No, not to the home I helped found so many years ago; to a new one in its infancy, with grand hopes and dreams. A new guild filled with like-minded friends, that I hope will live up to our expectations.
With the dramaz out of the way (though my life getting hella busier over the next few months), I'm hoping I can finally get down to the topics I originally envisioned: the life & times of Ose and company.
23 March 2009
05 February 2009
What a Long, Strange Trip
No, I didn't get the achievement yet.
It's just been a roller coaster of a ride the six weeks or so.
I did something I thought I would never, ever do. I left my guild: the guild I helped found on day one, that I've been with for four years. It was the most difficult decision I've made in-game, and I did not come to it easily.
Why? It's complicated, and I'm not sure I can even entirely articulate all the reasons even now. Part of it was motivated, yes, thanks to a guy (and woe to me as I've picked on so many guildies about centering their playing around their SigOs...and here I am centering my play time around a guy...but I digress), who was having his own issues in-guild. He wanted to move on, and since I have had more fun playing with him recently than anything else, I was tempted to follow him. But that was the most positive of my reasons.
Something had just changed in our guild. We grew, we expanded, we started running higher-end content and kicking ass. And I started to see the raiding mentality kick in. We officers found ourselves fretting over the minutae of raiding rules: lewtz, times, specs, strategies, and the host of all things raiding. And I hated it. Our raid leader officer got burned out, the accusations started flying that we weren't doing enough for the guild, and it just got ugly.
A few squeaky wheels managed to make me seriously rethink my role as an officer and my desire to even stay in the guild. My pocket healer (and said guy, above) let me know that another guild would welcome us (he already had a few toons in there). I was tempted.
When one person in particular got more nasty, I'd had it. I pulled all but my two lowest characters out and switched to a new guild. I can't say I don't miss my home of four years. But I can't say I regret it, either.
Will I go back to my original guild? Only time will tell. There are other whisperings and options on the horizon, so we shall see what happens next.
It's just been a roller coaster of a ride the six weeks or so.
I did something I thought I would never, ever do. I left my guild: the guild I helped found on day one, that I've been with for four years. It was the most difficult decision I've made in-game, and I did not come to it easily.
Why? It's complicated, and I'm not sure I can even entirely articulate all the reasons even now. Part of it was motivated, yes, thanks to a guy (and woe to me as I've picked on so many guildies about centering their playing around their SigOs...and here I am centering my play time around a guy...but I digress), who was having his own issues in-guild. He wanted to move on, and since I have had more fun playing with him recently than anything else, I was tempted to follow him. But that was the most positive of my reasons.
Something had just changed in our guild. We grew, we expanded, we started running higher-end content and kicking ass. And I started to see the raiding mentality kick in. We officers found ourselves fretting over the minutae of raiding rules: lewtz, times, specs, strategies, and the host of all things raiding. And I hated it. Our raid leader officer got burned out, the accusations started flying that we weren't doing enough for the guild, and it just got ugly.
A few squeaky wheels managed to make me seriously rethink my role as an officer and my desire to even stay in the guild. My pocket healer (and said guy, above) let me know that another guild would welcome us (he already had a few toons in there). I was tempted.
When one person in particular got more nasty, I'd had it. I pulled all but my two lowest characters out and switched to a new guild. I can't say I don't miss my home of four years. But I can't say I regret it, either.
Will I go back to my original guild? Only time will tell. There are other whisperings and options on the horizon, so we shall see what happens next.
31 December 2008
02 December 2008
Coming Up For Air
Wrath of the Lich King is here, for almost a month now, and I've been busy having fun exploring! Kyuui (of the Farseer blog), good friend and pocket healer, teamed up with my hunter to level, so we've been seeing the sights and slaying foes, while making friends with the countless new factions in Northrend. I've barely had time for anything other than having fun, so blog has been neglected; and isn't that what the game supposed to be about, having fun? Yep, that's what I thought too.
So I shall dive back in, and when my hunter hits 80, maybe have some time to finally do what I wanted with this blog; that is, have a place for my toons to have THEIR say.
Meanwhile, I'll be running with my pocket healer, and playing my death knight on occassion, also teamed with another of Kyuui's toons (another DK. Dual-DKs are twice as overpowered!). And finding time on occassion to actually do something NOT in game, and work on a stained glass project.
