really interesting tabard. I have a theory that maybe it was due to my recent skirmish in Warsong Gulch. During my brief stay in Stormwind, a pair of Silverwing Sentinels approached me and asked if I could offer my services to help them reclaim the gulch (Piece of advice for Night Elves everywhere: trying to talk to a gnome without squatting down to his level to speak is like talking to a deaf person. You folk are just way too tall). They asked some sort of question to me. Naturally, I couldn't hear them, and out of politeness, I simply said 'yes'.

One thing led to another, and I was teleported to Warsong Gulch! I had no idea that I had volunteered to fight in battle! All I knew was that I was the least experienced combatant of the members of my brigade. There were approximately nine other fighters, each of varying races and classes. Doing some quick calculations, the others seemed to have averaged 18.67 seasons of experience. Here I was, only in my thirteenth, and essentially a throwaway member, an easy kill by the opposing horde.

Surely, I didn't want to be an absolute waste of a soldier, so I did the only thing I could do (and do well, of course). Give out water.

This is my destiny! Water is life! I yelled to my comrades, "Have some water! Freshly filtered from the shores of Loch Modan! Guaranteed refreshment!" A Night Elf looked down at me (naturally), and stared quizzically. A hunter. He had a crab with him.

"I would like to take you up on your offer. Some bread would be nice for my friend as well."

He was quite serious, almost daunting. Perhaps almost twice my height, I couldn't say no. My bread skill is not as seasoned or experienced as my water-dispensing abilities, but anything to turn the tide of battle would make me less useless than I thought I would be.

We failed to secure a victory in battle, but that very Hunter turned out to be the most effective killer on our side. I didn't do too poorly, I suppose. I spent most of my time with a Sprit Healer named Althea. We had some interesting conversations, short but many. She promised to promote my hydration business to future participants in the field of battle. That's a victory in my books!

I do believe that the experience was an uplifting one for me. Despite being of little use as a youngling when Gnomeregan fell to those blasted troggs, I now feel stronger and more experienced as a cryomancer. In my journeys thus far, I have become more precise with the elements, and am becoming quicker in casting frostbolts at bad guys. Who knows? Maybe in a few more seasons, I will be strong enough to take on the entire Defias brotherhood by myself!

...Ok, well maybe not myself; I'll probably enlist the services of 4 others to help take them down.

This is Real Life

There have been stirrings on the internether regarding many real-life issues and events that effect those who spend time playing the game and writing the blogs. Pike already noted about the death of a player in her realm, and the memorial that was held in that player's honor. BigRedKitty yesterday announced that what was once a child-to-be of him and his wife, was not meant to be. These two individuals are widely adored bloggers, and the pangs of real life have stung them, if not temporarily.

In particular, though, I want to send out my thoughts to BRK, because while I may only be 22 years old, I have seen such things experienced first-hand by my uncles and aunts, friends, and others who I consider to be close to me. The pain they bear has become quite familiar to me, and I can only hope that it doesn't happen to me or anyone else.

But the thing is, it does happen, and oftentimes it can't be helped. So here's a site for anyone who has experienced such losses. Just remember that it's never the parents' fault, and that turning to religion and spirituality can make the coping process much more manageable.

So to everyone out there, there is much more to life than experience points and loot. Let's try to take a moment each day to remind ourselves that, so that things such as epic bows and class nerfs are secondary to our own personal wellbeing.

On that note, I'll end my little rant here, since I don't want to sound like too much of a downer. In the end, real life is an amazing thing despite its downsides, so keep that in mind, and have a wonderful day everyone! Hopefully tomorrow or by the end of the week, I'll be able to post the intro guides to kiting, both single and multi-mob (via blizzard). Watch out for it!

WTB Magic Carpet

Go to WoW Insider. Now. It's a freaking flying carpet mount!



Video totally related. If this were machinema, you'd have Aladdin as a Human Rogue, and Jasmine as a Night Elf Priestess. It will happen. I swear to you all.

