The Quest for Happy (or) "My Dog's Name is Woofles"

"Hello Edy where the heck have you been?"

I been doin' dis and dat. Lil' Ulduar. Lil' guild drama. Lil' achievementing. Lil' soul searchin' and rescued a stray puppy.

Whats this? What kinda damn answer was that? Well dear reader Edy has been bustin' her ass and having her calm tested for the last few days. Lets start with raiding. This past Wednesday your girl was back in the cold gates of ulduar taking in the sights and busting an arrow in many an iron dwarf. Managed to down 3 bosses that night but I had to come to a very painful crossroads and had to make an admition to myself that BM, as much as I love it and always will, was not going to put out the numbers I need to be truly completely raid useful to the people I run with. I also had to admit it wasn't fair to the people I run with to not try and fix that. Solution. I went back to that damned SV tree and by God this time it works. I dont know what I was doing wrong first time that was killing my dps. Exact same rotation. Spec isn't that much different just a point or two moved around. Either way it works and even if i fuck up my rotation timing a bit I still maintain 3k dps pretty easy. Its about time that Dual spec paid off for Edy, and now as BM/SV I can easily have my utility when I need it in a pet tank and put out the big numbers when I have to. I used our second ulduar day as my testing ground and the change was very clear and I must say makes me feel good to not feel like the dead weight in the run.

Now in the days between some guild drama went down and we lost 2 more members (one of which I could kiss for leaving) to a guild supposedly wanting to help us progress in the end game. Over all the course of this infection in M.A.S. I have become somewhat jaded as to caring what people what to do or dont want to do. That said however I personally have had to deal with tons of drama I sure as hell want nothing to do with as well as revolations that certain members feel there is an elitest mindset in M.A.S. itself. I was not aware pulling favors with a guild I have become good friends with over time to try and get some folks some experience and gear (folks might I add have put forth effort to progress on their own anyway) was being an elitest. I have never been a recruiter as I dont like people in general so I work with what I have aquired over time to help those that have shown the desire to do something for themselves. That however limits my ability to help but in no way makes me an elitest. I am not in charge of these runs but whatever I wont rant about that any longer it gives me a headache and really does nothing to make me want to interact with the guild I truly love.

Now I have been in flux trying to find my happy place in game again. I love instancing and raiding its where I feel I shine and even though the fights dont really change alot split second flubs/choices make for fun times for me when I have to test my skills in my class. The fact BM is so far behind MM/SV the last weeks I have been having a hard time with that happy. I had even reached the point i didnt even want to raid anymore. SV has given me that little bit of piece of mind back. I dont love it but its more fun that it was the first time I tried and as such I think I think can deal with it until blizzard can (if ever) fixes my beloved BM tree. Also in my quest for happy I have sadly found my self distancing myself from the guild I love so much. I think I have just gotten too used to running with people that are where I am in terms of skill I just really haven't felt like dealing with short tempers on learning runs, trying to teach lil' role things that should be known before reaching this level, lack of commitment, and the shooting star syndron a few get telling them to reach further and faster than they really have the ability to. I do admit fault and I could probably more to show but I honestly have no desire to explain every single aspect of everything. I am not a leader by desire. I wont be the person teaching do this this and this to explode the charts cause I dont know that kind of stuff myself well enough to teach anybody. I can only find my happy and move from there. Its a work in process.

Lastly I picked up a stray in my transition to SV raiding. His name is Woofles and anybody that is a fan of the comic Squee you will know where I got the name and he is a good puppy so far. Snuggles probably isn't keen on having to share my attention but honestly I dont have the heart to have him die all the time in raids when I am SV and also that boost from Woofles' howl makes for a nice boost. I might end up being all snuggles all the time again over time but I think my Snuggle-butt has earned his little vacation. Maybe I wil test he waters with Snuggles in our Naxx 10 attempt tonight.

Beastly

Well this weekend nothing much really happened. Once again no tiger from that bastard of a troll but I will not admit defeat yet. Green proto drake is still hiding from me. Got stuck in a failed Naxx 25 and didnt do much other raiding. Then to top things off I still cant get my stupid Battle Bot. All bitching aside though I am rather happy this week. For starters even though that Naxx 25 was a fail boat filled with the bottom rungs of top guilds on D-spine I got the one thing I abosolutely lusted after but had resigned myself to not seeing. The sexy Arrowsong is mine and I one very pleased Ed! *cough* Sorry about that....anyway its not so much I needed it. I wanted it because honestly every stat was better for BM and god knows I needed the hit since am seriously tied down in what I can do since if I lose hit from any single thing I have it on I will drop to just above 7% which is below the hit cap for me (I do wanna actually wear my T 8.5 pants at some point after all). This brings some issues to my mind though and with the looming rumors of an impending BM hunter buff it leaves me with some questions as a raider that uses the spec. Where exactly do us beast masters belong in the raid world?

