Nom nom nom

For some time now, though not with any great effort, I have considered making my own header image for this blog. After all, I am a designer by training and a web developer by experience—I should have one of my own, right? Well, as they say, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes”. There never seems to be enough time or motivation to do for yourself what you do for other people.

Thankfully, and impressively, this minor quandary has been resolved thanks to our team’s resident boomkin and excellent blogger via his recent visual guide to the Blood Wing in ICC 10. If you have been bitten in the Blood Queen fight, and are soon to be mind-controlled, yet you also have that nasty thing aoe damage thing she puts on you, you are in a “win-win” situation. Either you choose not to bite the next dps, resulting in you being mind-controlled and then running around one-shotting the healers (great theater!), or you continue to try and bite the next dps resulting in you aoe’ing him, and everyone you both run through, as he tries to get away from you. Both options are the height of comedy and epic raid wipes. I highly recommend some sort of run speed enchant, gem or talent for those who find themselves in such a situation. Of course, rogues should make sure that Sprint is available.

Nom nom nom ...

The Baconstrip™ Maine Weather Report:
Currently 31° F and sunny. While much of the country is getting lots of snow, Maine continues to disappoint with crappy, dirty, slowly disappearing, month-old snow.

Whatever

Inspired by a guide to ICC 10’s first wing written by the team’s resident Boomkin, I offer an addendum, for rogues, to that guide...

Leading up to the first boss, be sure to trip as many traps as possible, as the add that spawns comes solo and this keeps other dps from aoe’ing. This is a good thing.

Don’t bother dpsing any aoe pack that will live longer than 20 seconds. That is the time limit on your effective aoe damage. Save those abilities for rats or spiders.

Be sure to sprint in to the first boss when the fight starts so it is not available when another dps gets bone-spiked and is far away. This is a Protect Your Dps procedure.

Remember to cast Tricks of the Trade on another dps (warlocks and mages are good) when you cast Blade Flurry -> Blood Fury -> Killing Spree. After all, you will push out 5-figure dps during that time and you don’t want the aggro yourself.

The second boss, Deathwhisper, will make you cry. You are screwed over from the beginning. If you can get away with it, go dps the boss and try to LOS your RL. Maybe he won’t notice you aren’t dpsing adds, something I don’t recommend because they are a debuff to your damage. However, if you must be responsible, /follow a tank and then spam FoK while catching up on your email. Your dps will be about the same as if you were really trying.

Since you are not a tank nor a healer, the Gunship battle is EZMOAD. The important thing to remember is that melee damage is critical to the fight and you, therefore, are indispensable.

Or not.

Actually, it’s just like that last fight; melee dps is screwed. Just make sure you have your jet pack papers in order, in case you are mistakenly asked to use one. I suggest jumping all over the place with the pack and see how high you can get with it and how close you can go to the edge of the ship without falling off. Falling off is actually a dps buff. Now that I think about it, our lock has that job covered. Probably yours does, too.

The final fight should be the stuff of rogue dreams. A basic tank-n-spank where you can stand still and bust out dps that make other dps QQ about rogue OPness (as if). That is, unless you didn’t bring along 4 ranged dps in your 10-man raid. Really, I don’t know why you wouldn’t since ICC trash is designed for them and not you.

But I digress. If there are only 3 ranged dps because one isn’t present, like your warlock, because, say, he decided to take week’s vacation in Vegas (whatever), then you will likely be instructed to switch to one of the two adds that regularly spawn during the fight because the fancy hunter/mage/boomkin dps “need help” getting them down.

Sure they do...

I highly recommend tunnel vision on the boss if at all possible. You *can* scroll in close enough to not see the adds when they spawn, giving you plausible deniability for not switching to them. Maybe.

If you do actually switch to the adds, your high-falutin’ dps is gone and you won’t get it back, even if you out-gear your competition, so enjoy the stew and understand why no one else wanted to be a rogue in LK.

Unlike you.

Disclaimer: if you actually do these things and get kicked from your guild, I am not responsible. Blame your resto shaman; that’s what we do.

The Baconstrip™ Maine Weather Report:
Currently 21° F and mostly clear. Most of the snow is gone due to rain. Even the weather is annoying me right now.

Freak Show

So last week I was running a dungeon, maybe the random heroic, when Ofn hit exalted with The Hand of Vengeance, giving me 35 exalted reps. I got a couple of “grats” in gchat, but then I also got some “freak” comments. LOL. I suppose so.

