I don’t get hunters, but I do like what they do. Jez plays one, and I think the nutty animal obsessed nature is sinking in (they are cute, but they’re no demons). While we were chatting about the weekend’s round up, I started considering a few cosmetic changes to some aspects of the class.

1. Make pets run away and fade, and run in when summoned. They are animals and I guess part of the Hunter “magic” allows them to be summoned. Kinda like the Silver in the Lone Ranger, or the magical Horses in Tolkien.

I suppose in the same breath people will say that all sorts of entry and exit, dismount, summon, and sequence animations might be handy; and yep - its a pipe dream, but I like to dream.

2. Give them more pet options. It seems strange that Warlocks get a diverse small group of pets, but Hunters can only have a few at a time. Hunters have far more optional diversity in their pets than Warlocks, but I’m not sure anymore that the balance is right. Give them a extra stable slot, and we might see some extra diversity from our Hunter friends.

Then again we might see hunters with an extra cat, so they get the other one that is cute too (*ducks for cover*).

3. How do Hunters heal their pets? Is it based on +healing, +nature, or just a flat figure? I simply don’t know, so would be interested to find out. A Warlock’s shadow damage helps with our demonic healing, which makes sense (more shadow power means better manipulation of Shadow), but what is the rationale behind healing a pet at range. Its certainly not bandages, and I really don’t want to start a discussion about the application of +dam/heal/spell on other abilities; just know what the entry level logic is.

4. I also asked a dumb question this week: Q. Does it hurt fluffy when you stuff him in your bags? A. Laughter…., as they are dismissed just like Warlock pets. Hey, I’m a lock; your fur fetish is not something I’ve taken interest in before.

What are the events that stick out in your mind as definitive in your WoW lifetime?

Damn good question posted by these guys (Automagica, Gnomeaggedon, and many others).

Here is my list in no particular order, and it has to be said that picking a 10 list of anything you like is hard, and you could easily have a 10 list for raids, players, groups, items, names, guilds, monsters, bosses, tabards, wipes, spells; anything really.

Bloggers all over the place have been asking what you’d do if there were only 5 hours left to play World of Warcraft:

“Let’s hypothetically assume Blizzard goes out of business and decides to shut down their servers and WoW for good. You have 5 hours before the server shutdown is permanent. What would you do in 5 hours?”

There is no way that event would be acceptable, and it would not be taken well in my corner of the dank-dark internet.

I’d be really upset and angry; and honestly I don’t think I could gracefully login and not want to join the idiots in the General channel whinging. Its better if I didn’t login those last 5 hours at all.

The only way is if some of my wow mates were logging in for a specific event. Actually nope; I’d still be pissed. I don’t want it to end (insert your own addiction joke, that’s not news to me).

I know it will happen eventually, but I’d hope one game rolls into another, so I shift my focus rather than feeling like something is being stripped away. Kind of what the AoC and WAR players might be trying for when they switch games, and also why we keep trying new things.

See it, experience it, and then be an advocate for it; thats my approach.

Kudos to all the guys that have bloged about this before, great idea. And no, I don’t take well when somebody moves my cheese; its my cheese, leave it alone.

A fantastic wow machinima - featuring Gnomes called UnStunted vol II. To get a better idea view the first installment here, then watch the much longer Vol II.

What I loved was the choice and use of the song Weapon of Choice. Well worth the bandwidth, bravo. Aparently the creator took the models from wow, and then hand manipulated them to get the walking and dancing affects. You can really tell that true care was taken with both the visual lighting and all of the sound.

An inventive wow fan (called That Guy’s) has created the Scarlet Crusade tabard pattern as a t-shirt design. I want one, now! WoW Insider’s Tabard post was where I found it, and a gallery of shots.

This got my mind ticking over about the other tabards, but really I think Scarlet Crusade is one of the best, and as it looks good in-game, and would translate very well in real life.

Given that I use the tabard on my pally, its perfect.

A strange behaviour in my Console, which I discovered when starting Console rather than terminal by accident. The Tuncfg process was quitting and restarting constantly as it tried to establish a connection to the Hamachi server. What this meant when behind a Firewall was it would loop while trying; pinging messages into the Console app.

I have not used Hamachi or HamachiX in ages, so had to find a way to turn this sucker off. The solution was in a blog post by Fernieville, on Jan 30th 08.

This is non-wow related, and specific to Macs (bye).

Blizzard announced Diablo 3 at the Invitational, but really what I wanted was a Wrath launch date. I know Diablo was a good game, and Diablo 2 was even better. Yes, I will play it, and yes I think they will do an excellent job.

I’m just a junkie for all things World of Warcraft, and can’t wait for the next WoW Expansion. So 10 points for the new Diablo, but minus several hundred for not annoucing the WotLK date.

Bring on the demons, the mindless voicence, and the anti-gamer hate from the misunderstanding right. Where did I put my Abyssal Membership Card?

If you’re also keen for WoW Wrath details you’ll be pleased to know that a lot of new infomation is hitting the air during the convention, and I’m keenly reading as much of the websites, blogs, and bathrom walls to get all the rumours. However I’d say its still not official until they give us documented intentions, and even then not final.