What, you ask, am I building? I drew up a pattern for a minipet: my first will be an azure whelpling. As soon as it's finished, I'll be sure to get pics up.
Now, back to the fun!
So I shall dive back in, and when my hunter hits 80, maybe have some time to finally do what I wanted with this blog; that is, have a place for my toons to have THEIR say.
Meanwhile, I'll be running with my pocket healer, and playing my death knight on occassion, also teamed with another of Kyuui's toons (another DK. Dual-DKs are twice as overpowered!). And finding time on occassion to actually do something NOT in game, and work on a stained glass project.
What, you ask, am I building? I drew up a pattern for a minipet: my first will be an azure whelpling. As soon as it's finished, I'll be sure to get pics up.
Now, back to the fun!
28 October 2008
Kara, I Barely Knew Ye
Well, since I've been told I am to go into more detail about the death of Karazhan, here we go.
Last week, a group of five brave adventurers (or insane dungeon looters...take your pick) decided to give Karazhan a go, 5-man style. We knew it had been nerfed to high heaven, and we wanted to see just HOW nerfed it was. So Thylaana (paladin tank), Diabeetus (lolret paladin), me, Osethme (hoontar supreme), Crumbum (or is it Bumcrum?...Doomkin...undergeared, no less), and Kyuui ("spam chain heal dammit shammy"), charged forth. We're a solid group; we've done many many heroics together, in our various alts and incarnations, and know how we work together.
Trash before Attumen? It was always easy with a paladin tank (ok, after you had run it a few times). But now...yeah. Poor undead horsies and stable hands. They never knew what hit them. And Attumen? The fight was over in less than 2 minutes. The Huntsman needs to brush up on his skills. And drop us a horse. And, I found out about the hunter bug (YES IT'S A BUG! and not just my blonde) that will hold a shot back if a mob died mid-shot; it will then send it to the next mob you target. Fun times...I learned to try to remember to hit misdirect on the tank before I changed targets.
So we moved on, after pausing a bit to mourn the castle in which we all cut our raiding teeth. It geared us, so long ago, and some folks still use equipment from it end-game. Ok, so we sort of mourned, and laughed a good deal.
On to Moroes, that rakish rogue. We were apprehensive; Moroes can bring pain, without good crowd control. But with a paladin tank, who needs crowd control? Tanky even asked that we leave at least one of Moroes's little friends up, to remove the gouge. Yeah. They died, quickly. But then, so did Moroes, easier than we anticipated. And I found out just how NICE it is that volley can crit. CRIT! A hunter with an AOE that CRITS! No more gimpy hunter damage on AOE packs.
Two of our nemesis down, we traveled on, hoping to see at least one challenge. And, well, the skanks and 'hos under the Maiden's "supervision" proved to be too much of a temptation, and managed to kill all of us. But we bounced back and spanked their skanky butts, and faced The Maiden of Virtue. She can be tricky with a paladin tank, since she silences every few seconds. It depends on good button mashing to make sure you keep aggro and manage to cleanse. Alas, even The Maiden wasn't as virtuous as she used to be. She went down like the titan 'ho she is. We paused a moment, ostensibly to mourn her passing, but most likely so the boys could look up her skirt. And then we laughed again and moved on.
Now for those of you familiar with the tricks of Kharazan, you'll know how wiley those skeletal ushers are. They want to make sure you don't see the show without a ticket, and will hit like a kodo on steroids to do it. My new gorilla off-tanked. And lived. We had a death or two, but damn, we got past them. Keep us from our theatre, will you!? And no, you can't sneak past the two at the top of the stairs. They know you're there. And they will try to eat you.
Exploding actors proved to be painful, but not terribly so, and we dispatched them post-haste. We had a small acting troupe, after all, and we wanted our own day in the spotlight. And the show of the evening? Romulo and Julianne, of course. Somehow we had enough interrupts, and managed to burn them down, even with a heal or two sneaking through.
So, since we are starving actors, we decided to tackle the walk of money...and let me tell you, the entire instance is a money pot when you are 5-manning! I think we all made a profit.
