SW:TOR Event: Fun Times In Nar Shadaa!

Welcome to the starting line for the Div 9 Biathlon Relay!

Before anything starts, you will need to figure out your teams:

MAKE YOUR OWN!  HAHA.

Events:

Each team will tackle 2 events, and there are major ways that you can help or hinder your team.  Keep your mind open and think as a team!

·         Start:  Head to Nar Shaddaa.  Take the taxi to the Corellian Sector speeder point and follow the path east.  Take your starting place at the bottom of the ramp with your relay item. Wait for the visual cue to start, and then off you go!

·         Event 1:  Manual Dexterity:  There is a +3 Aim Datacron that we are after, and it involves crossing those beams.  For those who have never done this datacron or would like a quick guide, check out this link (mid-way down the page).  The catch to this leg is that you must have ALL team members on the beam where the datacron is to continue to the final leg of the race.  You don’t all have to go the same route, but your whole team must be on the roof to continue on!
·         Event 2: Mental Challenge:  As soon as you have everyone together and grouped up, your team member may pass the baton item to the last team member.  As soon as this team member gets the item, they will whisper the WC-A that they have the baton, and then will receive a link that the WC-A will send to them via vent private chat.  You must work to figure out the answers to all 5 questions as a team, and may use the internet, but the person who has the link to the questions is the only one who can submit answers to the WC-A.  To submit an answer, do so via a private message in vent.  Once all 5 answers have been submitted and you have received the message “5/5”, you will trade the baton to the WC-A to officially finish!

Rules:

·         Give it your all and have fun!  ^.^

·         If at any time you lose or destroy the baton item, you will have to go to the Imperial Medical Droid NPC (right by the speeder point) to buy a new one.

·        Each group may ask ONE question before we start, no more.  This is not “interrogate the WC-A about the event to see how we can find a loophole” time, dammit!  ^.~

·         Any judgment call will be done by the WC-A and will be done as fairly as possible.

Talent Changes and Fun Times in 5.0

With the latest patch, there has been a lot to explore and get used to on our beloved characters in WoW.  The biggest change seems to have been the switch from traditional "trees" of specializations to 6 tiered skill specialization options.  This, on first glance, seemed to be a large step away from the familiar trees that make their appearances in MMOs across the world, and perhaps a step in the wrong direction.  However, after really looking it through on my paladin, I am thinking that this is an okay thing.  Sure, change scares players at first, but the good players embrace it and make it work in some way!  I am pleased that it seems that Blizzard has reversed direction and instead of making things "difficult to learn, easy to master," they have opted instead for "easy to learn, difficult to master," which really makes me happy.  In WoTLK and Cataclysm, all one had to do was find a popular build for your character, get gear, and then faceroll your way to victory.  This lead to many people having ridiculously geared out characters and situations leading to frustrated raid leaders wondering why their top DPS was standing in the fire.  The new talent system really gives players the option to change their character and the way that they play.  Essentially, all holy paladins may be similar, but the beauty and mastery of one's character comes from the talents they now choose and their gameplay style!  It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Mists of Pandaria.

Akane sporting her Replica Lightforge set.
I really like this pic.  <3

In other news, I GOT THE SPRITE DARTER HATCHLING!!!  I must say that this one was definitely harder to farm than the Fox Kit, in large part due to the ridiculously low drop rate.  While committing genocide is not something I relish, I will do it to get my hands on adorable companion pets.

Akane & her Sprite Darter!  (Lawbringer Set)

People aiming to snag this little technicolor pet, I encourage you to take your time.  Do an hour or two of farming here, another couple hours at another time all together...  I did most of my farming in the evenings, but when I had a chance today during lunch, I gave it a shot again and was pleased as punch to get this little guy fairly quickly into my session.  I still killed what seemed like a HELL of a lot of them beforehand though (1500+), and am glad to cross this pet off my Wish List.  ^.^

And finally, on the mage front:  I'm generally pleased overall with the changes to my mage, but still feel like the talents are skewed too much toward fire and frost (consequently, I am betting that we will see a definite rise in fire mages in the next few months).  I'm still playing with this character to bring out more DPS from her.  More news on that as it develops.

And now, I bring you... gratuitous fun with 5.0 Polar Bear Polymorph!

Polar Bear Den!

Argent Tournament Polar Bears!

...Whut?

It FLEW AWAY when I got too close to the rhino!  o.o
Someone should go get that polar bear down from there...

Star Wars Guild Event: Triathlon Relay!

Welcome to the starting line for the Div 9 Triathlon Relay!

Before anything starts, you will need to figure out your teams:

• Team Jawa: Frank, Phil, Brian
• Team Tauntaun: Gordon, Jeff, Jason
• Team Orokeet: Ken, Jay, and Kevin
• Team Party Bomb: Ring Ring & Matt
• Team Lightsaber: Dan, Dave, Bob

Events:

Each team member will be tackling one event per person (in teams of 2, you will have 1 person who does the 1^st and 3^rd events), but pay attention!  Everyone will be involved, and there are major ways that you can help or hinder your team.  Keep your mind open and think as a team!

