Well folks the Raid for the cure event was great, I know at one point it was commented that there were over 100 people in the chat channel on the alliance side. I have some screenshots to share with y’all. see below.

I have been a contributing member of 3 guilds on my server, I accepted control of one and ran it for a while. I joined another to experience raiding. I moved to another raiding guild after some bad experiences made me leave the second.

My first guild was and it was a great group of guys and gals. I wasn’t anybody important in the guild (other than a contributing member) this was in the days of wow vanilla. We didn’t raid, but we were moderately active, usually about 10-15 people on any given afternoon/evening/weekend. I was just coming off a divorce, and in RL a bit antisocial so it was great to have people that I could portray one side of myself to the way i wanted with no judgement on my shape/size/RL acheivements (or lack of). My most common toon at the time was a dwarf hunter (miner/gnome engineer) who’s favorite pet was a loch modan crocolisk named Chomp.

I started working on a pally and had just finished the big hammer questline when a baby pally joined the guild. knowing a little bit about the class I took this baby pally under my wing and helped him get on his feet. I ended up running deadmines with this guy so many times that I couldn’t look at the instance for about 2 years. The guild leadership noticed how much i was helping folks (not just baby pally) and eventually invited me to be one of their officers. I was stunned and deeply honored. A couple months later, the then GM held an officer meeting to determine the course of the guild for the coming months. He announced he was going to be taking an extended leave from the game and wanted to name a successor. Oddly enough, nobody wanted to step forward and lead. I whispered him that if nobody else will I would and so I got landed in the drivers seat of a 100 account 200 member guild. Some time after this the baby pally was all grown up, and tried to splinter off the guild and form his own. HOLYCLEAVE i’m happy to say has not been heard from in some time.

In time, BC came out, and we got a few people up to 70 and keyed to try to tackle kara. Time and again, my evening would amount to sitting at the summoning stone waiting for the people to show up that said they would. and Never did. One week I lost it, a half hour past start time, and one person (other than me) had shown of 15 people that said they wanted to go.

I started training up my druid Kattrinsaa to be a test/basket case with this raiding guild we had been told was looking for more people. I figgured, why not? I can get some raid experience in and learn the fights so that when I cooled off I could try to bring my guild up to speed. Nice in theory, bad in practice..

Raiding was fun, getting (and I quote the raid leader from guild #2) “Phat lootz” was fun Kara was… Fun! I didn’t want to go back to dragging people kicking and screaming to the stone and never getting anything started. So i did the inexcusable as a guild leader. I didn’t show up often enough. Eventually I handed control of what was left of the guild back to the old owner who had returned. Pretty much everyone had left it and I think it became a private guild bank for him.

In guild 2, I was again a nobody and I kept it that way, other than I was known to all in the guild, I was feral tank specced, in a guild with 3 feral tanks and some super pallytanks. So I was as useful as a library card to a blind man. More and more I found myself in cat form or helping to heal. (my least favorite druidic activity) Eventually I brought my huntard over and without meaning to, created a bit of guild drama on a gruul run… I had the audacity to roll against a rogue on the dragonspine trophy… (and even worse, I won) Eventually that event proved to be the proverbial straw for the equally proberbial camel’s back. Sitting in shatt one day I saw a guild member and said hi, instead of responding in a nice normal friendly manner he spit at me. I asked what was wrong and he started cussing at me about the DST then put me on ignore and flew off.

I spoke with our guild master, told him the situation and that I did not feel comfortable there anymore, sent a /g message out saying i was leaving and wishing them luck and /gquit. In my opinion, that is the only sane/respectable way to do that.

I joined up with guild 3 and changed spec to balance, and started having a great time playing the game. (that is why we are here afterall, no?) Things rocked along till early part of this year when the luvbug bit me.

Now, I’m remarried, and we are expecting a new child, to add to the one I have from my first marriage, and the two my mate has. In a very short time, i’ve gone from a layabout that only had to manage a small household, to a responsible person watching over up to 6 lives. Naturally something had to give, and it was the time on WOW.

I used to raid 3 nights a week usually about 3 hours a night, and was usually on long before raid time, also on about the same on non-raid nights. My life consisted of work/sleep/wow, I would average 5-6 hours a night, and huge chunks of the weekend as well. Now that we are all moved in and getting to a routine, I might pop on for 1-2 hours a night after the kiddies have gone to bed.

Lately, I’ve been playing on other servers for a change of scenery. When you fall behind your guild buddies on gear, you have less opportunities to join in the fun because your behind the gear curve. So I’ve been starting fresh and seeing the old sights. I put a couple toons on silver hand, that perhaps one day I’ll run into pike and can say hi. And recreated Katt over on Kael’Thas so I could join in on the race for the cure. I’m happy to say that Katt mk2 is already up to lvl 20, with katt form and a mount. I cleared bloodmyst isle because i don’t really like the nelf secondary zones that well.

So, I checked back on the original Katt and when I logged in, I noticed something right away, I had no access to the guild tab. I always look to see who’s on when i login. I search for anyone on i know, not only does nobody show up when i search for the guild, the people that I do know who were, all show up under different guilds.

