It's Finally Happened...

Ever since Resto4Life closed it's doors, I've been fearing this would come to pass...and now, it finally has. The mighty, hilarious, inspiring BRK, the one who made me pick up WoW again... is leaving the blogosphere and the game. Possibly for good.

I...I really don't know what to say... the thought of going to BRK's page and seeing it unchanged after weeks, months...makes me indescribably sad.

Here's to ya, BRK. A great man, who has inspired thousands, best of luck to you and your family. I hope you get everything sorted soon.

If you want to read his farewell post, go here. If you don't die a little inside...you are already dead...

An Award? For Me?

The Honest Weblog Award? What's that then?

[Receives wooden statue painted with cheap gold spray paint, holding it gingerly by one of the many rusty looking nails protruding from it.]

Wow, my own award! When I started this blog, I never thought I'd get any awards for it. /sniff. Must...not...cry. Thanks much to the lovely Cait from the One Among Many blog, for handing me this very...humble award. :P

For those that have never heard of this award, I'll explain the rules.

Rules: 1. Brag about said award and link back to individual passing said award to you.

2. Tag 7 other bloggers and give them all said award.

3. Write 10 honest things about yourself since this is the "Honest Weblog Award".

So, I might as well get this done now. Here are 10 honest things about me.

1. I'm a very laid back person, it's takes alot for me get annoyed or angry.

2. I love WoW to an almost crazy degree, sometimes I find it hard to talk about anything else.

3. I was born 8 weeks early and had to have heart surgery soon after I took my first gasp of air.

4. I love my blog and wish I could find the energy to write more often.

5. I'm 19 - when 911 hit, I didn't believe my mum when she phoned to tell me. I thought, being only 10 as I was, who would be crazy enough do that? I was horrified later to find out it was true.

6. I love my cats, Pepper and Mog but my god, they sometimes drive me crazy.

7. My music tastes often confuse people as I love listening to hardcore heavy metal, yet also like pop and classical music. Stravinsky, anyone?

8. My favourite sport is Chess, yes you heard me, Chess. I dare you to tell me Chess ain't a sport :P Lets see what would happen.

9. My desk at home is generally a mess, covered in things I'm too lazy too move, plates, bowls, sweets wrappers, soft drinks cans. Y'know, the usual.

10. My name is Bryan and I'm from Scotland. I hunt haggises for a living :P Tricky things, haggises... /giggle.

Now to give these awards to some other blogger's. It's an Honest Award...so I suppose I should explain why I think you guys should expect such.. an auspicious award. :)

1. The Warcraft Hunter - One of the many bloggers who inspired me to start my own blog. Full of great huntering wisdom and advice, this is a must for all aspiring hunters. A.K.A Me.

2. Lienna - One of the first bloggers I ever read, Lienna, even though she is a Survival Hunter, is among my favourite bloggers and I think she deserves an award as well.

3. Aspect of the Hare - Need I say more? Pike really is one of the greatest bloggers I have ever read, along with a certain Uncle... :P Here's to ya Pike! /cheer

4. Lady Jess - Wow, at least this blogging isn't always a hunter! At least, I think she isn't, otherwise people might think I'm biased or something! :P Always a lady, Lady Jess's funny, thoughtful posts make my day.

5. Blessing of Kings - The best Paladin blogger imho! Full of thought provoking and theory-crafting posts, this is a blog for everyone, not just a pally!

6. Death Coil - Surprisingly, one of the only good Death Knight/Warlock blogs I could find. Full of descriptive posts and some RPing, this is a blog you don't wanna miss!

7. BigRedKitty -Okay, I know for a fact that BRK has already got one of these awards but goddamn, he deserves another! For the man who inspired me to drop my rogue and roll a hunter, thank you sir! /salute

There, those are the wonderful bloggers I believe make the WoW Blogosphere a better place! Now, go forth and read!

A New Low

Now, I know that what I'm about to speak (rant) about has been discussed to death and is really old (patch 2.4.3 old) but I feel that it needs to be said. Again.