EDIT: I guess I spoke too soon?



I can forgive the pitchiness of the person singing, it's just so darn cute for some reason.

I know I shouldn't equip thee, but...

I don't want to admit it, but even though I'm raiding Karazhan, I'm still using my Shadow Council Cowl of Frozen Wrath. I remember finding it at the Auction House, being sold at a fantastic buyout price of only 5g. I was only level 63 at the time, but the 4 levels spent lying around in my bank was totally worth it, as the jump in damage as soon as I dinged was spectacular! At +74 Frost damage, it's the best damage headpiece that I can get at the moment, despite it being a level 67 green hat. But other than that, it provides no other good stat. And as a result, my Stamina and Intellect are seriously not as high as it should be at the T3-4 level.

And even though I've obtained some nice 70 blues such as the Incanter's Cowl and the Evoker's Silk Cowl, I still eschew them in favor for the spell damage. Am I really such a bad player that I'm willing to gimp out on 40-50 points worth of Stam and Intellect just for approximately 30 extra spell damage? As a DPS class, the stamina isn't an issue, since I'm not getting hit for much anyways at the Kara level.

I've decided to not replace the hat until I get a very good epic drop from Kara. What I have in mind are probably Prince's headpiece drop the Wicked Witch's Hat from Opera. For now, it's not like I'm dying or going OOM before the other casters do, maybe it's just my playstyle I suppose? Please tell me I'm not the only one who wears a piece of "pet gear" to a raid for attachment, even though I know in my own mind that I could be wearing something better. Any thoughts?

Monday Musings

I had quite the weekend. A little bit of Avenue Q on Friday, a little bit of booze on Saturday, and a little bit of a hangover Kara on Sunday.

Avenue Q was simply amazing. Even if you're the type to hate musicals, you simply have to watch it if you live in the Greater Toronto Area, or in any other place that is currently doing a broadway run (London, NY, and Vegas, I think). Think of the musical as a version of Sesame Street, but with crack and hookers. The songs are simply amazing, but the Sesame Street flavor of the set and casting simply makes for a wonder piece of sattire of real life, while all at the same time giving the audience a bevy of laughs, cheers, and catcalls. A five-star in my book.

Saturday was my cousin's birthday party. Long story short, relatives happened to drop on by from Boston this weekend, so fun times was to be had by the extended family. A few shots of vodka and rum and a karaoke machine later, Krizzlybear was quite tanked, and had to go to the washroom and "pray to the porcelain gods". I passed out on the couch in the middle of singing My Sharona.

Sunday was my hangover day, and logged onto Bashertin with the hugest migraine and stomach ache. Maybe I oughtta drink more often, since I actually found myself in a winning AV group. We zerged their general and won handily within the first 5 or 6 minutes or so. Got the Olympic tabard, but didn't receive the medal. Poo. A few hours later, we started our Karazhan run, day 2 from our Thursday run.

I can officially say that I have finally participated in a Kara full clear.

This is quite a milestone for me, since I normally am part of the 2nd group for my guild runs, but due to the summer slump and natural tank shortages, participation of DPS members comes down to a first-come, first-serve signup basis. So instead of filling in for lagouts and no-shows, I finally had the opportunity to raid with the guild from start to finish, and simply put, we didn't wipe too much except on Nightbane.

On Prince, the tank wasn't topped off during his phase change and was clearly taking more damage than the healers could handle. One wipe was on Netherspite due to our lock staying a little too long in the blue beam and dying, and a mini-wipefest on Nightbane.

A few noteworthy details about the bossfights include our rogue evasion tanking Netherspite during the second red beam so that the healers could top off the main tank. I got some blue beam love at the end of the fight, because most of the casters had died. I managed my cooldowns so that I could pop a water elemental for last minute of the fight. Killed him with 15 seconds left before his enrage.

