Brandstone

News!

2010-05-19T19:11:00.003-04:00

I won the Gnomeageddon 10 step contest, I've resubscribed to WoW, Bleach is an awesome show, Just Cause 2 is too much fun, and Cataclysm is coming! With Cataclysm on the way, and my recent gaming focused on Just Cause 2 I have some catching up to do. First, reserve the names for new characters I'll be rolling; second, level my sub-80 characters especially the Mage; third, finish Loremaster on my Druid; and finally, hoard crafting resources to try out the profession changes. With the new Battleground finder, leveling the Mage should be especially fun. Loremaster shouldn't be too difficult to finish since the Albino Drake is already in my possession, and can't distract me anymore with it's promise of just a few more mounts to go.
I feel a little guilty about the number of unpublished posts for this blog. I'm going to break out my slash-and-burn editing skills, and push a few of them out. They may not be as great as I would like them to be, but they should be decent enough. That will also give me time to think out some future posts.

Nazzle's Shady Grotto Rehabilitation Clinic

2010-05-15T14:04:00.000-04:00

This is my entry for Gomeaggedon's contest. Link

Realizing there was a market for rehabilitating Warlocks that was
largely unexploited, the beneficent goblin Nazzle decided to step in
to help with this problem at a large profit for himself. For maximum
effectiveness and profitability we follow the three S'es: Security,
Speed, and Profit. To cover security, we chose a remote cave system to
house our facilities, and caved in the entrance. The only way in or
out is through a portal, so escape is much cheaper to prevent. We also
reverse-engineered the Summoning prevention system used at Tempest
Keep on the off chance that one of our patients manages to bribe
another Warlock. We also have a deal with the Sha'tari Skyguard for
specially trained Nether Ray's to inhibit spell casting, and in
extreme cases provide shock therapy.

For speed we have a specially designed "10 Steps to Freedom" program.
Step 1 - Bag and Demon Removal: We do this to ensure our patient will
not have access to soul shards, remove their dependency on Demons, and
help cut all ties to their old Warlock way of life. This process
usually requires some force, but any damage done will just make Step 2
that much quicker. Part of our Nether Ray training is specifically
designed to prevent Imp summoning as well, and all our patients are
accompanied by at least three Nether Rays at all times.

Step 2 - Death: Warlocks rarely go long without a soul stone, and the
quickest way to remove this is death. It may sound cruel, but we have
trained healers on call to provide resurrection if necessary. Tough
love is much quicker and effective, and time is money.

Step 3 - Fire: Fire has a cleansing effect in nature, and even Druids
approve it's controlled use in forests to clear brush and rejuvenate
the area. At NSGRC we use fire as a form of rehabilitation. It's used
extensively in Step 2, and we use fire spells as a link crossing the
gap between Warlock and Mage. We have counseling sessions where our
patients are allowed to decimate target dummies with fire spells.
These sessions are lead by Mages and are used to train our patients
some of their first Mage spells. Accidents do happen, and our healers
are well trained in treating burns.

Step 4 - Food/Water: Our patients are only allowed to eat and drink
what they can conjure themselves. This does lead to some dehydration
and starvation, but fasting is used by many races throughout Azeroth
to clear the mind. This also cuts down our costs, and increases
profitability. Our on-call healers do provide resurrection when
necessary.

Step 5 - Falling: When choosing our location we ensured that an area
would be available for Slow Fall training without taxing our
overworked healers. The 50 foot waterfall works nicely, and the pool
at the bottom catches the slow learners. Some of our patients are a
bit hesitant about jumping, but a little shock from our Nether Rays is
more than enough to get them over the edge. We have a Water Elemantal
in the pool at the bottom to provide an icy incentive to learn
quickly, and provide an introduction to Step 6.

Step 6 - Ice: Besides the waterfall pool, we also have several Water
Elementals employed in a refrigeration cave. After several sessions
with our fire counsellors from Step 3, our patients tend be
enthusiastic about attending a session that does not involve burning.
This tends to be the most calming part of the rehabilitation as brain
functions tend to slow down considerably at the temperature maintained
in the refrigeration room. In order to cut down on frostbite, these
sessions involve games of musical chairs with chairs made entirely of
ice, and the loser being trained first hand on encasing themselves in
an ice block.

