So ya.
I give up on blogging.
I may blog once a year.
But I am enjoying Cata.
I am enjoying stuff with the family.
So consider this blog history.
If you want to see whats happening, check my guild site or my wife's blog.
God Bless!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Patch 4.0.1
Well, first off, long time no blog.
Life got complicated and while my wife continued to blog, I did not have the spare time.
But now I face myself waiting for Patch 4.0.1 to install where our paladins get a complete make over once again.
The play style is fun as I tried on it on PTR.
So let the fun begin. Oh and I may blog once more or not, life is still very complicated.
Life got complicated and while my wife continued to blog, I did not have the spare time.
But now I face myself waiting for Patch 4.0.1 to install where our paladins get a complete make over once again.
The play style is fun as I tried on it on PTR.
So let the fun begin. Oh and I may blog once more or not, life is still very complicated.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A Paladin's Review of Fantazy Earth Zero
So, I decided to take a small break from wow today. The Wow Addon tool from Curse had an advertisement for a free MMO by the makers of Final Fantasy, Square Enix.
So I spent this afternoon trying to figure out how to play this free MMO.
First, as always, great cinematic to get you hooked -
Ok after that cinematic, I just had to try it. So the quick and dirty run down -
This is majority a pvp game, but the starter content was like single player pve. The combat system is simple, you get a skill it is an attack of some sort, and you spam your mouse button to cast it. The bad side is you can't target an enemy, it is more like a first person shooter, you need to keep that enemy in the cross bars on the UI to kill it.
Second, you have to look with your mouse, which is a pain, I missed the wow camera style of play.
The graphics were dated, not bad, but dated. Had a good anime feel, until you started getting your female toons leveled up and then their outfits became the very skimpy.
Quests were a pain, cause you had to guess who was going to give you stuff. Combat took some getting used to, but eventually I figured it out.
For a free game, I was entertained, but this is by no means a wow replacement.
While SquareEnix has a great base in their Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy franchises, Blizzard is still King of the MMOs.
So if you are strapped for cash, give it a try, but you will soon find yourself back to playing wow.
So I spent this afternoon trying to figure out how to play this free MMO.
First, as always, great cinematic to get you hooked -
Ok after that cinematic, I just had to try it. So the quick and dirty run down -
This is majority a pvp game, but the starter content was like single player pve. The combat system is simple, you get a skill it is an attack of some sort, and you spam your mouse button to cast it. The bad side is you can't target an enemy, it is more like a first person shooter, you need to keep that enemy in the cross bars on the UI to kill it.
Second, you have to look with your mouse, which is a pain, I missed the wow camera style of play.
The graphics were dated, not bad, but dated. Had a good anime feel, until you started getting your female toons leveled up and then their outfits became the very skimpy.
Quests were a pain, cause you had to guess who was going to give you stuff. Combat took some getting used to, but eventually I figured it out.
For a free game, I was entertained, but this is by no means a wow replacement.
While SquareEnix has a great base in their Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy franchises, Blizzard is still King of the MMOs.
So if you are strapped for cash, give it a try, but you will soon find yourself back to playing wow.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
So Many Things
First off, I have time to blog today because I took a day off of work to handle some Education Things for my Autistic Son (He had his evaluation of where he was). He is doing great for those that are wondering and it has been a real blessing to have the support structure he is in.
Moving on to game related stuff. I want to cover three different things.
First, Eternity Matters turns Four Years old this week. That is just pure awesomesauce as one of the founders would say. We have a big party planned for Saturday, so those that can make it will have a blast. What is different this year is that it is a progressive clue hunt to get to the party. We will all start in one location and clues will lead you to more clue givers until you get to the final place. Winners of that contest will get some cool in game stuff. I can't wait for this to happen this Saturday (actually anniversary is Thursday).