Not content with that, I went ahead and also finished out Keepers of Time rep with solo runs on Black Morass (normal), giving Ofn exalted rep #36 and also The Burning Crusader.

I assume that rep #37 will be Ashen Verdict, seeing as Ofn gets steady increments with them due to our ICC raiding and given that I don’t have many more reps to (easily) work on. Hydraxian Waterlords is Ofn’s highest revered rep, but hitting exalted there will require 3 or 4 full-clear Molten Core runs. Not exactly high on anyone’s list. Then there’s Arathi Basin rep, also revered, but thinking of grinding that out makes me want to poke my eyes out.

So, getting “The Exalted” is still a long-shot, and I don’t have a plan to complete it at this point.

Ofn is now at 98 mounts, thanks to the last AT mount and the acquisition of the two Sons of Hodir purchasable mounts. I had set up a run with a 25 man guild for the Sartharion + 3 drakes mount, but it fell through and doesn’t look resurrectable. ZG, the Brunnhildar daily and the Oracles’ egg continue to disappoint. I haven’t tried for the Rivendare mount in weeks; maybe I’ll try that some this weekend.

There are still two mounts Ofn can get via BG tokens, and I’ve been trying to grind them out, but BGs aren’t what they used to be (neither are my PVP skills) and it’s largely been an exercise in frustration. There are still 10 or so tokens of each classic BG to earn just for one of these last two mounts, another 30 each for the second. Oy vey.

Last night our 10 man team ran ICC 10 with the second wing up for the second time, easily busting through the first wing, 2-shotting Festergut and downing Rotface in less than 5 tries (don’t remember the exact number of attempts). Frost Giant's Cleaver was in the Gunship chest, which I have been interested in. Boston generously declined to roll on it against me, allowing me to take it. Both Ofn’s axes are now ICC 10 drops. They are ilevel 251. The new MH axe replaced an i232 — a not insignificant upgrade.

I promptly called Ofn’s Argent Tournament squire (with mount) and gained bank access to get enchanting mats for Berserking. I did have to DE some items, including the two prior axes, but got it done, switched to Combat spec and ran off to catch up with team.

I was happy.

The DPS Ofn was achieving with this weapon rivaled the Mutilate dps I’ve been seeing previously. Of course, Ofn’s daggers are from ToC; once he gets ICC daggers, I’m sure Mutilate will again become the higher dps spec of choice.

We met up with Professor Putricide again, getting in four attempts on him. Despite the late hour, we were on our toes enough that we made some good progress (well, after Honors took over Abom sucking duty), easily getting to Phase 2 on our last two attempts. We’re going back on Monday, and though there’s a good chance we won’t get him down, I’m confident we can do it and it won’t be long before he’s just another notch in our belt.

Given Ofn’s recent achievements, and my reluctance to grind BGs, I dusted off Zephaniah (the armory updates are pretty cool) and have been doing some questing and 5-mans with him. I’m slowly gettng him enough gear and power to hold a decent amount of threat. Running random heroics with him has provided a new challenge, and sometimes new headaches. I need a lot more tanking experience, but I’m gonna take it as it comes and not try to grind it.

The Baconstrip™ Maine Weather Report:
Currently 36° F and overcast, with 6 inches of snow on the ground

Moving on...

Now that I’ve gotten my frustration off my chest, I do want to say that accomplishing the Thorim and Freya hard modes last night was satisfying. Mimiron hard was quite a bit more difficult, what with the fire all over the place, but I trust that with fresh minds and fingers we will make some progress on that fight next week. After Mimiron, Yogg+1 will basically be all that stands between us and a new drake. I imagine that fight will be annoyingly difficult, too. We shall see.

I have begun to pay more attention to PVP in the last week or so, going to the trouble of grinding out honor for some new gear and respeccing to Mutilate PVP (thanks Boston for your advice). I immediately noticed the great burst DPS of the spec and am sold on it—at least for PVP. My focus for the next little while will be BGs for Ofn, particularly as there are 6 mounts and more PVP gear to grind out. I will possibly look for an arena team at some point, it will depend on how my feelings for PVP progress. I do not enjoy arenas, but I believe I could experience some success and it would be nice to obtain some of that gear.

On achievements, this week I completed my (second) journey through the Argent Tournament ranks and Ofn is now a “Crusader” again. Between the achievements related to the tournament, a few PVP ones and the hard modes achieved last night, Ofn is now sitting at exactly 7,000 points (the armory is still apparently counting ach. points received when Ofn was still Alliance, but were subsequently taken away, in-game, on the faction switch). I’m not sure if he will ever see 8,000 pts., as I’m running out of achievements that can be accomplished solo.

