Go go endgame!

It may not be a slapfight, but I do have a video for you:



Yep, last Thursday, with just over 15 days played, Sinead hit 70! My very first truly high-level character! As you may be able to tell from the gushing and the fact that I nor only recorded the ding itself but also waited until I had witnesses, this was a thrilling moment for me. I definitely felt like I'd earned a cookie.

I have to admit, though, that I'm playing at 70 so far has been a bit of a mixed bag. I've read some random stuff on the interwebs about how warcraft is essentially two games in one, leveling and endgame, and that the two bear little resemblance to each other. To this end, it does feel a bit like I'm starting back at square one. I am still learning the basic little details, like where to pick up daily quests, and it feels just like the very first time I played and couldn't figure out how to right click without a mouse on a mac. I also have to admit that I feel a little loss without an XP bar to gauge my progress by, but I assume that I'll get used to that soon enough.

I'm also having a love/hate relationship with the endgame instances. On the one hand, a desire to raid was the driving force behind me leveling up so fast, and I really couldn't be more excited to finally see a lot of the content I've just been idly reading about. On the other hand, I am painfully aware of just how green a healer I am. A couple of Karazhan runs at 68 and 69 and a Zul'Aman run just after I hit 70 have left me with some really awesome gear, so I look good on paper (as it were), but I'm learning how to heal as a holy priest. All of the fights are also totally new to me, meaning I tend to make a ton of really embarrassingly noobish mistakes. I'm sure I'll get better in time, and thankfully everyone's very patient, but I really hate sucking at things and wish that they didn't have to be so patient. Nothing like a steep learning curve to keep you humble, I guess.

Nope, still not 70 yet...

...but last night I dinged 65, which puts me much closer! Let me tell you, the last 5 levels have been a doozy. It took me about 11-12 days to go from 60-65, which is twice as long as it took to go from 40-50 and about 1 1/2 times as long as it took to go from 50-60. Brutal, right? Well, nothing felt more brutalized than my poor ego, which had taken some measure of pride in being able to level up so quickly thus far. I mean, Dani (among others) had warned me that the grind from 60-70 was essentially WoW's version of a widowmaker, but in my youth and arrogance, I didn't listen.

But now, there's only 5 levels standing between me and endgame! WOOT, baby! I CAN DO THIS!

Anyway, it's been awhile sine I blogged about anything other than slapfighting, so let me bring you up to speed a little bit about how I've been keeping Sinead busy. First, Outland is on massive amount of crack. Glorious crack, the likes of which Whitney Houston would no doubt love, but crack nonetheless. Exhibit A: the clown clothes of Outland (see below).


Exhibit B: the mushroom forest of Zangarmarsh (also home to mushroom people).

go go levitate

Exhibit C: proof that someone at Blizzard loves the Dark Crystal just as much as I do. I mean, what else am I supposed to think when presented with richly dressed bird creatures huddled around a floating rock?


I credit the actual progress of my leveling more to two other things than to Outland, per se. The first is a sort of ad hoc carrot-and-stick mechanism that's developed recently. The stick is represented in part by that nagging voice in the back of my head that chides me whenever I feel like I'm not leveling fast enough. The actual nagging voices of those who've taken me under their wing (it should be noted that Dani is generally more supportive than nagging) make up the rest of the stick.

The carrot is the lure of playing alts. Not the alts I already have - new fancy shiny ones on Sinead's server. I've gotten this idea in my head that it would be really awesome to level up one of each healing class - just to see how healing is different for them. So, I've been rewarding myself by playing a couple of levels here and there on each whenever Sinead hits her various checkpoints.

brewing an army of healbots

Probably the biggest thing pushing me forward is a more direct focus on the endgame. Something you should know is that I'm not a social person. Really, I'd describe myself more as a hermit than anything else. It's not that I'm unfriendly (I actually have no problem making or keeping friends at all), it's more that I don't really feel compelled to seek out social interaction most of the time. Which means I'm kind of an odd fit for an MMORPG (well, except that such self-imposed seclusion does make ridiculously quick leveling possible).

So that's what I realized - that you raid in groups. I also realized that healing myself and Dani when she came to kill things for me was nowhere close to what I'd (presumably, hopefully) be doing in a raid, and that I'd have to step out of my comfort zone to develop some mad endgame-appropriate skills. The first time this happened, the guild decided to run Molten Core for shits and giggles. And I got pulled into, too, and proceeded to follow people around trying desperately not to die and trying to heal whoever was in range. It was crazy and stressful, but it was also a raid and I was in it, and that was awesome.

noob's first raid!

Perhaps more practical, I started running every pug looking for a healer. Up till now, I've gotten random whispers asking me if I would heal this or that instance and always turned them down (except for one Scarlet Monstery run). Now, need a healer? I'm there with bells on. Which has been an interesting experience, between the shieldless tank, the warlock who refused to soulstone me, and the rogues who ran into battle at half health because they wouldn't eat and thinking that they were dying because the 'healz must be gettin d/c.'

Slapfight Sunday: TammyFae vs Glothnafar

Hey, look who's just barely posting on time? Me, that's who! Yeah, so I'll make it snappy.

