Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

After straightening out the issues I was having with booting from the last entry, I was able to get everything configured just how I liked it. The next day a new version of Ubuntu comes out, and I'm tempted to start over again.

The new version is an LTS, which means something like Long Term Service. I've had good experience with LTS editions before, downy, the previous server, still runs on the last LTS release ( 8.04 Hardy Heron ). This release, 10.04 Lucid Lynx, will hopefully be just as good.

My impressions so far, the new eye candy is nice. Previously I installed the server version of Ubuntu, which starts with a very bare system and lets you install only the packages you want to install. I liked this for the server, mainly because of the limited horsepower and memory I was working with. Eventually I did install a desktop interface on it, just to make early administration easier.

This time I decided to start with the desktop release. One of the factors was location, this server ( at least for now ), will live in the bedroom, next to Squirrel. This effectively makes it a desktop. I even have my older Dell 1701 17" LCD hooked up to it. I figured it would be nice to have access to a linux desktop, if nothing more than to have a secure workstation to do our banking on.

The new theme is more purple than orange. The change that seems to have polarized the community is the moving of the windows controls from the right ( default in windows) to the left ( default in OSX). This has been called everything from a revolutionary leap forward in HID ( Human Interface Design) to an affront to all things good about Ubuntu and Linux in general. Personally? I haven't decided if I like it on that side or not. A good thing about Ubuntu, it can be moved back if you don't like it.

Frisket + Ubuntu 9.10 + 2x2TB Drives Adventures

So, I recently I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on Frisket, on an old 500GB PATA HD I had. This was in preparation for creating a new, bigger server. Ubuntu installed fine and I was able to configure it.

Jump start to today, where I'm trying to install the 2 TB Hitachi hard drives I bought last week. First of all, Frisket seems to have a weird quirk where it always lists SATA drives before PATA drives. This thoroughly confused GRUB for Ubuntu, it kept trying to boot one of the blank 2TB HDs. I tried messing with grub to save the install but that wasn't working either. Finally I decided to just get a fresh start and reinstall.

The reinstall seemed to work fine until I tried to reboot. Upon reboot it seems to hang with "GRUB" and just sit there. Googling was a big useless, mainly because the keywords are very common.

Update:

Mysteriously... I reinstalled grub, it had no effect. Turning off the computer and leaving it for an hour some how lets it boot. I'm now creating the RAID1 out of the 2x2TB drives. When I get the 3rd 2TB drive, I'll convert the RAID1 to a RAID5, which I've heard is completely possible.

Update2:

Resyncing the raid1 ( so named.. raidy) is going at 70MB/s, so it should be done in about 6 hours for the whole 2TB. Compare this to the 4MB/s that downy was capable of. That took over a week to resync. Its pretty amazing. Frisket is now toping out at 109 MB/s, which drops the time to about 4.5 hours. Crazy.

Update3:

After setting up the MDADM RAID1, I can no longer boot again. Same "GRUB" problem after POST. I created a ubuntu forum post because I'm out of ideas about what's happening.

Wow Hiatus

If you couldn't tell from the lack of updates, I have canceled my World of Warcraft subscription.

Why?

Because I wasn't having much fun anymore. I'm far from a type-a personality. I can meander around on my own for extended periods of time. But at the same time, I do like working towards some goal, lofty or far-reaching it may be. After getting my level 80's geared up in triumph gear, I reached a point where, without raiding, I didn't really have anything to work for. I could grind for weeks for slightly better ilvl triumph or frost emblem gear, but I had no place to actually USE it. That realization really cut to the heart of why I was playing. I was preparing for a time that wouldn't/couldn't happen. I don't have the time to devote to seriously raid, even at the casual friendly style that Wrath is known for. I barely have time to sleep. It really took the wind out of my sails.

Leveling Onaara helped a bit, the excitement of new abilities, and a new playstyle kept me very occupied for a while. But at around level 46-48, the only thing I could look forward to was getting into Outland... for the 5th time. Once that was over it would be Northrend, then it would be back to heroics. It just didn't feel like something great to look forward to.

Also, work and paddling have really taken a huge chunk of time. I now have basically an hour or two on friday and possibly 3-4 hours on Saturday to play WoW. Thats just not enough time for me. Add to the fact that I have a stack of PS3 games that are collecting dust.

Maybe its time to change the name of the blog yet again?

WoW Break?

This weekend was a bit strange in that I had a few hours on Saturday that I could play WoW but I didn't. Part of me rationalized it by saying that my forearms were very sore from paddling so a few hours of using the mouse would not be a good idea.

The strange thing was that I didn't miss playing it. My shaman has hit the dulldrums of levels (48-58). Neither starting a new toon or powering through it sound particularly appealing. A lot of what made WoW so much fun was the social aspects of the game. Now that I'm effectvely solo questing all the time has really diminished the game for me. One can only level and get better gear for so long until you start to question why your working so hard in the first place. Assuming I get Onaara to 80, gear her up in restoration as well as enhancement sets. What's the point? I don't have the time to seriously commit to a true raiding guild.

Maybe it's time to cancel the suscription, check back in before Cataclysim starts.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Overwhelmed

Things have just been steadily getting more and more busy. With everything going on at work, home and paddling, today really overwhelmed me. I started down the dark path I used to frequent.

I had to take 30 mins, even though it was really late and just quest. I only did 1 quest but it was enough to give me just a little breathing room before bed. It's amazing how necessary hobbies are. Specially when other activities that you used to think of as hobbies suddenly feel like another Job.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Still here

I'm still here, just a combination of being very busy at work and technical issues ( Mozex + Firefox 3.6.2) have left me struggling to update. Here's a quick update on how things are going with Onaara.

Up to level 46! Onaara made it to level 40 a week or two ago. It was a pretty big mile-stone. I would describe it as "When the game really opened up." I bought dual-spec, so now I'm Enhancement/Restoration, which in principal I already was before the dual-spec. Except this time I'll have the talent points to back up the gear change.

Dual-Spec
As I mentioned before, I bought dual-spec, to go Enhancement/Restoration. I have already been healing dungeons with a gear change up to this point. But I figured it was time to actually spec into it, hoping that some of my mana issues would be straightened out.

Enhancement
Dual-Wield I've finally got dual-wield. This was probably the main reason I started the shaman in the first place. I wanted a character that could dual-wield and just go nuts on an enemy. The shaman doesn't disappoint. With Windfury on my main-hand and the melee haste totem, she goes pretty nuts. Mana was an issue in dungeons though, because things didn't last long enough that I had to constantly pick up and drop totems ( which cost quite a bit of mana). Even with Water Shield and Mana Spring totem out.

Improved Stormstrike Correction, Mana WAS an issue, until I put 2 talent points into this gem. Every time I hit with Stormstrike ( which I do off every cooldown) I get back 20% of my mana. This plus Water Shield and Mana Spring totem, I rarely have to drink now. I haven't had a chance to take it into a dungeon yet, but I think it will go well. I'm considering going into the resto tree and picking up 5/5 Totemic Focus, which would reduce my mana cost for totems by 25%. I have it on my resto tree and it really helps.

Restoration
Chain-Heal I received chain heal at level 40 also. My first true, honest to goodness, AOE heal. Or at least thats what I thought. In its most basic form it heals 3 people,the first person being healed the most and each person after that the effectiveness goes down 40%. Unfortunately the spell has a long cast time, doesn't heal for very much, and doesn't feel very mana-efficient. In the amount of time it would take me to cast a chain-heal, I could cast almost 2 lesser healing waves. Those two would probably heal for more, and I could control who gets them. Currently I only chain-heal in conjunction with Nature's Swiftness, to make it instant cast. Maybe in higher levels of gear, chain-heal will be more useful ( I always hear about people advocating not chain-heal spamming, so I'm guessing it becomes much more attractive later on), but as of now it's my least used spell.

Huntry to Onaara Re: Hi!

Hey Sis!

Greetings from... Stormwind. Yeah I got back in town a few days ago. I took the Gryphon service back, it costs more than the tram but a bit more scenic. Bubu wasn't a big fan of having to make the trip on a smaller, chase Gryphon. Do you believe they charged me an extra 1g for Bubu! This Wildhammer clan sure does know how to turn a profit, I should take notes!

Ironforge was nice, yes it really is underground. Its actually really warm there, not surprising considering there's lava flowing underneath your feet. I think the dwarves like it that way. It wasn't uncomfortably warm, the constant snowfall outside kept everything pretty temperate. I stayed at the Inn close to the Ironforge Central Bank and their Auction House. They have some extended stay rooms in the back. I do miss having some padding on the chairs, it seems dwarves don't believe in having cushions.

On a brighter note they do love pets. I think its because dwarves have quite a few hunters also. They loved Bubu. I'm pretty sure he got better treatment in some places than I. Dwarves love bears.

