False Alarm

Okay, so my warrior has fallen out of favor, right? Right. I thought I'd get back to the Alt Swarm, but I was wrong. I decided that I was tired of running battlegrounds with a twink hunter. I stopped the PvP and started up the PvE. Good times, that. She's now up to level 41, and just learned Dragonscale Leatherworking.

I was kinda depressed to discover that there isn't any true hunter gear in the leatherworking specializations. Tribal is for druids and Elemental is for rogues. Both specializations are purely leather. Hunters, of course, can wear mail after level 40. So, there's Dragonscale. All items are mail, but none of the crafted gear adds agility. A hunter can certainly benefit from the Netherscale Armor set, but the lack of agility is rather surprising. Hopefully, that will be fixed in Wrath of the Lich King.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Alt Swarm is still on hold. But you guessed that anyway, didn't you?

Back in Action (sort of)

• Character: Marilith
• Zone: Dun Morogh

So, I'm back! My warrior main hit 70 a few months ago and I was all excited to run heroics and raids. I was pretty pumped to tank. But no one wanted me because I wasn't geared enough. And I wasn't geared enough because I couldn't run any instances. Quite a predicament I'm in. My guild is nice, enough, but there's never anyone online when I am. There have been times when I was, quite literally, the only guild member on.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with the Alt Swarm. Well, marginally. It means that I'm bored of my warrior again. Bad for him, good for the Alt Swarm!

Tonight, I loaded up Marilith and starting running some quests. I wasn't able to make any real progress, though. I updated my video drivers about a week ago and now my video crashes periodically. Usually, when I'm fighting something. Quite annoying that.

It's a shame that the "welcome back" post is so lame, but my game session tonight was pretty blech. Hopefully, I'll be able to resolve the weirdness with my video adapter and write some meaningful posts. Well, more meaningful than this one, anyway.

On Hiatus

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a while since I've posted. What happened to me? No, I didn't fall screaming from a burning building, breaking every bone in my body.

What happened is a lot simpler than that. I respecced my warrior main to protection and suddenly became really excited to play him again! As a result, the Alt Swarm has suffered. Sorry if you've actually been following my progress.

I'll get back to the Alt Swarm "soon".

WAAAGH!: The Ten Commandments of Altitis

I found a pretty fun blog post today on WAAAGH!: The Ten Commandments of Altitis. All of the commandments are great, but here are some that I felt stand out from the crowd.

2. Give An Alt A Chance To Impress

Characters usually need a running start before you get a good feel for the class — yet it’s easy, as a higher level player, to grow impatient with a lowbie toon who has only basic skills, few (if any) class-defining abilities yet, and not even a single mastery point to help differentiate your alt from the pack. Reserve your judgment until you’ve given that alt a fair shakedown.

6. Go Off The Beaten Path

Alts aren’t there to be carbon clones of your previous characters, stomping down the same exact path that you’ve already explored. Try something different — after all, that’s the POINT of an alt! Try new zones, new classes, new roles, and you never know what you might discover in so doing.

10. Embrace Your Altitis

Don’t be ashamed of it when a guildie moans “ANOTHER character?” after you re-join the guild with an alt for the tenth time. Just grin, emoticon a grin so they know you’re grinning, and embrace the fun and joy of being diagnosed with one of the most enjoyable diseases an MMO gamer can have!

Awesome Addon: Altoholic

I just found a really great add-on: Altoholic. This add-on lets you manage all the characters in your account, regardless of realm. I haven't played with it much yet, but I'm pretty sure that it's going to be invaluable, if only to help me manage bag space and crafting materials.

Here are a couple of screenies from WoW Interface:

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  Bag management
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  Crafting recipes & materials

See ya, Single Digits!

Well, all nine characters have hit level 10. Kaliina actually hit level 11 last night. I didn't intend to ding, but I wanted to complete her Fire Totem quest. Little did I know that it's a seven-part chain, totaling 4230 XP, not including combat XP. Oh, well. That just means that she'll get less play time in Cycle 12.

By the way, poor Gleiara doesn't count in my assessment. She'll probably get leveled to 10, but not for a while, and only so she can disenchant higher level items.