Step 7 - Polymorph: Once a patient has demonstrated their ability to
feed themselves, we transfer the feeding of their Nether Ray guards to
them as well. Like all caves this one is home to a large contingent of
Trogs, but Trogs are not one of a Nether Rays preferred foods. A
simple polymorph however will provide the Nether Ray with edible food,
and being awoken in the middle of the night by three hungry Nether
Rays provides significant incentive to learning quickly.

Step 8 - Blink: At this point in the program, the patient is eating
regularly again and has the caloric energy to participate in our
obstacle course. This course is specifically designed so Blink is
required to complete it without falling down a crevasse or being
caught by one of the more dangerous obstacles. Knowledge of fire and
ice magic will also provide an edge on completing the course quickly
and safely. These races are telecast so you can check up on your
soon-to-be Mage friend, and of course we have goblins available to
take bets on the outcome.

Step 9 - Arcane: The arcane Mages we have employed are rather
secretive about their counseling methods, but with the results they
have provided their requests for soundproofing and one way locks on
the doors seem very reasonable. Their record for injuries is also
lower than any other two sessions put together, and the few cases of
partial polymorphation have all been adequately corrected.

Step 10 - Teleportation: This is the final step of the process, and
ensures that our service is guaranteed. Patients are not permitted to
leave until they can teleport themselves out. After our therapists
have deemed the patients ready to return to society, all therapy
sessions are doubled and sleep is forbidden.

Profit is always a part of any Goblin enterprise and NSGRC is no
exception. For the low price of just 20,000 gold we include an
exclusive restraint and pick up service. Our ten step program is
guaranteed to turn any Warlock into a functioning member of society as
a Mage. For legal purposes NSGRC is classified as a prison, but please
remember we treat all our patients with the utmost care. Our legal
status just allows us to rehabilitate our patients that much more
quickly and cheaply than the competition. So please tell your friends,
but please keep Warlocks in dark. The element of surprise is a very
effective therapy tool.

Colonia Magika: Lore

2010-04-15T11:36:00.002-04:00

Discussion on Hardcore Casual about PvP systems sparked an idea for a DAoC-like game, and I'm writing it out here. This is just a barebones storyline and design, but I may expand on it.
A group of three colony ships approach the solar system where they will all be starting a new life, a new Earth. The trip has taken years, but with stasis fields even the crew only aged a few months each by rotating shifts. The leaders and science teams have come out of stasis early to ensure that the landing and revival of the rest of the passengers goes smoothly. The theoretical physicists are especially excited about the approach since it was estimated that the solar system chosen could contain dark matter. Everything goes as planned as they enter the system, but when they enter orbit around the target planet the controls on the ships start to malfunction. Communication between the ships is down, and emergency landing plans are put into action. Unfortunately, the closer they get to the planet surface the less control they have over the ships. Although they miss their mark on the planned landing areas, the pilots do manage to get the ships down with only minor exterior damage and no casualties. The stasis fields started going down with the other systems, and the next few hours are chaos as the newly revived colonists are apprised of the situation. The livestock and other perishables stored in stasis must be taken care of as well.
This is where the story diverges with each ship's landing location, passenger personalities, and extent of damage the ship took while landing yield vastly different story lines. This draft is getting a bit old(almost a month) so more story may come later.

