Important Notice!

Due to some technical issues, I'm temporarily halting my WoW play with immediate effect.

...well, actually, I was forced to halt my play =P

The long version:- I have a seasoned PC of my own, from way back in 2004, that I used to play all manner of games that I bought (including WoW). However, as time passes the PC was unable to cope with the more modern game requirements, so I upgraded it in 2006 with additional RAM and a secondary hard disk. In June 2009, the power supply blew and I was forced to borrow my mother's laptop. I installed WoW on a portable hard disk and used it to play WoW on the laptop.

Last week, however, the laptop died - of a corrupted Windows. My mother, being slightly less than knowledgable of matters such as corrupted systems and such, blamed me and the game and decided that once the laptop is repaired (cost borne by me), I will have no more access to it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention - after my own PC died, I was planning to buy a new PC to replace it but my mother thinks it's a waste of money and rants about me not choosing the cheaper option (i.e: repair it). The old PC was an Intel P4 with 516MB RAM and a 250MB primary hard disk... post-upgrade. You would not want to know the spec pre-upgrade, trust me.

Sigh. And to make things worse, my gamecard subscription ends this month.

I had a quick chat with Mommy Ztormcloud (one of the guild officers, and the one I knew since day one in TTH) and planned to shift whatever resources/mats I have on all alts into the guild vault, so anyone can use them. Why? Well, I'm still positive that I can solve the PC-less situation, but with the baby coming soon I forecast that the PC will be arriving on the same time as the baby - which means BABY FIRST WOW LATER moments =)

TL: DR version:- RL stuff has hit the fan, so I'm taking a break from WoW effective today. BBL!

Oh, and sorry I could not make the story like I promised. >.<

Of Dailies, Tanaris and the Side-Project

It was a long weekend - Monday was a public holiday here in my state - and I've had ample time to do everything that needed to be done. A story will be incoming (I'm still working on the draft, so hang in there) but as usual, let's see what further improvements have been made, shall we?

Aenur - I've decided to hold off on further spending of Champion Seals on Heirlooms, and instead focus her effort on getting the Argent Charger (the Paladin-exclusive mount from the Tourney). I estimate it would take her another two weeks to get it since she's only at the 27 Seal count as of yesterday. And no, no Heroics - it's Labour Day weekend in the US and most of my guildies are spending time with their families =)

Aelyra - As a note: Yes, I have nailed down the Champion jousting encounter with an unorthodox tactic suggested to me by a friend, and Aelyra is now Champion of Silvermoon and Sen'jin. She's already Exalted with the Trolls since before Wrath, so it's just a matter of accumulating enough Valiant Seals to unlock the Champion challenge. With the Argent Crusade Tourney dailies unlocked, she's a quarter into Revered with them now, and I expect her to be Exalted with Sunreavers, Warsong Offensive and Argent Crusade by end of the month. The faction cities would take slighly longer, though.

Aerhandor - Still moving through the Ebon Blade dailies. I did divert him to Tanaris for some farming expedition, but aside from that, no stories to tell. =(

Aerdread - Shelved for the time being. I did take him to help out Wong with a quest in Grizzly Hills (the one where you bash down the corrupted Bear God or something) but then got tired of doing the filler dailies. That, plus no time to actually finish the entire circuit with Aenur, Aelyra and Aerhandor in the same day.

Aergor - Leveled him from 45 to 47, increased his professions (especially First Aid and Cooking) and with Aerhandor's farming and Aelyra's Leatherworking, he's now fully decked in Tough Scorpid gear. I bought him a Guttbuster as an upgrade to his weapon, and maybe in a few days upgrade his axes. Most of the quests left for him in Tanaris is oranged, so I'm planning to take him to Feralas where he can get a level or two before returning to Tanaris and mopping it up.

Aerdanil - Here's where things got interesting: I took the Side-Project for an initial Heirloom testing foray and ended up so taken in by the Priest's skills and playstyle that I seriously leveled him from 23 to 27. I don't know the exact rotation a lowbie Shadow Priest would actually use, but mine went - MB, SW:P, Devouring Plague then PW:Shield when mob is meleeing then wand him to death. If the mob flees I use Mind Flay. Sure, the drain on mana is intensive, but I have the Rogue churning out mana pots like a factory so no trouble there. Aerdanil is now in Ashenvale, finishing up the Warsong Supplies and The Lost Pages quests and hopefully dinging 28 in the process. Afterwards, I'm making him head back into Hillsbrad to finish the Battle of Hillsbrad quest chain then further onwards to Arathi. I think I'm liking this Side-Project already =P

Aeyrin - The Rogue is now on hold pending Heirloom items delivery (which will be done by Aelyra). I'm making her craft up mana and health pots for Aerdanil - she has quite a large herb stockpile in the bank courtesy of Aergor.