As for the Glyph business, its slowing. At my highest I made about 1000g in a day. Now its dropping to about 200-300g on a good day. Uncle Waash sent me a fresh batch so I've been going through those. I saw a few that you might need, so I'm attaching them with this letter, I'm sure Uncle won't mind. There must be a few other Glyph businesses running, I sometimes see the same 3-4 names undercutting my auctions. I'm not particularly worried, I've earned quite a bit up to now. We should have enough to cover any upcoming expenses. Hooff told me that Hot still hasn't trained for her Artisan Riding. I guess she doesn't feel like she's missing it. If she is, she hasn't mentioned it. Not that Hot really talks much at all. She's always been very quiet, just kinda stares at you with those frosty blue eyes. Its a toss-up between her and Bob for most stoic.

Speaking of Bob, Hooff mentioned that Bob told him, that I should tell you, that the family bank will pay for your Riding training and even training for Erin! I'm sure she'll appreciate the armor and everything she gets. I have sneaking suspicion that Bob didn't really tell Hooff to tell me, to tell you, but whatever, the point is you're set for Riding training!

Hooff also showed me the armor he got you before he sent it off, amazing how it fits me perfectly also. I figured you wouldn't mind me borrowing your gear when you're done with it right? *snicker snicker*

Hope to hear from you soon,

- Hunt

Letter: Onaara to Huntry

My Dear sister Huntry,

Hello Sister, I hope this letter finds you well. How is your business trip to Ironforge? I hope the Glyphs that Uncle Waash sent you to sell are moving. How are the dwarves treating you? Is it true that Ironforge is underground? It must truely be a sight to see. I hope to one day travel there myself.

How amazing are these mailboxes, no matter where I am, it feels like I simply have to drop a letter into a mailbox and some gryphon, somewhere will ensure its arrival. It almost seems to shrink the distance between us!

If you run into Hooff the Elder before I, please extend my gratitude for the gear he sent me. He must have gone through great lengths and expense to acquire them for me. The chestguard has the buzz of enchantment, and the mace seems to have an eerie white glow about it. I'm sure Bob had something to do with that. I don't think he likes me, he's always so quiet. I get along with Kragner his Voidwalker well enough though.Its amazing how well a demon from the twisting nether can play cards. I'm rambling, please let Hooff know that I will make good use of the armor here in Duskwood.

Currently I am staying in at the Scarlet Raven Tavern in Duskwood. Its a far cry from the Inn we stayed at in Azuremyst Isle. Remember when we used to joke about having Ghosts and Ghouls under our beds as children? Well here its a possibility. I've only been here a few days but I've already seen a few ghosts, and even combed ones hair! Don't ask how I did it, I think it was some kind of enchanted brush or something.

The Night watch here has asked me to help out with some problems they've been having. They're woefully understaffed. I mostly try to shuttle food and supplies between Darkshire and Night Watch outposts on the Western edge of Duskwood. The soldiers are always happy to see me, I think its because they know once they hear Erin stomping her feet and trumpeting her trunk, they'll have their lunch soon.
I did find a gravesite that was a bit disturbing, the entire area had such an air of lonelyness. I asked some officials in town about the grave, and they told me a sad tale about a fallen hero, risen as an undead, roaming the graveyard. Hopefully I won't meet that spirit on my deliveries.

I think I've rambled on enough for one letter, until I see you again.

Give my best to Bubu,

- Ona

Heirlooms and Enchants

Heirlooms and Enchants
Personally, when leveling I rarely ever enchant any of my gear, at least not until I get into northrend. The reason being that, they don't seem particularly worth it. The enchanting mats are expensive, the gear you enchant will inevitably be replaced very quickly, and the enchants themselves are somewhat lack-luster. Spending 40-100g to get +3 or +4 of something on a piece of gear I'd use for a level or two just isn't practical.

This changed with the advent of Heirlooms. Heirlooms effectively negates the last concern, since theoretically it will be used from level 1-80. Because of this suddenly spending 100g on an enchant doesn't seem so unreasonable, provided the benefits are worth it. To this end I started looking for an enchant that would be beneficial for Onaara, wasn't too difficult to obtain, and was relatively "cool".

Enchants

All heirlooms count as having an iLevel of 1. This means that only pre-bc ( Vanilla) enchants will work on heirloom items. This has not always been the case but as of this writing, this is current. There are no obtainable enchants for the Heirloom Shoulders, so that piece is ruled out. The best choices for enchants for chest pieces are:

Greater Stats ( +4 all stats )
Major Mana ( +250 Mana )
Major Health ( +100 Health )

Of those three, Greater Stats seems the most useful. Unfortunately the formula for that enchant seems to only frop off 5-man or Raids in BC. In fact, its basicaly a world drop and thus not realistically farmable. The +3 all stats enchant on the other hand, Bob already had so I decided that was the better option.

While the +3 all stats to chest would at least be useful, and not very difficult to obtain, it was not "cool". I wanted something a bit more flashy, maybe something with a proc. Looking through wowhead, I ran accross an enchant called Crusader. A previous post, Scarlet-cide, says a little of what I went through to get hte enchant. All of this lead me to the conclusion that... I need an heirloom weapon.

Heirlooms

As I mentioned before, at level 40 my choice for heirloom weapon(s) is clear. 2x Venerable Mass of McGowans. But from now until 40 my choices have been muddled. I originally wanted a 2-hand weapon, purchaseable with Stone Keeper's Shards, that would work well with Onaara and Huntry. I've found that there is no such weapon. The only Shard-purchaseable, melee, 2-hander is a sword ( which Onaara can't even weild). There is a decent, 2-hander, Axe available for 65 Emblems of Heroism, but the prospect of spending 65( Bloodied Arcanite Reaper) + 2x(40)(Venerable Mass of McGowan) Emblems seemed completely unreasonable. To this end I decided it wasn't worth stalling and just bought a Venerable Mass of McGowan. I will use that with a Shield or offhand until I can dual-weild at level 40.

On a related note, since Alliance on my realm was finally able to capture Wintergrasp over the weekend, I decided it was time to spend some shards. I decided to get Aged Pauldrons of the Five Thunders. If I hope to be able to heal instances, I'm going to need some dedicated caster gear. Hooff bought both pieces of Heirloom gear, and Bob enchanted the Mace.

Leveling Wall

The Leveling Wall

I found that while leveling an alt, I tend to hit walls. I don't mean I constantly run into the side of castles or inns ( though thats been known to happen as well). I mean that there will be times where I, for seemingly no reason, completely run out of motivation to continue to level. Whether I'm able to overcome that wall, or something makes me overcome it, usually will determine if the character keeps progressing or stagnates.

Level 18-22
This is the first major wall. I've hit it on every character I've created, except for the first. The first because the game is new and you have no idea whats going to happen next. When leveling Hooff he stayed at this level for a few months, while I went back to leveling Bob. Waash didn't get blocked very long because his playtime was dictated more by when Fiance wanted to play Zoee. Hotplate started at 55, so she never hit this level range. Tempered, Classy, Huntry and now Onaara are all currently within this level range ( give or take ). Tempered and Classy are likely to stay at this level, I just don't have any motivation to level Horde-side. Huntry became my Glyph-Girl, though she does get some play-time every now and then. Onaara still has a chance, if I can get some motivation to get to 26 or so, I should be out of danger.

I think the reason people hit this wall is because this is the level range where they get out of their starting areas. This means that my Draenei get out of Azuremyst and usually head to Darkshore or Stormwind. This means leaving the logically placed, nicely clustered quest arrangement of BC and back to the sprawling quests of Vanilla. I can't even begin to describe the pain that was Duskwood, or worst, Westfall.

Level 45-55
This wall seems to change slightly, depending on when the character went through the level range. Quite a few factors keep the wall hovering around this level range. Previously, Level 40 was when you received your first mount ( now its 20). This meant that usually you would do your best to grind up to level 40, to get that mount. After getting the mount and using it for a few levels, you don't have anything "cool" to look forward to, until Outland. Now, its basically the same, except you get your epic riding mount at 40. Dungeons are also a problem, for the early part of this range you can run Zul'Farrak. That can get you to 50 no problem. Unfortunately after Zul'Farrak, dungeon choice gets sour. Maradon is an exercise in pathfinding, Dire Maul is deserted. Blackrock Depths, which still run by quite a few alts, is huge and if you don't have a tank that knows what they're doing, can quickly become a wipe-fest. Questing is no better, at this range you're a bit too high for Tanaris, so Un'Goro is a possible choice. The problem with Un'Goro is that, depending on your luck, you can get ambused by multiple high level mobs as well as a few roaming elites. Plus the quests tend to be drop-collection quests which get old quickly. Once you outgrow Un'Goro you need to make the 30 min run to Winterspring, hoping to finish off those last few levels until Outland.

Level 64-68
At this stage, the excitement of reaching Outland has faded. The quest make-up is a bit better, unfortunately odds are you still remember most of these quests from the LAST time you ran an alt through Outlands. At least the gear and dungeons are decent. Though expect to relearn a lot of CC abilities, or hope to find a tank that outlevels the instances you're running.

Level 75+
You would think that this range you would have no trouble getting the last 5-6 levels to 80. But by this point you feel like you've just ran Northrend on your main/alt, so everything feels like you've just done it. You still have 1 or 2 unlucky pieces from Outland, and you're pretty sick of the leveling in general. The prospect of some nice, shiny epics start dancing in your mind and all you want to do is knock out these levels. If you look too much at what your character "will get at 80", you'll end up stagnating and never reaching 80. Waash is still stuck in this level.