Stockholming Myself

2010-04-14T16:12:00.002-04:00

I've started the Stockholming Project as seen on Temerity-Jane.com.
Go here if you are interested.
Here is a little backstory about why I'm doing it. Back in high school I was very active: bicycling, roller blading, walking home from school most days, camping and hiking with the scouts, etcetera. I weighed around 130 pounds and although I was skinny, I did have some muscular definition. After graduating, starting to work full time, and moving out of my parent's house I discovered some things. TV is much better with cable and without parental supervision, video games are much more fun with a fast computer, and the Internet is more than just email. This led to spending more free time inside, but with a labor-intensive warehouse job I still managed to stay at around 125 pounds. Over the next few years I continued to spend more and more free time inside, and after a few promotions at work I got into an office/desk job. I am currently at 120 pounds. Wanting to get back into an active lifestyle, and getting some of my physique back has been in the back of my mind for a little while, and two recent occurrences have prompted me to take action. First, the Stockholming Project made me really look at my whole body in the mirror for the first time in a long time. Second, my SO and I were at his sister and her husband's apartment for a little birthday party for their kid. We were playing the new Super Mario Bros for the Wii, and my niece was leaning against my shoulder when she said that my shoulder wasn't a very good pillow. It was a funny little comment from a tired kid, but it did stick in that place at the back of my mind with the Stockholming Project. So now I have an exercise plan: upper body on Monday, Wednesday, Friday; lower body on Tuesday and Thursday; and bicycling on Saturday and Sunday. This may all sound vain and 10 pounds may not sound like much, but that was 7.69% of my original weight.

Dragon's Eve: Modules Part 1

2009-08-01T11:19:00.007-04:00

The module system in Eve is used to customize the capabilities and attributes of a ship. At first glance this would appear to best translate into a gear system, but there are several problems with that. For example, a typical battleship has about 20 slots spread between three different types of slots. Your typical fantasy hero only wears 10 pieces of gear, and that is counting each boot and glove separately. Also, a typical battleship can field 6 to 8 weapons simultaneously, but your typical fantasy hero only wields one or two weapons at most. So I decided to use a rune system for the translation. Like in Eve, runes will come in high, medium, and low power types, and the fitting requirements CPU and power grid will translate into rune affinity and rune power. In review, bodies will have a set number of rune slots that can be fitted with runes as long as the body has enough rune affinity and power to use them. Now for the details about different types of slots.

With the large variety of modules I will only be covering high power slots in this post, and will have another post or two covering medium and low power slots. Since the vast majority of high slots are weapon systems I'll cover the four main weapon types first. In order to translate weapon systems accurately the damage types have to be defined first. However, damage is damage whether it is caused by magic or technology so there isn't much to translate. EM is electrical, thermal is fire, kinetic is physical, and explosive is explosive. First, laser weapons cause mostly EM damage with a little thermal damage, and lightning causes mostly electrical damage with a little fire damage. Lasers use crystals as ammunition, and this doesn't need any translation. Lightning runes will require a crystal to focus their energy, and different crystals will provide varying range and fire damage. Next, projectile weapons and missile launchers cause varied types of damage and have a varied range depending on the ammunition. They don't require any energy to use, and a magic arrow or magic missile rune will do the same. The runes will require enchanted ammunition that provides the power for it's usage, and the rune will just be used to activate it. The only difference between the two is that arrows will just fire in the direction of the target, but missiles will actually follow the target. Finally, hybrid weapons require power to activate, use up ammunition to cause only thermal and kinetic damage, and hybrid arrow runes will do the same.

The other two high slot weapon types are Bomb Launchers and Smartbombs. Mana Bomb runes will take the place of Bomb Launchers, and function similarly to magic missiles. Only instead of following the target, bombs go in a straight line in front of you and explode at a set range. Smartbombs will become Aurora runes causing damage to everyone and everything within a set range of your character. I left out most of the details for these weapons like amount of damage, exact range, and the myriad different types of ammunition, but the only translation to those will be scaling down from spaceship size to human size. There will still be two versions of the main weapons for long and short range, meta/tech levels for the damage multipliers, and the balance between the weapons will remain the same. Now onto other high power slot items including mining lasers, drone upgrades, cloaking devices, interdiction sphere launchers, tractor beams, salvagers, energy vampires/destabilizers, and remote repair systems. The mining lasers and drone upgrades will be covered in general articles for mining and drones respectively. Cloaking devices, energy vampires/destabilizers, and remote repair systems will translate directly with the only change being their names, scale, and they use magic instead of technology. Tractor beams and salvagers will be covered in a salvaging/loot article, and interdiction sphere launchers will be covered in an article on warping. I'm pretty sure that is all the major types of high slot modules, but if anyone can think of others please leave a comment.

