Some things I have learned....kind of.

Over my six plus years playing WOW here is some of what I have learned:

Its the tanks fault.
Announcing to the random BG group that you are listening to "Little Girls" from Annie is bad.
What the difference is between a nerd and a geek. (at least I think I have)
The rogue is going to kill you, over and over and over.
Female gamers find time to get some sun...why cant the dudes?
Is the healers fault.
The secretary spread can happen to you, too!
Its the DPS fault.
Ja makin me crazy 'mon!
Announcing to your LFR group that you are listening to the theme song from Grease can get you kicked.
There is no such thing as a Peacebloom pipe, but there should be!!
BG's in the early AM, on the Alliance equals utter gankage!
What utter gankage is.
Do Tauren have a utter?
RNG= Really, No Gear.
Its the tanks fault
The rogue is going to sap you, then kill you.
Jaina Proudmore has become a very angry woman.
The bosses we have to kill will just watch you while you stand in front of them plotting to kill them.
Fishing sucks.
Pet Battles...PSH..no way..um. well, they are kinda...NO NO WAY.
Its the healers fault.
Female Humans like to fart in the tub.
Female Worgen are nasty nasty ladies.
Its the tanks fault.
FRACKING ROGUES.
Rogues don't wear rouge, but they still kill you.
Goblin and Gnome tanks???....okay if you say so.
I'm a wigwam, i'm a tee-pee, i'm a wigwam, i'm a tee-pee....man I am 2 tense.
That warrior wants to put his sword where?
You actually want people to bring flasks to the party.

Oh the fun!!  Peace....K

Note to self:

Proof read and SPELL CHECK!!! 

Jeez!!!

:-)

Wimping over wiping.

I want to say that I'm a born "support" player.  My underlying goal in WOW (and in the rest of my life for that matter) is to provide assistance.  As long as there is a defined goal and someone else taking the lead I am happy as hell to do what ever I can to assist in the completion of the purpose at hand.

So why is it these days the idea of tanking a raid has me running off in a corner "Yipe, yipeing" like the proverbial bitch?

Tanking these days in five man heroics is kind of a joke.  You always have at least one DPS pulling over 100k in damage and one other poor schmuck doing just over 40k.  Heroics play more like scenarios as it is as.  All the healers have some kind of "Drop it and forget it" heal that leaves them free to add their own DPS to the mix, ending any heroic in about five minutes with barely any fuss and, as per usual, barley any conversation by the participants.

Any tank with a taunt can manage a five man herioc, even with the huge amounts of DPS going out.  By the time the target turns around to face its attacker its likely to be dead.

For some reason I tremble in my little combat boots at the thought of taking the latest raids.  I have read strats, over and over but still, all of this concern is there.

Maybe I'm over thinking, maybe I should try to not care like all the other folk in LFR.

Jeez!!

Ill keep you posted.

Thanks for coming!!

Kurly

Timeless and already forgotten?

Ah the Timeless Isle.  Let it be known that the first few weeks after the patch I was not at all quiet about my thoughts about the TI , and frankly I thought it sucked!  What possible fun could there be in running around getting pounced on by four or five kitties a time, one shot by pythons, gang ganked by spectral mistweavers, or face melted by some very irritable Yangoul. (but wouldn't you be irritated if you were attacked all the time, every day, over and over with no end in sight?)

There was, however, gear.  High level gear.  Lots and lots of high level gear.  In some cases said gear was a 75 point slot level increase.  This kind of upgrade is enough to force a change of opinion in my not so easily swayed mind.

What once sucked, started to get easy, and death was happening less and less.  There was a unusual sense of community when it came to downing the Celestial Guardians (what was with all that positive reinforcement whilst nuking them?!), finding rares, and treasure chest whereabouts.

How long did we expect all of that to last?  I ask this because I realized the other night that I had not spent any significant amount of time on the Isle for nearly two weeks, and when I went there there was nowhere near the population of folks there as had been before.

As I have been hearing on the net and various podcasts, people who play only one toon (something personally I will never understand.) the isle is only good for a short time as the upgraded gear comes fairly quickly and there is no real reason to keep going back.  Then there is also the "been there, done that." factor.    Having done the Isle on one tank, two dps and three heals (yes, I did it on three healers), I have to say that variety was sorely lacking and that maybe I was just getting bored with it, maybe, kind of, a little.

I will say again that over all I think the Timeless Isle was a good idea.  There is a lot of fun to had there as well as dandy upgrades, and some great WOWing with folks on your server.  Hopefully Blizzard is able to take what they have learned from it and use that information to craft an experience that endures a little longer.

All the best!!
Kurly

Thoughts on LFR

Raiding!  There was a super fantastic discussion on the WOW insider show about LFR, and I wanted to throw out some thoughts.

I remember back when I first started playing wow something like 8% of the overall WOW population actually participated in raids.

The number was low for a lot of reasons:  

1.  They were hard.

2. It was rumored that people who raided were, um, difficult, and expected a lot.

3. They were hard.

4. It was not always easy to figure out and learn strats.

I was asked to help a friends guild get past the first bug boss in Naxx., during the Lich King Expansion.  Being I was a fill in there was not a lot expected of me...essentially just point and shoot.  The boss mechanic was not very complicated but the politics I observed while I was there was pretty much a turn off, and the repetitive nature of raids has me bored senseless after the fourth or fifth attempt. Not to mention that I was told I was not allowed to roll on any gear. 