How do you get past the wall? Honestly, I don't know. I usually take a break from what I was doing. If I was questing, I'll run some dungeons. I'll try playing an alt. I'll try playing the AH. Sometimes I'll try playing a different game. After a while, you're not so burned out and leveling becomes fun again. Why play a game if it isn't fun?

Scartlet-cide

Scarlet-cide

Let me get this out of the way first. I don't like farming. I've never been particularly patient at any repetitive activity. Even something like creating glyphs, with a host of addons that make it trivially easy, I still only do once in a long time. I do not like to farm, I will not eat green eggs and ham, Sam I am.

Idle Hands
One day recently I found myself in a situation where I had, some internet access, some free time, but not the ability to play World of Warcraft. So what do I do? I READ about World of Warcraft. Its sick, I know.

Enchant
Anyhoo, I got onto the subject of what enchant I should put on Onaara's weapon(s). Looking around, I found that Crusader works well with Heirloom items, and eventually when I dual-wield, the buff will stack. Checking on Bob, I noticed that I do not have the enchant. The AH is of no help ( none available). A quick browse of WoWhead shows that it is a low-percentage drop off a very specific mob in Western Plaguelands. Good News is that they are low-level mobs, easily farmable by Bob. The bad news, its a specific mob, and the drop rate is less than 1%. Reading through the comments is a bit encouraging, people mentioning that they have gotten it in as little as 20 mins. Another poster mentions that Blizzard has buffed the drop-rate.

Those poor mages..
The mobs in question are Scarlet Spellbinders, they congrigate in a tower on the north side of WPL. Riding there on Bob,I find a spellbinder or two on the road leading up to the tower. All are two-shot(sometimes one) easily. I part myself up on the top of the tower and wait for respawns. Thats where I still am today. I haven't spent any sizeable amount of time farming this enchant. I imagine it'll take at least an hour or two. So far I've killed maybe a dozen spellbinders. They just don't have a chance when my machine-gun-imp is set on aggressive. I just have to be careful not to let one die without causing some damage to it, or else I am not able to loot it.

The Scarlet Crusade should start recruiting heavily, they're about to lose quite a few magic-users. How many Scarlet Spellbinders need to die before the enchant is in my hands? As many as there needs to be.

*queue Highlander music*....

Money making

Spent the majority of the night making glyphs to sell. Waash makes them and Huntry sells them. Yes, they've both taken time off from adventuring to run a glyph business. While at the rate I go I'll never hit the gold cap, inscription will usually make enough to cover the toons repair, gem, enchant and crafting costs.

Brain-dead Strategy

The best way, at least for me, to make money is do to a lot of little things. This can be taken to the extreme where you have 10,000 auctions all trying to make 2-3g each. I prefer a bit sainer approach. I tend to just cherry pick the 2-3 different fields that will make me money. I do have a high level Tailor, Scribe, Miner, Alchemist and Jewelcrafter so if you don't have these, this may be more difficult.

Disclamer: While I do dabble in playing the AH, I'm not very serious at it. I make enough to have a healthy reserve, in case I want to buy something. This is what I personally do, and they don't make huge amounts of gold, but they make enough for my needs.If you want to get serious with playing the AH you'd be better served going to a dedicated gold-making blog. I'll have links at the bottom.
Inscription
Make Glyphs. Use an addon such as QA2, find which glyphs are selling for quite a bit and create those. Sell a few at a time. I tend to cherry pick the ones that are selling for 20-30g, and just make those. You will get undercut so expect to be able to sell 5-10 at a time before having to cancel and repost. Fortunately the deposit is so small, its still worth it.This won't work if you happen to get a "Goblin" on your server. They love to drive the prices down. Fortunately i'm not very hardcore about the AH so I just stop posting for a while.

Epic Offhands. The epic offhands are still useful as starter Epics for a lot of magic-using classes. They sell decently, one at a time.

Tailoring
Cloth cooldowns. Make them on every cooldown, and specialize in one of the cloth types. This will be removed in 3.3.3 so do them now, and sell the cloth.

Netherweave Bags. Check the price of bags, then check the price of a stack of Netherweave cloth. Add the cost of Rune thread to the price of a stack of Netherweave. Thats how you know if they're worth making. Usually I can make 2-3g a piece. I post about 6-10 at a time.

Alchemy
Personally, I'm a transmutation master. This means that I'm all about transmuting Epic gems. Every epic gem transmute is guranteed to make you SOME gold. If you proc extra gems, then you've just made even more gold.

Potions and Flasks, unless you're specialized in those, are not worth making. The mats most times will cost MORE than you can get for the crafted flask.
Mining
Smelt Titansteel. The CD for this will be removed in 3.3.3, which will cause prices to free-fall. Do them, and sell the titansteel now.

Jewelcrafting
This synergizes well with Transmuation Mastery of Alchemy. You make money selling the uncut Gem, but you make even more money if you cut the gem and sell it ready-made. Bold and Runed Cardinal Rubies make a lot of profit.

Enchanting
I have yet to really make gold enchanting scolls with this.The cost of mats and a vellum ( which your Scribe can make for you) ensures a pretty slim profit. You can make a decent amount of gold spamming Trade LFW if you have some indemand recipes.

Herbalism/Skinning
Goes without saying, grab every herb, node and animal skin you can get while questing or doing daillies. Sell them on the AH. Free money. Why is it free? Cause you were there anyway, you didn't go out and farm them.

You can however, make a decent amount of gold my making Large Prismatic Shards. If you have the Void Shatter pattern from Isle of Quel'Danas, check to see how much a Void Crystal sells for. Then see how much a Large Prismatic is selling for. If its more than half a cost of a Void Crystal then you can make a profit.

End of Guide



That's not to say Onaara didn't level. She was able to gain a quick two levels. She's finally got a second heal (Lesser Healing Wave) and a mana regen spell (Water Shield). Both should help tremendously when healing. In fact Water Shield should be handy even in Enhancement questing. When I ran out of drinks while questing I had no recourse but to sit and wait for Out of combat regen.

Another great perk of reaching level 20 (well 21 since Onaara dinged while in the middle of a long series of quests), was that she now has a mount. A purple Elekk to be precise. Everyone meet Onaara's trusted mount Erin.

Onaara Progress Report

Worked on Onaara quite a bit this sunday. I had some free time while Fiance was volunteering at the Humane Society.

I've healed a few times on Onaara, Shadowfang Keep a few times and half of deadmines. I've learned that it is very possible to heal a 5man when not specced for it. I've also learned that you really need healing GEAR to heal an instance.

At this level I only have one true healing spell: Healing Wave. It has a 2 second cast time and takes a moderate amount of mana. With my mana bar just now topping over 1k I've had to really worry about overhealing and mana conservation, things I never have to worry about on Hooff. I've had to be creative, timing casts to compensate for the 2 second cast time and being very stingy about making up for DPS mistakes. I don't have a choice, I just don't have the mana to spam heals on every party member.

I've been picking up upgrades to both Resto and Enhancement from the dungeons I've been running. This include a decent staff, belt and leg pieces. I was able to heal Ragefire Chasm without much trouble. Deadmines was a bit more of a challenge but still very doable. Healing Shadowfang Keep on the other hand was an exercise in ... the best word I can use is asshattery.

Fail: Shadowfang Keep (warning, quite long)

Onaara zones into the instance, already in progress. In front of me I can see the other 4 party members, on the other side of a large portcullis. I greet the party, and start looking for a way through the obstruction. Eventually I find a small door near the portal. I make my way through the building. This being my first time in the instance I make at least two wrong turns. When I finally get within range, everyone but the tank is on the floor, and the tank is dropping fast. If this was in a heroic on my paladin, I would now regale you with how I used beacon, FoL and assorted other light-enfused tactics to bring the tank to full health in the span of a GCD or two. But it is not, so I had to sit there and cast one healing spell... the two second cast Healing Wave. When the cast bar has but a sliver left to go, the tank drops. First thing the tank says is "Where the hell is the healer?".

"Just got here" I reply.

"Oh sorry" he mutters. Normally if no "Sorry" was said I would have seriously considered leaving. From my experience, a wipe is when people start to show their true colors. I decided to stay, and see how things went. Part of me wishes I had left at that point.

As the dungeon progresses, I notice that I'm going OOM quite a bit more. I have to drink almost every pull, especially considering the tank and DPS don't give me a chance to drink before pulling the next group. Not only that, a hunter seemed to take it upon himself to keep pulling more enemies to the tank.

On our second wipe, the tank decides he/she has had enough and drops group. The group decides that the druid will tank until a new tank can be found. The druid then proceeds to "tank" in Night Elf form, with a spellpower staff. I ask her why she doesn't just go to bear form. "We can all fight." was the reply. I facepalm and proceed to tell her that NO this will not be happening and that people will die because I run out of mana. Looking back, I don't know where my bottomless reserve of patience for this group originated. Another wipe was the result of this ingenious plan. Had a tank not materialized within seconds of this wipe I would have dropped group.