One long-term achievement I have begun working towards is the one for 100 mounts. Currently, Ofn has 81 mounts, and there are 3 more that can be purchased (at great gold cost) and 11 more that can be ground out via PVP and the Argent Tournament. The rest will require the luck of an egg, drop and/or roll. I believe it will not be easy, but can be done.

Additionally, Ofn is sitting with 33 exalted reputations. I would like for him to eventually hit 40 exalted reps, granting the title “The Exalted” but, holy cow, it will require quite a lot of work. I’m not sure if I have the motivation for it.

On gold, Ofn switched factions with 20k and later, Zephaniah, the pally, switched with 9k. Currently, there is 37k spread around my 3 Horde toons, but I have easily spent 20k in gear, pets and mounts. The gold seems to flow much more on the Horde side. I am almost through the stockpile of mats brought over with Ofn, so reinvestment costs are about to make a dent on the gold income.

On rogues, a week or so ago, after having Ofn’s proverbial DPS head handed to him, I bit the bullet on a change I knew was coming, and blew his Emblems of Triumph and approximately 12k gold in mats for several new pieces of gear and respecced. Where Ofn had been a rogue in T8 4/5 with critting ruptures, he is now running with no tier gear at all pushing out 10k to 24k eviscerates. T9 is basically a joke for rogues, except for the i258 versions—which Ofn most likely will never see. T10 set bonuses have just been released, and, while not as bad as the T9 bonuses, the rogue community, generally speaking, doesn’t seem all that excited about them. Additionally, it seems that, as rogues obtain higher level gear heading into T10, Mutilate PVE spec is again going to out-dps Combat. It remains to be seen if this becomes reality, but it does fall in line with Blizzard’s stated desire to make PVE rogues want daggers more. This disappoints me, as I prefer to play the Combat spec in PVE and it’s been satisfying having it be a valid PVE DPS build. /sigh

Finally, my good friend Sindella, who returned to WOW earlier this year, has again called it quits for RL reasons. This time around, it was never quite the same as it was when we played WOW together a couple years ago, but I did enjoy our time raiding together. I wish him the best in his new endeavors.

The Baconstrip™ Maine Weather Report:
Currently 56° F and overcast

Devolution

If you didn’t already know (not likely), those of us who were Alliance in the guild Unusual Suspects, switched factions a week ago to become Horde toons and form a guild named “Devolve”. Ofn is no longer a slick Night Elf with a sleek pony tail. He is now an Orc with spiky hair, poor posture and a bad case of bad breath. Basically, he looks like me in the morning before I’ve had coffee. I just know Tolkien is rolling over in his grave. Of course not because of me specifically, but, when one of the chosen race chooses to become a race created in mockery of the elves... well, I’m sure he would be disappointed. Yes, yes — I know this is the world of Blizzard’s Warcraft, but *all* fantasy stems from the world created by The Godfather of the genre.

But I digress... what’s done is done. The were pros and there were cons. New racial - pro. Yellow-green skin - con. Massive shoulders and menacing stare - pro. Capital city of Orgrimmar - con. New experiences, places and quests - pro. Losing all Argent Tournament rep and over 2k completed quests - big con. Being in a good guild with friends and inadvertently providing its name - big pro.

On the banking front, I brought over all my gold-making mats to get kick-started horde side. Pretty good thing, too, given that some of my regular mats are priced higher over here. But I dared not spend the $30 to bring my banker over. Even if I had, I would have lost the guild and guild bank to which he was attached. So, I went to the effort to create an Orc Death Knight as my new bank. Eventually, I’ll start a new guild bank, probably when I’m overflowing with mats. This banker is much fiercer-looking than the previous one. It would be cool if he could just scare gold out of players. But in case that didn’t work, I started the factory again right away. I’ve already made 4k+ in a week’s time. Not too shabby.

There will be more to say on this... but this is all for now.

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat!?

Tuesday night our raid team formed and headed off to the new instance hoping to see and down Lord Jaraxxus, the newly-released 2nd boss of Trial of the Crusader. I was excited as this would be my first time inside the new dungeon.