·         Event 1:  Speeder Race: You will line up on the starting line on Tatooine in your favorite speeder and receive the baton, an item that will be used to pass between the team members throughout the overall event.  You will be racing from the sandstone arch in the Northern section of the desert right outside Mos Iila, around through the arch toward the southeast, and then loop back and up through the narrow pass and back to the start (see the map below for the official route).  The person doing the first event will be in a group with the WC-A so that she can see you on her map.  You may scoot close to the corners of the route, avoid mobs, kill mobs, or whatever you need to do to get through the course the fastest!  Wait for the visual cue to start, and then off you go!

·         Event 2:  Manual Dexterity:  There is a +3 Cunning Datacron in Mos Iila, and that is the crux of our next leg of the Triathlon.  As soon as the team member who was doing the speeder challenge crosses the finish line, he/she will then trade the baton item to the team member starting the next leg of the race.  As soon as that person has it, off they go to the next start point (see the map below for the datacron route) and start to make their way across the rooftops to the datacron.  For those who have never done this datacron or would like a quick guide, check out this link (last one on the page).  The catch to this leg is that you must have ALL team members on the roof where the datacron is to continue to the final leg of the race.  You don’t all have to go the same route, but your whole team must be on the roof to continue on!

·         Event 3: Mental Challenge:  As soon as you have everyone together and grouped up, your team member may pass the baton item to the last team member.  As soon as this team member gets the item, they will whisper the WC-A that they have the baton, and then will receive a link that the WC-A will send to them via vent private chat.  You must work to figure out the answers to all 5 questions as a team, and may use the internet, but the person who has the link to the questions is the only one who can submit answers to the WC-A.  To submit an answer, do so via a private message in vent.  Once all 5 answers have been submitted and you have received the message “all 5 answers correct”, you will trade the baton to the WC-A to officially finish!

Rules:

·         Give it your all and have fun!  ^.^

·         If at any time you lose or destroy the baton item, you will have to go to the NPC "Phrague" (the stims vendor by the speeder point) to buy a new one.

·         Speed Racers:  If you veer from the path, you will be penalized by having to wait before finishing for an extra 10 seconds per infraction.

·         Each group may ask ONE question before we start, no more.  This is not “interrogate the WC-A about the event to see how we can find a loophole” time, dammit!  ^.~

·         Any judgment call will be done by the WC-A and will be done as fairly as possible.

What's In Kita's Bag?

In my endeavors to help our guildies as they discover WoW and all of it's loveliness, it occurred to me that when I was just starting out, I wanted to hoard EVERYTHING.  I had no idea what to keep on me, what to put in my bank, and it took me a while to figure out exactly where to put everything.  Then again, I'm a natural pack-rat, and when combined with mild OCD, it makes for very organized gaming.  But in any case, I thought I would give you glimpse inside my main character's bag to let you know what an end-game character is toting around.

Rainbow-colored bags!  :D

The top of my bags have at least 40 free slots for items that I pick up, and that seems to be a pretty good number for what I do in-game.  I'm a big fan of cleaning out my bags frequently and repairing my gear just as frequently!

I'll start from the lower right hand side.  The square that is not highlighted at all in the corner, of course, is my hearthstone.  Gets you back to wherever you choose to bind yourself at, and I never leave home without it!

Next, the yellow squares.  These are squares that pertain to my professions.  Akane is a blacksmith and engineer, so she has her tools that help her do that.  The vertical yellow section contains my fishing gear and cooking hat!  Gotta love items that increase your secondary professions' skill level and speed.  The cooking hat makes you cook like you are an Iron Chef, no joke.  o.o

The other couple unhighlighted squares are quest items for the Darkmoon Faire.  If you haven't been there yet, you must.  Even if you are a lowbie, you MUST go there.  Fun faire games, heirloom items, achievements, fishing...  Oh yesh.  Go there.

The light blue squares are items that enable me to teleport to different locations (other than where my hearthstone is bound).  These are immensely handy when trying to get somewhere fast, or when my hearthstone is on cooldown.

The large section in red is actually my secondary spec gear and my PvP gear.  Some people will leave their extra sets of gear in their bank, but if they don't have a way to quickly pull it out of their bank when needed, it really defeats the purpose of being able to quickly fulfill a role.  Plus, when a Night Elf is camping your favorite fishing spot, you're gonna want to bust out your PvP gear quickly and destroy him before he even realizes you're there!

The green items are my playthings!  WoW has all sorts of fun items to play with, whether you're waiting for a dungeon queue to pop, or just hanging around with friends in-game, everyone has at least one item like these in your bags.  My personal favorite?  The Bones of Transformation.  I <3 being a naga.

The dark blueish-purple items are a MUST: raid food.  Now, in my bags, there are several different foods that I carry because of my diverse abilities.  There are also feasts in there; items that will feed more than just myself are handy when tackling a particularly tough situation and you need everyone in your group to be on point!