Second, I want to talk about Blizzard Support. I had a great experience with a Billing / Service / Support guy named Jason. We had ordered four of those cute plushie pets with the in game counter parts. We only got one in the mail. I called and after 2 hours of hold time, I got Michael. He got the ball started, but nothing seemed to happen. I called back the next day and got Jason, got full updates, emails and everything. Today we got our missing pets. So good job Jason and Michael, kudos to you guys.
Third, I want to talk about a mod. Gathermate and Routes. These mods combined have made farming ore so much easier. I recommend them highly.
Well that is all I have time for now.... I leave you with an awesome video that will scare the gnomes out of you
Moving on to game related stuff. I want to cover three different things.
First, Eternity Matters turns Four Years old this week. That is just pure awesomesauce as one of the founders would say. We have a big party planned for Saturday, so those that can make it will have a blast. What is different this year is that it is a progressive clue hunt to get to the party. We will all start in one location and clues will lead you to more clue givers until you get to the final place. Winners of that contest will get some cool in game stuff. I can't wait for this to happen this Saturday (actually anniversary is Thursday).
Second, I want to talk about Blizzard Support. I had a great experience with a Billing / Service / Support guy named Jason. We had ordered four of those cute plushie pets with the in game counter parts. We only got one in the mail. I called and after 2 hours of hold time, I got Michael. He got the ball started, but nothing seemed to happen. I called back the next day and got Jason, got full updates, emails and everything. Today we got our missing pets. So good job Jason and Michael, kudos to you guys.
Third, I want to talk about a mod. Gathermate and Routes. These mods combined have made farming ore so much easier. I recommend them highly.
Well that is all I have time for now.... I leave you with an awesome video that will scare the gnomes out of you
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Gaming and Fellowship
Writing this blog is for myself. I do appreciate those that come to read. I may not be as good as my wife's blog (who, in my opinion has the best blog for World of Warcraft Rogues and Lore) or as good as Honor's Code blog.
Recently Honor Code did a good blog on end times and his conviction to share his faith. I applaud that blog and his bold step. I have watched him go from completely silent about his faith to that bold post.
I on the otherhand, decided to blog about my new toy and got insulted for it. Sure, my past blogs have been better and my blogs of late of been lacking. There are many reasons for that, but I hope today I am able to renew the spark of joy I had in writing stuff way back and give you something worth reading.
So I want to write about something that is key to good spiritual health. That is fellowship with your fellow believers, so that we may encourage each other. Without fellowship, we become isolated and begin to attack each other and not show the love God has commanded us to show. One way to have fellowship is by playing games. This is one of my favorite ways to have fellowship.
I remember growing up and we would play board games and card games 2 or 3 times a week. I have many great memories of Rook, Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Yatzee, Rummykub to name a few. Times where I grew closer to my family and my grand mother especially. It was during that time I learned about fair play, sportmanship, honor in the game, how to be a good looser and a humble winner. I learned how to be on a team and cooperate. These were all good times, plus I was having fellowship.
When I went to college, my buddies and I started playing Magic the Gathering, and later on Dungeons and Dragons. Again, it was a good time of fellowship. I miss those days of hanging out with my college friends and their wives. It was that bit of gaming that brought my wife and I to World of Warcraft and ultimately to our guild where we try to have good clean fun and provide a safe place for fellowship of believers.
That brings us to last night. On Tuesdays, we do the weekly raid quest and maybe try to knock out some achievements. Last night we were sent back into Nax spider wing to kill the first boss. We had I think 22 people. It was easy as pie, only two tanks, we almost had him dead before his first insect swarm (we had an large number of healers with us). So we decide to go after Saph and KT and do some achievements.
So people switched for alts and we went up and easily killed Saph and got the 100 club achievement for some guild members. Though Vangelis was a sacrificial dps as he died each time Saph did the cold breath move. That was the on going joke for the night that he was taking my wife's place on the sacrificial dps spot.