Our RL calmly (as always) explained the strategy for the first “boss”, Northrend Beasts, and despite having a couple newbies involved (myself included), we one-shotted them. Next up was the new guy, Lord Jaraxxus. Again, we heard the explanation and then went out and kicked his butt. Somewhat surprisingly, he really didn’t seem to have all that many tricks up his sleeve and we one-shotted him, too.

I wasn’t all that interested in most of the loot, except for one item that dropped off the beasts, Collar of Unending Torment. I took it, largely because I was the only one in the raid who could benefit from it. Since 3.2 spreadsheets aren’t out yet for rogues, I had no idea if it would really better than what Ofn has been using. However, it turns out, as I suspected, it was indeed an upgrade.

After ToC, we headed to Ulduar to begin the new week’s raid. My RL knew how badly I wanted FL+4, so when he announced we would give a couple of tries, I was very excited. Our first attempt didn’t work out so well, but we got it on the 2nd try. Thank you, everyone! Of course it wasn’t done just for me, several others got the achievement as well and benefitted from the loot. However, I was, and am, still very appreciative of everyone’s effort.

We then moved forward and downed Razorscale and XT and called it for the night, and I had time to reflect on the achievement and my attitude about it. Very frustrated at first, later resigned to the thought that I might never get it, and then satisfaction at getting it. I struggle with being patient in all facets of life, and this served as another in a long list of lessons regarding the need to just chill out about stuff. I’ll try to do better in the future.

This week’s AH win: Really not much to report here. After I sold the bulk of gems prospected from my massive titanium ore hoard, I’ve been back to my bread & butter enchanting mats and bags. I guess the win is that , with the new dungeons out, and new emblem system out, players are getting a lot of new gear, which is translating to high demand for enchanting mats. Which is good in my book. :-)

The Baconstrip™ Maine Weather Report:
85° F — hot, hazy & humid

Clearance

Unusual Suspects came together quickly and continued Ulduar 10 raiding without delay. For several weeks, we made excellent progress, getting to where we could down Yogg, effectively clearing Ulduar, and pretty consistently do some hard modes. Some other hard modes we are not that far away from achieving, and some that are still quite hard. However, we have been missing the 1337 dps of our resident boomkin (just returned), feral druid (still out), and one of our hunters (gone for a while). Also, one of our top healers has also been MIA for a couple weeks (back on Monday?). I’d hope to see our progress on the as-yet-unattained hard modes advance considerably, but the impending release of 3.2 will likely greatly hinder further Ulduar 10 progression.

But whatever our own sense of our Ulduar 10 progression, we are listed as the top 10-man Strict guild on AoS. What is “Strict”, you ask? Strict means that we clear what we clear using primarily 10-man gear—unlike other guilds who raid 25 mans and then use that gear to do 10-man hard modes, achievements, etc. I take some pride in this recognition, that U.S. has been able to down various bosses and hard modes, using lesser gear; it is a measure of our ability and talent.

Beyond this ranking, we were also responsible for being Alliance-first on some Ulduar 10 boss downings and hard modes, some of which I was involved with and some I wasn’t. However, being in a guild on the edge of WOW content is a new and satisfying experience. In vanilla WOW, the farthest I got was half-way through BWL, and in BC, the farthest was Magtheridon, so being a productive member in a guild that has cleared Ulduar pre-3.2, is a nice place to be, and I’m happy to be here. Kudos to the team on what we’ve accomplished in game, and to all of you for putting up with a whiny, damage-obsessed rogue player. ;-)

This week’s AH win: Some person kept undercutting my Netherweave bags this week, by one silver or less each time. After a couple days, I got fed up with it and crafted 100 bags and listed them all 30% below his prices (though still at a profit). I haven’t seen him back in that market since the day I did that, but I suspect it’s not a permanent disappearance. Oh, and I discovered a different way to produce enchanting materials, roughly halving my cost, yet almost doubling production. Booyah!

The Baconsrip™ Maine Weather Report:
on location in Houlton, ME, next to the Canadian border
72° F and overcast

The last poor yolks; I’ll chew them well.

Well, decision day finally happened yesterday, and it didn’t take long for an announcement to be made. I will be leaving Blue Circles when Ulduar hits to join Heroes’ other raid team.

I have been agonizing over this for weeks, but really, it’s very simple: Sindella is my best friend and I want to raid with him, but there’s no room for him in Blue Circles. At one time, BC needed a team member, a ranged DPS even. But that was weeks ago and Sindella was nowhere near ready to raid. So, things changed, and BC is now on the cusp of having too many people as it is, nevermind adding another.