I found out later on from a co-worker/guildmate that there was a coup of sorts, and the new owner of the guild didn’t want to rebuild it after a split that occurred in my absence, they wanted to keep the guild name/banktabs for their private use. So they booted everyone from the guild.

Ok, for those of you considering a change of guild, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Right way, talk to the guild leadership and let them know why you are moving on. If it is lack of progression/content, I’m sure they will understand that your priorities have changed, and that you want to see stuff they won’t be getting to anytime soon. IF there is guild drama you need to get away from, they will understand that too. If you like the people in the group, consider leaving an alt there so you can play with them and keep informed in what’s going on when you are not raiding on your ubertoon.

Wrong way, steal the items from the guild bank and then /gquit without a word.
Wrong way, announce to the guild that you are forming your own guild and want everyone that can to come join you.

Likewise guild officers/leaders there is a right and wrong way to deal with problem players. You can be a jerk and just /gkick without a word. or you can explain the situation to them privately and ask their cooperation in settling the dispute. depending on their attitude you can always still /gkick but it would be preferrable to solve the problem and get people going in the right direction again. Bad attitudes have a way of permeating the trade chat channel and should you put out a recruitment, people will know. Likewise, good attitudes also lend themselves to free advertising, making it hard to keep your numbers down.

The best thing anyone can do with drama is sit both sides down, talk to them and try to come up with an agreement. or, put in a 50g fine for whining… imagine how fast the guild bank’s account would grow then?

For any of my readers that aren’t already fans of the BBBB, this coming Saturday is the Raid for the cure event to be held at 2pm server time on the Kael’Thas server. I do hope anyone that can will attend, this is a worthy cause. For more information please see the original bearwall at Big Bear Butt Blogger

Well guys and gals, i’m slowly re-integrating my new and old lives together, my old life of playing wow whenever I was not at work has had to become something different.

I was lucky to find a mate that accepts my gaming as a part of who I am, as long as it doesn’t preclude us living a happy life together. Sadly, my wow friends are having to learn to make due without me more often than not. Because my attitude when playing the game is very different from when i’m not, I have sworn not to be online while our children are awake.

There is still enough time to have a bit of fun with the game after the kids go to bed. (at least till they are old enough to be invited to the guild…) I have plenty of alts to work on and gather material for this site. I must say I do like the scroll of cold weather flying.. I have 4 toons in flight now.

To anyone else in a similar situation, (blending families and having game time issues) All I can offer in advice is take stock of what you really want. Wow, while fun, won’t keep you warm at night, won’t make you chicken soup when you are sick, won’t suggest you have something better to do in another room.

That said, your significant other, while incredibly wonderful, unless s/he is a fellow gamer, couldn’t help you stomp ulduar.

To those of you lucky enough to have a SO that plays the same game as you, rock on. To the rest of us, think hard about your choices.

I want to know about y’alls family situations.

I have taken up the hobby and job of starting to create my own video game.

This is an undertaking I’ve wanted to start for many years, I’ve always enjoyed video games, way back from before the Nintendo console first appeared on the scene. I have played video games in one form or another since the early 80’s. My fondest memories are of playing Atari baseball with my dad and irritating him by constantly making double plays on him.

I don’t expect to get to the point of competing with WOW or Final Fantasy in terms of a polished game anytime soon; I don’t have that kind of money, or enough talented people. I hope to have a game reminiscent of an 80’s arcade game out in a few months. What I need are some ideas. I have tons of ambitious ideas for later on, but the early stuff eludes me at the moment. (Have to learn to walk, before climbing a mountain.)

Sorry i’ve been quiet lately guys, been really busy. Between work days alternating between 8 and 12 hours, and weekends going to visit people i’ve barely spent any time exploring the game lately.

I did finally get my leatherworker to where he could make the first half of the swiftarrow set,
My hunter that hit 80 already is still in kara gear, upgrading 3 peices to swiftarrow bumped his ranged AP by about 300 with no enchants. I expect the other 4 peices will provide good upgrades as well, add on some enchants and he should be good to go to start naxx 10 ing.

amI really must start taking screenshots when things happen. But, last night I finally became a champion of darnassus. In another 3-4 days I should also become exalted champion, and possibly at the same time, champ for the space goats.. (always wanted an elekk)

For those that are having difficulty with the jousting. With some exceptions, here’s a strategy that works well. Keep your shield stacked to 3, get in melee range, swing till your opponent tries to get out of range, toss a shield break and run back into melee range. if you are lucky you can get in a few hits with him only having 2 stacks of defend up. then it becomes a number cruncher.

if he is hitting you for 350 a hit, and you are hitting him for 350 a hit will be long, drawn out fight. If you are getting in a 1600 hit while denying him that opportunity you will gain ground. If you time it right, you can get in 2-3x 1600 hits while he’s only hitting you for 350.

Now, remember me saying something about exceptions? this does not work against the elekk rider npc’s. their melee swing has a shield break component.  I have yet to beat them, as my isp stinks and lag happens at the wrong times.