So we move on to KT and I want to do the kill 18 Abominations achievement. I think hey, lets just agro it all and aoe it down, piece of cake right? Amalt, my cotank takes one side and I take the other and we go and cause a raid wipe. Many jokes ensue about their fearless leader and his um not so brillant strategies (some of the jokes made by myself). So we go in and do it the right way, having one of our hunters (taita) pull the abominations a cubby at a time to us and we end up getting our 18. We had a couple of deaths and battle rezzes, but then we are into phase 2.
Bam, ice block move thing and down goes Schekeria and Kiki, our primary healers for the tanks. This leaves Daerthy and ZimaSquid to keep me alive plus a few other healers that are not used to healing that much. Bam, iceblock takes out all our melee minus Daraia. Yet, we persist, bam, Amalt is dead, I am the only tank and 40% hits out come the adds. I manage to get all of them on me, and the burn to 0% starts. I am doing all the possible survival moves I know, and I eventually die, with KT having .3% life. We manage to kill him, get the achievement, but everyone is dead. IT was a great time of fun and fellowship and I thank God for my guild and the good time we had last night.
It is their encouragement of me that helps me to rise above criticism of others and the other stressors in my life. Thank you Guild and thank you God for your love and support in me.
Recently Honor Code did a good blog on end times and his conviction to share his faith. I applaud that blog and his bold step. I have watched him go from completely silent about his faith to that bold post.
I on the otherhand, decided to blog about my new toy and got insulted for it. Sure, my past blogs have been better and my blogs of late of been lacking. There are many reasons for that, but I hope today I am able to renew the spark of joy I had in writing stuff way back and give you something worth reading.
So I want to write about something that is key to good spiritual health. That is fellowship with your fellow believers, so that we may encourage each other. Without fellowship, we become isolated and begin to attack each other and not show the love God has commanded us to show. One way to have fellowship is by playing games. This is one of my favorite ways to have fellowship.
I remember growing up and we would play board games and card games 2 or 3 times a week. I have many great memories of Rook, Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Yatzee, Rummykub to name a few. Times where I grew closer to my family and my grand mother especially. It was during that time I learned about fair play, sportmanship, honor in the game, how to be a good looser and a humble winner. I learned how to be on a team and cooperate. These were all good times, plus I was having fellowship.
When I went to college, my buddies and I started playing Magic the Gathering, and later on Dungeons and Dragons. Again, it was a good time of fellowship. I miss those days of hanging out with my college friends and their wives. It was that bit of gaming that brought my wife and I to World of Warcraft and ultimately to our guild where we try to have good clean fun and provide a safe place for fellowship of believers.
That brings us to last night. On Tuesdays, we do the weekly raid quest and maybe try to knock out some achievements. Last night we were sent back into Nax spider wing to kill the first boss. We had I think 22 people. It was easy as pie, only two tanks, we almost had him dead before his first insect swarm (we had an large number of healers with us). So we decide to go after Saph and KT and do some achievements.
So people switched for alts and we went up and easily killed Saph and got the 100 club achievement for some guild members. Though Vangelis was a sacrificial dps as he died each time Saph did the cold breath move. That was the on going joke for the night that he was taking my wife's place on the sacrificial dps spot.
So we move on to KT and I want to do the kill 18 Abominations achievement. I think hey, lets just agro it all and aoe it down, piece of cake right? Amalt, my cotank takes one side and I take the other and we go and cause a raid wipe. Many jokes ensue about their fearless leader and his um not so brillant strategies (some of the jokes made by myself). So we go in and do it the right way, having one of our hunters (taita) pull the abominations a cubby at a time to us and we end up getting our 18. We had a couple of deaths and battle rezzes, but then we are into phase 2.
Bam, ice block move thing and down goes Schekeria and Kiki, our primary healers for the tanks. This leaves Daerthy and ZimaSquid to keep me alive plus a few other healers that are not used to healing that much. Bam, iceblock takes out all our melee minus Daraia. Yet, we persist, bam, Amalt is dead, I am the only tank and 40% hits out come the adds. I manage to get all of them on me, and the burn to 0% starts. I am doing all the possible survival moves I know, and I eventually die, with KT having .3% life. We manage to kill him, get the achievement, but everyone is dead. IT was a great time of fun and fellowship and I thank God for my guild and the good time we had last night.