Nightbane was a hideous mini-wipefest, as mentioned already. It always came down to aggro issues after he landed, or squishy clothie issues trying to kill the skeletons. Finall killed him on the fourth try, the fight having lasted 9 minutes. I was glad to be a frost mage and not anything else. Cheap frostbolts are quite awesome, especially with mage armor on. I was able to keep squirtle alive despite the multiple charred earth attempts. I will gladly admit that the Dragon boss is perhaps the most intense fight with regards to pet management. You will really need to have your twitch finger on whatever is keybinded to your "pet follow" command. You only have a one -tick margin of error before Squirtle dies.

I had lag issues all the way up until the Chess event, so somehow I was unable to blink to the wall when Aran drew us all in for the arcane explosion. I lagged out while controlling a cleric during Chess, so I dunno how that would make it any more difficult for us to beat it.

The T4 headpiece dropped, but I lost out on DKP to the warlock. Was fair, since I had overbid on the T4 gloves off of curator for a marginal upgrade. I need something to replace my Shadow Council Cowl of Frozen Wrath, even though I have my moments where I just can't seem to do it if given the opportunity.

Tomorrow, I'll write a post about "pet greens," or equipment that you just can't seem to let go of, despite more viable alternatives. Oh, and I changed my blogfont to Arial. I've always been an Arial kind of guy, so I don't know why it took me this long to change it.

AFK, Avenue Q

I'll be very quick. T4 gloves off of curator during last night's Kara. Wimzig reaches his tenth season. Other than that, won't blog much today because I'm going to see an awesome musical called avenue Q. They're probably best known for this song (NSFW):



See you all on Monday!

Screenshot: HOLY ZUL'AMAN BATMAN!

Bear down.

Eagle, too.


I was messin' around with Wimzig as soon as I got home from work yesterday, and I log onto my guild's vent server, and it turns out they're running ZA. Cool! So I log onto Bash to pick up some AH mail, and surprisingly get invited into their ZA group! HA! I never even signed up in the first place, nor was the event even scheduled on the guild website. Whatever, I have a few alch potions lying around in my inventory, so I decide to give it a go.

Impromptu raids are quite a first, especially when it involves new content. I was literally in windowed mode reading up the boss strats on wowhead as we were clearing trash. We downed the Bear after a few wipes due to the insane healing required from the bear form, but one-shotted the Hawk dude. Even though I could hear people calling out the thunderstorm in vent, I had ambience at 100% and everything else mute, so I could catch it personally instead of relying on vent lag.

Drops were Jungle Stompers and Mojo-mender's Mask. We pugged a shammy healer, so the mask went to him, rightfully. The stompers unfortunately were sharded. Oh well. 3 badges in about an hour or so. Had to log after, since I have an early work day tomorrow, AND a kara. WHEW!

Something to Strive For

Just when I had thought I could feel a little giddy about myself for matching Larisa's mention on the TWB with one of my own, she goes off and one-ups me again by being the sole focus of a topic posted on WoWInsider. It's another one of her classic posts that really makes people think. I in particular am starting to think that she's not really a mage blog, she even says so herself!

But who am I to complain? I sorta got mentioned on WI, but only in a paragraph, and not in the same way as Lar, but like before, rather in a "omfglol @ what he wrote" sort of way (as a very witty wow-ku, actually). Not that I hate having a sense of humor or something, but I do sometimes wish that my blog would evoke more reaction than just "I see what you did there." Maybe something serious for a change. But is it really worth giving up my blogging voice?

Pfft. Hell no.

I suppose the whole point that I'm trying to make is that I'm probably not going to become the thought-provoking type. I can't even provoke my own thoughts for the matter. I guess I've just realized that Me and Lar are both individuals with our own unique voices, and regardless of the public acknowledgement that either blog will receive, we both acknowledge and respect each other with a steadfast regard. By finding the positives in others can we aim to improve ourselves. So congrats, Lar, again. I hope that one day you'll find something to strive for from reading my blog as I have already done so with yours.