I hate what Blizzard has done to Anub'arak. I really do. The coolest (and toughest, lets face it) Scourge Hero from WC3 has been reduced to a level 72-74 5-man dungeon boss. That's just mean.

Anub'arak, along with Kel'Thuzad, are two of the Lich King's strongest, most influential servants. In the Burning Crusade Expansion, both of Illidan Stormrage's lieutenants, Lady Vashj and Kael'Thas Sunstrider, were both made into 25-man Raid bosses, both of whom, in lore, were arguably weaker than the mighty Crypt Lord.

I mean, Anub'arak destroyed Illidan's massive army marching on Icecrown Citadel, by himself. C'mon. When Blizzard said they had big plans for Anub'arak, I really thought 'Raid Boss' not 'Kinda hard but not really dungeon Elite'.

Though, I suppose Blizzard could always pull a Patchwerk and raise him to fight again, bigger and better than before. I just think they keep screwing over their own lore most of the time and it really annoys me.

If I heard, in a later patch, that they were re-releasing Azjol-Nerub, as a huge, sprawling 25-man Raid instance (like how they should've done it originally) that was actually REALLY Hard, I would be all 'Hell Yea!"

Um, well, that's me all done (for now). Sorry for ranting but after running through Azjol-Nerub when I ding'd 72, I was disappointed, don't get me wrong though, it's my favourite instance, it's just on too small a scale, for my tastes.

Plus the only thing that a hunter has even a remote interest in, loot-wise is Cobweb Machette.

Why I Play A BM Hunter

I'll tell you why I play BM. It basically boils down to one thing: Pets. I know all Hunters have pets but only BM's have Pets. As a BM, your pet is your friend, your companion, someone you can always count on to have your back, unlike Survival and Marksmen where your pet is only there too do as much damage as possible before dying.

I like the fact that, as BM, if your pet dies, it actually matters. If a BM's pet dies, they should lose 40-50% of their DPS. Because, in my humble opinion, Hunters are all 'bout the pets. Without a pet, we are worse than useless. But with one, our power reaches heights previously unimagined...

I don't know about other BM's but when any of my pets die, I feel an almost physical pain, which means I immediately drop whatever I'm doing and ress him. Doesn't matter if I'm supposed to be trapping something, or it's during a boss fight, he's my pet, my friend. That's all there is to it. Any Hunter that says otherwise is, in my opinion, just a mail-wearing mage.

The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj

Booyah! Even though everyone in the raid was above level 70, the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj was actually really fun.

Plus, I'm one step closer to the Classic Dungeonmaster achievement.

This raid was part of our guild's new Event Day every Sunday.

Next week we will be doing Zul'Gurub, which I'm really looking forward too. Fingers crossed that one of the mounts will drop. :P

Crash And Burn!

Well, I was planning to do a movie of all the UK bosses but my computer is acting really weird. It keeps crashing when I'm playing WoW then restarting. It's really annoying and what's more, I don't know whats causing it. I'll get to the bottom of it though....

God Hates Me...

I got my new computer, I got my new computer! Woohoo! Oh...nice nice, it only took about about an hour or so to fully install the game and expansions, so far so good....

Ok, let's start dowloading the first of many patches...fuck. Estimated download time: 10hours.

/cry

Must...experience WoW in...22" screen awesomeness....except my speakers ain't working. WoW with no sound? Noooooo!

/runs around in circle, flailing arms wildly.

Jeez, someone in my family must have really pissed off the man upstairs.

Player Set Level Cap

This idea came to me as I was reading up on Karazhan. The thing is, Karazhan is what some people refer to as a 'gear check' to see if players are ready, gear-wise, for higher level raids.

Now Karazhan sounds really, really cool and fun but now that WotLK has came out and the level cap has been kicked up to 80, by the time a level 70 player had got to a sufficient gear level, they would have probably ding'd to 71 maybe even 72.

This may not sound too bad too some people but it would ruin Karazhan for me, no longer being as difficult, as challenging. So that's why I want, no demand, an option to manually level cap myself so that I can still enjoy all this great content but not level up, as though I didn't have the expansion. Then, when I felt it was time to venture to Northrend, I could go to an NPC (or something) and maybe even pay a small fee, to remove my level cap.