The new tank, a dranei pally, was much better than the old, She could keep aggro, ( though she seemed to be adverse to throwing a consecrate down), which mean less party damage, that really helped with my mana issues.

Around this time I noticed that our old druid "tank" was needing on everything, even things that she could not equip. I asked her about it, and she said that she needed on it cause she never got anything. I told her that you only need on upgrades, everything else is greed.

Her reply was "I'm different, I'm new".

With the calm of a zen master I replied "Well now you know, so don't do it again."

She replied "ok sorry". Three minutes later she announced that she was bored and had to go, and promptly dropped group. I wish I had taken a screenshot of that epic conversation.

A new DPS was found, a mage if I remember, and we soldiered on. At this point 3/5 of the original group has been replaced, including myself. Whats left is 2 dps, a hunter and a rogue? I think.

We continue on, and get to some steps where we encounter a pack of mobs. We are doing decently until another pack of mobs comes running in and wipes the group. The (non-hunter) dps says that Onaara pulled hte other group.

I ask, "How exactly do I pull from just healing?".

Someone else says "Well, healing does produce aggro."

I reply "True enough, but unless I physically get too close to the mobs, I can't pull with healing aggro".

The tank replies, "The hunter accidentally shot the other group in the stairs, no biggie. Oh and Sham shut up if you don't know what you're talking about."

This sparks a short argument which devolves to Sham mentioning certain vocal musings that are uttered by the pally's mother during certain sexual acts. At this point a kick-vote is triggered for Sham, and I happily vote.

We get to the final boss, and the last original member of the group, has to leave. They D/C and we decide to just 4-man the boss. The boss drops without much fanfare, loot is divided and we collectively breath a sigh of relief.

I'd like to say thank you to the Ms. Replacement Pally tank, Ms. Replacement Mage and Mr. Replacement Warrior for making sure we all get our bag of treats. Even Ms. Original Hunter, you weren't great, but compared to the other originals, you were decent.

Shameless Screen Shots:



This Onaara doing the Belf disguise quest. Always one of my favorites. Random tidbit: the first time I did this on my paladin. Some horde were actually attacking Azure Watch. I think they they were very confused to find a belf girl that they could not communicate with. Would have been epic if the disguise allowed me to communicate with them though.






At level 16, I received Ghost Wolf form. Well actually it was level 17.5 when I received the spell, having completely forgotten to train for a level and a half. Still, it beats walking around everywhere. Plus I can technically auto-attack in ghost wolf form.

Onaara

A little late but please welcome my new baby shaman Onaara. Female Draenei Shaman, with two heirloom pieces, chest and shoulders. Played her two nights and she's level 14. She's been alternating between 2hander and 1h + shield. It all depends on the stats and weapon damage. Still trying to decide if it's worth buying an heirloom 2-hander for levels 15-40. At 40, she can dual-wield and will be using 2x Venerable Mass of McGowan 1-handers.

I didn't think that having an heirloom weapon would make much difference but it seems to. Especially in the early levels, having a good weapon makes the difference between easy killing and a corpse run.

Once Onaara hits 15 then I'm gonna queue her up as a healer hoping that that should help with leveling and getting gear. If she ends up getting decent gear that way then that may make an heirloom weapon unecessary.

Edit: She just hit level 15.

I was looking around wowhead a bit to see if u could find a decent 2hander available for Stone Keeper's Shards. I figure its not really worth it to spend Emblems for a 2hander but it was worth it to use shards. It turns out the only mildly stat-appropriate 2hander is the sword which Onaara cannot use. I guess she'll just have to stick with quest rewards and drops.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stabby

Fiance, sister-in-law, and I headed to he swap meet today. As usual I spent moat of the time carrying bags, "giving opinions" and generally just stayin out of the way. We ended up at a booth selling knives. A particular knife caught my eye. Opening it reveiled that it was spring loaded, meaning that it deployed with a very satisfying "whip-click". I decided that I didn't need a knife and left to fin the women.

On the way back we ended up near that booth again. That same knife caught my eye but a few minutes with it had me wanting something with a serated edge. Finally I found he knife I would eventually buy.




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Shaman

A recent WoW.com podcast talked about Shamans, namely enhancement Shamans. It was so convincing that I am now planning on leveling my own Enchancement ( and probalby dual-spec'd Resto ) Shaman. With Huntry being stuck at level 23, I'm a bit aprehentios about starting yet another toon ( not to mention having a Horde Rogue at 17 ). To aid in this, I've decided that I'm going to use the "extra" emblems and shards on my level 80s to use. I know for sure that there are quite a
bit of Stonekeeper's Shards. Since I don't see myself getting into PVP or Arena any time soon, I might as well spend them on some useful gear.PVP Heirlooms for PVE content may not be optimum, but the XP
increase will more than make up for it.

To this end I've decided to gear up my shaman with one of the
following for each slot. I included PVP items mainly because all three of my level 80 characters have more Stone Keeper's Shards that they know what to do with, so they might as well be put to good use:

Shoulders:
Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders - 40 Emblems of Heroism
Champion Herod' Shoulder - 40 Emblems of Heroism Prized Beastmaster's Mantle - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards

I already have the Stained Shadowcraft Spaulders from when I leveled Waash. I may just use those until the stat allocation annoys me enough
to buy the Mail piece. As an added bonus, the stat allocation for the mail pieces are good for Enhancement Shamans as well as Hunters. So Huntry can make use of these as well.

Chest:
Champion's Deathdealer Breastplate - 40 Emblems of Heroism

As far as I know there are no PVP chest pieces available, so this is the clear winner. This can also be used by Huntry eventually. Bonus, its also a mid-drift ;-).

Weapon:
Sharpened Scarlet Kris(1H Dagger) - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards Battleworn Thrash Blade(1H Sword) - 200 Stone Keeper's Shards
Venerable Mass of McGowan(1H Mace) - 40 Emblems of Heroism
Balanced Heartseeker (1H Dagger) - 40 Emblems of Heroism

The choice of weapon has been the hardest. Partly because using an heirloom weapon does not generate the +10% experience bonus that the
shoulder and chest pieces do. This allows me to put the decision off without feeling like I'm missing out on extra XP.

Of the 4 possible choices, it gets complicated depending on which
factors I choose to give more weight to. The factors I'm considering include effectiveness for this toon, reuseability, and cost. I want
the weapon to be effective for this toon, or else why even buy an heirloom weapon? I also want the weapons to be reuseable. The next three classes that I have an eye towards leveling include this
enhancement shaman, a Hunter, and a Rogue ( possibly a Worgen Rogue for Cata). Theoretically I could buy one set of gear that would work well with all three classes. Sidenote: I will also want to dual-spec
to restoration, to aid in getting into dungeons, but that will probably require gathering a whole other set of gear.

My last consideration is cost. My toons have varrying amounts of "old emblems", namely Heroism, Valor and Conquest badges. If they havent' spent them by now, they probably don't need any gear that is purchaseable with those emblems. Those can be converted to Heroism badges in order to purchase the heirlooms. I hesitate converting the current Triumph emblems down to Heroism because all the toons still have gear they need to purchase with those badges. With that in mind, all the toons also have quite a few Stone Keeper's Shards. Those are
gathered from participating in Wintergrasp, and from killing Heroic bosses when Wintergrasp is owned by your faction. Bob has somewhere
around 350 shards, Hotplate about 450, and Hooff a staggernig 600 shards. I'm not too interested in PVP, so I doubt I'll use those shards for that. Other than gem patterns, or vanity mounts, the shards
are up for grabs.

If I were to go strictly for maximum effectiveness for my Enhancement Shaman, the choices narrow. At level 40, a shaman can dual-weild. At
that point 2x Venerable Mass of McGowans becomes the best
overall. They have theright stats, and are both slow weapons. Pre-40, the shaman would best be served with a nice 2-hander. At 40 EoH each, those maces are expensive, and aren't going to be used until level 40,
so I would like to postpone buying two until absolutely necessary. For a rogue, the stats are decent, +agi, +stam, +ap and some crit. The
stats are decent for a hunter also, unfortunately hunters cannot use Mace weapons. Eventually I think I will get at least 1 Mass, maybe even two if at level 40, my other characters have emblems to spare.

Purely based on cost, I would go for the Sharpened Scarlet Kris, its cheap, using Shards, passable for a shaman, good for a rogue, and useable by a hunter. The fast weapon speed makes it sub-optimal for a
shaman but not terrible, specially considering the quest reward alternatives.

The Balanced Heartseeker is a nice weapon, but expensive, and not too much nicer than the PVP alternative. Also, after reading through the
comments it seems that the Battleworn Thrash Blade's proc is very low and its lack of raw stats is disturbing.

Looking at the possible 2handers for pre 80, none seem particularly suited to Shamans ( or Rogues/Hunters) for that matter. I think the happy medium may just be to get a Venerable Mass of McGowan now, and get another at 40. Or get a Sharpened Scarlet Kris now ( cause its cheap) and get one or two Venerables at 40. Either way.. this should
be fun.

Ulduar Easy Mode

Ulduar Easy Mode

Bob finally saw the inside of Ulduar. This was for the weekly raid, this time to kill XT-002 Deconstructor. Ulduar has been nerfed quite a bit, this was evident from the very first boss. To activate the easy mode of Flame Leviathan no longer required players to kill all the
towers of the Keepers. It could now be started by an option when the event is started. We rode straight up to FL and one shot him.

