Tyrk: The Long Strange Meme

1. Raider, farmer, PvPer, or altoholic?
Oom raids, he and I both farm, I've been getting the itch to raid, I have PvP'd, but mostly that's what Cocci does now that the Noble Alliance is defunct.

So yeah, I guess altoholic it is.

2. Favorite raid or dungeon?
Blackrock Depths. The place is gorgeously crafted, fun. They've got a bar! With a band! I've still never been to a L80ETC show. Keep telling myself I'll get to it, but I never do.

3. Number one choice for a new playable race?
Troll. lol, jk. Another of those things I will one day do is level up a Troll Shaman. But with Worgen coming out, I think Worgen Bear is the next . . . Ah who am I kidding. I always come back to Night Elves.

4. Class you suck the most at?
Undead. Yeah, I know it's not a class. I've played them all at least 20-30 levels, have enjoyed them all and could probably do well at any. Race is what I get quirky about. I have trouble playing Gnomes (too nasal), Humans (ugh, that sigh), Blood Elves (so condescending) and Undead. Too creepy, too vindictive, too dark. It's just not me.

5. Original UI or modded UI?
Original. I've spent so much time troubleshooting upgrades for an IRL job that I just don't want that to be part of my hobby. As a general rule, which I sometimes break, I avoid addons.

6. Profession you’ve never levelled past 200?
None of them. The lowest I've levelled is inscription to 250ish. Avenyx is currently levelling blacksmithing and jewelcrafting and is at about 350ish in both. Every other profession one of us either has or has had to 450. Well, except Oom is a slacker alchemist who figures he can take a break at 447.

The Night Elf Nation doesn't actually have any current skinner or engineer and Nanisivik just topped 400 in first aid. I had skinning to 450 but dropped it for herbalism to help Oom level alchemy. The engineer, who also had 450 first aid, was an Undead Death Knight. I know . . . ironic given (4), but it's a different story.

7. Favorite flying mount?
Druid flight form, hands down. Cocci likes her flying carpets, so maybe they're a close second.

8. Nozdormu — friend or foe, you figure?
Neither one. Personally, I disagree that the time flow as it currently exists is the time flow as it must exist or best exists, but my opinion on the subject is admittedly undereducated and irrelevant. The Black Dragonflight would change it to our detriment and the Bronze has stood resolutely against them. That is enough for me that I will trust Nozdormu in the matter.

9. Useless item you have in your bank that you’ll never get rid of?
I enjoy my Dartol's Rod of Transformation. It's a fun toy. Perhaps not exactly useless though, being entertaining and all. For useless ask Oom about his Lucky Charm, Cocci about her Mood Ring, or Nanisivik about his Haute Club Membership Card. Avenyx? No, I don't think she owns anything useless.

10. Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
The most money I've ever spent at one time was for epic flight training. All three of us druids have. However, that's more a skill than a "thing", so . . . hm. Epic gems, probably. Unless you want to count our Celestial Steeds, but that's a whole different type of "expense".

11. Favorite starting area?
Teldrassil, of course. Perhaps just because I'm old and nostalgic. But I wander out on a limb to watch the sunset and it takes me back to, well, a long time ago when this whole world held so much more wonder. I love the music, the colors, the architecture. I love that it's home.

12. Inane goal you worked hardest to achieve?
Gah, the Long Strange Trip. I mean, the Violet Proto-Drake is cool, 310% flight form is awesome, the holidays really are fun . . . but a to do list? Man, I just want to dance.

13. Darion Mograine VS Tirion Fordring, gloves off — winner is?
Tirion, in the long run. Because Good will always triumph over . . . well I guess Mograine isn't actually Evil . . . but Good will triumph over everything in the end. I believe that.

14. Game music or your own playlist?
You kids and your new fangled things. Playlist? I do like the music in Dalaran, Exodar and Howling Fjord.

15. Particular option or setting that you always toggle on a new alt/server?
Key bars, equipment manager.

16. Highest amount of levels gained in one play session?
Low levels fly by so quickly. Several times I've levelled a new toon 1-10+ in a single session. At higher levels, I've levelled death knights 55-58 in a single session. Again, though, those are designed to go quickly. Other than those, once I've passed level 20, I don't think I've ever completed more than two levels at a time.