This question has been bouncing around for months now and seems to not be something Blizzaard has found a solid way of fixing. When the great hunter nerf of '09 stuck I dont think the Blizz folks really thought out just how hard us poor loyal BMers would be hit and bleed out. They took our steady shot and volley power which was....ok. Then to add salt to the wound they took out pets umph away. Now I understood the need for the steady and volley nerfs though i might not have liked them. Those affected all hunters and honestly with damage volley was dealing we had no need for any other move. The problem for the BM hunter comes with the fact that we have no other shots in tree to make up for this loss. I personally speced to get aim shot cause i think its a waste to use multi on a single target or for those cases you dont need to hit but one target in the middle of a grouped mob. The problem with that is that multi and aimed shot share the same cd so in reality i have no extra shots to work with. I have auto, steady, my stings, volley and arcane (which is a joke shot imo with the minimal damage it does) and my pet. In a raid this is a problem. At times I cant have my pet fighting because I need him alive to keep the little boost to my ap up (for example Heigan, as my pet also can die from the waves). Now since my pet is removed I effectively lost a desent amount of damage on that target putting me at a bit of a handicap in the numbers game. Now in previous posts I have pointed out I do pull my weight in raids thats never been an issue because whatever I lack in sheer killing power I make up for in spades with my ability to do the utility jobs I am usually asked to do in raids.

"Why not just go Survival?" I'm stubborn. I also completely fail at learning to control SV. I can do my utility stuff BM allows in my sleep where as SV I cant react because its not second nature to me. I could never feel comfortable in that spec and as such I will gladly take my knocks as the underdog beast master. BM wasnt exactly the raid spec when I started raiding at 70 either Marks was and I still took up the challenge to make it work. Why change now?

That said Blizz is still aware that BM is below where it needs to be. With the last patch hunters did get a buff in general as hunter's mark's damage was buffed by about 200 I believe and all ranged items 226 and up recieved stat buffs to make up for the lack of specialty arrows we had in the BC days. Then there was a buff to a Marks talent as well and thats fine and dandy, but how does that exactly help a BM hunter? We again begin to fall behind as our pets really recieve no boost from hunter's mark and personally the weapon buff has no effect on what i do for the mear fact I have a 213 bow that is the exact same as before this patch came. Mind you I am by no means saying these changes are not good its just not dealing with the problems plaguing BM. Blizz has been commenting on this as well and it leaves me to wonder what exactly CAN be done about it at all?

We got our pets back to just about what they were before the first nerf. So I dont think pet buffing is a fix. We still fall pray to the fact our pets are fragile things and if they die we loose alot so it wouldnt make sense to make a BM hunter live or die with their pet and if your pet cant help at all in that fight then you are even more stuck. We also run into the problem of letting the pet play for the hunter with anymore buff as well. So if you cant buff the pet they maybe the hunter? Now I am all for this but then we run into HOW to do this? Do we buff the amount of ap given from the pet? That could work and could probably be easily done but still leaves us a little too dependant on the pet though its not gonna be as bad as the pet doing the damage itself. Now we could also be given a shot of some sort or a buff to a talent that increases our steady shot or something. Since blizzard said they had no intention of completely overhauling any more classes at present giving us another buff built into an existing talent seems the only possible choice to buff the class. I dont even have any ideas on how they can do this but I sure its being covered since they finally acted on Marks after they saw no changes for a while. I stand really curious of the future of my spec in the lands of Azeroth. Until we see some changes i can only do what I do best and thats take my cat, my spec and pwn some face in a no so direct manner.

Wonder If I Should Spec Into Elbow Grease?

Strange title yes? Leaves you wondering "WTF is she talking about?". Well let me explain. Two days ago a mage in the guild hit 80 and immediately starts trying to raid. Prior to this he had also been bugging us about promotions and why we don't raid more but considering he was the kind of guy that really didn't do much guild wise (not that expect alot out of guildies we are more of a do what you can with or without us kinda group cause of numbers) I saw this as a sign he was getting ready to bail (boohoo) and even told my GM as much in a convo with him. At the time the mage in question was about 78 and had just made the tell tale statement to us in G chat "I was wondering why you guys dont raid more" we explain, "Oh well I been asked to join some other guilds but I have no intention of leaving you guys are the shit." Having heard this on a number of occasions as with one troll priest that leveled to 80 in our guild I now translate statements like that as:

Party in question: So you guys dont raid much....this other guild does and they will hold my hand and give me epics and I dont have to do anything but be there. Maybe I will hang around to see how much I can get out of you suckers before I haul ass.