This week we have a face off between Tammyfae the priest and Glothnafar the warrior, and unlike our previous slapfights, their behaviors within the confines of this hallowed sport actually reveal far more about their character than I ever could. As you watch the movie, remember the cardinal rules of sissy slapfighting (especially number 2):

1. Sissy slapfights are naked. Anything carried on one's person that has any sort of stats or armor has to be removed before the fight takes place.
2. It's called a slapfight for a reason. One may only use unarmed combat. One may not, under any circumstances, use spells or special abilities during the fight¹.
3. Slapfights result in binding judgments about one's decency as a person. If you lose a slapfight, you are clearly a whiny bitch with no backbone, and should be treated as such.

Without further ado, the movie!

Despite the utterly ridiculous length, that was quite a good fight. The intrigue! The trickery! The...other stuff! Here at It Will Eat Your Soul are trying to push slapfighting beyond its bound to become something much much more. And this time? We may have succeeded.
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¹More astute viewers may notice that, in fact, both slapfighters used spells. Why, then, is Tammyfae a cheater and not Glothnafar? Because he had already won the slapfight when he used them against a third party. And he's not a whiny little bitch like her either.

Slapfight Sunday: Madgebobbins vs Squidby

Look, I know that this is late - even later than the last one was. Would it make any difference if I told you that I was out of town, alternately doing important career type-y things and warm fuzzy close friendship-y things? Probably not. But in case you want to make sure I'm telling the truth, it will all be detailed soon on my knitting blog.

Back on topic. This week, Madgebobbins and Squidby throw down! To give you a bit of background on these two, both are named after fictional commentators of the fictional world that the epic fantasy novel is set in. So, as you can imagine, they go way back. Madge is known for her propensity to feign death at the drop of a hat (she has a nervous constitution) and often impersonates pirates. She hangs out with her raptor, Bob, and her ghost saber, Al Stewart¹. She kills critters for fun.

Squidby is something else again. He was given the nickname "the Retarded Druid" because he's been missing some pretty vital developmental stages - like not getting bear form until well into his 20s and only recently becoming able to shapeshift into a seal. He has also been known to, during the height of battle, beg Madge desperately for healing potions (who had by this point typically already feigned death) - despite the fact that he is an alchemist and can make healing potions and is also, uh, a member of a healing class. He's nice enough, but not what you'd call the brightest cow in the barn, if y'know what I mean.

For undisclosed reasons, something soured between the two and in the humid, tropical village of Shadowprey (hence the soundtrack) they drew their battle lines. It should be noted, though, that a betting man who know where to put his money - this slapfight was perhaps as much a forgone conclusion as the fight between a level 50 and a level 5.

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¹For those of you who don't know, Madge's feline companion is named after the musical genius who gave us the ultimate soft rock song, "Year of the Cat." If you've never heard it, I strongly encourage you to seek it out - it has everything! Smooth sax solos! Reedy, thin vocals! Bizarre references to Peter Lorre, and much much more! I kid you not, folks.

Kucinich takes over the world....of warcraft

I am awful at keeping up to date with my own blog. Melissa, however, is not. This is my fault, I promise you.

However, aside from my guilty begging for your forgiveness, I have a few things to say. A couple of weeks ago now, Dennis Kucinich, the former presidential candidate, decided to do something totally wacky: try to impeach the president. Now, for anyone that knows him, the probably isn't a surprise. For me? Well I found it hilarious. And so, in regular Dani style, I wanted to do something perhaps too cheesy to be funny. But you never know.

I made myself a little gnome character and caused him to look just like Denis. How does this work? He had a receding hair line, HUGE ears and short stubby arms. His wife, of course, had to be there. For that feat I asked Melissa to help me, and she made a tall, thin, red headed human woman.

the uncanny resemblance between the real Kucinich and his in-game gnomish warrior counterpart

We went to Ironforge.

Now, Ironforge, for those of you that don't know is a nice condensed Alliance city. It's my favorite because, unlike Stormwind, the auction house and the bank are right across from each other. Of course, this makes for lots and lots of traffic in that little area.

Is it the dwarf and gnome city and in it is a lot of lava, smelting and funny gadgets. it was an obvious place for us to meet because, well, it was easy to get there for both humans and gnomes (what with the Deeprun Tram and all), and it would have the most foot traffic in a single area.

Once I arrived at the bank, and met up with Melissa, we decided to just go wild. Now, if you know me, I can be quite silly and so doing things like running about and hollaring "LOOK I'M GOING TO BE PRESIDENT!" and "I HATE BUSH!" bring me much joy. And that's what I did.

Dennis makes proclamations, his special ladyfriend watches on adoringly

At first people just pointed and laughed. And then? Then people started to get really into it. One man, of course, thought that I should not have such a lovely wife and decided to bring a picnic. He wooed my woman, although unsuccessfully. And when I tried to come to the picnic? He called me gay! The nerve!

This kept up for awhile with people kissing the wife and saying mean things to Dennis. Then? Then people started to think I was serious! The tells were the best, where people wanted to know why I hate eating meat, why I am such a pansy liberal and more and more ridiculous things.

the great Ironforge Love-In of '08

We tried to make a parade, but sadly no one wanted to play. In the end, it was just an hour of silly gallivanting, lots of waving, and a whole lot of angry people. You'd be surprised how fired up people get over Warcraft politicians!

Next time? Go go. The myth, the magic, the phrase.