State of the Union

Just a quick update to my current status as of last thing Monday night. I hit 58, so the Dark Portal is open to me now though I'm gonna keep running through Azeroth till I'm done with the quests I want to get done.

I'm 2/3 of the way to 59 and with a few quests left in Western Plaguelands, and a few complete quests still to hand in in places like Winterspring. So 60 is looking highly possible now, which hopefully should allow me to make 70 before the end of the year. Which means I can start gearing up in the New Year. Hopefully at that point everyone else in the guild will be ready to start raiding, and really I'll be playing catch up in terms of being well enough geared.

Right, that's enough for now.

The Build

So I thought I'd share my ideal finished build for Antaris with the world. Unfortunately though the old embedded talent calculator from Wowhead no longer works, so it's just gonna have to be a list :(


Divine Strength 5/5

Imp. Devotion Aura 5/5
Precision 3/3

Imp. Blessing of Might 5/5
Benediction 5/5
Imp. Judgement 2/2
Imp. Seal of the Crusader 3/3
Conviction 5/5
Seal of Command 1/1
Crusade 3/3
Two-Handed Weapon Spec 3/3
Sanctity Aura 1/1
Imp. Sanctity Aura 2/2
Vengeance 5/5
Sanctified Judgement 3/3
Sanctified Seals 3/3
Repentance 1/1
Fanaticism 5/5
Crusader Strike 1/1


http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxZxhZEf0t0cuiIot

Slow Progress

Well I haven't made my lightning level quota for the past week. Unfortunately work has got in the way, early starts and late finishes have just left me too tired to play. Don't know if this is gonna let up much until we reach the holidays, but I'm still hoping for 60 by the end of the week, though this may be a tough ask given the fact I'm gonna be out of commission totally for at least 2 days this week. But the aim is 70 by the end of the year, then gearing up and getting ready for instances and raiding, but that could take a while to get through. I'd be happy to be in a position to get going in February to be honest. Anyway watch this space for future developments.

Welcome to Antaris-Land!!!!!

What? Too many exclamations? :)

So how is the world turning for me now?

Mostly .... great, to be honest.

Ok, the guild was a waste of time, but then I was only in it a signature with no serious consideration of staying anyway, but it was like a competition to see how many noobs you can fit into one place. Or maybe to see if the world collapses in on itself if too many of them are put in the same place at the same time. To summarise, I've left, the fact I've put on 17 levels in the time it's taken the GM (A hunter) to put on 2. I'm not saying he's useless, but I could probably roll a hunter and level it to 70 before he gets there.

I've slightly altered my talent build, eliminating some things that are more PvP, and making allowances for the 2.3.2 changes. I'm enjoying the change for the most part, it's like a weird combination of rogue and mage in terms of control of abilities, and I think I'm still coming to grips with some of the abilities. It still makes me laugh when people group with me and start shouting at me to heal. "I've run out of bandages, guess again" :P Truth is I can heal okay, and weirdly I'd probably make a reasonable back up at 70 with an allowance for Spell Damage/Healing factored into gearing. I'm never gonna be a great healer, but I'll probably have enough to tip the scales in a fight. But, DPS is what I'm about. Am I totally comfortable with every little nuance of the Retadin. No, but I'm slowly getting there. Figuring out which Seals to Judge seems to be a very hit or miss affair, a lot of a Retadin's DPS comes from SoC and that can have a really weird proc rate. Some fights it doesn't happen, other fights it happens every hit. I'm happy with some of the scary crits I can already bang down, considering the rubbish gear I have. I've managed to push a double crit (melee and SoC) out to about 1.3k (450 & 850). That should slowly creep up as I get better and better gear.

So, the big question is, what am I trying to achieve here?

I guess I never really thought in terms of long term goals. I just wanted a break from the place I was at on Khadgar, where I was pretty much at the point of just leaving the game totally it had become that much of a chore. I needed to put "wind back into my sails" so to speak. To find a reason to play, and just enjoy the basics the game has to offer. I guess one thing that I'd forgotten and maybe Hellgate brought back was my competitive streak, the side of me that once played UT, Quake, CS and even Kingpin online in Clans. The part of me that still wants to feel the fire that PvP brings, while not necessarily going back to it. Hellgate wasn't PvP, but suddenly I had the adrenaline rush that's been gone for a while, it was just being pushed to the extremes and fighting your way back. Knowing that you could rely on everyone around you to do their job, so you could concentrate on yours. It's been a while since I felt that in Warcraft, of recent times it's been more a case of knowing what mistakes everyone will make so that you can make allowances.

So, I'm better than everyone else?

Hell, no. I make my fair share of mistakes. I'm not as good at my job as I'd like to be, and there are times, when I feel I've let myself down in instances. I try to adapt and learn though. Renvik and Morwena both changed builds to become more effective at what they do. It worked for the most part, but again it's not perfect. I just don't see that same level of drive in everyone. Maybe that's the hardcore gamer in me, playing to win, not playing purely for fun, and I guess we are all different. It all comes down to this one single immutable fact ...