It is their encouragement of me that helps me to rise above criticism of others and the other stressors in my life. Thank you Guild and thank you God for your love and support in me.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Boys and their toys!
For those that follow my wife's blog, she already covered the new toys I have picked up for her and I.
Those that have no idea what I am talking about, it was a set of these for both her and I -
These headsets are incredible from audio quaility, features, etc.
My favorite thing is to use the voice changer and freak out un suspecting guild members (which is becoming fewer and fewer).
Ya, these guys are awesome!
So I guess the old saying is true, the only difference between boy toys and men toys is the price tag. Ya, these babies were expensive, but worth every penny.
In wow news, I almost got my hunter to Northrend (hopefully today) and my Paladin who this blog is for, is still tanking up a storm.
Well, I am back to work (I hate working weekends, but it pays the bills and buys toys)
Those that have no idea what I am talking about, it was a set of these for both her and I -
These headsets are incredible from audio quaility, features, etc.
My favorite thing is to use the voice changer and freak out un suspecting guild members (which is becoming fewer and fewer).
Ya, these guys are awesome!
So I guess the old saying is true, the only difference between boy toys and men toys is the price tag. Ya, these babies were expensive, but worth every penny.
In wow news, I almost got my hunter to Northrend (hopefully today) and my Paladin who this blog is for, is still tanking up a storm.
Well, I am back to work (I hate working weekends, but it pays the bills and buys toys)
Monday, February 22, 2010
It is beginning to look alot like Christmas....
Wait a minute, aren't we in the final stages of February? Christmas was 2 months ago!
Well, today merited the day when I got the snowblower out of the back shed and fired it up. We had 2 feet of snow, the nice make snow balls and snow man snow. The type that when the plow gets your street, you have to manually shovel it out. That type of snow. But I have to tell you, it is so beautiful out. It reminds me of Christmas.
It reminds me of Psalm 51:7
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
When God cleanses us, He makes us pure as white snow.
Ok, on to another reason it is Christmas.
I accomplished - What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been
Have a great journey!
Well, today merited the day when I got the snowblower out of the back shed and fired it up. We had 2 feet of snow, the nice make snow balls and snow man snow. The type that when the plow gets your street, you have to manually shovel it out. That type of snow. But I have to tell you, it is so beautiful out. It reminds me of Christmas.
It reminds me of Psalm 51:7
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
When God cleanses us, He makes us pure as white snow.
Ok, on to another reason it is Christmas.
I accomplished - What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Love and Honor
This time of year is a perfect time for paladins.
Why do I say that?
We have Love, where the Bible has a full chapter dedicated to it. (1 Cor 13)
As we celebrate Valentines Day and the Love is in the air, we need to remember we have a God that loved us more than we can imagine.
Next we have Honor. Paladins are all about Honor. In World of Warcraft we are celebrating the Chinese New Year with honoring the elders. While this is more a form of ancestor worship concept and against what I stand for, I do think it is important to honor and remember those that have gone before us.
So as Paladins, we should be all over this, being Honorable and Lovable today.
Why do I say that?
We have Love, where the Bible has a full chapter dedicated to it. (1 Cor 13)
As we celebrate Valentines Day and the Love is in the air, we need to remember we have a God that loved us more than we can imagine.
Next we have Honor. Paladins are all about Honor. In World of Warcraft we are celebrating the Chinese New Year with honoring the elders. While this is more a form of ancestor worship concept and against what I stand for, I do think it is important to honor and remember those that have gone before us.
So as Paladins, we should be all over this, being Honorable and Lovable today.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Two blogs in one day!
Yup, blogging again, but this time about balance issues.
Blizzard is having a poor time trying to balance end game play.
