Monday, July 28, 2008

The Votes Have Been Counted...

... and the public has spoken! Tomorrow you shall have a Boss Spotlight: Illidari Council post. I'll get to the others like Gruul and Al'ar at a later date.

Today's post is going to be a rambling mess, hold onto your hats.

The guild took down Kalecgos in short order and has BT clear, we're spending 4 hours with the big bad Brutallus tonight. Joy.

PvP this weekend was brutal (get it? Brutal? 'Cuz this season all the gear is... oh nevermind). 2v2 I tried another incarnation of BM Hunter/Ret Paladin - the BM Hunter was PvE specced (max damage) and threw on some PvE gear, as did I. We tore apart some clothies, and lost to any double plate team we saw (MS Warrior/Holy Paladin in particular). We spiked up to 1600 or so and then fell back into the upper 1500's. It went all right.

After the raid last night, I ended up leading a 5v5 cleave team into battle. ShS Rogue, Enh Shaman, Ret Paladin, Disc Priest, Holy Paladin. It wasn't an ideal make-up, and there were a few alts involved. It was the priest's first time as discipline as well. We ended up stomping a few teams, and getting our faces smashed in by a few. Spiked up to 1600 and ended back in the upper 1500's (hmmm... familiar story...). The night was capped by us facing off against a poorly coordinated 5's team with only 4 on our side - the enh shaman disconnected as we started to charge in. Despite that, we nearly won. Nearly. We ended up losing 18 points to them, which hurt.

How important are [Elixir of Demonslaying] for Brutallus? I failed to gather (read: buy from the AH) any in preparation and plan on using my usual flask o' killstuffquicker, which persists through death.

My plans for the (WoW-related) future might be shifting in short order. I recently was accepted into a master's program for this coming fall, and the classes will be at night. This would totally bork my raiding schedule. If so, I'm not sure what to do with Cathmor. Do I keep the account active? I almost certainly won't be able to raid, unless classes are ridiculously easy and only on Tuesday and Thursday, which is unlikely. With a 9-5 job and master's classes at night, and research/papers/projects to do, will I have time to play at all? I'm not sure - it would certainly save me a little money to cancel the account, which would then be applied toward, ya know, the essentials - pizza for late-night study sessions and alcoholic beverages for dah wimmenz. But there are several things I have yet to accomplish in the game, and I wants them done. The list?

  • Kill Illidan Kil'jaeden
  • Notch a faction leader kill (Thrall, Sylvanas, Cairne Bloodhoof, or even the blood elf dude guy)
  • Buy the arena season 3 retribution set shoulders
  • Equip a [Corrupted Ashbringer] so I can see the Scarlet Monastery event firsthand
  • Kill C'thun
  • Kill Kel'thuzad

It's not a terribly long list, as I've accomplished a lot of my goals in the game. But, there are loose ends.

/sigh

I dunno, my mind is a-flutter with thoughts on what to do. And I'm sleep-deprived from doing 5v5 after the raid instead of sleeping like a normal person.

The worst part for you, fair reader? I might have to send you off to another blog to get your daily dose of retribution reading. If I ain't playing, I certainly won't be bloggin' 'bout it.

Stop crying, here's a tissue.

Thus concludes today's edition of "this morning in Josh's head." On behalf of our entire staff, I hope you enjoyed your tour. Please exit to your right and enjoy our links section, we have an array of destinations for you to visit. Come back soon!

6 comments:

Entilzah said...

I actually *started* playing WoW when I began my MBA program 3.5 years ago. I did not have time to raid (never really got into that scene), but had enough time to twiddle around and play plenty.

I would recommend not cancelling the account until you find a new time balance and are *sure* WoW is not part of it.

Shwitz44 said...

The thing is, though, if I'm not raiding, there's not much for me to do in game. You check my current list of things left undone? They all require a raid or at least a time commitment in the case of the s3 shoulders.

Solo'ing and 5-mans just ain't mah thang anymo'. I can only run Steamvaults so many times before I start to hate the dark, dank, cavernous expanse that Coilfang is. I'm usually of the mindset "if you can't give it your all, don't do it." So, if I can't raid because I have to, ya know, be all studious and such and hold down a job while going to school... what would I do in my extremely limited play-time?

Bang my head against my desk while pugging BG's?
Run 5-mans that I've seen 100 times each (give or take)?
Grind money/materials and play the AH?
Roll another alt that I'll delete at level 20something when I realize my one true love wears plate and smashes things with a glowy hammer?

Give me direction, I am rudder-less.

Rohan said...

Consider buying one of the long-term WoW subscriptions (6 months to one year) before you start your masters, if you can afford it.

That way, you choose to play, you chose to not play, it's all the same. You don't have to keep weighing the financial cost because it's already paid for. Plus, it's cheaper per month.

And in the fall will come WotLK, and you will have to level. Levelling is perfect for people without much time. Just don't pressure yourself to reach the cap, and you can still get lots of enjoyment playing a few hours a week.

Shwitz44 said...

I all ready have myself on either a 3 or 6 month auto-renew subscription... I just don't want to have it sitting idle and still pay for it. You do make a good point though - I can level through Northrend at an extremely leisurely pace. I'll feel so gimp not being able to hit even the 10-mans though :(

LarĂ­sa said...

I feel with you. I'm constantly struggeling with making my family cope with my playing. Currently I've negotiated raiding twice a week.
If I'd had to cut it down more I'd probably stop playing at all. Raiding is the essance of this game. Not to all players, but to me it is.

But come on, surely you could keep blogging for a while until your circumstances will change and you can pick up playing as usual again?

I recently realized I'm probably more addicted to blogging than to the game. Strangekly enough!

Shwitz44 said...

My blog is about my experiences as a ret paladin, and the wisdom and tips/tricks I have picked up and can impart to other ret paladins, interspersed with a bit of commentary on raiding and arena'ing as ret.

If I'm not actually *doing* what I'm talking about, I'll quickly run out of things to talk about. It'd turn into speculation rather than speaking from experience, and speculation is oftentimes useless. I mean E4AE to be a resource, much like Retpaladin.com (even though I started before I knew about Slayton's site), and I can't add to the toolbox here by not playing.