Summer Doldrums, grrr

I'm currently trying to fight off the summer doldrums and actually get excited about WoW again. As part of this strategy, I basically play whatever toon I feel like at any given moment. Sadly, this is generally not Garetia. I log on her to raid, and get new eggs. I need to be earning more cash for epic flying and getting the Skyguard rep grind done so I can have a mount once 3.2 hits, but my motivation is nil and it seems stupid to do chores in a game.
On the plus side, my DK finally got her mining to 300 and I can go level in Outlands. Huzzah!

I think part of my problem is 3.2. With the mount changes just around the corner, it seems pointless to be leveling any alts in the twenties. And since most of my alts (and almost all the Alt Project toons) are in the low twenties, well, not much leveling going on. I am pushing the dual-boxing toons, because they're on a deadline and I want to get two more pairs to 60 before RAF runs out. But even there, I play for a bit, get a level or two, and go do something else. I want to get them to 60, I really do, but leveling just seems so painful right now. Sigh.

I did find something new and interesting. The Azeroth Advisor. I like the newsletters, and the information about abilities is great. As someone who tends to ignore new abilities, being told what the new stuff is and what it's good for is great. I'm also having a great deal of fun with Inscription. Now, I just need to catch the druid's herbalism back up to her scribing and I should be golden.

Friday Screenshot

And this would be picture-in-picture, wow style. Those two toons went from 6-10 in like an hour, and the Undercity has a pally trainer. Yay. So far the combo of pally/mage is a blast.

I promise huntery things next post. Dunno what, since all I do on her lately is raid Naxx, but I will think of something.

More on this multiboxing thing...

I have now managed to get my raf dual-boxed toons up to 20 and have even managed to figure out a few neat things. Since someone asked, I shall share them with you.

1. A druid/priest pair is ridiculous fun. The druid bear-tanks and kitty-dpses, and the priest dpses and heals. It's a nice combo. (and yes, I have forsaken the warrior in favor of the druid. What can I say, I had way too much fun with swift flight form on the ptr.)

2. Hotkeynet is a really powerful program that is capable of many awesome things, and thankfully its web page has scripts for most of them. I had to do some tinkering (my keyboard lacks a scroll lock key and I use different movement keys then the default), but it wasn't too hard. I even got picture-in-picture to work (which makes life so much easier). Plus, it's a free program. Yay free.

3. Macros are key. Seriously. They don't have to be anything complicated, and in fact most of mine are things like...
/target Monera
/cast Heal

or /assist Monera
/cast Shadow Word: Pain

Nice and simple, but it means that I can just hit a button for the priest to heal the druid or to target whatever the druid's targeting and cast Shadow Word: Pain at it.

4. Professions. Well, I've already outleveled my herbalism on the druid, and the less said about the priest's mining, the better. It might actually be easier to just go back once you hit 60. But if you're going to do professions, do ones that offer your toons armor upgrades. The priest is also a tailor, and most of her gear is stuff she made herself. Fewer quests and kills means your gear is not going to be as good, so making stuff yourself saves gold.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed multiboxing, but there are a few caveats....

One, having someone try to talk to you while you're doing it (especially if you're using hotkeynet or another keycloning program) is a bit of a nightmare.

Two, without macros and addons (I suggest Jamba), you will be switching back and forth a lot.

Three, you will generally not learn as much about each class as if you were playing them individually.

Four, it gets expensive. My toons are certainly not self-supported, and if you're doing this on a new realm, roll a DK first for the cash.

Five, it's far easier to have all the gathering professions on one toon. Less switching back and forth.

And Six, you need to have a decent PC to do it. Mine is not a top of the line, but it is a dual core with 2 gigs of RAM, and an okay video card.

On the PTR

I am having a ridiculous amount of fun on the PTR. I moved over some premades and have been playing with them (great way to try out a class). I also moved over Garetia, and discovered Northrend Orphans' Week. OMG, so cute! I love love love the baby Oracles and their sayings and just awesome.

I may have taken a ridiculous number of screenshots of it. I will get some of the other side as well on a different character, just to see.

The new quest log is nice, and I may ditch questhelper for it, at least on Garetia.

So without further ado, screencaps...

Bickering orphans. Really cute.


So now, not only is my worgen neutered, he also suffers from Gigantism. Just way too amusing.



The new quest tracker on the world map



The random pally I transfered. I have no idea what I'm doing. All premades come with 450 jewelcrafting, a bunch of gems, a ton of equipment, epic flying, a war bear, and um, no need for training. A level 80 druid is ridiculously fun. No wonder they're so popular. Also, there are some new hairstyles to try, and the forms aren't bad.

RL pets

I have a new pet in RL. And I feel compelled to share the cute, because, well, I blame my ovaries really. I'm genetically programmed to like cute.

She's a rescue dog, and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She enjoys being scratched, watching me raid, and being with me at all times. All times. God help me if I need to bio, cause she will whine till I come back.

Wow-wise, not much going on. We failed at live side last night, and apparently it was all my fault for protecting the healers. Okay, next time I'll let the squishy tree and priest die instead of putting down traps in front of them and pulling mobs off them. Honestly, I don't think my keeping the healers alive was a problem, I think it was the fact that I was the only hunter protecting them. I am squishy, true, but the healers are even more squishy than me.