Wimzig's Whimsy: An Introduction

After a brief, yet cathartic exchange of comments in an earlier post, I've realized that my itch to roleplay is a lot bigger than I had led myself to believe. While Wrath is more than several months away, I had planned to save up some money and badges for the upcoming expansion. Currently, Bashertin is sitting pretty at sixtysomething badges, and over two thousand gold. Other than weekly Kara raids, there's pretty much nothing else that he needs to do in order to prepare for the expansion's arrival.

Then the blog happened. I had become so fulfilled in my own class and spec that I simply wanted to revel in it with my own personal blog, and hoped that in the process of sharing my thoughts to the open public, perhaps I could mark my place in the WoW community. Lo and behold, I had a spotlight temporarily aimed at me, simply because of a post I wrote based on a very silly idea.

So now there's a bit of pressure on me to continue sharing my "unorthodox" ideas with the rest of the WoW community, and I figured that there were plenty of things to delve into regarding the Frost Mage that others might not appreciate or have access to. First and foremost, I wanted to start a step by step guide to AoE grinding. In a series of screenshot-accompanied posts, I wanted to teach the first-time mages of the internether how to wield such awesome abilities. But then the RP bug bit, and I also decided that I wanted to dive into the world of RP. What did I decide, then?

Simple. Do both.

And thus, Wimzig Wintersprug was born.

Wimzig isn't your typical frost mage. Heck, he's not even a frost mage at all. Not yet at least. He's a middle-aged gnome who grew up in the water vending busness. As a youngling in Gnomeregan, he learned the ways of the hydration business through the family, and has become quite a connaisseur of liquid refreshments. He's quite learned as well, but only in the fields of alchemy and botany. Combined with his recently acquired ability to conjure and manipulate water through magecraft, which he learned from a good friend of his, Marryk Nurribit, the mage trainer from Dun Morogh, Wimzig has determined to head off into the world of Azeroth and beyond, hopefully to further develop his current abilities, and maybe one day become either a master of cryomancy, or to conjure and sell the perfect bottle of water.

Wimzig can be found on US Scarlet Crusade. I've already reached level 6 with him, and hopefully as I level into the appropriate tiers, I can hopefully use him as an example of how to properly grind mobs using the AoE technique.

So far, progress has been pretty positive, and I've already experienced my first (albeit minor and insignificant) experience with roleplay. Normally, in regular servers, lowbies might approach you as you level a lowbie alt and ask for money, maybe along the lines of "CAN I HAS GOULD PLZ!?" Negatory! RP servers know how to do it with style!

So this gnome approaches me, and asks, "Might you have some spare silver? I need to buy me a skill, and I got absolutely no cash."

And I, also a gnome, respond in kind.

Druidchick would be so proud of me.

Looking to Name Your Gnome?

While the random name generator of the WoW interface itself is a nice thing to have if you're ever stuck on a name, chances are that the cool names have already been taken. If you're starting a gnome, and you're in this predicament, I suggest you try out the Gnome Name Generator.

It works like other name generators out there on the internet, but this one returns nothing but gnomish names. And they're pretty good, too! Try these on for size:

Berenfoodle
Berenmut
Boddybell
Coryger
Corywick
Daergel
Daerwicket
Dimbman
Duvabell
Ellywick
Errmadge
Fingel
Finjon
Folder
Fonjon
Fudwicket
Germip
Gerwicket
Glimzig
Hedkin
Hodgenock
Klemwicket
Loopmil
Mardbell
Mibbile
Mibbinock
Mibbipen
Murmadge
Namle
Namnottin
Nernottin
Olffwyn
Pilbert
Pilji
Pilmip
Pilmottin
Ranzmalkin
Ranzwick
Raulmil
Roonmip
Roybiddle
Roykor
Roypest
Schepmil
Schepto
Seeman
Turder
Wimmadge
Zookmalkin
Zookmottin

These are just 50 randomly generated names, but there are quite a lot of them there. Just don't expect a name like Seeman or Turder to be taken seriously in-game though.

