About
I'm a dedicated WoW player who play several alts, but I focus mainly on my Warlock. Since I have a lot of characters, on this site it's easiest that I'm simply known as Saga.
I'm a raider, guild officer and altoholic who loves chasing after new mounts and pets.
This site is where I ramble about my adventures and thoughts as I continue playing WoW.
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Monthly Archives: July 2011
Comment Love (Part 3)
As you might remember in June I was talking a lot about comment love and how I feel I should get better at commenting on other people’s blogs.
I’ve been trying to do just that (I’m still working on getting better though!), and I’ve realised yet another hurdle when it comes to commenting.
After commenting on a few blogs, I find it gets difficult to remember which blogs I commented on! My blogroll is very long, and when you’ve commented on several posts it gets confusing after a while to remember which blog exactly it was.
So I went hunting!
I started doing some searching to find a way to track blogs where I commented. (Going through my entire blogroll again to check ended up being rather tedious.)
The “follow comments” or “track comments” that people have on their blogs might work out really nicely for some people. I don’t know if it’s my ISP causing issues – but I never get any e-mails as I’m supposed to when someone replies to my comments, or new ones are posted.
So I found some alternatives.
co.mments – This is actually the one I ended up using because it’s very simple and straightforward. You sign up, you get a bookmarklet – then all you do is click that bookmarklet on any blog post where you want to track the comments. On your co.mments page you will then be able to check for new comments. (Supposedly there’s also an RSS Feed or you can choose to receive e-mails.)
coComment – I’ve not tried this one extensively, it seems to do a bit more than I feel that I personally need – but perhaps others find it more useful. It has a Firefox extension as well as a bookmarklet and you can choose to use one (you don’t need both).
Commentful – I’ll admit that I’ve not tried this one, because it appears to require a Firefox extension, which I won’t use because I often read blogs during quiet times at work. However, I decided to include it for those who may want to look into all of the options. I hear it may be able to track Forums as well as blog comments.
What do you do to track which blogs you commented on? Have you found a better tool than the ones linked above (please do tell!) or are you superman/woman and remember without tracking?
Posted in Random Ramblings
13 Comments
Me, the Archaeologist
I’m hunting wabbits Canopic Jars.
I have Archaeology and Alchemy on my Mage alt, which naturally means I’m out searching for the Vial of the Sands recipe any time I get a chance.
Tol’Vir absolutely hates me! I have solved two 150 mark rares, and probably around 100 other solves. Out of those 10 have been Canopic Jars. None of them contained the precious recipe that I’m after.
I will continue my hunt for the pattern, but I will admit – it grates me to know that my brother started the search last Sunday and got it after five Canopic Jars a few days later! Can you spell unfair?
I guess random drops are random.
It’s still unfair though because he also got Zin’rokh. All I got was a hand-me-down dress for cloth alts – which I don’t have because they’re all 85. (It is rather pretty though, I guess I could stand around in Stormwind and show it off.)
I want my Vial of the Sands dangit! Give it to me!
I think what I find the most annoying (except for my brother getting it before me and being on another realm so I can’t buy it off him) is that I have to do all of the digging on an alt. I’d have liked to do it on my Warlock for the achievements, but she doesn’t have Alchemy.
Okay, I admit. I did get a few other BoA items, but I still want the recipe.
How is Archeology working for you guys? Are you getting the items that you want? I’ll admit though, I find Archeology fairly boring still, but I find that it works out nicely if I’m on the laptop and watching a TV show or movie at the same time.
PS. I’ve updated the Bane of Havoc guide to include the Firelands fights where I’ve so far found that it might be useful.
PS 2. Off-Topic – I’ve decided to pick up on my personal blog again. It’s nothing too interesting of course, but if anyone’s interested there’s a link up in the Contact widget on the side.
PS 3. I’m incredibly proud of my Horde alt’s guild for killing Shannox on the very first try. Obviously it was all due to my awesome healing *cough* Okay fine, also the other healers.. oh and I guess the dps.. and the tanks.. and… fine – everyone did a splendid job!
Posted in My Adventures/Characters, Random Ramblings
12 Comments
If this was my last day (Day 20)
I have finally (ironically later than many others) reached the last day of my 20 Days of… Challenge. If this was my last day playing WoW, what would I do?
I suspect that I will not stop playing WoW before the friends I play with do – but should I for some reason do so, I would most likely give them BoE items and materials that I have amassed. Maybe use some of my gold to buy them some gifts from the AH or pets/mounts that they don’t have yet.
I’d make sure all of my characters were dressed appropriately (Tier 5, my favourite Warlock set for my main), and I would most likely leave them all in Stormwind or Orgrimmar so they’d not be lonely.