17. Thing you’d most like to experience or see in-game?
I was really hoping for Worgen shamans. I'd like to play a shaman, I'd like to play one with my Alliance side friends. But the cognative dissonance created by space goat shaman makes my head spin. Maybe I'll try a Dwarf shaman.

18. Worst PuG moment?
I'll let Cocci tell you about the worst ever.

Coccinelle: lol, okay. So this is back before LFD, right? I used to get whispers all the time asking if I healed and could I come heal ~whatever~. Well I was in the auction hall looking for deals on enchanting mats and a mage, I think it was, asked if I would heal Sethekk Halls. Well, yeah, I was always game at the time. Also in the group was a fury warrior and some flavor of hunter, but no fifth.

The mage and I arrive at the summoning stone to find it camped by a Horde warrior and enhancement shaman. They were a couple level higher than us, like 67-68 or so, and we were a clothie and a healer. It didn't go well. While running back from the graveyard for a second time, the mage invited player five to the party, a level 80 mage. Hereafter, they will be mage Dee and mage Dum, respectively.

But my initial thought was, "Sweet! Now we'll get to payback those Hordies and summon the other two." Like a bad omen, though, mage Dum got his derrier handed to him by dudes 12-13 levels lower. So we just told the warrior and hunter to hoof it and head inside.

Warrior arrives and hunter asks, "Hey, when can I get a summon?"

Mage Dum asks, "who's tanking?" and mage Dee answers, "the warrior."

lol! The fury warrior?! But hey, we have a level 80 mage along. It's not like he has to hold aggro for long right? At least he owns a shield.

First pull mage Dee did a sheep pull, warrior had trouble with the aggro thing and mage Dum spent the whole fight criticizing sheep pulls. Not casting spells and criticizing . . . just criticizing and doing nothing else. Second pull includes a Time Lost Controller, mage Dee again sheep pulled (which I'm okay with) but doesn't sheep the Controller (which I'm not okay with). Tank grabs up aggro, I tossed around preemptive HoTs, and start killing the Controller, but I'm, like a healer, right? I can't kill it fast enough, totem comes down, MCs mage Dum who one shots the party with an arcane explosion. That's right, he can't figure out PvP, but give an Arakkoa access to his action bars and we were all toast.

The whole run back, mage Dum lectured us about learning to play our roles correctly. Tanks should be prot, should pull, and I should have been in tree form. When I mentioned that maybe if he had unleashed some of his awesome on the bad guys, then maybe they would have died instead of using him to kill us, mage Dum informed us that he wasn't along to run us through. He was going to help us learn to play better so we'd be ready to raid at 80.

So we wiped similarly two more times in the first hallway.

Hunter finally arrived. Warrior was starting to figure out the tanking thing. Everyone was finally on the same "kill the Controllers first" page. I mean everyone except mage Dum, whose only contribution continued to be unwelcome criticism. We managed to clear the first room with no wipes, despite hunter taking a few turns pulling. Then he dropped without a word.

"Go ahead and pull the next one," said mage Dee. Why not, right? We did so well with just one dps in the first hall. But I didn't say it. Instead I went through the motions and died as soon as the totem came down and mind controlled mage Dum. So mage Dee bitched me out for not helping her burn down the totem fast enough and dropped group. Yeah, like, sorry my healer dps wasn't l33t enough to avoid getting one shot by a level 80 mage. Mage Dum continued lecturing us about our horrible habits fellow raiders will hate.

Surprisingly, warrior and I didn't have time to find replacements and continue the run.

Stupid, self-centered, rude party members are the epitome of a bad PUG. Warrior was cool. The other three made that an awful 30-45 minutes of time.

19. Best dungeon/raid moment?
Coccinelle: I think I'll take this one too. My experience is such a nice symmetry with (18).

Once again I was looking for enchanting mats in the auction hall and was whispered to come to Sethekk Halls. This time by a priest who was willing to either heal or dps. I arrived at Auchindoun to help summon the feral druid, warlock and protection paladin. While standing around, the priest and I chatted for a while. She was very nice, just coming back to the game after leaving. Again. It had happened several times, lol. I checked her gear and she was missing several pieces. Not just bad gear, but no gear. Like no shoulders, no wand, no trinkets, no bracers. Just empty slots.