The trash to XT was always a pain for Sinister Blades. Until we
perfected our "One tank hold everything while one mob is peeled away" technique, we would wipe more on trash than XT him/her self. Our MT for this group felt that we would be fine... and we were. He tanked everything and everything was simply AOEd down. XT went down in one-shot with me being #2 dps with 6.5k (evil grin).

We were informed that those who wanted could stay to do Kologarn. I offered to switch to Hotplate to help tank the adds leading up to Kolo. The MT said we should be fine. They had me simply banish one of the elementals and we got through the trash without much difficulty. Kologarn actually wiped us, from an unfortunate eye beam/adds/positioning shot. Our next try got him down.

Its amazing how different Ulduar is. I remember doing the raid on
Hooff. Everyone had to be at the top of their game. 100% attention or it would be a wipe. Now a rag-tag PUG 9-manned it in 1 shot.

I want to try ICC.

Huntering

Wow-ed-out. I logged off WoW last night at about 9pm. Not because I had something better to do, but because I was bored. The thought of doing yet another Heroic made me want to turn the computer off.

Originally I thought I could get away from the grind of chain-heroics by leveling my baby hunter. It went well for about 20 minutes, but I quickly remembered why I stopped leveling her in the first place. I didn't want to level anymore. While the mechanics were new ( my first hunter), the resource management was incomplete. I ran out of mana constantly, but had no way to recoup it, short of sitting and drinking after every second pull.

I ran stockades through the Dungeon Finder. The run itself was going decently well until the tank DCed. She never came back. Her friend insisted that she would be right back, but after 20 minutes of trying to pet tank ( Bubu the Bear and the lock's Voidy), we wiped and just called it. I was looking forward to getting that satchel of useful items too.

Thoughts on Huntering:

Playing a hunter was fun. Its very similar to a warlock. Find target, send pet, dps target and hope it dies before you pull aggro on the pet. I did notice that having mana as its depletable resource seems very awkward and a mistake. It would make more sense to me if hunters used an energy-based system like rogues, or even a rune-like system like DKs. It seems very awkward that all of a sudden your gun can't shoot anymore because you've run out of magic?

Will I continue to level her to 80? Not sure. I don't hate the class ( like I hated leveling the warrior, sorry Tempered), so its feasible that I may play her again. I don't LOVE the class like I did with the pally. It seems similar to how I felt about the Death Knight, fun but uncoordinated. Unfortunately the hunter doesn't have the luxury of starting at level 55. For now she'll have to be content with being a level 23 Hunter with 20,000g in her pockets.

Ended up in the emergency room on friday. Was having issues breathing
and pain in my chest. Normally I'd just chalk it up to something weird
and just give it a day to go away before seriously considering getting
medical attention. But with what happened to the fiance a year or two
ago, I decided it might be good to go to the hospital.

We arrived at 3pm or so, and were seen right away ( in triage trouble
breathing, chest pains trumps almost everything else ). They rule out
me not getting enough oxygen and start doing some testing. Long story
short, it wasn't a heart attack, stroke, PE or clot.

Eventually they sent me home, convinced it was a simple gastric
imbalance of some sort. I guess it ended as well as it could have. Now
to wait for the medical bills.

Tanking Burnout

I've recently stopped tanking on Hotplate. My recent lack of
time/inclination has drawn me more towards healing/DPS. Tanking has
just proven too stressful.

When you're the tank, responsibility for the group falls squarely on
your shoulders. If you slip up, tis almost a guranteed wipe. An
amazing healer can't do too much if the baddie runs over and wants to
say Hi.

Tanking honestly just took more effort, responsibility, and brainpower
than I was willing to put in for a 15-20 minute run for emblems. If
the environment were different ( say a guild raid, or even a run with
multiple guildies) I would be more than willing to tank. Even now I
will still occationally tank, but I prefer to DPS.

The wait times for DPS, while much longer than Tanks, isn't that
bad. I queue up for the dungeon finder as soon as I log on, then I'll
go to the Auction house, browse a bit and send things I find to my
other alts. If I have time, and the am on the correct alt, I'll start
to do a daily or two. By then the dungeon finder will pop and I'll be
good to go.

While trying to DPS on my DK, I came to the sad realization that my T9
tanking gear was still better for DPS, than my dedicated DPS set. This
creates a weird situation where I DPS in tanking gear ( looking like a
complete scrub), and get matched to higher-level heroics based on my
Tanking gear. I've been thoroughly stomped on the meters, with my
paltry 1.5-2k DPS vs some 4k-5k DPS, DPS.

State of the WoW

Its time once again to catch everyone ( by everyone I mean me, and my one follower, thanks sweetheart =)), on what I've been doing in the World of Warcraft.

Hotplate, DK Blood Tank/Blood DPS:

Hotplate has 2 pieces of her Tier9 tanking gear. She really only has 2-3 pieces of blue quality gear left. She remains the quickest way into a heroic. Rarely do I have to wait longer than 10-15 seconds before dungeon finder grabs me a group.

With the higher iLevel gear, the DPS have also started to get much higher. Usually this isn't a problem but I've noticed an increase in frequency of dicks. Seems like the better geared the DPS, the more they expect to not have to worry about fundamental ideas like, letting the tank grab some aggro before nuking. Its gotten so bad that I've taken a break from seriously running Heroics with this toon. I'll usually still do the first heroic random for the Frost and Triumph badges, but after that I'll log into another, less stressful toon.

Hooff, Paladin Holy/Ret:

With the burn out associated with tanking, Hooff has got quite a bit of play recently. He also has 2 pieces of Tier9, Holy gear. The wait for healing is quite a bit longer than Tanks, usually in the order of 5-6 minutes. Thats not bad at all considering DPS have to wait around 15 minutes to get into a group.

I've found healing quite a bit less stressful than tanking. There's quite a bit more room for error. As long as I keep the tank up, if a DPS drops cause I missed a heal then its not a huge problem. Plus in general, people seem to be quite a bit nicer to healers. Maybe its a throwback to when healers were much more in demand than tanks or DPS. Or it could be that everyone is just used to having a girl as a healer, and used to being nice to them. Either way, I'm not complaining.

Hooff was also able to get a new weapon, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50210 which is admittedly a caster DPS sword. It was better than Firesoul, his previous weapon, which also was a caster DPS weapon.

Quackingbob, Warlock Destruction:

I've just started trying to get into groups on Bob. With my other two toons, I would usually queue up and wait to get into a group. THe most I would do before getting the invite would be head to the AH and do a quick scan, or possibly straighten out my mail/bags/bank. With Bob, this isn't the case. Usually I will queue up, and then go about my business and let the dungeon finder interrupt what I was doing. Usually this business involves making cloth on my 3-day cooldowns, or scouring the AH for enchanting mats. Since I don't usually do dailies anymore ( the rep I can get with tabards, and the gold I can get from the AH), I don't have an easy filler-activity for bob to do.

Because of the long wait times, and lack of filler. I haven't run bob through heroics near as much as the other two characters. This is really a shame because theoretically Bob has the highest DPS potential of all my toons ( because the others are hybrids, while bob is pure dps).

Even with all this, Bob got his first piece of Tier9 last night. The tier 9 shoulders replaced the shoulders he got from Naxx a few months ago. Also a few days ago, Bob won a new weapon in Pit of Saron. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50227 Its a healing dagger, but it was better than the Spectral Kris that Bob had before. Yes, Bob got a healing weapon for DPS caster, while Hooff got a DPS caster weapon for healing. RNG can be a cruel mistress.

Future:

I would really like to get a new 2hander for Hotplate. She isn't having too much trouble keeping threat in 5-mans, mainly because of Rune Strike being macro'd to her Heart Strike and Death Strike abilities, but a higher DPS weapon would really help if I ever get into raids, or even in the harder heroics ( Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection). It I'm lucky enough, I might get her Quel'Delar, if I can find a Battered Hilt that isn't going for 15k+. Honestly I'd love to be able to get Quel'Delar for all 3 of my toons.

Hotplate the Patient

Last night I only had time to run one dungeon. Really I didn't have time for even that, but the night before I didnt' even get to log in so I didn't want to lose out on yet another 2 Emblems of Frost and 3-4 Emblems of Triumph.

I hit the Dungeon Finder ( my new WoW best friend =) ), and within 5 seconds was transported to Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme. The group had already killed the first boss. Looking at the clock, and the fact that I've never tanked this dungeon ( and its been months since I DPS'd it), I knew the drake was out of the question. I did my best to catch up with them and start making the pull. First pull on trash and I'm facedown on the ground. Not a good start. I get a battlerez from the druid and slowly ( because I wasn't healed up yet) start gaining back aggro. We finish the pull and I ask the group what happened.

"Dunno, apparently you died" remarked the Paladin healer. Thanks sherlock. Trying to be nice I asked if I was just taking too much damage. "Yeah, when you rush in like that". At this point I'm about ready to drop group, but I figure I'm already in might as weel try to see how they handle a boss.