At the end of this "talk" I call him leaving somewhere between a week to two weeks tops for "greener pastures". Surprise, surprise when I log in yesterday and get a whisper "that mage left" from an elder guildie. His reason? "I met this guild they say they can carry me through raids to get geared, I want my T8. Peace" /gquit. My rebuttal? Boohoo. I'll be honest I never liked the guy. Always bragged about what gear he had on a toon that we never seen before cause his account was "hacked" and its really hard to like a guy that has to constantly flash his e-peen at people that could give a good fart about what had. From the time he joined all he did was ask for 70 runs because he didnt have wrath yet. Not that this was an issue it was mearly annoying and kinda gave some insight into his mindset, at least to myself. His lack of knowledge, despite what his grand posturing might have implied became apparent once he got wrath and started in northrend. He constantly asked about stats that any mage should have known by that point if it was actually something they worked to get.

What am I getting at and what does it have to do with my title? It's simple. Wonder if I should spec into elbow grease = (in game terms) should I do my own work or should I make others do it for me? Why should I put out the effort when I can just bug the tar out of somebody else to do the work for me? Why should I have to know anything about what I am doing?

This pisses me off honestly. I am the kind of person that when I started I loved figuring out how to do things on my own. It wasn't because I wanted to persay, but more because even though I had friends that played when I started I'd rather do it on my own than depend on them and get under foot. I had help but it wasn't often. I did/do guild runs but if its something I want I can just suck it up and get it myself in a PUG or something even though I might be fustrated to no end by shear stupidity and nerd rage. But thats fine. That just makes everything I have done and gained to this point more special to me because "I" did it myself. I might not be the best in my class or the tops of the charts but I do what I do damn well because I learned it by trial by fire. I dont have to ask which piece of gear is better for me and my spec because as I leveled I learned by my own research what worked in theory and by actual use what worked for my play style. I honestly couldn't ask anybody about anything I do in guild because nobody does it. I am the top hunter and the one thats been doing it the longest so I dont have any of those to ask. I am really the only ret pally in guild (though we have 2 tanks that have it as an off-spec but that still doesnt make them ret in my opinion) so again I have been on my own with that, and even with my holy spec I ask for tips rarely because its better if I learn it on my own.

I can't understand this "I need others to do for me" kind of mentality and actually find it to be a bit of a slap in my face. Why should I carry you your first time? Nobody carried me ( and most of the time nobody carried the others in the group either or they woulnt have the skill to carry you (also my opinion)) and as such I shouldn't have to carry you. Why do my work then do yours too? What the hell is in it for me? So you got gear? Then what? You still dont know how to use it. What use are you to me then? Just another geared placeholder thats gonna get angry cause when we are fianlly all the same "level" you still will be being carried but nobody will be able to and you will become "that guy" they wonder why they brought.

Now as much as I would like to appologize to those this offends, I refuse. This is how I feel and if you dont like it maybe you should think about WHY this makes you angry. I dont recall anywhere in this game or its contract where it says I have to spoon feed anybody anything. If you put forth the effort its more enjoyable (at least to me but excuse me for thinking I'm rational). Does this apply to every case? No. I am viewing this in respect to main toons, extras are a whole different kettle of fish. Am I just bitter cause nobody carried me? No and I have recieved my share of help dont get me wrong but I value my work and pain. I prize the elbow grease that went into Edy. I just dont understand how somebody can expect or WANT to be carried. Whats the point of playing a game if you dont, you know, PLAY?

But Hey I'm Not a "REAL" Hacker

A'ight people this article is a few days old but its something that bugs the hell out of me and I thought I would share it here (not that as many people read this as read wow.com....um if anybody is reading at all). First off before I spit my fury about this article I would like to say I got all my goods back Saturday many days sooner than I was expecting, but I digress.

A few days ago wow.com had a story about one of the editor's friends being scammed in game as a warning to those in Azeroth to be wary of "blood elves selling mounts". We all seen people selling this stuff in game and yes one should always assume this is shaddy but none the less there are people that actually do wanna trade codes and what not for game gold (clearing the water here as I do sympathize with what has happened to these people as a result of scammers). A while later we get another article about said story except its from a very strange stand point albeit an interesting if not infuriating one. The author of the previously mention "blood elves" tale happens upon the very scammer mentioned that got her friend and proceeds to interview him in game.