"Maybe I should heal," I suggested. And good thing I did. The pally had hardly more health than I did (at 6k to my 5.5k). He took so much damage so fast I had to double check he had a shield. It was so bad that when I dropped tree form to help kill the Time Lost Controller, the pally nearly died.

"Wow, I forgot how much damage I do in shadow spec," commented the priest, obviously enjoying it and just as obviously totally oblivious that the other two had nearly double her 250 dps.

So we cleared the first hall. Midway through the first fight of that first room, the warlock dropped group. After the second fight, pally asks, "where did the 'lock go?" and dropped group when we told him warlock had left a fight and a half ago.

"Oh hell no!" said the feral, "this instance will not kick our ass!" Switched to bear form and made the next pull. And we crushed it. I dps'd nearly the whole fight because the bear needed so little healing. He had, like 10K health and must have had 40-50% dodge. It was so easy the undergeared priest could do it, so I suggested that maybe, since I had been collecting the gear for it, maybe the fights would go quicker if I dps and she healed? Thankfully she took no offense, I switched to balance spec and we had a blast three manning it through the first boss. Not a single wipe, not even a death, the whole time.

There's more to the story if I went into the first time we did wipe after the boss, the two dps we eventually found, the exciting accidental three group pull that nearly wiped us but didn't, the time they started the Ikiss fight with no healers in the room . . . not out if impatience or disrespect to the healers . . . they were just fun loving and cocky and willing to give it a go. But my point is it was fun, exciting and good company. Everything you could ask for in a run.

20. Worst quest ever that you totally hate doing?
Tyrk: Thanks Cocci, I'll finish it up now. Worst quest, huh? I dislike that the Kirin Tor asked me to torture their prisoner "because, well, we have standards, you know." And what? I don't?

21. First thing you do when you hit 80?
Try on all my new level 80 gear with new arcanum and inscriptions.

22. Character (of yours) you would RP as if you had to?
None, really. Or all, maybe? I guess that's what Night Elf Nation is at it's core. I mean, my gaming roots are firmly planted in D&D soil, but I've always approached it with an eye to strategy. With a creative streak. There's a pragmatic purpose to each of us . . . Cocci was a role needed in a group, I was ease of soloing, Oom was a spec to try out . . . but the depth of our environment makes the role play that happens on this blog very satisfying.

If I were actually going to role play a character he would be an entirely new one. Almost certainly a young Night Elf, an engineer, probably a combat rogue or survival hunter.

23. Keyboard, mouse, or both for using abilities?
I click. I know I should hotkey abilities, but I'm in the click habit and haven't gotten around to changing.

24. Thottbot or WoWhead?
Wowhead.

25. Acronym you’ve seen in chat but don’t understand?
It took me a while to pick up on "omw". I thought it was "oh my word", but knew I was wrong . . . it just didn't make sense in context.

26. Plot point you’d like to see resolved someday?
There's a quest chain that took me away from a Night Elf zone for the first time (other than the quest for water form). These worgen in Ashenvale are guarding a shrine of sorts and evidence at the shrine indicates the Scythe of Elune was taken to Duskwood. I followed the clues which indicated that it had been there . . . and then the trail goes cold. I'd like to pick it up again.

27. Biggest thing you’re looking forward to in Cataclysm?
I've been looking forward to levelling a bear druid since my attempt at it when I hit level 80. There seems to be a lot to bear tanking that I should have learned as I levelled, but didn't. I just enjoyed cat so much. I think a Worgen Bear seems pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to it.

28. Guild event you’d like to see?
The immediate thing I'd like to see is the Crimson Dragon beat Sindragosa. Of course the Lich King is the real goal, but the last phase of Sindragosa has been tough for Oom and his fellow raiders.

29. Level range you hate being in?
You know that quest chain I mentioned a few questions back (26)? Well that's about the last one in Ashenvale. It sent me to Duskwood when I was really too high a level for the quests there and I couldn't really find anywhere with an engaging story to pursue. I was really at a loss for what to do from the early 30s to 40s range.

30. Favorite map to quest in?
I am drawn to the ancient Night Elf ruins. Since I was not around when there was a level 60 cap, the questing in Azshara and Winterspring has been largely irrelevant. However, as maps, they are beautiful areas. Perhaps what I am looking forward to least after the Cataclysm is seeing the ruins of Azshara desecrated by Goblins. I really need to spend some time there and enjoy it while I still can.