I continue to pull, keeping a closer eye on when my cooldowns are up and using them much more liberally. We're able to down the two bosses without incident. We get to the gauntlet and everything goes pear-shaped. Arthas dies halfway through so we have to fight our way back to them. Everyone dies at least once, but not at the same time so I guess its not a wipe.

Looking at the DPS meters, its showing that on trash I'm #1 DPS with 1.5k, followed closely by the feral druid, and the dps warrior. Lagging far behind at an embarassing 800dps is the hunter. A check of his gear reveals that he's in mostly blues and a few epics. He should be pulling atleast 1k dps, if not more. The amount of time its taking for mobs to go down seems to confirm that my meters aren't off by too much, if at all.

We get to the final boss, he goes down without too much effort, just longer than usual. As the loot is being handed out, the hunter asks if he can NEED on the epic mail leggings that drop. I say go for it, mainly cause I don't care. He says it won't let him, so I take a look. Its clearly a shaman casteer ( possibly healing ) mail piece. The hunter insisted that the piece was better than what he had. I pointed out that he was giving up 130AP for 80+ Spellpower that he couldn't utilize. At that point I left the group.

Rewind a bit, and when that boss went down, the dungeon was technically complete. At that point I earned the [Looking For Many] Achievement. This involves completing 10 random dungeons and also completing random dungeons with 50 random people. This earned me the title Hotplate the Patient. I feel that with that last pug, I truely earned it.

Tanking Fail

Tanking Fail

Last night was the first time I was called "Fail". Can't say I was too surprised, Anh'kahet: The Old Kingdom is quickly becoming the bane of my tanking-existance. I think its partly because I don't know the instance, only having run it a few times as DPS ( and probably once as healer), coupled with the natural tendency ( probably due to self-preservation instincts) to religously follow the tank wherever he/she may lead.

On a brighter note I was able to get my Tier 9 shoulders for Hotplate. She is now my first toon get Tier 9. Bob, my warlock has a piece of Tier 8 and Hooff the Pally has a complete 2pcT7 for both Retribution and Holy. While Hotplate has the highest piece of iLevel gear, I think that Hooff is still the best geared. Though if I keep running heroics that may change soon as well.

On a related note, because my gear score is steadily climbing, I'm noticing that I'm being paired with DPS and Healers that are more geared. While this may seem like a good thing, I've found that once in a while its a double-edged sword. It seems that for some people, their arrogance is directly proportionate to their gear score. The more geared the DPS, the less tolerant they are of mistakes.

Loving the Dungeon Finder Tool

So far Patch 3.3 has been a hit, specifically the new Dungeon Finder tool. Without hyperbole I can safely say it has revolutionized the how I think of, and do heroics. In a way, its changed how I play WoW completely.

Before the tool, PUG was a 3 letter, 4-letter word. Looking to run a heroic went something like this.

1. Find three heroics to join the LFG for.
2. Spam Trade and LookingForGroup channels.
If you're a DPS, expect to repeat this for the next hour before any finds you, or try to catch someone "LFM DPS", which I'm told happen but have never personally seen.
If you're a tank, expect to be invited within about 15-20 mins,then wait another 45 mins looking for a healer.
If you're a healer, expect to be invited within 10-15 mins, then wait another 45 mins looking for a tank.
3. If the stars align and 5 people are gathered, expect to wait another 10-15 minutes while everyone is running to the meeting stone. At least, this is what everyone is saying, in reality only 1 person is actually flying to the meeting stone, the rest are waiting for a summon.
4. After everyone is gathered and the instance is started. One of the following will happen, and contribute to the wipefest
a. Tank blames healer for not being geared enough for this heroic.
b. Healer blames Tank for not being geared enough for this heroic.
c. DPS not geared enough, healer OOMs.
d. DPS over-geared to the point where the tank can't hold aggro. "Slow down" dps request by tank met with "MOAR DOTS" reference.
e. One DPS comments on how "fail" the other DPS's spec/gear/sexual preference is and a 10 minute argument insues.
f. A male character starts flirting with a female character, finds its actually a male player, hilarity ensues. <-- this one is always fun.
g. A male character starts flirting with a female character, finds it really is a female character, and the rest of the dungeon is an assorment of posturing, flirtation, and requests for "boob shots".
h. A female character flirts with male character in order to get more gear. True gender of players involved make no difference.
5. If somehow you're really blessed, you finish the dungeon, collect your emblems and swear you'll never go through this crap again.

How it is now:

1. Queue up in Dungeon Finder, Random Heroic
a. If you're a DPS expect a 10 minue wait
b. If you're a tank expect a 10 second wait
c. If you're a healer, I haven't tried this but i'd assume about 10-seconds like a tank.
2. Once everyone has accepted, you get PORTED to the dungeon.
3. Everyone is pretty comparably geared, so if you're a new tank you'll have newish people as well. This seems like a bad idea but I've found that it actually helps with making runs smoother. People that are just starting out, gearing up, are more tolerant of mistakes. The DPS isn't as high so its easier to keep aggro. The healer doesn't have as big a mana pool so chain-pulling isn't as mandatory to keep everyone happy.
4. The people you meet are generally farming heroics for the new emblem gear and generally know the fights ( even the undergeared, alts probably).
5. Collect your emblems and gold, wave bye.

In the time that 3.3 has been out, I've been able to get enough triumph badges to get Hotplate the BiS tanking Sigil, and enough for the T9 shoulders ( have yet to buy).

All in all, i'm loving this new dungeon system.

PUG Fail

A week or so ago I got Hotplate up to 80. Since, I've been focusing on trying to get defense capped ( 540 +def) in order to start doing higher level regular dungeons, and some of the beginning heroics. Unfortunately defense capped != ready to tank.

Last night I queued up in LFG for the two starter heroics ( Utguarde Keep and Nexus) as tank/dps and also queued up for regular Trial of the Champion as a DPS. 10-15 mins later I got a whisper asking me to TANK Trial of the Champion, they said they just needed a tank. I said I'd give it a shot, hoping that their healer was up to the challenge of keeping a newb tank up. We got to the 3v5 fight, and got the Shaman, Rogue and Warrior. We did better than I expected, dropping the Shaman before I went down. Apparently the group had already wiped a few times, so they decided to reset and try for an easier group. That meant going through the jousting portion, which is the most boring part of the instance, and doesn't even drop loot. After resetting we ended up getting THE SAME three. We tried again, and wiped. At that point the group fizzled and I was left looking for another group.

About 10 more minutes later, I'm invited to tank Heroic: Ank'haet The Old Kingdom. For this I figured I would at least have a shot. I tanked Heroic Nexus a few days ago, and while I took quite a bit of damage, I finished it without too many wipes. After a long walk, I found that they were again, already halfway through the instance. I opted to accept being saved to the instance just to get the bad taste of ToC out of my mouth. On the first trash pull, I ask if everyone is ready. A few people said ready and I made the pull. Ten seconds later I was on the ground. Turns out the person that wasn't ready was... the healer. Another long walk, and an accidental aggro ( by said healer) and the group breaks up AGAIN. I'd like to say that I was upset that I was saved to a failed instance without even a single kill, but I wasn't. The night had gone so horribly wrong that it just seemed to fit.

The healer and a dps stayed in the group, and wanted to try to reform for another dungeon. I passed lead to the healer, mainly cause I was so sick of trying to find people. A well geared druid tank was found ( 37k health wow!), and I switched to DPS. Another two DPS were found, a hunter and another DK with much better gear. The run went smoothly enough after that, the DK was a bit trigger happy and died a lot. He had much higher dps than I did, at some points topping 3k to my 1.8k. But because he died so much, I was ahead in overall damage done. At the end I grabbed http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37167, even though they were plate. Slapped some cheapo +12str gems in them and logged off.

I'd like to think the failure was mostly due to my gear not being up to the job, but I'm sure that my complete ineptitude for popping cooldowns at appropriate times contributed to our failures.It feels like I'm behind the gear curve. There's that point where you have enough gear that you can get into the good instances, and acquire the better gear quite easily. It feels like I'm just behind that curve.

I think I have to rethink my strategy. I've been avoiding crafting the Titansteel epics to save money, thinking I should just be able to get some nice quick upgrades from ToC. Its much harder to get gear than I imagined. Its frustrating being on my healer and not being able to find a tank, then getting on my tank and not finding a healer. No wonder people dual-box!

I've started gathering the materials for a titansteel destroyer, mainly cause I can use it for both my DPS and Tanking sets ( Runeforging ftw). After that I will get a Tempered Titansteel Helm made, then maybe a Spiked Titansteel Helm made also. If i'm buying gear I might as well go full out.

DK Update ( level 77 )

Hotplate hit 77 this wekeend. A lot has happened to the intrepid Death

Knight in the past few days. When she hit 75 ( or was it 76? ) I got

her dual-spec to celebrate. Since then I have spruced up her tanking

gear and she now sits at 430 defense rating.

Tanking:

I spec'd her as Blood Tank. The biggest reason for this was the

similarity in spell rotation for Blood tanking as Blood DPS. The only

major difference I can see is that instead of favoring my Heart Strike

ability I now favor Death Strike ( to recoup some HP), that and hit

Blood Boil more for AOE threat.