Our tank was feeling a bit nervous about visiting the Menagerie, since The Curator has big robot friends. The robots were pansies, but the little arcane packs that protect The Curator...they had a taste for Draenei; our poor shammie died just about every pull (See, I almost said they had a taste for goat...but I refrained!). And The Curator himself? He evocated once, came out enraged, and fell over, probably in shock of being beaten by a half group with a toon whose main DPS was arcane, to which he is all but immune (Ah, Boomkin, you need to concentrate on your nature damage! ;).
We were feeling pretty cocky by now, and skipped our way onward. Our first boss wipe was to Illhoof, thanks to most of us forgetting to target the chains immediately. So, we learned from our mistakes, and came back fists (and arrows and hammers) flying. Illhoof died, even with two little demon companions up to start. I think we had three or four Kil'Rek corpses around when he was done. Once again, volley that crits was so veddy nice.
Well, at this point we were wondering: should we try Aran? Do we have the DPS? The Shade of Aran was our bane for so very long, when we were wee little raiders. We had wiped on him so many times, and wondered if we would be able to conquer him. The first time, we wiped. The second time, the day was ours. Take that, old man! You didn't even get to drink! And your elementals? Pansies!
At that point, we realized we'd completed a first night raid, with five people. We decided to try Nightbane, just to see if we could do it. We could not; BUT! With one more healer or DPS, we would have have had him the first night; we did have him the second, with one more DPS.
Two and a half hours in Karazhan...we stood in some form of shock at what we had done. We would have been blood-covered, if the undead bleed. Instead, we looked at each other and had to grin, rather ruefully. Karazhan, our friend, our teacher, our bane, had become another heroic.
We decided we had to finish it. We knew it would be almost impossible to dance with Netherspite with only 5, so we let him live another day. We returned a couple days later with one more in tow, to finish the Prince and Nightbane. And we saluted that bastion of undeath and the diabolical, and returned home to The Outland, to await the call to Northrend.
Last week, a group of five brave adventurers (or insane dungeon looters...take your pick) decided to give Karazhan a go, 5-man style. We knew it had been nerfed to high heaven, and we wanted to see just HOW nerfed it was. So Thylaana (paladin tank), Diabeetus (lolret paladin), me, Osethme (hoontar supreme), Crumbum (or is it Bumcrum?...Doomkin...undergeared, no less), and Kyuui ("spam chain heal dammit shammy"), charged forth. We're a solid group; we've done many many heroics together, in our various alts and incarnations, and know how we work together.
Trash before Attumen? It was always easy with a paladin tank (ok, after you had run it a few times). But now...yeah. Poor undead horsies and stable hands. They never knew what hit them. And Attumen? The fight was over in less than 2 minutes. The Huntsman needs to brush up on his skills. And drop us a horse. And, I found out about the hunter bug (YES IT'S A BUG! and not just my blonde) that will hold a shot back if a mob died mid-shot; it will then send it to the next mob you target. Fun times...I learned to try to remember to hit misdirect on the tank before I changed targets.
So we moved on, after pausing a bit to mourn the castle in which we all cut our raiding teeth. It geared us, so long ago, and some folks still use equipment from it end-game. Ok, so we sort of mourned, and laughed a good deal.
On to Moroes, that rakish rogue. We were apprehensive; Moroes can bring pain, without good crowd control. But with a paladin tank, who needs crowd control? Tanky even asked that we leave at least one of Moroes's little friends up, to remove the gouge. Yeah. They died, quickly. But then, so did Moroes, easier than we anticipated. And I found out just how NICE it is that volley can crit. CRIT! A hunter with an AOE that CRITS! No more gimpy hunter damage on AOE packs.
Two of our nemesis down, we traveled on, hoping to see at least one challenge. And, well, the skanks and 'hos under the Maiden's "supervision" proved to be too much of a temptation, and managed to kill all of us. But we bounced back and spanked their skanky butts, and faced The Maiden of Virtue. She can be tricky with a paladin tank, since she silences every few seconds. It depends on good button mashing to make sure you keep aggro and manage to cleanse. Alas, even The Maiden wasn't as virtuous as she used to be. She went down like the titan 'ho she is. We paused a moment, ostensibly to mourn her passing, but most likely so the boys could look up her skirt. And then we laughed again and moved on.