And finally, the pink section is the flask/potion/first aid section.  Flasks are a MUST for raiding, and again, I keep several different flasks on me for my different roles.  Same thing goes for potions (which I appear to have run out of ^.^').  Always be prepared and bring health/mana potions, as well as bandages.  You never know when those can come in handy, especially if used in conjunction with a macro.

Well, that's that.  I hope I have given you a helpful little glimpse into what my characters normally run around with, and what you can throw in your bank to make things easier when questing, raiding, or whatever else you may want to do in WoW.

This post features the addon "OneBag," which makes organizing and searching in your bags an easy and stress-free experience.  ^.^

New Pet & New Mounts!

It's been a while since I have posted, but it is not for lack of gaming!  I have been doing a lot in SW:TOR and WoW, and am excited for so many things coming up!

Division Nine (my guild) is one boss kill away from clearing everything in the SW:TOR PVE end-game content.  3% left on Kephess, we can do it!

In WoW-related personal news, I got the Vial of The Sands recipe on my Druid a while back, and promptly set about making a beautiful Sandstone Drake!  So excited about that.  ^.^  13 canopic jars later...

This is a truly awesome mount.  Also managed to pick up the Crawling Claw via Archaeology, which is a fun pet!  It makes the same squeaky-purring noises as the Creepy Crate and walks with its fingers.

A friend helped me get this one: The Spectral Windrider.

There will be more news coming, but right now I need to get ready for a guild event!

~Kita  ^.^

Nar Shaddaa Questions

1.  Chiss is a race that a few of us like to play.  What is this species' homeworld?
2.  Jay likes to bring his little Tauntaun everywhere he goes.  What is the Tauntaun's name?
3.  One of our guild members had a birthday yesterday.  Who was it?
4.  Ken likes to make videos for us.  What is the company pseudonym that he makes them under?
5.  How much did George Lucas sell Lucasarts for?

Change Of Titles & Reasoning Behind The Awesome

Again, I haven't been writing here with any sort of regularity, which really sucks for my one reader.  xD  Anyhow, things have been going down an interesting path in the world of this paladin.  Recently, my Guild Master, Fallenjack, stepped sideways and gave me the acting title of GM for Bloodforged.  This was something that we had spoke of for a long time, so it was not a snap decision.  Initially I was not totally thrilled with it, seeing as how my GM put a hell of a lot of time and effort into the guild, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to lead as effectively as he did.  But eventually, I came around, and I am sure that I will be fine GM for our little guild.  Thank goodness Fallenjack will still be stepping into WoW to help lead our raids!

Aside from that, it seems that Bloodforged is... taking another impromptu vacation.  -.-'  On the up side, at least we all know each other enough to let each other know what is going on.  My shaman is moving to a new place (Arkansas, mecca of... ______?) and my rogue is taking a trip to Vermont to see some friends and do some other assorted things up there.  And with my 2 warriors, 1 hunter, and myself enjoying Star Wars The Old Republic, I suppose it's up to my second hunter and the crickets to get the raiding done!  Cricket DPS is viable in raids, yeah?

On the subject of SWTOR, I must say that I am thinking of making this a gamer's blog, not just a WoW blog.  Which is slightly sad because I <3 my banner art so hard, I should have the original framed and hung in my den.  In SWTOR I have focused on 2 characters, both Sith Twi'lek Inquisitors, one as a sorcerer (healer) and one an assassin (tank).  Thus far, my healer is the one I am particularly enjoying.  I'm not sure that this is due to my cautious nature and my fondness for having a meat shield in front of me, but Akanekita has been reincarnated once more as a healer!  Kyriekita went from a mage to a tank.  ...  *insert mage tank joke here* I may yet change her to a DPS assassin...  Time will tell.  All I know about her is that I want her to have some awesome pink light sabers at some point.  >:D  Pink light sabers = badass.

Oh!  So here are some interesting thoughts that I wanted to put here...

This is something I realized the other day while talking to Fallenjack (who also has been reincarnated in SWOTR as a Sith Juggernaut):  When I decide what character to play in an MMORPG, I mainly do so based on looks.  Shallow, perhaps, but that's exactly how it is for me!  I want to play a character that I like to look at!  My first character in Perfect World was a venomancer, not because I liked the caster/pet class, but because I wanted to have a fox tail and fox ears.  THAT'S IT.  In WoW, I saw the other paladins and got all starry-eyed because of their beautiful plate armor and impressive weapons.  And now in SWTOR I want to wield the spiffy double light sabers and saber staffs.  In a possible act of personal atonement for my shallowness, my secondary method of choosing a character has to do with the people I play with.  Depending on the group or partner, I will choose something that compliments their classes.  If they are all tank/DPS, I'm the healer; if we already have heals, I roll as DPS, etc.  This usually ends up with me finding new things that I enjoy, or things that frustrate the hell out of me!

If you are reading this, I want to know:  Why do you play the classes/races/characters you play?

How can you NOT want to look this awesome?!?