So keep your seats, wonder the Diablo 3 game, and wait with bated breath for official news to come.

As a response to security concerns and account hacking it seems that Blizzard will facilitate an optional security token system. Initially I though this was a late April fools joke, but after taking off my cynical hat, maybe some users will like this. I really don’t know.

If it works for all Blizzard games going forward and remains an optional device - its a good thing. It raises a question about using different PCs, how many could be authorised, and what customer support will be needed.

My humble opinion is that this will not be broadly adopted. I certainly won’t be using one as I move between so many machines and have a tendency to loose my keys.

A software based solution might make more sense, and if Blizzard really want to stop accounts being hacked, they should:

1. change out account name as well as password
2. set minimum complexity rules
3. have the wow forums using a different login to the account login.
4. don’t show “account already in use” when creating a new account name. When creating my account I was told that my first few choices were already in use. Thats half the user/pass combination hacked right there.
5. what about areas outside USA for customer support?

Edit: Apparently these only sell to the USA and Europe (which sucks if true), and the one authenticator can be used on any number of accounts; which is great.

Been flat out recently with work/life balance all out of wack. Somehow still found the time to devote to my online addiction. The stuff below has been distracting me. *Intollerant rant warning*

Distractions

After a time my attention span lapses and another Alt appears. My last effort got a Mage to level 41, and before that I was tooling around with a Druid who only hit 17. Recently I took up again and am playing around with a Druid again; damn they are a great class to grind with. All the Druid class needs is a long stun or 100% effective flee button and they’ll be unstoppable.

As an aside the Druid and Hunter combo that got killed by the huge dinosaur in Un’Goro made my day. Not becuase they were kill stealing moments before, and not because they died fighting it; but because they then stood there long enough for it to kill them a 2nd time on its return path. That made my night.

Please also check out the iArmory if you have a iPhone or portable device; its great. Huge kudos to Elad from Omen of Clarity for this tool. And if you need a 2nd opinion check out this review.

Comedy

“MMORPG - Many Men Online Role Playing Girls”, was said in a forum post a while ago, and I like it. I have a few female toons too. You’ve all heard the line “I play a girl because I’d rather look at one”, well that might be so; but personally I play female toons because some of the male character models are crap. /Shrug.

This post on badges, with a V rather than a B got the attention of a Blue; but I really think the Blue created the storm in this teacup. If the purile kiddies need to post and giggle, let them. It might help keep them away from screwing up actual content, or pugging. We can’t shut them down, so having them all drooling and one-hand-playing in a forum thread is ok as long as I don’t have to moderate it. Or ban their accounts from posting till Lich is released.

Achievements

Enchanting 375 on my Warlock was a long time comming by I’m really pleased to get there. Not that there is much more that can be done at 375, but it adds to the sense of completion and character progression.

Engineering almost 375 on my Paladin, so that will happen soon; which does not add anything that I can use, but is still nice to have.

Skinning at 300 for my Druid; so now ready to skin and enjoy the grind upward to 375.

The Swearjar has over $20 in it now, and I have no idea what it will total by the time WotLK hits.

Finding gear on your toons is a constant goal while leveling, and then becomes the primary target for the way to differentiate yourself from other players at 70.

Class dependency and spec choice will help determine what upgrade path is best, and many specific class sites, blogs, and forums will help with this (but please keep reading).

However a key point I have noticed in the change from pre-70 to 70 is the realisation that the upgrades, patches, and enchants for gear is critical in improving your gear.

I like to think about it like the player is taking responsibility for the condition of their character and the manner that character affects the world.

Spending the materials and time in getting it properly setup may be seen as a waste, as the gear might change; but that gear may also stay static for several weeks. Over those weeks you are reaping the reward of applying the enchant. I agree to a point that you should not waste enchant mats, but simple armour kit or enchant can help your team not suffer as much.

The effort to carry your character through an instance that has not applied some simple upgrades can be noticeable to the other players. And the good news is that these upgrades can also have a reverse bonus affect, they can increase your gear to a level well above basic performance. By enchanting and buffing your gear everyone wins.

Honestly there is no excuse when you have a 70, as money from daily quests will allow you to purchase most simple updates. The exception to this is Rep Reward upgrades which will be a while away for recent 80s, and most players can appreciate those being missing. The next time I see a toon with no enchants and no patches, I’ll be speaking out immediately.

Lastly as a rant on the side - Why then can my enchanter not be used to advantage on my other characters?

It is a totally broken aspect of the game, and while I suspect Blizzard will fix this eventually, I think the fix will only be in response to an external force (such as game feature comparisons). I don’t care if these were Bind to Account (BtA) so that only alts could use them; and imagine how cool it would be to scan the AH for Enchanting Kits the same way we can Armor Kits (Leatherworking), Scopes (Engineering), Spell Weave (Tailoring), Gems (Jewelcrafting) etc.

Please Blizzard, allow us to create Enchanting Kits, to swap between our characters.