Now for those of you familiar with the tricks of Kharazan, you'll know how wiley those skeletal ushers are. They want to make sure you don't see the show without a ticket, and will hit like a kodo on steroids to do it. My new gorilla off-tanked. And lived. We had a death or two, but damn, we got past them. Keep us from our theatre, will you!? And no, you can't sneak past the two at the top of the stairs. They know you're there. And they will try to eat you.
Exploding actors proved to be painful, but not terribly so, and we dispatched them post-haste. We had a small acting troupe, after all, and we wanted our own day in the spotlight. And the show of the evening? Romulo and Julianne, of course. Somehow we had enough interrupts, and managed to burn them down, even with a heal or two sneaking through.
So, since we are starving actors, we decided to tackle the walk of money...and let me tell you, the entire instance is a money pot when you are 5-manning! I think we all made a profit.
Our tank was feeling a bit nervous about visiting the Menagerie, since The Curator has big robot friends. The robots were pansies, but the little arcane packs that protect The Curator...they had a taste for Draenei; our poor shammie died just about every pull (See, I almost said they had a taste for goat...but I refrained!). And The Curator himself? He evocated once, came out enraged, and fell over, probably in shock of being beaten by a half group with a toon whose main DPS was arcane, to which he is all but immune (Ah, Boomkin, you need to concentrate on your nature damage! ;).
We were feeling pretty cocky by now, and skipped our way onward. Our first boss wipe was to Illhoof, thanks to most of us forgetting to target the chains immediately. So, we learned from our mistakes, and came back fists (and arrows and hammers) flying. Illhoof died, even with two little demon companions up to start. I think we had three or four Kil'Rek corpses around when he was done. Once again, volley that crits was so veddy nice.
Well, at this point we were wondering: should we try Aran? Do we have the DPS? The Shade of Aran was our bane for so very long, when we were wee little raiders. We had wiped on him so many times, and wondered if we would be able to conquer him. The first time, we wiped. The second time, the day was ours. Take that, old man! You didn't even get to drink! And your elementals? Pansies!
At that point, we realized we'd completed a first night raid, with five people. We decided to try Nightbane, just to see if we could do it. We could not; BUT! With one more healer or DPS, we would have have had him the first night; we did have him the second, with one more DPS.
Two and a half hours in Karazhan...we stood in some form of shock at what we had done. We would have been blood-covered, if the undead bleed. Instead, we looked at each other and had to grin, rather ruefully. Karazhan, our friend, our teacher, our bane, had become another heroic.
We decided we had to finish it. We knew it would be almost impossible to dance with Netherspite with only 5, so we let him live another day. We returned a couple days later with one more in tow, to finish the Prince and Nightbane. And we saluted that bastion of undeath and the diabolical, and returned home to The Outland, to await the call to Northrend.
24 October 2008
Kara, You Taught Me Much...
But I'm afraid it's time for me to move on to bigger and badder instances. Well, you know, in a few weeks at least.
In the beginning, you tested my mettle, across several characters. Neve learned how to tank, and oh, how AOE tanking was the order of the day with you. Eumoabe learned the dangers of Seed of Wipe, when it was powerful enough to blow through walls...and pull everything, everywhere, in a 30-yard radius. Even on another floor. Through the wall. WAAAAAAY over there.
And most importantly, I learned how to be a Good Hunter.
You gave me countless loots, including a gun I shall treasure for a long time. You gave me badges to upgrate to gear better than you could provide. You taught me how to AOE as a hunter, even before hunters had any effective AOE.
And now, you taught me that even the mighty must fall, and fade, and be conquered by the tenatious...and slightly mad. Perhaps that is the most lasting impression you have left on me, Karazhan; the madness. For who but the truly mad would attempt to conquer you with only four others? And who but the truly mad could succeed?
*more shall be forthcoming on this topic, by popular demand*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next up?: When Guilds Have Dramaz...
In the beginning, you tested my mettle, across several characters. Neve learned how to tank, and oh, how AOE tanking was the order of the day with you. Eumoabe learned the dangers of Seed of Wipe, when it was powerful enough to blow through walls...and pull everything, everywhere, in a 30-yard radius. Even on another floor. Through the wall. WAAAAAAY over there.