My first tanking experience was Violet Hold. I went in at 75, with a

level 80 DPS and some other 76-78's. I might have lucked out because I

most just tank-n-spanked the bosses we got. I held aggro pretty well,

with just the level 80 pulling off me occasionally.

I also recently tanked a 4-man Amphitheatre of Anguish run, with 2

other level 80s and a 76-ish. That went well enough.

I haven't quite decided if Tanking or DPS will be the primary spec of

Hotplate. I already have a well geared Plate DPS character ( Hooff the

Ret Pally ), so having another Plate DPS wouldn't be that new. My only

tank is Waash, but he's stuck at 76 for the forseeable future.

If I do choose to primarily tank with Hotplate, I see myself getting

quite a bit of Titansteel tanking armor crafted. That should get me

most of the way there to be able to tank regular Trial of the Crusader

and with farming that ( and possibly other level 80 regular dungeons)

get me ready to tank Heroics. After that I'll be farming Heroic ToC

and whatever Heroics I can get into for Naxx-level gear.

After getting to that level gear, it's going to be heroic farming for

Tier 8 emblem gear. I would really love to start raiding again, but

that would require finding a guild that can raid during my

schedule. With paddling the way it is, I don't know how much free time

I will have.

Death Knight in Utgarde Keep

Last night I got a chance to run my DK ( Hotplate ) through Utgarde Keep regular. Instancing is quite a bit different than leveling and it took some adjustment.

Spec:

My current spec is actually a spec I googled. Its more of a leveling spec than a max-dps spec. It gives up some of the balls to the wall DPS talents for more health regeneration, for less downtime. In a dungeon, since you have a healer behind you, health regeneration is pretty low priority. I had to shift my rotation from favoring Death Strike, to favoring Heart Strike. Heart Strike is the DK cleave, does great DPS when you have Icy Touch and Plague Strike on the target. I did have to hit Death Strike a few times, mainly cause everything else was on CD.

My DPS was decent, at times topping 1k. For a level 72 ( ending 73 ) I think that's pretty good dps. I was #1 DPS, even out DPSing our 74 pally tank. The rest of the DPS was a 70 ret pally and a 72-ish Rogue, so I did have a bit of a level advantage.

So far I like Blood DPS, it gives a decently simple rotation, and good DPS. I would have liked to have tried Unholy, but it would feel a little too much like my Affliction lock, plus I've had enough of juggling DOTs.

I was thinking of dual-speccing and picking up a tanking off-spec. It would be nice to have another leveling toon that can tank, would certainly ease getting into groups. I guess I should do some more research on DK tanking. I wonder how close to the defense cap I need to get to do regular dungeons?

WoW: Recent Happenings

Occasionally I'm struck with an urge to chronicle the goings-on of a certain aspect of my time/space/etc. Today I had the urge to write about how my WoW (World of Warcraft) characters are doing. Since I've never done this before, it might be a good idea to mention all the characters, at least for this first time.

Quackingbob( 80 Human Warlock Destruction )

Bob was gearing up steadily. He got the Tier 8 chest piece, which really helped his DPS. He can get about 3k+ on heroic target dummies. Since Hallow's End started up he's been shelved a bit. He was able to Trick-or-Treat his way to getting the cloth helm but thats about all. He needs to run a bunch of Heroics for more Emblems of Conquest. Next up in line is the T8 head piece, some decent bracers and probably the spellslinger slippers.

On the AH side Bob's been buying cheap greens to DE and sell the mats on the AH. The money has been steady, so that's nice. The bag market is virtually dead, with netherweave cloth costing 104%+ PCT, its hard to get enough cloth to make bags in any substantial quantity. I try to do the Ebon/Spellweave and Mooncloth transmutes on every cooldown. They are also currently stocked up in the guild bank.

New development, took Bob back into Heroic: Trial of the Champion. The group was pretty good, Reminome the Gnome Mage ( who's DPS is about the same level as me in this dungeon), a blue-geared Pally tank and a decent druid healer and dps warrior. We had an early wipe, which was partly my fault for pulling aggro. We were able to finish the dungeon and I got my Boots of the Crackling Flame. Remi released right before the headless horseman went down and couldn't roll on the boots.

Hooff ( 80 Draenai Paladin Holy/Retribution )

After some random luck with the Hallow's End event, Hooff was able to get the two hardest parts of the achievement pretty easily. He got the Hallowed Helm and Sinister Squashling. Yesterday I finished the achievement up and now Hooff is known as Hooff the Hallowed. Fitting for a Paladin I think.

As for Hooff's gear, his DPS set is still much better than his healing. I want to get him the new t8 helm, but his current helm Spiked Titansteel Helm has so much hit that it would be hard to recoup that lost hit through gems. Maybe I'll wait until I can get both the t8 helm and chest, to make the re-gemming expense worth it.

His healing set still requires some work. He needs some new bracers, he's currently wearing some leather piece from Heroic Culling of Stratholme, and some a new ring ( current one is also from HCoS). Its much easier for me to chain heroics with Hooff as healing, since healers are much more in demand.

Waash ( 75 Night Elf Druid Bear/Cat )

Wash is 75, and has the Hallowed title. Him and Zoee were basically at the same point but Casey hasn't played in a while. In a single run he was able to get both the Hallowed Helm and Sinister Squashling.

I recently respec'd his Cat DPS tree to something more raid worthy. Some theorycrafting and EJ research got me a decent rotation. Its pretty complicated and takes some getting used to. I think its almost as complicated as the 3.0 Affliction Warlock "rotation" back when Affliction was the go-to raiding spec. At my best Waash can put out about 900 DPS on the Heroic target dummy. At 75 that's not terrible.

Waash's tanking spec and gear is mostly the same. A bit of EJ research shows that I should probably be using Maul more, which will be a pain. I'll probably have to respec his tanking tree again when we reach 80, whenever that is.

Waash has been steadily transmuting epic gems, I've got a proc here and there. I haven't been selling the gems lately. I'm trying to stock up so that I can get them cut and used for when my toons get some really good gear. His Alchemy is completely Maxed out while is Inscription is at 446/450. At this point the Major Inscription research is green and skill-ups are few and far between. I'm starting to try to get into the glyph business. Yesterday I spent about 400g on herbs, milled them for inks and made every glyph I could that required Ink of the Sea. I'll see how lucrative the glyph market really is for me. Looking at the prices they're anywhere from 30g to 4g a glyph. The epic Off-hands seem to sell pretty well, so I should be able to keep making those.

Hotplate ( 71 Human Death Knight Blood DPS )

Hotplate got some leveling time recently, and made it up to 71, almost 72. She's currently questing in Dragonblight, near Winterguarde Keep. I was able to get her Tidebreaker Trident from the Winterfin Murlocs, this replaced the venerable Axe of Frozen Death the Trident has slightly better stats and was super easy to acquire that it seemed worth it. Plus the animation speed of the Trident seems faster than the Axe so it gives her a more finessed effect.

Hotplate's mining is coming along nicely, she has a nice stockpile of Cobalt Ore. Her Jewelcrafting on the other hand has stagnated at 225. JC is just so expensive to level that I'm not sure its worth continuing. It would be nice to cut my own gems and have some Dragon's Tears for Hotplate but we'll see. Either way she has a nice stockpile of ore that can be prospected. Having the Tome of Cold Weather Flying has really helped to speed up leveling. I'm cutting my travel time by at least half in comparison to Waash. It also helps with being able to collect mining nodes as I go along.

I'm debating whether to get Hotplate dual-spec. If I bought dual-spec for her, her other spec would probably be tank. I'm not sure I like Death Knight tanking, of course I've never done death knight tanking either. One issue would be that Waash is supposed to be my tanking toon. But with the speed by which he's leveling I doubt he'd be 80 by the time the next expansion comes out. Also Waash has the advantage that he doesn't need to hit the defense cap. He's already un-crittable from his talents. Still, it would be a fun sight to see little Hotplate tanking a 10 foot monster.

Huntry ( 21 Draenei Hunter Beast Master )

Huntry has been converted into a glyph merchant lately. I use her to post my glyphs and run to/from the Ironforge bank. The main reason I haven't been leveling her is time, as in I don't have any. With two toons so close to 80, and two that are gearing up, I just don't have time to really level yet another toon. Though with Casey creating her Pally ( Zoeepal ), if she can get that to 21/22 then I might quest with her.

I did level Huntry to 21 so that she can get her mount, it makes it easier to get from the bank to the AH. Though with Aspect of the Cheetah, thats just fast enough for me not to bother with mounting up.

Lowbies/Assorted:
Quackbank ( 4 Human Rogue )

My banking alt, she's been with me from the very beginning. Nothing new with her, still at level 4 or 5. I did get her a spiffy Noble's Monocle and a Simple Dress. This fits in with the story that she's "retired" from her Rogue ways to live the simpler life of Banker/Merchant. That, plus I had an extra one lying around when I was leveling Bob's tailoring.

I did move her from her cozy home in Stormwind to the more exotic Ironforge, mainly because the AH and bank are a straight shot from each other.