Why do I bring this up? You'll see why, tomorrow morning.

Car Analogies: Wrath Rush Hour Traffic and My Garage Full of Alts

Benameless made a pretty good point about the upcoming expansion, and the sheer level of carnage that will ensue based on the intense crowding of fresh seventies in the first areas of Northrend. While Blizzard has alleviated this issue somewhat by offering alternative starting locations as well as the option to level up a Death Knight, there will be a bit more breathing room.

This may not be the case, since the popularity of WoW has grown considerably since the release of TBC. Who knows whether or not the three "options" for starting off your new expansion will suffice in terms of lag, personal playing space, and schedule. I've played in less popular games when new servers open up, and the starting location for those games are crowded as it is. Trying to level up by grinding mobs alone is susceptible to killstealing, and KS'ers alone piss me off more than even gankers and corpse campers. I want to play WoW, not musical chairs.

So my plans for Wrath then, is to finish off all the 69-70 quests that I have yet to complete. I dinged 70 pretty slowly, simply due to the large number of instances that I did on the way there. As such, I ended up not having to do any quests from Netherstorm or Shadowmoon Valley. I'll probably start there, since those quests will be easier sources for experience than wrath. Not as much, but much more accessible. The overall strategy is to make sure that I can make progress on my main without being interfered by other players. It's like the damn rush hour traffic that I experience driving home from work. I'll simply take the road less travelled. It won't get me home faster, but at least it's some sort of progress.

Either that, or I'll simply level my alts for a bit. I have a garage full of parked gnomes with 150% rested XP. Allow me to introduce you to them.

Krizzlybear, level 1 Warrior - He's my bank alt, and pretty much my namesake. While Bashertin is my main, good old reliable Krizzy is where the action is at with regards to playing the AH for cash. I might actually level him up fury, since I have two Axe of the Legions waiting for him to dual-wield to 70 with.

Miyo, level 24 combat Rogue - She was my first ever attempt at an alt...until I realized that I was too lazy to enchant her gear. She was decked out in Defias armor, and even had a fiery Cruel Barb/Buzzer Blade combo going. Rogue twinks everywhere would cringe at the noobishness of this pathetic attempt to own up WSG, but I'll admit that Alliance-side BGs are not exactly successful over here at US Arygos. So I pretty much gave up, and let her loose into Duskwood, and she's been sitting pretty at the local in, playing around with her pink pigtails. DO note that I created her long before I started blogging, so bearing a resemblance to certain pink-pigtailed bloggers are merely coincidence. Besides, who would want their female gnome any other way?

Lopen, level 14 demonology Warlock - I've gotten her boosted through DM a few times, so she already has a nice pair of gloves and an awesome staff waiting for her in her inventory. I've been putting much of my focus into her in between raids and heroics with Bashertin. Same character design as Miyo, but with green hair instead of pink. Green is awesome, and my favorite colour, btw.

Name TBA, level 55 frost Death Knight - When they become available, I will make one immediately shelve it at the nearest Inn. Gnome for sure, but I probably won't actually start seriously levelling him or her until the dust has been settled, and I have enough breathing room to play around with.

I have other alts, such as a 42 Druid, a 23 Shaman, and a 26 Hunter, but I will never ever touch them again. I've reached my limits with them, and it's most likely because I simply prefer controlling a gnome as opposed to the other races. Weird logic, but I've found my niche, and I am more fulfilled playing what I like, so I will continue to pursue this path. A gnomish Death Knight will surely become a regular part of the alts when WLK is upon us. Heck, he'll probably be a secondary main if the settings are right.

Represent, y'all. Gnomes4Lyfe!