And most importantly, I learned how to be a Good Hunter.
You gave me countless loots, including a gun I shall treasure for a long time. You gave me badges to upgrate to gear better than you could provide. You taught me how to AOE as a hunter, even before hunters had any effective AOE.
And now, you taught me that even the mighty must fall, and fade, and be conquered by the tenatious...and slightly mad. Perhaps that is the most lasting impression you have left on me, Karazhan; the madness. For who but the truly mad would attempt to conquer you with only four others? And who but the truly mad could succeed?
*more shall be forthcoming on this topic, by popular demand*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next up?: When Guilds Have Dramaz...
21 October 2008
Character Introduction - Osethme
Osethme is my Night Elf Hunter. Yeah, yeah, ez-mode, huntard, blah blah blah. But you know what? I have a LOT of fun playing her. She was my first, and I'll freely admit, so easy to level it's no wonder I kept her as my main. She's level 70, for a few more weeks anyway, and has seen more content and done more stuff than any of my others.
The name Osethme (and to a certain extent, the character) started on that most horrid of games, Star Wars: Galaxies. I wanted to make a Rodian dancer, and by the power of the random name generator, Osethme was born. I played for about a year before the ridiculousness of the game outweighed the social aspect of being in an entertainer guild, and having some RP fun. I know Osethme was destined to be a Jedi. She tried her hand at several professions, and the all-holy holocron was silent the first time she found one (if you played, you know what I mean. If you didn't, you don't want to know). Alas, SW:G was just too much suckage for even a fun entertainers guild, and I quit playing.
Then came WoW. Obviously, I haven't looked back.
Being a hunter is just a lot of fun. I've kept some consistencies throughout the life of my playing; I've always had a cat named Lilith and an owl named Oracle. "Ose Moments" have become a staple; I have days where I'm more blonde than others, and I make some mistakes. Deadly, wipage mistakes that generally have all of us laughing too hard to care. "Seed of Wipe" is our guild's name for...whatever the hell the 'lock spell is called. No one remembers because it's Seed of Wipe.
I also have consistently been a Good Hunter. I know, many folks say there's no such thing. But played well, with situational awareness, and pet control, a hunter is a deadly DPSer with utility beyond just pewpew. We protect the healers, we trap escapees, we send our pets to off tank (especially now that they are useful for it!)...our utility knows no bounds! That is, when I'm not having an Ose Moment. :)
p.s. Sorry Wren, you can't keep your name out of here. ;)
The name Osethme (and to a certain extent, the character) started on that most horrid of games, Star Wars: Galaxies. I wanted to make a Rodian dancer, and by the power of the random name generator, Osethme was born. I played for about a year before the ridiculousness of the game outweighed the social aspect of being in an entertainer guild, and having some RP fun. I know Osethme was destined to be a Jedi. She tried her hand at several professions, and the all-holy holocron was silent the first time she found one (if you played, you know what I mean. If you didn't, you don't want to know). Alas, SW:G was just too much suckage for even a fun entertainers guild, and I quit playing.
Then came WoW. Obviously, I haven't looked back.
Being a hunter is just a lot of fun. I've kept some consistencies throughout the life of my playing; I've always had a cat named Lilith and an owl named Oracle. "Ose Moments" have become a staple; I have days where I'm more blonde than others, and I make some mistakes. Deadly, wipage mistakes that generally have all of us laughing too hard to care. "Seed of Wipe" is our guild's name for...whatever the hell the 'lock spell is called. No one remembers because it's Seed of Wipe.
I also have consistently been a Good Hunter. I know, many folks say there's no such thing. But played well, with situational awareness, and pet control, a hunter is a deadly DPSer with utility beyond just pewpew. We protect the healers, we trap escapees, we send our pets to off tank (especially now that they are useful for it!)...our utility knows no bounds! That is, when I'm not having an Ose Moment. :)
p.s. Sorry Wren, you can't keep your name out of here. ;)
17 October 2008
Welcome to Azeroth
My name is Ginger, and I'm an altoholic. How's that for an introduction? A bit more? Ok.