Tempered ( 17 Orc Warrior )

Nothing new to report here, I've trick-or-treated on him once or twice, but nothing else.

Classy ( 17 Blood Elf Rogue )

Same here, nothing really to report. I do notice that people /flirt with this character way more than any other toon ( even the girls ).

CentOS and RHEL

This might be plainly obvious to some people but if you need a package for CentOS, if you can't find a specific CentOS package ( which you probably won't). Grab the corresponding RHEL package. For example if you need subversion 1.5.5 for CentOS 5.3, grab an rpm for RHEL 5.3.

Good thing about RHEL packages, the dependencies are usually in the same folder.

For example, I needed svn 1.5.5 for CentOS 5.3

Grabbed the subversion 1.5.5 package from:

http://the.earth.li/pub/subversion/summersoft.fay.ar.us/pub/subversion/latest/1.5.5/rhel5/i386/

Get the RHEL 5.3 package. Subversion also needs an updated neon package, which is nicely included in the link.

rpm -Uvh the neon package then the subversion package.

-U means upgrade.

Howto: Fix a 2 drive failure in a RAID 5 mdadm array

Problem:

Somehow 2 of your drives have been marked as "faulty" by mdadm at the same time. This happened to me because the SATA controller card they were both hooked up to got confused and stuttered. Output should look something like this:

$ sudo mdadm --detail /dev/sda1

Update Time : Fri Feb 6 08:28:55 2009
State : clean
Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
Failed Devices : 2
Spare Devices : 0
Checksum : 50c18fe4 - correct
Events : 0.487370

Layout : left-symmetric
Chunk Size : 64K

Number Major Minor RaidDevice State
this 0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1

0 0 8 1 0 active sync /dev/sda1
1 1 8 17 1 active sync /dev/sdb1
2 2 0 0 2 faulty removed
3 3 0 0 3 faulty removed

As you can the server thinks that raid device 2 and 3 were faulty and thus removed from the array. Since this is a RAID5, 2 faults is 1 fault too many and your data is in jeopardy.

At this point you need to be relatively sure that these at least one ( preferably both ) drives still have the valid data on it. If this is true then go ahead and issue this command:

sudo mdadm --assemble --force /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1

Note that the order of the drives must be exactly the same as they were when you first created the array. This information is available by issuing the command used to get the previous output.

Thats the best case scenario.

RAID5 Fun

After taking a very long haitus from writing this blog I've come back to relate my RAID5 expansion tale.

Background:

Last year ( June or July I think ). A few of us at (then) work were kicking around the idea of creating dedicated file servers. I have been wanting to create a dedicated NAS+RAID setup for some time. The feeling gets stronger every time I lose a crap-load of data when an HD blows up. We found a really good case on sale at newegg and the buying spree starts. The case, an Antec 300 would do well because of the huge 120MM fans in the front. These are required with the amount of drives I want to eventually have. Fast forward to the end, I turned my old 1.3Ghz Athlon media center into a file server. Current stats are:

1.3Ghz Athlon T-Bird
768MB SDRAM ( A lot for a computer of this age and RAM type ).
1.5TB of RAID5 space ( 3x750GB drives)

Current:

I filled up that 1.5TB pretty quickly. I finally broke down and bought a 4th 750GB drive this weekend. One of great things about software RAID is that you can add drives to it WITHOUT having to reformat ( or technically even unmount the filesystem). By adding a fourth drive, the space efficiency of RAID5 really starts to shine. From 4x750GB drives, I'll have 2.2TB of usable space. Adding the drive to the array was as simple as installing the drive, creating a LINUX RAID paritition ( 0xFD type), and adding it to the raid.

First you add the new drive as a spare drive:

sudo mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdd1

Then GROW the raid over the new drive

sudo mdadm --grow /dev/md0 --raid-devices=4

This takes a LONG time, depending on the host computer, amount of data, etc.. My 95% full 1.5TB is currently at 1.4% with 9186mins left to go. Yes thats about 6.5 days. So my poor little computer is gonna chug for almost a solid week to grow this RAID.

I should probably explain that this is not typical and that quite a few factors are contributing to the long processing time.

1. Slow processor: While resync'ing the raid is not computationally difficult, because of the slow processor, other processes are backing up and is not helping the situation.
2. Huge amount of data: Because there is just sooo much data to move around, the sync is going to take a while.
3. Drive layout: The layout of my RAID is ... unique. Because this is a very old motherboard, with NO SATA slots ( and all 4d drives being SATA drives), SATA-PCI cards were used, 2 in fact. These two cards are both on the PCI bus, which makes intra-RAID communication slow. This quickly saturates the bus. In fact I'm only getting about 1322K/sec transfer between drives. Thats 1.5MB/s from drives that could theoretically handle 70-80MB/s easy.
4. PCI network card: As if the PCI bus was not saturated enough, this board did not come with on-board LAN. I had to put in a PCI NIC. This further slows the sync because now all network traffic is fighting for bandwidth with the hd transfers.

Edit: I forgot to mention that after the restructuring of the computer, its now called downy. Yes, there is an uppy, its the P2 300MHz laptop that Mike gave me. I was using it as a spare terminal at Space Micro. Since I've changed jobs, and Sony gave me plenty of monitors, uppy is sitting in its dock, waiting to be used again.

Wii have landed...

Yes, thats' right. I broke down and bought a Wii. I figured that it would be a good way for me to be more active when I get home from work. Exercising is out because I'm already so tired after work that the prospect of working out goes right out the window. With the Wii I'm up and about, but its still something fun I can look forward to.

On Saturday February 24th, I decided that I wanted a Wii and started to look around. I called a few stores in Riverside, but none were in stock. I found out that all Circuit Cities were scheduled to release Wii's the next day. I figured that I could get there and have a good chance of getting one. Circuit City opened at 10am, and I arrived around 10:30. When I asked the lady at the register, she almost laughed at me. It turned out all the Wiis were sold before they even opened.

I checked all the electronics places around, Best Buy, Target, and Gamestop. There was none to be had. I got back to San Diego at around 8:30. On my way back I passed by Best Buy and decided to check it out. I wasn't even sure if they were still open. They were and I asked one of the sales guys if they had any more Wiis. He said they had some and to talk to this other associate. I talked to the associate who wasn't very helpful. I stayed around, waiting for him to come back so I could speak with him again. After a few minutes I turned around and saw a demonstration area with some Nintendo employees. I asked if they had any more Wiis, and the handed me a ticket! I told them that I was ready to pay for it and the gentleman escorted me to the checkout.

At the checkout I spoke with the cashier and it turned out they were having some event. I ended up getting over 700+ rewards points for my purchase, instead of the normal 250 ( the dollar value of the Wii). I brought the Wii home and prompty figured out that I HAD NO TV. Being the impatient bastard that I am, I hooked it up to the only screen I had that could accept the RCA signal... a 10 year old Sony Camcorder. I was able to play WIi Boxing onthis sucker. Yes. I was playing Wii on a 2 INCH screen. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of that.



This is the Wii box. At first it reminded me of an Apple product, with a different color scheme.



Another view of the box.



The Apple influence shows again, as the box is very straight forward to unpack. As if the steps to unpack it were designed.



The contents of the top level. Including the Wiimote, nunchuck, connectors and Wii Sports.



The contents of the bottom level. This includes the Wii itself, stand and power brick.



The Wii itself. Its actually quite tiny. About the size of an external CDRW. I thought the Mac Mini was small.



Another view of the system itself. It functions very well horizontally. I almost prefer it horizontal.



A picture of all the hardware that was included.




Finally a shot of the current setup. I wanted an HDTV, but at this point it really just did not make sense to get one. I instead bought a cheapo 20" Magnavox from Wal-Mart.

BTW the Wii is named Eggs. Don't ask why.

Computer Round-Up

Quite a bit has happened to my little farm of computers since I've moved to San Diego. For one all of them are running quite a bit hotter, this is mainly because I've moved from a downstairs apartment up to an upstairs one. This hasn't affected the computers too much, I'm hoping it stays that way.


First of all my main computer:



Friskett is now a 2.3Ghz Athlon64 with 3GB of ram and varying hard drive capacities. I had to scale down the overclock with the new ram. Even the semi-high quality corsair ram I got just couldn't clock high enough.

I resurrected my old parts and its now named "Boba". It breaks the Reboot naming convention, but Casey named it.



It features a 1.3Ghz Athlon Thunderbird with 256MB of ram. As a folding/file server it runs well. I replaced the annoyingly noisy heatsink fan with a much smaller, much weaker, much QUIETER fan. Its the fan that was installed when it was an 800mhz. The temperatures can reach up to 60C on a hot day in full load, but it seems to be fine.

Now for some work machines:

Keyhole



This computer I'm using temporarily for downloading software onto the DSP board i'm working with. My main machine runs linux and XP in VMWARE. That setup did not lend well to my serial communication needs. Thus I had to borrow this machine. While I'm using it I'm folding as well.

hcorelaptop



This is an ancient laptop that we'll be using for our radiation test. Currently I'm trying to get it straightened out, in regards to networking, namely it doesn't have any. Kelly actually has the exact same laptop, in better shape but with much much less ram.