I put off making a decision until Sindella hit 80, because I believed that things would change and the solution would present itself. And... it has.

The other team has, unfortunately, experienced the loss of a handful of players over the last few weeks, to the point where our GL was recruiting outside the guild in order to have enough people for that team. Regarding those that left, I understand why some of them left and I empathize with them, others’ reasons seem somewhat irrational and still others I have no clue about. But whatever the reasons why, that team lost people and needs others to join and help. So, it’s pretty obvious—to me, at least—that Sindella and I are intended to join this team.

In Ursula K. LeGuin’s excellent Earthsea series, Ogion, the teacher/master of the main protagonist, Ged, has these words of instruction for his young student:

“As a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower; until, at last, he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do…”

And so it is with this situation; there is no choice, really. My close friend is ready to raid, and my friends on the other team need players. Neither good, nor bad, I am simply doing what must be done.

Until 3.1 hits, I will continue to raid with BC, hoping that we can obtain some of the achievements we have been working towards. I expect these raids to be bittersweet, but I intend to enjoy them as much as possible. Then the page will turn, and I will begin an exciting journey with my soon-to-be new team, as we tackle Ulduar. It will present a new challenge, and I am looking forward to attacking it with them.

I wonder if I’ll be able to procure my own dedicated healer over there...

Treading water

Okay, so my last post was of the warm and fuzzy, “feel good” variety. This one, not so much.

Last night, Heroes came together to do our monthly Naxx 25 run. I’m usually somewhat excited about these runs because it’s an opportunity to raid and hang out with players from the other team, it’s a chance to collect Emblems of Valor for the ongoing gear improvement effort, and I like what 25-man raid buffs do to Ofn’s dps. This particular evening, I had a heightened interest in what I would be able to accomplish damage-wise with Ofn, as so much of his gear has changed since we last did our 25 man Naxx.

The short of it is, though there were some bright spots, I came away from the raid disappointed, again, at the state of combat rogue dps.

Yes, I know Ofn placed well in overall dps. But that’s only because of Fan of Knives, which annoys me. It may be fun to use it, and it’s nice to have an aoe, but fundamentally, a rogue should be one of the best single-target damage dealers and right now, they’re not.

This was evidenced more than once last night as I watched other pure dps classes and some hybrids repeatedly out-dps Ofn on boss fights. It was particularly noticeable on Loatheb. Seeing this while knowing (per a tell earlier in the raid) that Ofn is supposedly the best-geared toon in Heroes (per warcrafter.net) was very disappointing. FoK is fraudulent because it misrepresents what rogues can do. It inflates the numbers on trash, setting up a fall on bosses. It’s a crutch, and I don’t like that.

I had more to say, but I know that most of it is immature QQing, and I’ve done enough of that already. Blizz is bringing some positive changes to the combat tree for rogues in 3.1 and I am looking forward to them. Until then, I will continue to work on improving Ofn’s dps, but I think I’ve done about as much as I can right now regarding gear and self-buffs. I think I do pretty well with maximizing his abilities and rotations, but I’m always open to suggestions if anyone has some to make. I would especially like it if Lakini would tell me more about how to noob things up.

Perhaps I will revisit mutilate spec now that I have 2x Webbed Death (the preferred dagger for mut spec rogues). I prefer the combat playstyle, and I certainly wouldn’t stay mut when 3.1 hits, but it might be interesting to give it another go and see what happens.

It’s 40° F and sunny in southern Maine.

Deeps & Peeps

So, a week ago, Blue Circles was scheduled to do our weekly 10 man Naxx run. However, at login time, two of our Canadian members weren’t able to log on due to an internet outage in their province. After some discussion about the team makeup of the 8 currently logged-in team members and bosses we might be able to down with our group, we entered Naxx and wound up clearing 2 wings with our 8-man, 1-tank setup. This run turned out to feature two things I hadn’t done before.

The first was a personal-best, almost 4500 dps on the Maexxna fight. This is a fight that, generally speaking, Ofn does pretty well on, frequently topping the meter. However, it’s usually not by very much--1% or less. This night, I was blown away by the damage I achieved with Ofn on this fight. Of course it should be noted that this was the first time I actively sought to FoK the spider adds as they spawned. I’m not particularly proud of FoK, but it is what it is, and I might as well use it. I have more to say on the matter, but not now.