Now I wont get into the particulars of the interview as you have eyes and can read it yourself. Nothing was said I wasn't expecting. The usual "people are stupid" comments one comes to expect from somebody justifying their actions. No earth shattering reason surfaced like some strange Robin Hood complex or something. The guy admits he does it for the money and in a way, though I don't agree, I do somewhat respect that he is willing to say that flat out (personally would have said something more outlandish but that's me). I however lose my shit when I see "Nah, I don't screw with their gear or anything. I get gold, mats, and gone. I could turn into a real hacker: delete characters, items, transfer servers, but nah. And gold and mats can get restored within hours." This ass actually had the balls to try and make himself seem like a "good" hacker.

"What's that you say?

I stole your account took your money and sold yout off items but only the ones didn't seem like you would use?

But I left you your regular gear and I didn't delete you characters or anything just, you know, made your pockets and bags a little lighter.

Not like I am a 'real' hacker.

I do have a heart.

I just taught you a life lesson that's all."

So just cause you didn't make it as hard as possible to get the stuff back for the person you hacked you are not a "real" hacker? If I said something that damn stupid I would slap the shit out of my own self for ever thining it. Last I checked if you do not have permission nor have you been given express access to an account or system and you FORCE your way in, harm or no harm, you are a H A C K E R. If you break in just to move an item to say "i am here" you are a hacker. If you willfully remove the rightful owner from his/her account and mess with /sell/ delete their stuff its all the damn same you are a GD hacker get over yourself.

Now that made me angry but I wasn't boiling yet. No friends I hit my boiling point when I saw how many asstards (hmm I seem to be losing my ability to come up with actual valid words but do bare with me) basically spouting the same nonsense as this scum in the article. "You got what you deserved! Idiots should be hacked!" So the wow community as a whole is telling me that they are perfect? That they though maybe not in such a shady manner been talked into doing something stupid in a momentary laps of judgement? Am I to believe that the "good" people of Azeroth are such large elitist jock straps that they can't remember a time when they weren't as savy to the ways of the internet? I don't care who the hell you are or how it happens it still hurts when you get something you worked hard for taken away. That "you are stupid bend over and take it" bs will not fly. I can not and WILL NOT understand it. Sooner or later it will happen to them as their bravado, in my opinion, is nothing but show. Everybody fucks up there is no reason to be cruel about it.

(deep breath)

That said I am happy people spoke up in this article much sooner than in the previous one about statements such as the one that turned up the fire of my hatred. Its bad enough that somebody gets hacked they dont need a whole lot of "U R TARD U GOT WAT U DSERV". I must also mention how saddened I was by the hand full of people also, like our friendly neighbourhood con-artist, felt the need to justify to the wow.com community that they only bought gold from the legit gold farmers. One guy even went so far as to say he got he guy be buys his from to send him a screen shot and it was a chinese system. This same guy was also probably one of the ones pointing fingers and proclaiming "you are stupid" from the mountain tops where he seems so pure and unhindered by the wow novice. You say these things because you need to feel like you did nothing wrong. Its been eating at your thoughts "well what if it WAS that guy in that story that did that terrible thing and stole that gold? What if I get hacked cause bought gold?....but that could never happen. The little asians love me." And to that the ridiculed could say you TOO are asking for it sir or madam, then they too could scream you are stupid from the tops of the mountains. They would have every right to. Because in a way you are worse than the guy that did steal the gold and sell it to you. He knows he is doing it and admits it though maybe not like we would like him to (or him to pay a price for it but honestly what can you do longterm?). He may have said he wasn't a "real" hacker but he never said he didn't hack. He never said he didn't steal to sell it. He didn't lie and say he saw the light and is suddenly hit with the weight of guilt of the masses he has left in despair. To him this is business and he has no problems with it. At least one of half of this tag team of moral destroyers understands his role and freely admits it (though colorfully). The other half is just as bad if not worse. Denial is ugly and dangerous. Remember that next time you visit your friendly gold seller. Remember to check your pockets when you leave as well.

....not that, you know, they aren't "honest". After all the little asians love you.

Volated

Well those of you that know me personally know I was hacked this past Wednesday briefly. I was attacked while I was online and checked my email so I basically watched as every attempt I made to stop the attack failed and my account was transferred into the hands of a person I will probably never even cross paths with again in life. Surprisingly as much as I value Edy in particular and the thought of ever loosing her terrifies me that wasn't my first concern. It was M.A.S. and the fact due to certain factors I had no way to tell anybody that the person touching Edy wasn't me. Since I was online when I kicked and violated however I had been chatting so my guild members were being chatty with me, in particular Ruhtra was whispering thinking that it was me as well and I think that probably saved some of my stuff as well as the guild which the guy was apparently about to help himself to before he was spooked. My damages are a bit all over the place with all my gold gone and various items missing like my one-handers on Edy and my tank shield and sword on Ty but strangely no other gear missing on her considering he could have simply disenchanted it all (meaning two sets of armor with half a tanking set) and left my pally with nothing. Edy's gear was equally disposable with the fact I mainly use raid gear that isnt tier so it can simply be sold off.