You can only share a common vision, with people who see things the same way as you.

And so it begins .... again!!!

So the world turns and for the time being at least I feel a little bit of love for the game once more, so is it a cool uber epic, a new pattern or a really successful instance. No. It is in fact a complete re-roll. I looked at all the problems and heartache that Khadgar has brought me over the last few months, and decided it was probably better for everyone concerned if I just moved on, so I looked around, found a server that had a couple of people I knew from the days of DUTY and decided, sod it, why not.

It's almost cathartic, to have no-one there, for it to be completely silent all the time. I guess I never realised how much white noise I'd been creating around me. So I took a step in a very sideways direction. A class and spec combo I swore I'd never play, just to see if I can totally cast myself as the outsider. I guess if I'm gonna make it, it's gonna be the hard way.

So here ends the tale of Renvik (at least for now), and here begins the tale of ....

To watch as all things turn to ruin ...

Once again my ability to update the site does not seem to have changed. I seem to do anything to avoid it, which seems to be a recurring theme in my life really.

So what has changed?

Well, pretty much everything. The person that gave Warcraft more meaning to me has left the server on their main, so I guess that puts me another friend down. I've largely stopped enjoying the game, and to that end have left TDD. I don't know what it was, but I always felt kind of stifled, and like I couldn't really be myself there. Asides from the fact I can't agree with some of the decisions that have been made recently, the time it took to make a push to recruit tanks and healers after the problems we've had with them recently, the now weekly decision in Kara to miss out the Maiden because we don't seem to be able to do it and finally, but definitely the last nail in the coffin, bringing up the Black Roses again. Honestly, it was a guild that lasted a few months, and has not been a part of the lives of most of the guild. It's time to get over it!!!

For me, I've moved some characters on slightly, mostly because I'm waiting for 2.3 and it's speed levelling goodness. Grundir is finally in Outland at level 60, and now he's getting an opportunity to build up some rest. Silvena is now level 55, and burning her way towards Outland as well. Most of the rest are still around the level 40 bracket, and as soon as 2.3 hits, then it's full force to move everyone up to 60. The advantage of not having a guild is that you can just go and do whatever it is that matters to you, and at the moment that is more having some fun, rather than the Tier 4 fever that seems to have hit TDD. So I'll plod on and see what it is that keeps me amused in game. It was a revelation to me that I hadn't had any fun for a long time in game, and then I got an invite to a Sethekk Halls run, by two old friends, and suddenly it was a laugh. It wasn't a perfect run by any means, but it wasn't taken too seriously, and that light hearted play is what I miss.

So what of Ren and Morwena, well Ren is pretty much consigned to rep and money grinds, and Morwena, after all the work getting her gear together, has basically been boxed up and put in storage for the time being. Time to see what the world has to offer a serial-leveller. :)

Update of the Century!!!

It's been a while since I last updated here, because I've been super busy, well no not really, I've been super lazy to be honest.

So what's happened since I could last be bothered to write?

Renvik is now attuned to Karazhan, woohoo, Black Morass finally completed after about a billion tries, or at least it feels that way, and I've even been inside to have a look.

Morwena is now level 70 and has the first 2 fragments for her attunement, that's what we call being a glutton for punishment, "Get 1 character attuned for Karazhan? Not me. I want a whole army ready to go." Lol.

The others are fairing differently, Grundir is 56, and seems to be getting less inspiring every time I play him, I realise the importance of tanks, but bloody hell they are boring to play. Silvena is now 48, and well on her way to 49, so hopefully not much longer till I reach 50 and with it Vampiric Touch. Illiad has probably developed DVT from his lack of activity of recent times, but I will go back to him eventually. Edril is 33, and may stay there for a bit, a lot less inspiration to play him since I read an interview with Nihlium saying how non-Holy Paladins are "less than optimum" classes, and then saying that a resto-Shaman can out heal a Holy Pala anyway. A lot of the others have stayed at 30, with the exception of Orfeus, who has now moved onto 36. I'm starting to enjoy him, even though his weapon isn't great and is probably slowing down his progress, but I am loathe to buy anything else because I'll be switching to Dual Wield in a couple of levels and the two-hander will be relatively useless.

I've stalled on my side project, just not had the time to devote to it, or most importantly the willingness, especially given the fact I've started another one. A test bed character for something I should have tried ages ago, but have never bothered my arse with.

Well I think that's about it, don't know that my enthusiasm for the game has picked up, every time I look I rep grinds, I really believe I can't be arsed, but know they are probably the way to go. I shall see how I feel over the next short while, maybe it's time for a break, like until the guild gets another online tank and healer so we can do more than one instance at a time.