The other thing that happened really made my night and reminded me how much I appreciate the guild I’m in and the team members I raid with. One of the top DPSers on our team and in the guild, sent me a tell after the raid ended giving me some props for my DPS. It really meant a lot to me to hear that from a player who knows his class and his role and is wildly successful in doing it. Thanks, man.

For those who don’t know, I am something of a singer. I wasn’t actually a music major in college, but I spent most of my time in the music dept. and was in the chorus, various small ensembles, musical theatrical productions and trained my voice via lessons for several years. During this time, whenever a group was being put together to sing at some function or event, I always tried to get myself into situations where the other members were stronger and better than me, because there would be so much that I would learn from them and it would make me work harder to measure up and do my job as best I could to help make the whole endeavor a success.

Though a game is on a far lower level than things in RL, I feel similarly now. I am on a team made up of players who are better and stronger than me. I have learned a lot from them and continue to work hard to be better at my role through the things I’ve learned. I appreciate the opportunity.

Next

Fed up with my previous guild situation, burned out from the semi-hardcore raiding, tired of being responsible for others who happened to be my class that may or may not listen to me, I set off in search of a realm that was EST, and a guild that didn't raid until 9 p.m. or later, didn't raid more than 3 times a week, would be understanding whenever my toddler boy or baby girl needed me and was generally mature. How I wound up in Heroes, I have no idea. ;-)

Seriously, I saw Ferth's guild recruitment post in the WOW forums, and after an IM with him, and then Dark, I did the transfer and within minutes I was logging into AoS. The first login was before noon, and I was immediately struck by how empty Shatt was. Me likey. Then I did a couple dailies, of the Ogri'la variety, I believe. Again, I was very pleased at the lack of players running around. I was able to do my dailies and do some farming unmolested, unseen even. I was happy.

Then, a couple days later, I was doing some Netherwing dailies down in the caves, when a warrior charged me and ripped me to shreds. Okay, fine, ganking happens. I come back, rez and begin my daily again (after looking around to make sure the warrior was gone, of course.) A minute, here he comes again. This time, I didn't fight back, just let him have his so incredibly important HK, all the while typing /ponder, /yawn, /sigh, etc. You get the picture. I wait a little bit longer to res this time, but he finds me again. Now I'm getting peeved; what's the deal with the repeat ganking. This happens a 4th and 5th time. By now I'm furious--what a jackass. This time I don't res until I see him leave the cave, mount up and fly off. Such was my first experience with Cynosure.

Unfortunately, I had very little pvp experience and no pvp gear at the time. I had to resort to asking Neo for help. Thankfully, Neo was very geared and ganked the guy twice for me. Of course, I didn't know about the Cynosure attitude towards Heroes until later. I look at the experience now as my initiation into AOS pvp policy; Cynosure = KOS.

This experience also strengthened my resolve regarding a secondary goal I had when coming to AOS: getting better at pvp. Up to this point, I had done very little pvp; I'd done AV and WSG a handful of times--combined--and I had never even set foot into AB or EOTS. Since my previous guild had geared me beyond where Heroes was at that point, I was able to focus on doing BGs and learning how to be an effective rogue. It was frustrating at first, to be constantly pwned because of inexperience and lack of gear. But as my gear and skill got better, I began to enjoy pvp--a lot. I especially looked forward to guild BG nights (something my previous guild never did), listening to Dark give out orders and tell stories and listen to everyone pick on Ferth. Oh, and actually winning several BGs.

On top of my growing pvp ability, I found the players within Heroes to be much more knowledgeable about the game, class mechanics and strategies than I had previously experienced, further increasing my own knowledge and ability.

As I mentioned, my previous guild had gone farther in pve content than Heroes had at the time of my transfer. I had been to, and cleared, both Karazan and Gruul's Lair. So, I was very pleased to be able to help Heroes achieve several boss firsts soon after I joined. Eventually, bosses we began downing were not only guild firsts, but personal ones as well.

Much has happened since I transferred to AoS and joined Heroes Inc., but I believe this was, and still is, the right guild for me. I continue to need much flexibility in my schedule, to want maturity and helpfulness in those I run with in-game, to play with and learn from players better than me--and I find these things, and more, in Heroes. There are a few folks that I still don't know much about, but of those I do, I have a lot of respect for, and enjoying playing with, them. I know things always change, but I hope Heroes has a lot of time left in its current form.

I think I'm done writing about my playing history, at least for now. I know I'll refer to events in the past as I write posts about new stuff; hopefully I'll provide adequate background info when I do that.

It's currently 32°F and cloudy in southern Maine.

Until next post...