My goal is to become exalted champion with all 5 racials so that I can acquire the standard mounts, as well as the tournament mounts. I’m currently sitting at 14 mounts, far cry from the 50 for the white drake. But thanks to the tourney, I will eventually gain 34 more mounts, which still leaves me 2 shy of the magical 50.  So, I will have to head back to outland, finish up my last 2k cenarion rep for the hippogriff, finish up my netherwing, and skyguard (should put me at around66 mounts by that point) having succeeded in hitting 50 i’ll then push on for the 100 mount stable. what’s another 34??

hm, pvp mounts for each faction, plus a special one from stormpike, there’s another 6. (perhaps go after the talbuks next) that’s another 6, more for the pvp talbuks, then must start trying for the special drop mounts, ZG has 2, strat has one, sunwell has one, the eye has one, headless horseman has one, and beerfest has 2. One of these days will buy the vendormobile and the bikes. Oh can’t forget the AQ inside the instance only mounts. – i’m thinking that 100 is acheiveable.

I still want my stupid oracle egg to give me the green proto-drake…. obsessive much?

**** Edit 5/5/09 ****

In the last 4 days, I’ve gone from champion, to exalted champion for the “of Darnassus” title, and acheived exalted with Stormwind, and the Exodar. I’m about halfway through revered with gnomes and dwarves, and haven’t even been working on them.  I’m either 4 or 6 tokens (forgot which) from exodar champion/exalted champion and starting on gnomes. I did go ahead and buy the 6 human horses, and the 6 elekks. Had a blast running with a shaman that put water walking on me.. was standing out in the middle of the water on a purple elekk.

A man walks into a doctor’s office, the doctor asks what’s wrong and the man keeps chanting
“I’m a wigwam, i’m a teepee, i’m a wigwam, i’m a teepee….”
The doctor exclaims relax man you are two tense. (tents rather)

OK, corny I know, but with dual spec out, that’s what it’s like.

I went with the conventional wisdom of my guild, and set my alternate spec to resto, so i’m now (with the click of a button) a laser chicken, or a walking tree.

I have never meddled in the affairs of healers as they are subtle and quick to rejuvinate, but I figgured there is no time like the present to try it out.  Ok, the best place to try out a new spec is not 10 man uldar.. but I digress. I found the healing to be quite intense.

I finally put this spec into place saturday night after the flame leviathan fight, we made it over to the colossii (colossuses?, two colossus) guarding the forge area.. After a couple wipes, I started glancing through the wowwiki info for the fights and found the wonderful little nugget of information about mob/tank/healer positioning to survive these little jewels.

We found that we had to split the group up into. well.. two x 5 man teams of 1 tank 1-2 healers 2-3 dps. I hit my magic button. (buttons buttons, who’s got the buttons) and became a tree to help out on the off-tank. (some pretty spiky damage going on there) With the raid properly positioned these two giant flaming pains in the butt finally went down. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. We will do better next time.

I found in the boss fight yet to come, that i still need to learn a lot, having never before been a healer. I can’t save everyone, and if I try to, i lose everyone. Must find me a resto druid for dummies scroll somewhere.

I went ahead and bought the dual spec option for my druid (don’t think I will on my hunters..) but I can’t decide which of the 3 other main roles I should spec into. The easiest would probably be resto as i’m already geared for high spellpower and wouldn’t have to change a lot. BUT, feral treated me well my first 70 levels. (I didn’t respec boomkin till I got bored with being improperly specced feral for what the raid needed.) I was feral tank specced in my old guild, but, we ran with an aoe tankadin that fit the mould of a rockstar tank perfectly.

Kitty dps isn’t that awesome when you are specced/geared for tanking.

So, I guess I will be switching between leaves and feathers.

I have brought my second character to the lofty heights of lvl 80. And while the post title does say 48 to go, I don’t know if I will ever get anywhere near that far.

My second 80 is my dwarf hunter, who was my main character throughout TBC, was a guild leader, and went nutz with TBC dailys to get both the netherdrake and nether ray mounts. (must go back and buy the rest of the colors available.) This character did arenas (poorly but still earned enough for a few peices), and raided kara frequently till Katt’s transformation to moonkin and all else was forgotten. This is also my engineer/miner so I have a good source of ammo for this and my lower hunter, as well as quest items for borean tundra for all the rest as needed.

I’ve turned my attention now to my lower hunter who is a night elf, and is a skinner/leatherworker. Once I get his skill high enough, will make the blue lvl 78 set for my recent 80. I hope to get the dwarf into some 10man naxx action before too long.

After both hunters, comes my dwarf deathknoob, and gnome frostmage, both of which are into northrend already but aren’t overly active yet. The DK is my scripter, and the mage my enchanter/tailor.

If I really get ambitious, after that is my lock and pally still down in their 40’s, a priest in her 20’s, and a teenage shaman. my bank rogue will never level i’m afraid..

Then I might turn to my other servers..  But, I already have enough to keep me busy for the next couple years.