I know that I am not the picture of a good raider.  I don't really focus on getting any one toon up to optimum output, more often that not I rely on a friends explanation of the fight, and I really do start to zone out after each attempt. 

My experience with LFR has not been entirely positive.  I may not be the best participant but I am certainly not the worst.  There have been groups that did create an odd degree of camaraderie, and were actually fun, but on the whole they tend to be tiresome and bring out the worst in some folks.

Improving my overall contribution to LFR is something of a personal goal.  I like being a participant that knows whats going on.

Is it me or does LFR seem like five man heroics used to be?

All the best!!
Kurly

Names and Hair Styles!!!!

Since I am not sure what I want this blog to be I am going to go with a bit of a fluff piece here.

I am not into a vanity names.  The names of my toons are important to me.  So important that I have deleted toons after the name I gave them went bad in my mind.  Its about as close as I get to RP.  Some of the names I use do reflect some things are are important to me:

Mhetzo, Mezzaneen: Music and the theatre
Klowd: My love of Nature
Nhetta: I was watching The Color Purple
Pherramona: Um, well…sex. (Pheromones and stuff)
Zyphllyz: A little PG-13 joke name for an undead unholy DK. (Not a funny topic I know, but still.)
Labryz: I nod to my Lesbian friends.
Mowtandoo: Does it need an explanation
Bootlika (the one male toon): Um, I, er…plead the 5th.
Mizzezdanverz – From the movie Rebecca, cuz Mrs. Danvers was just spooky!

Coiffure!
One of the area’s I think WOW is lacking is the variety of character creation.  Aeon, GW2 and Rift have such a wonderful array of features and looks you can use to create an individual appearance.  For me, hair is a HUGE part of it.  Of all my toons, all but one are female, and I try to use hair styles to give them a specific kind of personality as I see them.

All my casters have long hair.  My favorite hair effect is the waving braids of female dwarfs, and pandaren.  It may be sexist on my part, but I love the idea of flowing, bouncing, whipping hair on my casters and hunters.

Melee must always be short or wrapped (because you don’t want your enemy to get a handful of it!)!  My tanks, rogues, and warriors all have short hair or hair that is wrapped or pinned about their heads.
How much do these do things mean to you, 'm just curious.

(PS…I shave my head)
XOXO
Kurly

PVP and me: The love/hate that is just great!!

These days apart from the Timeless Isle and LFR the majority of my time is spent in BG's.  I enjoy BG's of all levels with toons at level 10 up to 90.

Unlike the static AI you find in instances and raids (static but amazing and fun) Nothing beats the "face to face" play you find in random BG's!

I avoided them like all get out until I was maybe level 40 or so (Back in '08), but soon was totally hooked, and I have to be honest and say that Battlegrounds are THE feature of WOW keeps me coming back.

If you've never done a BG before, I totally recommend!!  I do understand that they are not for everybody, but I think trying everything in WOW at least once behooves (Yes, I used the word behoove!!) any player as it gives you a taste of what all the classes can do (spells, abilities, interrupts, escapes etc.) and pushes you to push your toon to its greatest level of output and pretty much forces you to learn how to use everything in your toons tool belt.

If its something you decide to stay with, be prepared to loose a lot!

There are times during BG's when my normal sweet and gentle demeanor devolves into a swearing, spitting, frothing at the mouth unsportsmanlike soccer mom, wishing nothing less then the most prolonged and painful death possible on my opposing team mates......whew....that actually felt good to get out.  It kind of the truth though, but its just part of the fun!  Especially for my neighbors who can see me jumping up and down on my office chair screaming "NERF ROGUES!!!!".

Lesson from above:  Try to learn from your mistakes and realize that there are going to people that are just better than you and that sometimes groups of people are going to gank you.

I repeat....PVP is seriously my favorite facet of WOW.

Thanks for listening!!
XOXO
Kurly

What can be said about me, how I came to play wow, and how its become such an important part of my life?

First: I do have a name, its Mark, but for the purposes of my WOW life and Identity I prefer to go by Kurly.  Kurly comes from being called Curly-Q when I was a kid.  This was mainly because of a fear of the internet and the worry that someone could steel my identity just from my first name. It stuck however and people still call me Kurly to this day.

WOW was suggested to me from a co-worker after he and I had a lengthy conversation about the DragonLance novels.  He was an avid WOW player and said that there was a similarity between DragonLance and the races and story.

My first character was a male night elf druid names Viran.  It was on the 10 day free trial and I spent many an hour running around the Night Elf starting area having a blast, but having no real idea how the game worked.  As happend a lot back then Viran died and his "wisp" got lost looking for his body and I eventually drove it off the edge of the life tree.....Viran was, um, never seen again.  In his place I created Viranelda (His sister), and still play her to this day.....her and dare I say, many many others.

I am a bonafide, defined to the letter, altaholic. As it stands as of now I have about 70 toons over four servers and two accounts.  I tank, heal, and dps (melee and ranged).  There are two reasons for this.  One is simply due to ADD (like who doesnt have ADD these days), the other is personal investment.  WOW was one of the first hobbies I have ever had that held my interest for so long.  I want to get as much out of it as I can as well as give as much as I can, and when do most people NOT need a tank or heals? 

All of that being said I shall put on the breaks for now, I am hope to get columns out as often as I can, but at least once a week. 

Talk to you all soon!!