I'm an officer in a day-2ish guild, ISCA Alliance (www.iscaalliance.com), on the US Whisperwind realm. We started fairly small, as a group of friends and acquaintances from the ISCA BBS. You remember BBSes, don't you? Well, they're still around. (www.iscabbs.com is ours, check it out!) We've grown to a fairly sizable, casual raiding guild.
Folks said from the start that our guild couldn't make it. Of course, that was almost four years ago, and we've seen end-game content, and formed friendships, while still maintaining a fun and casual atmosphere. In the beginning, we were running with more hunters and paladins than any one guild should, and still we kept growing and exploring. We weathered one expansion that blew other, lesser, guilds apart, and are facing another, knowing that we will still be together on the other side. But enough about the guild for now.
Who am I? Well, I'm the "2iC," or "Second in Command," or a fancy way of saying "Vice President," or some such. Really, it doesn't mean anything more than any other officer, other than if we need someone to put the smack down, I can be called upon to do so. I'm 33, one of the rare and elusive Gamer Girls, but shhhh. We don't really exist. I'm an altoholic, with a 70 Night Elf Hunter as my main (commence stereotyping here?), a 70 Human Paladin who tanks, a 70 Human Warlock who blows shit up, and a 70 Night Elf Rogue who needs to be retired. Of course, ALL my character slots are filled, and I have a Night Elf Druid past 60, who is a healer, and a pleothora of other toons in various stages of low-levelism. And I'll be making a Death Knight come expansion...my baby Shaman will have to die and be reborn.
I guess I'm the social butterfly of the guild; I'm real-life friends with some members, as we knew each other before we started playing (including my ex-husband, which is an entirely different can of worms); I've met several others in various travels. At this point, I probably know more of our guild than anyone else, aside from the OTHER groups of real-life friends. We keep tossing the idea of a guild gathering at some point, but I think there's very few of us willing to mix our WoW with real-life.
In general, I've spent a good deal of time playing this game, and I think it's safe to say it's more than just a passing interest at this point; it's become a hobby. I hope to share some of my thoughts and stories, especially about my guild mates. Look out, gang!
I'm an officer in a day-2ish guild, ISCA Alliance (www.iscaalliance.com), on the US Whisperwind realm. We started fairly small, as a group of friends and acquaintances from the ISCA BBS. You remember BBSes, don't you? Well, they're still around. (www.iscabbs.com is ours, check it out!) We've grown to a fairly sizable, casual raiding guild.
Folks said from the start that our guild couldn't make it. Of course, that was almost four years ago, and we've seen end-game content, and formed friendships, while still maintaining a fun and casual atmosphere. In the beginning, we were running with more hunters and paladins than any one guild should, and still we kept growing and exploring. We weathered one expansion that blew other, lesser, guilds apart, and are facing another, knowing that we will still be together on the other side. But enough about the guild for now.
Who am I? Well, I'm the "2iC," or "Second in Command," or a fancy way of saying "Vice President," or some such. Really, it doesn't mean anything more than any other officer, other than if we need someone to put the smack down, I can be called upon to do so. I'm 33, one of the rare and elusive Gamer Girls, but shhhh. We don't really exist. I'm an altoholic, with a 70 Night Elf Hunter as my main (commence stereotyping here?), a 70 Human Paladin who tanks, a 70 Human Warlock who blows shit up, and a 70 Night Elf Rogue who needs to be retired. Of course, ALL my character slots are filled, and I have a Night Elf Druid past 60, who is a healer, and a pleothora of other toons in various stages of low-levelism. And I'll be making a Death Knight come expansion...my baby Shaman will have to die and be reborn.
I guess I'm the social butterfly of the guild; I'm real-life friends with some members, as we knew each other before we started playing (including my ex-husband, which is an entirely different can of worms); I've met several others in various travels. At this point, I probably know more of our guild than anyone else, aside from the OTHER groups of real-life friends. We keep tossing the idea of a guild gathering at some point, but I think there's very few of us willing to mix our WoW with real-life.
In general, I've spent a good deal of time playing this game, and I think it's safe to say it's more than just a passing interest at this point; it's become a hobby. I hope to share some of my thoughts and stories, especially about my guild mates. Look out, gang!
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