Monday, September 24, 2007

WoW broken

For me...There is a system freeze issue I caught while upgrading my CPU/mobo/RAM combo on sunday. Went from Athlon 3000+ to Athlon X2 4800+. Nice jump, no noticable effect on WoW or bioshock, oh, except the former doesn't actually work for more than a few minutes. The symptoms include being able to load the game, run authetication, login to your character/toon, and then a few seconds or minutes later, it locks up, hard. Reboot required.

Anyway this has been reported here to Blizzard but no official response yet.

Here are some things to try for those with a similiar issue.

1) Change the config.wtf file

2) Update AMD X2 drivers (link to dual-core optimizer here)

3) Disable sound or run with one processor.

Update: these have done nothing for me. I also tried decreasing CPU/GPU speed in case it was a heat/power issue).

Update2: Sent the board back (Abit AN52), and got a crappy ECS board. It works fine. (go figure) So i'm happily WoWing when i have time.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Uldaman conquered

Okay, big deal, i'm level 65, the mobs are 40ish. But still. Some guildies wanted me to run instances for them, and I did. Rikku and I did Ulda for the first time on Tuesday, it took a few hours i guess. Rikku died a few times.

What was memorable is that since we were both first-timers we had to figure out how to open that secret vault area (pretty simple, you need a medallion from a dwarf NPC and a staff from a boss in the map room). Further, we had to figure out how to get to the last boss (Archaedas), finally I did research and figured out you need 3 people to summon at the altar in the room below him, and again 3 people in the altar room with the final boss. Of course poor Rikku didn't last long in that last boss fight.

It start with your party around the altar, in a circular room full of 50 non-elite mobs plus Archaedas himself, a level 47 boss. You summon him, and immediately he starts pummelling you with melee attacks. But that's not bad. Every few seconds, he activates another of his goons, so you have multiple mobs on everyone real quick. However, if you take him down, all the other mobs disappear!

I found this encounter very tough, I don't see how a 5 man party at the appropriate level could handle this. I one-shotted him when rikku and I went through, and i wiped the first time, but got him the second time when Rikku, Ela, and I went through last night.

To switch guilds or not?

So there I was, in the newbie channel, my first night of WoW (eons ago) and this message popped up "Forces of Nature is looking for members!". I replied, I figured out how to do that. I asked what the requirements and application was. He laughed and just invited me. I had joined my first WoW guild.

I steadily progressed through the ranks, and people came and went. Eventually I got the OL, and everything was mostly fine. There were several people my level, and two who just hit 70 (a priest/mage combo), so they could help us with instances. Then things blew up, drama ensued, the priest/mage ended up leaving.

I was torn. I really liked them, being the only other adult in the guild. However, at the end of the blow-up, I ended up second in command of the guild, with the power to promote or kick people out of the guild. And things went from there, that was a month ago. However, recently, my dwarf has been lonely in the outlands, no other guildies around who were willing to group or help out.

You see, our guild fractured, one part having nothing to do with me, and I have nothing to do with them. And there's that allure of the other guild, where the mage/priest left to, and supposedly that guild is a utopia of high level, mature adult players. The issue is I like the power, I like being able to run people through lower level instances without much effort (if only I could rez!).

So mostly my time on WoW is either playing with my wife (me - warrior, her - priest), shuffling bags around (i have too much loot), and running instances for low level guildes. My progression through outlands has halted, at level 65. Quests are hard to get and hard to do (for right now), and i have the best loot i could get without instances. But I'm somewhat broke (supporting multiple alts, plus guildies).

So i'll either a) switch to this new guild, b) start my own guild, bringing along my proteges (if they want) or c) stay in old guild, running instances for people. Tough decision!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Cool resources

Random stuff here, i'll organize it later.

Kara attunement guide (from a feral druid perspective)



Warrior talent guide


Kaliban's class loot list for hunters

Quest addon

Exceptional quests

Guild addon

Guild rules

WoW Comic


Ramparts walkthrough

Soloing instances

The Steady Shot macro: (From here)

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/castrandom [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Enchanting level up guide


Hunter loot (also see here for discussion)

Places to go in Azeroth

Hunter UI

Guides: Alliance leveling guide 1-10 11-20 for hunters

Add-on repository

Best of BRK

Here they are, to me.

1) The first five commandments of hunterdom. (1-5)

2) The second five commandments (6-10)

3) Gearing up for Kara

BRK - Hunters useless?

BRK has another great post on the sad state of hunterdom. I've been here post OL, but I have never, ever seen a group say 'we need a hunter'. Usually it's 'no thanks, we need real DPS and CC' Instance groups rely on four things. A tank to hold the mob, a healer to heal the tank, crowd control to keep other mobs away, and DPS to pound the heck out of the mob which the tank is targetting. Now, we're pretty good, as hunters, but we're no tanks, and our pets can't compete in instances, where they make short work of pets. Anyway the real issue is that the class is so easy to play, and so many play it, that there is a real lack of other worthwhile classes. So we're almost never in demand. Unless people want you to run through instances 10+ levels below you. Then its' cake.

Welcome!

This is my new WoW blog. After seeing all the WoW blogs and doing WoW related forums for so long, i thought it'd be useful to create my own place to put down my experiences and so forth. I'm currently Gibbiex in Blackwater Raiders, for today of Forces of Nature guild. Enjoy!

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