I know most people will think this is a stupid idea but I'm one of the many people who started playing when WotLK was already out, so otherwise I'm never gonna get to experience this content as it was intended to be experienced.

That makes me sad :(

Moar Spirit Beasties!

On the latest version of the PTR, a new form of Spirit Beast is available. Gondria, found in Zul'Drak, is basically a see-through Frostsaber with Spirit Strike. I'm not very impressed to be honest, I think I'll still end up going for Loque'nahak, even if this guy does turn out to be more easily tamed.

Pop over to the WoWHead Forums to read about this lovely new pet.

Performance Enhancement

Well, I just ordered a l33t gaming PC, well l33t compared to my laptop at least. Hopefully I'll finally be able to experience WoW with all of the Video settings cranked up at High and not cripple my frame rate. Unfortunately, it's gonna take 2 weeks for delivery. Sigh, I just know it's gonna be a loooong two weeks :P

Spacegoat Lovin'

Booyah! GotN (Gift of the Naaru) is now even more awesome, if you can believe that! On top of being a HoT (Heal over Time) it now removes up to two harmful Magic effects from a friendly target. As someone said on BRK's blog, Draenei Warriors = Decurser Duty :P

Unfortunately though, it's not all good news, for our Dwarven brothers in arms, at least. Stoneform has been nerfed. It now no longer grants 8secs of Immunity to Bleed, Poison or Disease, though it may still remove any of those effects when you first pop it, I'm unsure about this though.

Can anyone confirm?

Kittehs!

Even though my WoW subscription is up, I have decided to tame a cat. Yes, you heard right dear readers, a cat. Now I just need to decide what cat. I have narrowed my choices down to two unthinkable options. :P (Sorry, loved that movie).

I'm going to tame either Humar the Pridelord in the Barrens, or Sian-Rotam in Winterspring. Both look really, really cool so it's hard to pick which one lol. Right now, I'm leaning towards Sian-Rotam, because his contrasting colors (white fur, black mane) really catch my eye.

I would love to hear your opinions on this.

If You Could..?

Pike asked, 'If you could have any title, any at all, even one not in the game, what would you choose?' For me, seeing as I like both Nerubians and the Auchenai Crypts (which means my title could mean two different things :P) my title would be:

'Crypt Lord' Sevei...mmmm yeah, seriously if I had the choice of getting all the old, unavailable titles (Hand of A'dal, Champion of the Naaru ect) or Crypt Lord, I would choose Crypt Lord. :P Is it me or does it just sound...sexy? lol

My Resolution

I've decided to learn how to PvP more effectively, both in Battlegrounds and Arena. I'm basically a PvP n00b, only having 1.6k honor at lvl 68. Saying that though, it's gonna be hard to get practice in BG's seeing as almost no-one goes into any of the old ones anymore, at least when I'm on. It's all WG, WG, WG!

Jeez, whatever happened to a nice game of AV, huh? Anyway, back to my resolution, It would be really cool if I could get someone to show me the ropes instead of having to do it trial-and-error style.

By the time Season 6 comes out, I wanna have full Season 5! That is my goal.

/bow

Rockin' In Da Crypts

Well, I'm almost lvl 68 and I ain't even set a hoof in Nagrand yet. I really wanna do the Hills Like White Elekk acheivement I'm still around the right level. Still, since you can start doing Northrend starting area quests at lvl 68, I'm not that bothered.

In my pursuit of new and interesting (at least to me) instances, a few of my guildies and I ran through the Auchenai Crypts and The Sethekk Halls tonight. I have to say I found the Crypts very pleasing on the eyes while the Halls were pretty mundane and filled with Akkroa which I loathe.

By the time we all called it a night, I had some nice loot for my troubles: Ravenclaw Band, Talon Lord's Collar and Terokk's Mask. All of which, if not outright upgrades, were at least side grades.

Tomorrow? Shadow Labyrinth and the Sonic Spear!