Here is the problems they faced -
Original WotLK was supposed to cap the item level at i245. Instead, it capped out at i284.
Ya, so some things scaled out of control, like Paladin tank health.
So we got a nerf, I am sure you have read about how blizzard just snuck it in and caused major server lag issues when they did it during normal prime time game play.
I am not really upset about the nerf, it was needed.
But now they have boosted warlock damage back up so they went from the worst dps class to the top dps class.
Other pure dps classes still fall behind hybrids.
On top of that all this stuff was rushed in because of Arena.
So here is my hope for the next expansion pack.
BALANCE.
Fix the game.
Get rid of Arena or make special Arena realms and servers where it is balanced around arena and not pve.
And I like pie.
Blizzard is having a poor time trying to balance end game play.
Here is the problems they faced -
Original WotLK was supposed to cap the item level at i245. Instead, it capped out at i284.
Ya, so some things scaled out of control, like Paladin tank health.
So we got a nerf, I am sure you have read about how blizzard just snuck it in and caused major server lag issues when they did it during normal prime time game play.
I am not really upset about the nerf, it was needed.
But now they have boosted warlock damage back up so they went from the worst dps class to the top dps class.
Other pure dps classes still fall behind hybrids.
On top of that all this stuff was rushed in because of Arena.
So here is my hope for the next expansion pack.
BALANCE.
Fix the game.
Get rid of Arena or make special Arena realms and servers where it is balanced around arena and not pve.
And I like pie.
A new era
Once again, I find myself blogging this Saturday morning, keeping my promise to try to blog once a week on the weekends.
My guild is transitioning into a new era. We have two new officers, a new strategy for raiding that is focusing on 10 mans.
My only concern is that since we started the transition, more people are coming out of the woodwork, originally, when we started we had just enough for 2 teams. Now it looks like maybe 2 and 1/2 to 3 teams. But the balance is wrong, cause it looks like we are lacking tanks and healers, so we will end up having to sit some people during the week.
Now one of the big transitions back to doing 10 mans is we could not get 25 people together to perform the raid content. Even now, with the spreadsheet I have made, I see that we do not have a single night that we have 25 people on to do the raid.
Also many people just could not handle the 25 man raids, they would lag out, DC, etc. Others just missed the fellowship that 10 mans provide. We were falling apart as a guild as people focused more on gear than having fun and fellowship. We were no longer Raiding for the Glory of God (our guild catch phrase), but raiding for self. At least that is the way it felt.
So now we embark in a new era. 10 man teams, running at different times, having fun and fellowship.
My guild is transitioning into a new era. We have two new officers, a new strategy for raiding that is focusing on 10 mans.
My only concern is that since we started the transition, more people are coming out of the woodwork, originally, when we started we had just enough for 2 teams. Now it looks like maybe 2 and 1/2 to 3 teams. But the balance is wrong, cause it looks like we are lacking tanks and healers, so we will end up having to sit some people during the week.
Now one of the big transitions back to doing 10 mans is we could not get 25 people together to perform the raid content. Even now, with the spreadsheet I have made, I see that we do not have a single night that we have 25 people on to do the raid.
Also many people just could not handle the 25 man raids, they would lag out, DC, etc. Others just missed the fellowship that 10 mans provide. We were falling apart as a guild as people focused more on gear than having fun and fellowship. We were no longer Raiding for the Glory of God (our guild catch phrase), but raiding for self. At least that is the way it felt.
So now we embark in a new era. 10 man teams, running at different times, having fun and fellowship.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Weekend Report
Sticking to my promise, blogging on the weekends.
So what has happened?
Eternity Matters got some firsts in 25 man Ulduar this week, with Iron Council down, Kolgram down, etc. The Cat lady stopped us.
Then quite a few of us last night got Saurafang the Younger down in 10 man ICC.
But I am still seeing the trend of loosing players in the guild, to the point we can't support 25 mans.
So I am looking at other possible things for us to do to keep moving forward.