I like having “my affairs in order”, so I’d probably delete any left over alts that never made it past level 10. Clear out bags and banks, then making sure that everything that was left was put in a nice order.
Then I would log out, take a last look at my character list and quit the game.
At this point the idea of quitting WoW still feels foreign to me though. I play with my friends, and I don’t know if I will quit playing until they do. But one never knows.
What would you do if this was your last day?
Posted in 20 days of...
5 Comments
Raiding “Naked”
About a week ago I went to visit my dad for a weekend, and since I normally raid with my alt’s Horde guild on Saturday I’d obviously declined the raid.
However, during the evening when everyone was busy with other things I borrowed my stepmom’s computer for a few minutes wanting to complete my Firelands dailies. (Both my dad and his wife play WoW, albeit on a casual level.. Though my dad has turned out to be quite the little goblin, having amassed somewhere around 170k gold by now!)
I had really only intended to be online for the 15-20 minutes it would take me to do the dailies on my Warlock, but no more than a few minutes in my Horde friend whispered me through Real ID asking if I could please join the raid anyway. One of their healers had needed to leave and they were a person short for completing the raid.
I was very hesitant to be honest. Not only was I at my dad’s and had planned to be social, but I was on a computer I wasn’t used to and it had absolutely zero addons. I mean it. Zero.
On my own computer I run with a bundle of addons, ranging from what I consider necessary to useful to fun.
I explained all of this to my friend, but she said that we could at least give it a go – and asking my dad and his wife if it was okay (their raid only had another hour or so left at that point) – I logged off and logged onto my Horde Paladin.
Now, you have to imagine my dread at how my healing would be. I had nothing that I was used to. I had to change my keybinds because my stepmom’s mouse has less buttons than my own – and the keyboard felt foreign to my fingers. (Have you ever noticed that? How different a keyboard that isn’t your own feels, and a mouse as well?)
I had no Grid (I don’t use Clique or any addons, but I like it because it’s small and doesn’t cover the screen), so I was stuck using Blizzard’s raid frames that I quite honestly hate. (They’re so big!) I had no Boss Mods. No Recount or Threatmeters. No cooldown meters or timers.
I felt naked.
It was an interesting experience though for sure. Blizzard has definitely improved on some of the things the game tells you during a boss encounter – when using Boss Mods I never know what is Blizzard and what is the Mod.
I fully expected my healing to be appalling with no addons to help me. It wasn’t.
I had my friend link me the meters and I can tell you that my healing was no worse than it normally is, but pretty much spot on. I did get a bit flustered at some point and wasted some mana, but for the most part it went really well under the circumstances.
I didn’t die to standing in bad (I like to think I never do though), I managed to heal the people that needed it (despite using Blizzard’s ugly raid frames) and I felt really good about it.
I missed having my addons, because I do prefer raiding with them – but I managed without.
It proves that you don’t need addons to do your job. However, when given a choice – I will use my addons. Not because I need them, but because they do make my job easier. I don’t necessarily perform better, but I feel more comfortable and in control – and isn’t that what it’s all about?
What about you? Do you use addons or do you stoutly refuse? If you use them, have you ever had to go without them at one point and found that you miss them?
Posted in My Adventures/Characters, Random Ramblings
19 Comments
The Importance of Purples
I think at one point we all ask ourselves why we raid, or why others raid. Is it because they want those shiny purples or is it because they like the challenge of beating new content? Perhaps a bit of both?
For me personally, I’ll admit that I like the purples. I think anyone who says they don’t care about gear isn’t being entirely honest. However, the gear isn’t a deciding factor for me. I love getting a new piece that I’ve worked for, but I love beating a new boss more.
In my Warlock’s guild we have a mentality of being kind to each other and passing loot if someone else needs it more. A lot of us will pass a second piece of loot if we already got one (except maybe if it’s a BiS – I think everyone gets a bit greedy about those).
In my alt’s Horde guild there is a similar pattern. I see a lot of the older members passing loot for each other, but they also have an enforced rule of only getting one piece then someone else should get one (unless no one else needs it). I quite like that rule, because I will admit that I often lose rolls on my Warlock.
I think a lot of people appreciate getting that new piece of gear, but I don’t think it should be your only reason to raid.
Do I have a story to share regarding this? Of course I do!
What caused me to think about this in the first place was an event that took place in my Horde guild. We had new recruits, a couple (can you already see where this is going?) who had joined a couple of weeks ago. They’d been in the guild maybe two weeks and were both still on Trial rank since they’d not been to more than two raids.
We had a long night planned after the 4.2 patch with going back for a final try on Nefarian (even if he is nerfed now) on a saved lock, after which we were going to go to BoT and if time try Firelands.