A bit of QQ

I've kinda been avoiding posting this week because well, I didn't want to be all "THEY TOOK MY WORGEN, MAN!" Needless to say, though I respect Blizzard's right to create and enforce the rules in their world, castrating my worgen did not sit well with me.

Instead I thought it might be more interesting to look at why I was angry. And what it comes down to is customization. Right now, the highest dps pet is a wolf. I don't particularly like the wolf models in Wow. I've been running around with a pet I don't like much for weeks just for the dps. So, when I found a wolf skin that I actually liked, that was a big happy. And then Blizzard castrated it. For a short while I was running around with a pet that made me happy and one that was a respectable raid pet all rolled into one.

I'm a nelf hunter. I look like all the other nelf hunters, I'm wearing the same drab armor as all the other hunters, and I have the same pets as all the other hunters. Darn it, I was actually noticeable and interesting for a short while and now it's back to blah.

Or rather mostly blah. I've decided that it is ridiculously stupid for me to run around with a pet that does not make me happy. So for the moment I've pulled out the cat, but long term I'm going to find a ferocity or cunning pet that makes me happy. I'm leaning towards leveling the DH, but I'll hit warcraft pets and see what looks shiny.

And as far as customization goes, Blizz, trust me on this one. Armor dyes. Alchemists make them, and only tailors, leatherworkers, or blacksmiths can apply them (depending on the type of armor).

Also, the ability to turn off my shoulders like I can turn off my helm and cloak. I'd love this. So so much. Why, oh why, are my shoulders so stupid-looking? You have this lovely lithe hunter with close-clinging mail armor, and shoulders I could use as punch bowls (if I removed the spikes). Aesthetically, not a good look.

BEST PET EVER!

I checked my normal wow community today, and saw a wonderful post about taming a worgen. It pointed me to this blog post and from there to wowhead. Luckily, alpha worg was one of the few HF quests I did not complete.

I quickly respeced to Survival for Wyvern Sting, and wandered off to the Fjord.

I found Garwal with two other hunters. We took turns trying and feigning death when it failed, and on my 4th try...

I HAZ A WORGEN! It's tricky, and in my case it was far more luck than skill. I did switch out my staff for a fishing pole to better control my damage, but expect to take some time on this tame. But but but so worth it. He appears to be a regular wolf as far as skills/training go, and reports indicate that he can be safely leveled. Just stay away from Arenas and you will hopefully have your very own werewolf for years to come.

Ooh, lookie what I can do! Yup, that is two instances of wow running, and two characters being controlled at the same time. Or rather one character being controlled and one on follow. It's a warrior and priest pair, and so far it's going pretty well. The warrior's a skinner/herbalist, and the main one I'm controlling. The priest just follows along, and occasionally I switch over to her to heal the warrior. She has no professions as of yet, but I'm thinking Inscription/Tailoring. I'm not using any fancy software or macros or anything atm, but I need to find some. I know there's an addon for multiboxing that I need to go looking for, and I have the key cloning software, just haven't figured out how to use it yet. So for the moment, it's the primitive, but effective, window switch.

Quite a change from yesterday when I couldn't log on at all. Of course, I ran the repair tool which removed all my addons, but I've decided to use that opportunity to pare down my addon collection. I think instead of the crapton I have now, I'll stick with the following.
XPerl for unit frames and general pretty
Bartender because if it isn't on a bar I'm going to forget I have the ability
Questhelper cause I like being told where to go
Sexy Map for the pretty
Power Auras Classic to tell me important stuff like Demon armor has fallen off the warlock. I suspect it'll be even more useful with the dualboxing to remind me to keep both characters buffed.
Auctioneer because cash is good
Recount because I need to know my dps. NEED.
Omen, because otherwise how will I know if I'm winning the minigame or not? And yes, I routinely do win despite not being top dps. Stupid bursty mm spec, why can't I quit you?
Deadly Boss Mods because otherwise I will stand in the fire. (okay, so I generally don't, but still good to have)
Altaholic because I am firmly convinced this is the greatest addon EVER. I love being able to see what my alts have and don't have, where their profession skills are and what they can learn, as well as being able to select a recipe and know instantly what alts don't know it yet. Great addon for anyone with alts.

I'll let you guys know more about this multiboxing thing as I figure out more, and
HAPPY 4th of July!

Brain took brief summer vacation

Yup, I know. No posts. Honestly, there hasn't been much to say. I could go "ooh, what's coming in 3.2" but everyone else on the planet's doing that, and I have no desire to hit the PTR. In fact, I haven't been playing much at all.

My guild's running 25 man Naxx this week and hopefully will keep doing so. We did really well last night (3 wings, two wipes, and one amazing takedown of Thad).

One second left. It was epic, I tell you.

The warlock (up there in the first screenie) is now level 28, and I am proud to say that a) she has more than enough gold to pay for her mount (100+ gold) and b) I have managed to get her to level 28 without questing in the Barrens. I'd always heard that you have to do the Barrens and they're huge and they suck, so I figured I'd try to avoid them. Ghostlands+ Hillsbrad+ Thousand Needles seems to be doing the trick rather well. I think I'll try Silverpine for the next Hordie, whenever I get one to an appropriate level. But since I have quite a few more toons to get to 30 before I can call the Alt Project done, it'll be a while.