Dragon's Eve: The Avatar

2009-07-26T15:16:00.015-04:00

Avatar, a graphical image that represents a person, as on the Internet. In Eve Online the image most identifiable as a player's representative is their ship. So that is what I'm using as the avatar in Eve for the purpose of this translation. The avatar in most fantasy games is the body of the character you play so for the translation a ship becomes a body. There are ten different factions of ships in Eve, and here is where the first decision is made. Should there be elves? Should each faction of ships be a different mythical race, or should they all be human? Personally I think playing as a mythical race is one of the more interesting parts of gaming. So in Dragon's Eve each faction of ship will be translated into a different race.

Ships are further categorized by 13 main classes and 19 secondary classes. These would be translated into different tiers of society such as soldier, scout, miner, trader, etc. I'll go into further details about which faction and ship class will translate into what in another post. The attributes of the ships are more easily translated. Shields and armor will stay the same but magical instead of technological, structure is replaced with health, and the capacitor is replaced with energy/mana. I haven't quite figured out the details for the module system, but once I do it will go in another post. The pod and clone mechanic would translate into a ghost system.

In summation, you will be able to swap bodies like you would swap ships in Eve, and there will be a choice of different racial bodies and societal roles to choose from. If your body is destroyed you will pop out as a ghost instead of a pod, and if your ghost is destroyed you will show up at the spiritual facility you interred your extra ghost at. Don't forget to update your ghost.

What is Dragon's Eve?

2009-07-19T01:32:00.007-04:00

Dragon's Eve is what I call my translation of Eve Online from science fiction to fantasy. Like all translations not everything can be translated exactly, and there are a few differences that will not be entirely necessary but in my opinion would make it a better game. There is very little chance this game will ever be made, but it will be a interesting thought exercise and an in depth exploration of the mechanics that drive Eve. It might even convince some people to try Eve that wouldn't otherwise, and maybe help a few people get further along the steep learning curve. The first article I'm going to do will be about how the ships would be translated into avatars.

I'm back...

2009-07-18T20:16:00.007-04:00

It's been awhile, but I'm back to blogging and using blogger to do it. I'm mainly playing Eve Online now with some of Aeria free-to-play games on the side, and I'm considering another venture into World of Warcraft to check out the new 3.2 patch. The problem with going back to WoW is where to start. I have several high level characters, but they are on servers where I don't know anyone, and the time I spend in Eve is much better for being in a corporation with people to talk and play with. The way I see it, my best option is starting fresh on a server with an existing large organized group. The group I have in mind is The Spreading Taint on Proudmoore. So whenever patch 3.2 drops you'll probably find me there.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my time in Eve. The corp I'm in has a nice base of operations out in wormhole space, and besides being good fun it is also very profitable. I've crossed the billion isk mark, and my skills have advanced quite a bit too. I've entered the realm of cloaked ships adding a Viator blockade runner, Helios covert ops, and Nemesis stealth bomber to my list of usable ships. My gunnery skills still suck out loud, but my personal and remote armor tanking skills have fleshed out quite a bit. The logistics Dominix I use for wormhole ops puts out a respectable amount of remote armor repairing while maintaining a good buffer tank to make sure I don't pop.

It feels good to be writing again, and I have several ideas to ensure I keep posting regularly. I have several series of articles planned including something I'm going to call Dragon's Eve. Be sure to keep reading to find out more.

Player Participation

2007-12-28T14:24:00.000-05:00

I was listening to the latest WoW Insider podcast, and they talked a bit about a new player-rebuildable town that is rumored to be in the Sunwell(2.4) patch for WoW. The idea of content that is dependant on player participation isn't new to WoW, but I hope this town will have some sort of reset so people who don't have a chance to participate in the first rebuild of the town can participate in a subsequent rebuildings. The same could be done with the Scourge Invasion of patch 1.11, and I think players would appreciate the attention to detail and extra content they might have missed due to not playing the game since release. Darkmoon Faire, Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza, Elemental Invasions, Battlegrounds Holiday, and all the holiday events are very popular across a wide spectrum of the player base. Head out to Stranglethorn for the next Fishing Extravaganza and look around at all the different characters you see. Park next to Cro Threadstong in Shattrath and count how many people yell/emote back at him or at the fruit vendor. People play MMO's to interact with other players; and having a variable environment not only adds to the immersion of that interactivity, but gives players a reason to keep playing when their friends aren't online.