None of that really matters though. I put off typing this cause I wanted to understand how it was I truly felt about the whole situation before I tried to put it in words. Strangly while I am hurt and I feel violated I feel more sad that there is a need for people to do this type of things to other players rather than actual anger. Yes I was extremely angry after the hour it took to get my account back (though not with Blizzard as even though 30 minutes of that time was me on hold they did get me my account back in a matter of minutes and helped me set up my security things again). I would have been even more angry if anything had happened to the guild as a result of my compromize. I don't always get along with everybody in M.A.S. and I might get tired of certain treatment and even want to leave from time to time but they are my family and to think my babies could be used to do harm under no control of my own really grinds my damn gears. After that was the surreal feeling of looking to see what was different and missing. Money was obvious right off but it was the picking through my bags and banks that really made it all sink in. I dont think it was even real to me until I ended up at a flight point and realized I didn't even have the gold to fly to Dalaran. That hurt. Then to see my 2 favorite swords were gone hurt even worse. It's not like I need them to play Edy as I have a polearm that is much better its more the fact it took me so long to get them. I never see them drop and the only times I have were the times I got them and the effort that went into that made that hurt much more than losing all my gold. I have spent and earned so much gold I can't imagine how much I have had since I started. Thinking about it in the hours and day following this happening to me I was probably more angry when it happened to Eus.

Now I didn't realize I felt as upset about the whole thing as I did later that night. Running Naxx for money and praying we didn't wipe cause I couldn't afford repairs (I had just finished my dailies right before) and most profoundly not wanting to log off at all. I was scared to. I had run every scan I had at least 3 times at this point so I knew everything bad was gone and no signs of any other problems came up or have since its just I was terrified that I would log off and come back to find everything gone. I am not sure I could play this again if I lost Edy for good.

Now the best I can figure is I somehow got into a bad site that got my info as nothing came up on my scans. I check my addresses dont get me wrong but it could have been as simple as one missed letter in an address. Shit happens and nobody is perfect. This wouldn't be a problem however without the damn need for gold sellers in the first place. Let's just be honest here we all know thats the prime reason to hack somebody's account and rape them like this. I have never supported nor will I ever support gold selling. I think its stupid. This is an online game and if you are too fucking lazy to make your own gold as easy as it is to in this game then you shouldn't be playing in the first damn place. It is not harmless. There is no garantee the people you buy it from are earning it the ways you are too lazy to do your damn self. I say assume the worse before you do buy gold. Assume its your best friend you had no idea was playing the game that just got hacked so you could be lazy. Assume its a 10 year old kid or some housewife that does this as a hobby. Assume its the guy that's been playing the game from the start that just made a wrong click or something and system gets jacked right from under him. Assume the gold you are paying real world money for has just been stolen right out of your own pocket and you are about to lose everything you hold dear in this game. Don't just tell yourself some poor overworked asian is making your money for you. Then stop yourself. Proceed to stand in front of a baseball launcher and get hit square in the nuts for ever buying/thinking of buying gold. If they didn't have a fucking market they wouldn't have a need to do this to people trying to enjoy their virtual lives.

Hmm the fact that my blood is now boiling after saying that part I suppose I really am angry after all.

Hmm to Feral or ....

I been kinda quiet in the lands of Azeroth for a little bit now that my anime habit is back in full force. I think Edy needed a little personal time and with as much as she has been up to I am sure she would agree. Now something I have been wanting to talk about for a while now are the new druid forms for cat and bear and I guess what I think about them. So far I am in love with what I see. Taurens are finally getting some improvement over that damned mangy thing they called our cat form and the new kitty is something I am pleased with. Seriously its like they found the sickliest lion in the zoo and taped some horns to the poor thing. The new catcow is definately a huge improvement over the ribs showing stragly furred ancestor. Of course this leaves me with a bit of a question as to what I am gonna do with lil Annie-o as I get back into lvling her. She will be a healer for sure but it might not be a bad idea to dual spec and keep a feral tree I can tweak for tanking and dps as needed. We no longer have a druid tank and honestly looking at the bear makes me wanna tank just cause its so sexy. Anyway time will tell as 3.2 is a long way away. I can only hope my hunter life also improves for my beloved Beast Mastery tree to make my happy complete.