As a side note, I love raiding with my friend’s Horde guild on my Paladin. I’ve done all of the fights already on my Warlock so far (who knows, they might get ahead of us soon though if people don’t start showing for raids again), but it’s so much fun to see fights from a different perspective.
Back to my story though; we go in and we kill Nefarian on the second try. (Only reason we even failed on the first try was because the couple had not quite understood the tactics.)
The T11 head token dropped and the girlfriend rolled as well as a couple of other people in the guild. She won the roll, but because she’s a Trial the loot goes to a full member (a guild rule).
I personally think it’s a fair rule, because you never know if trials will stay or work out, and handing them loot (especially tier pieces) that full members need is a risky business. The couple however didn’t really agree, but didn’t kick up too much fuss about it.
We take a 5 minute break while people make their way to BoT. Just as we get inside and prepare to start the first pull the girlfriend says “I have to go eat, good luck with the raid”. At this point the raid has been not even one hour long, and we have another 2-3 hours to go, so obviously people are rather unhappy.
If you’re not going to be able to stay for a full raid, you’re supposed to say so beforehand. Obvious? I think so.
It’s also rather obvious that she hadn’t originally planned to leave early, but decided to do so when she didn’t get the loot she wanted. (And don’t misunderstand, it’s not like Trials don’t get any loot at all, they do – just not over full members, but even then full members are sometimes nice and pass for them.)
A couple of minutes later she puts a message in the guild chat that she has a new job and less time, and is losing interest in the game. So thanks and good bye. She /gquits.
A few minutes later, without saying anything, the boyfriend leaves the guild as well.
If she was really losing interest in the game, then she shouldn’t have rolled for a Tier token in the first place. But I will admit – I don’t think she lost interest until she didn’t get the loot.
There are a lot of things here that are a problem. People caring too much about loot, couples who leave together. I will admit though, I’ve heard about things like these – but this is the first time in my years of playing WoW that I’ve actually seen it first hand (both cases at once too, what are the odds!?).
I can see someone being upset if they’d not understood that full members had loot priority over trials, but to actually leave the guild over it? Ironically the officers had discussed promoting them before the next raid.
How important are purples to you?
Posted in Guild, Random Ramblings
20 Comments
Summer Time
It’s summer and we got a new patch, which I feel wasn’t the best combination. In my guild we’ve had problems getting enough people online for Firelands due to people being on summer vacation or having family visits and so on.
I see other guilds are managing, but I also see other guilds who do not. I will admit that the summer period isn’t my favourite time for a new major patch to happen.
Personally I’m playing a bit less as well, since I’m enjoying some time off work and like to take advantage of it to do other things. Hence the quiet here on the blog, for which I apologise. I will try to be a bit more diligent about writing!
What is everyone else doing this summer? Are you playing WoW as much as usual or are you doing other things?
In other news, I got a new keyboard (a G110) and apparently Saga the Cat really likes it!
Enjoy your summer!
Posted in Random Ramblings
11 Comments
New & Improved
A few days ago 4.2 hit the realms and I’ve been busy doing the dailies and the Thrall quest line. Sadly this week we have had several people away on vacation so I have yet to see Firelands, but hopefully everyone’s back soon so we can get cracking.
The first stage of the dailies is actually really small, and you can complete them in such a short time it’s almost silly. At the same time, I’m sure it’s nice for people who may be doing them on more than one character.
Purple Madness
As for Warlocks, there really was nothing out of interest for Destruction Warlocks this patch, other than a new visual effect for our Soul Harvest. I was possibly one of the few people who were quite fond of the old one, but the new one is neat as well.
The only “real” change to Warlocks was the change to the Soul Swap glyph, which only applies to Affliction of course. (The cooldown on Soul Swap is now 30 seconds instead of 15 when glyphed.)
New Hairstyles
I had completely forgotten about these until yesterday, so I logged on my characters to check, and sadly there was nothing new for Human females, which made my Warlock sad. She totally wants one of those nifty goblin hairdos with skull clips!
Anyway, my Priest got a new hairstyle a la Sailor Moon and the gnome got a Punk style.
Legendary
I still don’t know what is going to happen with the Legendary in my guild, but I picked up the quest just in case. As you’re talking to the dragon in Caverns of Time you get a vision of what might be, and can I just say I look awesome!
Better!
They updated the graphics for the phoenix that you get from the guild challenge of killing all the raid bosses. It looks much better now, since the old version was much too shine through and you couldn’t really see much.
I actually like this mount now!
Have you noticed anything new and improved in the patch?
Posted in Random Ramblings
4 Comments
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