Who/What got me into WoW?

2007-12-24T12:21:00.000-05:00

Two and a Half Orcs tapped everyone so I'm running with it. Before picking up WoW I had went through an extended period of time without picking up any new games or hardware due to financial constraints. During this time I played alot of Warcraft II, learned about the lore of Azeroth, and came to appreciate the work Blizzard had put into it. As time went on I became more financially stable, and upgraded my hardware(Sony Vaio PCG-K35) and purchased some newer games(Diablo II, NWN2). I never got around to buying/playing Warcraft III because I was a bit burnt out playing Warcraft in general, and wanted to see what else there was to play. Then my local cable company started offering high speed internet for a reasonable price, and I decided to try out playing games online. I had heard of WoW and was interested in seeing more of Azeroth so I gave it a 14 day trial. Needless to say, I bought the game later that week and have been playing it since. I say it was Blizzard's lore that got me into WoW, but I guess the argument could be made that my cable company had a little to do with it. ;)

Predictions

2007-12-18T11:36:00.000-05:00

With the recent news about patch 2.5, the activity on the class forums, the improvements Blizzard has made to quest generation, and the appearance of the demo at Blizzcon; I predict a Wrath of the Lich King beta as early as September 2008. I think Starcraft Ghost will be the Next-Gen MMO they are alluding to. I also fervently believe that noone is reading this. Google analytics is the basis for that though. Hello World!

Hello World

2007-12-13T12:11:00.000-05:00

Why does almost every coding tutorial begin with writing a "Hello World" script? I used to think it originated from a programmer who was hoping for a response from the hardware. It could also be a statement expressing the ability to communicate in a different language. 'Hello', 'Goodbye', and 'Welcome' are some of the first phrases learned when studying a spoken language, and there are many similarities between machine and spoken languages. Both are used for the relation of data/knowledge, and both have strict rules for usage. I personally consider myself multi-lingual, and I am fluent in English, Spanish, HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and SQL. I have a more limited knowledge of German, Latin, Python, and Lua. I have always enjoyed learning languages; it opens up so many doorways to other cultures and different forms of expression. For instance, when comparing English's lack of any real distinction when talking to a revered leader and talking to your best friend; the differentiation between formal and informal language used in Spanish, German, and other languages allows a much more complex and rich experience. The same differences can be seen when comparing a rigid tag structure like HTML, XML, and CSS to more flexible languages like Javascript and PHP where the addition of functions, ifs, etc can allow much more complex operations. It's not that English and HTML are lesser in importance; they are just used differently to express what you want to communicate. The combination of different languages can acheive some fascinating results. The "Web 2.0" phenomenon with CSS, Javascript, etc; the running together of English and Spanish when working fast food in the US; the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine where the dialect is a unique mix of French and German.

Eve

2007-12-12T11:24:00.000-05:00

I really want to like Eve. I love the mechanics of the game, the way skills are handled, and how usable the trade market is. The problem is when I play Eve I don't feel any real connection to the character, and almost didn't get past character creation because the avatars are just so ugly. I know the avatar isn't used for much, but I ended up rolling a female(Brandshar) because I just could not bear looking at the male portraits. No matter how I adjusted those sliders I couldn't make him look like anything but a rapist or serial killer. The female portrait I came up with is only marginally better, and I had to very finely tune her options so she didn't look like a complete psychopath. Besides that the game is great, and although I won't be playing past the trial I would be very interested in a fantasy-based game built with similar mechanics to Eve, but better overall art. I really like the way corporations are handled. If I understand things correctly you can have a positive/negative standing with any corporation, not just the corporation you join. I'd really like to see something similar applied on a personal account level. Example: I could meet someone and raise/lower their standing with my account dependant on how I like them. This would be much better than any friend/ignore list. Alliances are a great idea. My current guild is bleeding members but not their alts because we don't have enough attendance for Kara anymore. If we had an alliance with another guild then friends could stay in the same guild, but still be able to progress in raids. Why couldn't Vivendi merge with CCP instead of Activision? Then I could hope for a World of Warcraft II with skill, trade, and social organization similar to Eve.