Have a great weekend.
So what has happened?
Eternity Matters got some firsts in 25 man Ulduar this week, with Iron Council down, Kolgram down, etc. The Cat lady stopped us.
Then quite a few of us last night got Saurafang the Younger down in 10 man ICC.
But I am still seeing the trend of loosing players in the guild, to the point we can't support 25 mans.
So I am looking at other possible things for us to do to keep moving forward.
Have a great weekend.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Mid Week Blog
So I find myself in the rare situation of being able to blog today. That it is because of being sick with a stomach bug at home, ya, ick....
Anyway, I wanted to do a quick chat with you all. We are seeing more and more people stop playing the game. Now, Eternity Matters I transitioned into a Christian RAIDING guild, and yes, the loss of people make it harder to raid. But the flip side of the coin is we still are Christian. And each member to me is a family member, be it a brother, sister, grand parent, son or daughter, they all hold a special place. And it was getting sad for me to see them all go. Well, after lasts night's raid, God tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me about what it means to live for him. We had in another channel on vent my wife with a couple of others listen to one of our members pour out a struggle he was facing. I joined them after I had completed a quick 5 man random for other guildies. We encouraged this young man and prayed for him. A reminder not to forget those that are still with us.
So while I dearly miss all of you who have stepped away from the game for one reason or another, I am encouraged that God can still use the individuals in EM to minister to each other in their time of need.
Anyway, I wanted to do a quick chat with you all. We are seeing more and more people stop playing the game. Now, Eternity Matters I transitioned into a Christian RAIDING guild, and yes, the loss of people make it harder to raid. But the flip side of the coin is we still are Christian. And each member to me is a family member, be it a brother, sister, grand parent, son or daughter, they all hold a special place. And it was getting sad for me to see them all go. Well, after lasts night's raid, God tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me about what it means to live for him. We had in another channel on vent my wife with a couple of others listen to one of our members pour out a struggle he was facing. I joined them after I had completed a quick 5 man random for other guildies. We encouraged this young man and prayed for him. A reminder not to forget those that are still with us.
So while I dearly miss all of you who have stepped away from the game for one reason or another, I am encouraged that God can still use the individuals in EM to minister to each other in their time of need.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Happy 2010
So I admit again, I am fail at blogging. I even promised myself to blog more this year.
Things preventing that are restricted access at work, too much to do when I get home.
Well today, I have the afternoon off.
I wanted to touch on a couple of things.
We are seeing good people leave the game, because the focus has changed.
It makes me sad to see the various people leave.
My wife covered it quite well in her blog - The Hour of Our Discontent
So here are some of my goals -
Gear is pixels on the screen, I am not going to buy into the non personal game style that is dominating the culture right now, but make every effort to be with people (even though I am not very social myself).
I do not want to hear people say they are lonely in game no more.
I am going to encourage that attitude in others.
From a pure game perspective -
I am going to finish all the raid content from Wrath down to generic wow before we get the next expansion.
I am going to focus on the fun things and the positive things.
All while trying to balance this with my family.
To my faithful readers, thanks for reading!
I hope to blog now every weekend.
Things preventing that are restricted access at work, too much to do when I get home.
Well today, I have the afternoon off.
I wanted to touch on a couple of things.
We are seeing good people leave the game, because the focus has changed.
It makes me sad to see the various people leave.
My wife covered it quite well in her blog - The Hour of Our Discontent
So here are some of my goals -
Gear is pixels on the screen, I am not going to buy into the non personal game style that is dominating the culture right now, but make every effort to be with people (even though I am not very social myself).
I do not want to hear people say they are lonely in game no more.
I am going to encourage that attitude in others.
From a pure game perspective -
I am going to finish all the raid content from Wrath down to generic wow before we get the next expansion.
I am going to focus on the fun things and the positive things.
All while trying to balance this with my family.
To my faithful readers, thanks for reading!
I hope to blog now every weekend.
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