I think that's about it. Oh - and don't forget about the story! I'm planning to finish the draft by tomorrow and posting it by this Friday, so keep an eye out for it. /wink

Jousting - Oh, How I Hate You So

As expected, Aelyra dinged Exalted with Silvermoon City last night after handing in her dailies. So now it's time to take the jousting test again. I wasn't apprehensive at that point - I had done the Grand Melee quest over and over before, and I know how the Argent Champion NPC fights. And even though the comp's saying 1k latency and 11 fps, I wasn't daunted - I've done jousts under worst conditions, so I figured, "Meh, let's get this over with."

Equipped the lance, mounted the Hawkstrider, and away to Squire Danny I go.

And got my butt handed to me in all three matches (the first attempt, plus two subsequent attempts).

At first I was amazed - how could this be? Since when did the Argent Champion became godlike at jousting? Or had my own skills atrophied? But on the fourth attempt, when I closely observe the fight, it became crystal clear. He was CHEATING!! There was no other way to explain it - He was charging and throwing Shield-Breakers at point-blank range, while my Shield-Breakers were screeching 'Target was too close'. His skill cooldowns were non-existant, he can basically use Charge, Shield-Breaker and Shield within half a second from one another. He had me down to half-health and no shields while he's barely scratched! I was incensed - time to call in the cavalry! A guildie, Roywen, answered my distress call and came in all ready to Shadowbolt and take names - but when the fight started, the Argent Champion automatically ended the match. Wha...?

Turns out Blizzard had re-tooled the fight so that any outside interference would disqualify the attempt.

I would hereby state my official stand on the matter - This quest should be rated poorly. Whoever implemented this is doing so without taking into account the lag on the player's side, the difference between NPC skill CDs and the player's, as well as being buggy enough (NPC ran all the way out of the ring during the fight and claim auto-victory) that you cannot find the 'fun' in it. Heck, you can't even use any of the innate strength of your class to win - you are fully limited to 3 basic skills on your mount.

As of now, Aelyra is stuck on The Valiant's Challenge... at least until I find out that the latency has dropped and the connection is stable enough for me to at least stand on equal lag ground with the blasted cheating Champion. Until then, I would have no choice but to lose every against him and hear his mocking voice saying:

"You are not good enough to become Champion. Come back after you have more training."

Hah - easy for you to say, cheater.

EDIT: Finally nailed the encounter with an unorthodox but highly effective tactic - which took almost 5 minutes for a single joust >.< I would not mention the tactic here, because it gives me more dishonor points than being AFK during a BG.

Apologies for the Late Updates

First of all, I would like to apologise for not updating the blog recently. My time was taken by several RL matters that cannot be avoided - the baby's coming, and preparations had to be made. It's also the fasting month here, so I'd be away from the PC during the night for fast-breaking and also for tarawih prayers. My young sister and her husband is moving into a new condo and I'd be pitching in to help with some furniture moving, and my wife still needs me to send her to or pick her up from the workplace. So there =)

But I still managed to complete most of what I planned for my travelers ^_^ So, like before, I'll summarize what they'd done during the week:

Aenur - She has diligently done her dailies day in and day out, collecting Champion Seals and sending every 100G she made off to the bank. She's helped purchase some Heirlooms for the Side-Project (more on that later) and... well, has not managed to run further Heroics due to my time constraint /sadpanda

Aelyra - Is working hard to try to get where Aenur is now, so she can help with the Champion Seal hoarding. Almost Exalted with Silvermoon though - may just ding it tonight, then start to work on the next faction (will probably be the Darkspears). She's also raking in Sunreavers, Argent Crusade and Warsong Offensive rep at the same time, which definitely helps in reducing the overall time needed to get the Crusader title. Also, no Heroics due to time constraint /sadderpanda

Aerhandor - The Druid is currently on a "if I can make the time" status. He's just hit Revered now with the Knights of the Ebon Blade, but since I'm focusing my efforts on both my mains, I only take him on dailies if I can make the time. He's still got a long way to go, though.

Aerdread - Doing the filler dailies, as mentioned previously. Revered with the Kalu'ak, halfway through Honored with Wyrmrest if I recalled correctly. Aside from that, not doing anything else. I may have to plan something for him, though... just to shake off the doldrums.

As for the rest of the posse, I did a lot of leveling and re-equipping and what-nots on the weekends during any available time. Gotta love low-level toons - you can work wonders with them in 30 minutes than with a full-blown level 80 =P

Aergor - Leveled him from 42 to 45, moved him out of Stranglegank Vale into Tanaris. Not much improvement in gear, since I can't find the time to farm the necessary mats to make him the Tough Scorpid set. I'll see if I can make the time this weekend.

Aerdanil - Leveled his Tailoring a bit. Received his second BoA - the Tattered Dreadmist Robe - and took him for a spin. Got him to level 23 before I ran out of time and had to park him again.

Aeyrin - Leveled her to 28, almost fallen in love again with the Rogue. Almost - almost - bought the BoA shoulder for her instead of the robe for the Side-Project. Maxed out her Alchemy at 200/200, continued leveling her Inscription with the Minor Glyph Research, and currently thinking whether to seriously level her or the Priest >.<

I think that's it for the updates. Since I have no additional plans for the weekends, I suppose I should start thinking what else to post besides updates and the occasional RL stuff, eh?