WTF

2007-12-11T12:57:00.001-05:00

I got to bear witness to a special sort of idiocy the other day. I was healing for a BRD group on Calthrop, and things were going pretty well(alt+spell to selfcast is nice, unless you hit spacebar instead of alt). The group was Tasm(tank,warrior), Killburnz(DPS,rogue), Basaum(DPS,shaman), Drewad(DPS,druid), and myself healing on Calthrop. When we got to the room right before the seven dwarves encounter our shaman disconnected, but we still were able to clear the trash easily and decided to attempt to 4-man the encounter. We failed pretty badly and found a replacement Mazurogar(DPS,hunter). The tank and I go out to summon him. The hunter asks if we did the arena area yet, and we reply that although we have; we can reset at the end and do it again easily. We proceed to clear the seven dwarves encounter pretty easily. The tank did lose aggro; but it was only temporarily, and picking up those dwarves as they spawn is not the easiest thing to do. After finishing the last dwarf, the Hunter immediately complains about the tanks performance(line 4). Nothing blatantly offensive yet, but a sign of things to come. We move on towards the area to complete Attunement to the Core. I ask to preheal with a regrowth since these guys hit pretty hard(line 7), the tank asks for a trap(line 8), and denotes that square is trap(line 10). As soon as the hunter drops his trap; and before anyone is ready for the pull, the hunter multishots the elementals pulling them both. The tank is quick on the draw and manages to pick up the elemental that wasn't trapped, but he doesn't have solid threat, and the other elemental comes out of the trap early. I pull aggro with my heals, but we make it through okay. Then; as I am down by the core fragment, the hunter decides to pull the lone elemental by the forge for smelting Dark Iron. He manages to kite it and stay alive until the tank picks it up, but I'm still way over by the core fragment. By the time I make it over there the tank is barely alive, but I still manage to save him. After that the tank goes over to the forge(lines 12-14), I stick right by him in case anything else happens. Then it happens again. The hunter pulls several elementals this time(line 15). Things don't go well. All but one of the elementals go down, but everyone besides the tank and hunter are dead at that point. The tank dies before the last elemental, the hunter finishes the damn thing then types lines 16-17. Everyone drops from the group, and I do too after line 18. Then the hunter has the audacity to whisper me(image 2).

Hunter pet tricks

2007-12-07T17:41:00.000-05:00

Another trick, but just for hunters. Since pets disappear when you mount up, and the cast time for Dismiss Pet is so long, here is some help. Feign Death, put pet on passive and make sure he/she isn't attacking anything, mount up. Another trick for when you need to jump somewhere that you pet won't follow directly, put him on stay. Once you get out of range and he/she despawns, Call Pet. This same trick is helpful for Warlocks in a different way. If you're traveling to an area where you want to use a different pet, just put the current one on stay, and you'll get the soul shard from it back when it despawns.

Buffing alts

2007-12-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

I discovered a trick to help boost my alts. If you close the WoW client without properly exiting, your character will stay in the game world for about 30 seconds. This means if my druid is parked next to one of my alts, I can log onto the alt, close and reopen the client, log onto the druid, and have just enough time to buff the alt. Another trick is that I can blast an elite down to low health on a higher level character, then follow the same steps above. As long as the lower level alt takes agro immediately, and waits to kill the mob until the higher level character disappears the "tag" on the mob will transfer. This is how I managed to complete the level 20 rogue quest on Brandshade by the way.

Burnt out

2007-12-07T17:07:00.000-05:00

I'm burnt out on playing Brandstone. I still log onto him to help out guildies, the occasional Kara/Heroic, and to grind gold/mats but I just enjoy playing my other characters more. I'm not giving up on him, and in fact I'm investing a large chunk of resources to get his gear enchanted, and boost his agility. I'm just bored with the hunter playstyle, plus I'm excited to get Calthrop into Outland, and up to the level cap.

More Characters

2007-12-06T16:05:00.000-05:00

Alrighty here are the rest of my characters.

Drauku-Blood Elf Paladin: My first foray into what I consider an "evil" character. I rolled the pally because everyone else was doing it, and I was a little burnt out on leveling Brandstone; who was around level 50 at the time. He is just another storage character now. Playing a paladin is decidedly different and I want to like playing him, but I just can't seem to dedicate myself to playing him more often.

Brandsoul-Blood Elf Warlock: Since I have already played what I consider to be an evil character why not roll a warlock? Thee. most. fun. solo. leveling. ever. Period. Soloing as a warlock is so godly and awesome that I can just wade into a group of mobs not caring how much damage I take, or how many come after me. DoT everything in sight, sacrifice the Voidwalker, Hellfire the bastards into fiery, burning death; then fear anything still moving, and drain them of their remaining strength. If they aggro another group of mobs I just Life Tap to full mana, pop a Healthstone, DoT everything, and Drain tank to victory. Then there is Fear. If a warlock can fear it, it is dead. Period. Twice. I'm still experimenting with Enslave Demon, but it seems pretty neat too.

Jes-Tauren Warrior: Back to the Tauren. Although Calthrop can tank with the right gear/spec I still wanted to try out Warriors because the rage mechanic behind them is so interesting. I'm still learning with Jes, but it's been really fun discovering just how far he can go before stopping to bandage. Charge is very impressive, and the short-range AoE's like Thunder Clap really compliment the Tauren War Stomp ability.

Brandshade-Orc Rogue: My first Orc, and my second rogue. The original rogue is a troll on the Andorhal server I started out on. I rolled an Orc for two reasons. First, I wanted to try a rogue, and Tauren Rogue is not a valid selection for some reason. Second, I hadn't rolled the epitome of the Horde Faction yet, for shame. I really like the rogue because I can AFK anytime, anywhere, and just like the warrior I don't have to worry about mana.

My characters

2007-12-05T16:21:00.000-05:00

Since I can't seem to find a place to start, I'm just going to name my characters that I play, and some of their background.

Brandstone-70 Tauren Hunter: Not my first character, but the same race/class combo. Here is the original. I rolled Horde due to my previous experience with the Warcraft games and lore. I think that the Horde are the real good guys, and that the Alliance are nothing but corruption with a "good" cover over it. I picked Tauren because I liked the lore around the Taurahe, and they hadn't been playable in the previous games. I picked a hunter for the pet; I thought that it would be neat to have a cute little companion to help me out. Brandstone has hit 70, and although geared and keyed for Kara has only been there once. I helped clear Attumen and Moroes and got my first Epic item, but thats a whole post on its own, lol.

Calthrop-Tauren Druid: My first character on my current server, and my current favorite to play. I really like the diversity of playstyle with the class. For example; at around level 20 I tried out Wailing Caverns(WC) and Shadowfang Keep(SFK). I healed WC then tanked SFK with just a gear change between runs. Another example; until level 40 I was feral and could lay down serious melee DPS and tank instances. I lacked enough mana/+healing/Resto talents to capably heal anything above WC/SFK; but then I respeced to Restoration, equiped some new gear off the AH, and tried out Healing in an instance. I'm still leveling Resto, and have added Scarlet Monastery, Uldaman, Zul'farrak, Maraudon, and Sunken Temple to my list of instances that I have completed as healer. I love Druids, but again thats another post.

Amnell-Troll Mage: My first non-Tauren character. I started her because I wanted to try a mage. Out of the available race choices for Mages Trolls seemed the most non-evil, and looking at the Forsaken character creation options they were all Ugly. She's mostly just a storage character now, and I have been considering rerolling her into a priest. Oddly enough I discovered my guild through Amnell, but she isn't in it anymore. She is part of what I consider my "account" guild; only my characters are in it, and I'm enjoying the guild bank space a lot. Horde Templars is my real guild, and I got in by accepting a random guild charter proposition. It was my first experience with being in a guild, I learned a lot, and luckily enough got along very nicely with the other people in the guild.

Alrighty, I'm a slow writer so the rest of my characters are going in a separate post.

Welcome!

2007-11-02T11:44:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog. I plan on posting here a couple times a week. I will probably stick to World of Warcraft related topics, but I may digress into other subjects.