An Open Letter to Frenzy Battlegroup Alliance

Dear Alliance Players in the Frenzy Battlegroup:

Please, allow me to offer you a laurel and a hearty handshake for a job well done. You know how to lose battlegrounds like champs. For that, I, along with the rest of the Horde in the Frenzy battlegroup, am truly thankful.

Watching you guys futilely attack our flag carrier in Warsong Gulch as I heal them, while leaving me alone never gets old. The same goes for when me and one damage class hold a node 2 v 4 in Arathi Basin. I admit, your failure and ineptitude, even when the numbers are even--or you outnumber us by one or two--is so mind boggling that I'm left with more questions than answers. Some of those questions include:

What is it like to ride the short bus to the battlegrounds? Do the few horde it occasionally drops off make it really crowded? Or is the 'short' bus the price humans and night elves pay for their alliance with the dwarves and gnomes?

When during the Obama administration do you expect to get your first PvP epic? Is even money on Frenzy alliance winning 10 Warsong Gulch's that I'm in (you have two, and I PvP a lot) before the US withdraws from Iraq too generous to Alliance PvPers?

Can I talk you into making characters named after infamous pro wrestling jobbers? Seeing toons with names like 'Brooklyn Brawler,' 'Barry Horowitz,' 'Villano V (or III, or IV),' 'La Parka,' 'El Dandy,' 'Barry Darsow,' 'Lenny Lane (did he ever give his Loverboy CD back to Chris Jericho?)' and the like might leave me laughing hard enough that you'd get a flag cap or two.

And finally, one simple question: Did you eat paint chips when you were a child?

Thank you for all the easy wins and honor. But please, I'd rather have fun in the battlegrounds, not mocking you outside.

Sincerely,

Zarkon
Evil King, The Priest Who Heals in Battlegrounds, and Leader of the Voltron Force

Forums, Level 40 and More

A few things to take note of... Aquitane/Silvanesti is setting up forums for the guild at www.voltronforce.freeforums.org He doesn't anticipate having them working until Thursday night or Friday, but you can head over there and register now.

Last night's run through the armory was good--we got a crapload of greens and some more of the Scarlet Chain set... and we had the boss killed, save 4 mobs running in out of nowhere and causing just a bit more havoc than we could handle... and then turning a 2 pull into a 6 pull on the way back. We also learned a bit about tanking and level requirements...

Which brings up the point of level 40 and that some of us are getting very close to hitting us. With a lack of lively PvP most of the time, it does leave us with few options-especially since tradeskills are going very well.

I'm not sure what to do about this dilemma... Farming gold is always a good option, though boring as hell, and those crawlers still give you some experience... Logging outside of an inn or city to avoid rest exp is a decent move too, I suppose. To avoid the more exp that comes with instances, we could spend Wednesday night helping Hunk do a bazillion quests down in STV in an hour or two and get our tank up to a healthy 35 or so.

The last thing to note is that our guild needs some class balance at a few key spots... First, we need a druid. I was hoping for (and still am, eventually) my brother to play this role. It really hasn't worked out like I had planned. We also could use a warlock. Some RL stuff has come up for Allura, limiting her playing time.

If you get a chance to play with a druid or warlock and you like them, and they're unguilded, let me know. We'll basically look mid 20's to 30's. This isn't a priority--but it would be nice as TBone is leveling to have the option of getting 2 groups going like we had last night and keeping them balanced. Our rogue-heavy runs have worked well, but eventually sap won't work... :-) And when it doesn't, we need to be ready to adapt.

Back at it, at least for a day...

Hey kids, just a quick update as the weekend winds down in Pittsburgh... It's been a fun weekend for me--I was in Buffalo on Thursday to watch Pitt win its first round game, spent over 12 consecutive hours in one of three bars on Friday watching hoops, the Penguins and never quite getting drunk with a lot of different friends...

Saturday, I slept until 2 and watched hoops and celebrated St. Patty's day by nearly having a heart attack as Pitt blew a 19 point lead in the 2nd half to win in overtime. But a win is a win. I saw even more friends... and today, I watched more hoops and hockey... and was disappointed, but also excited for the Penguins when I went to the arena store to find they were sold out of every single jersey. My road white Jordan Staal jersey will have to wait.

I'll be back in Chicago for a day and night tomorrow before heading home to Iowa to spend time with my family. I'm hoping to maybe head up to Yurack's place on Wednesday to play too, but we'll see. Pitt plays out in San Jose this Thursday--I trust that you'll all be watching!

I'm hoping to hit up Scarlet Monastery tomorrow, one, if not two wings. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone--and I made sure to click off everyone's /gkick ability--so if you tried to play a practical joke on me over the weekend, I outsmarted you!

Mr. Moneytroll's Shell(fish) Game

Want to have your mount at 40? Don't mind an hour or two of drudgery here and there? Have I got the game for you.

No, this doesn't involve a dollar, a crane that couldn't hold a baby hamster without opening its jaws wider than fans after waching a Sidney Crosby shootout goal, a string of profanity and an unimpressed girl. In other words, this game makes you richer, not poorer.

Go visit Mr. Moneytroll in Desolace. There's a troll who tells you about his shellfish traps out in the sea around the dock and such at Shadowprey village. You swim down, open the traps, and you either get 1 or 2 shellfish, a mob, or vendor trash. For every 5 shellfish you get, he gives you 55s. It's infinitely repeatable, best I can tell. I've turned in about 100 shellfish. That's 11g.

I was doing this with an underwater breathing pot. You need to. I can make them and will farm the blackmouth to make a bunch. Just send me an in-game mail requesting a few. If you can send me blackmouth too, that'd be great.

I was making about 10-12g/hour. It's not fun, but hey, it pays the bills.

Go play Mr. Moneytroll's shellfish game. Everyone is a winer.

Skills/Professions

In looking at Hunk's comment about being held up for ransom for heavy leather on the AH, I thought that I'd take the chance to remind everyone to use in-game mail and their comments page in game under the guild tab to list skills/professions.

If you need leather, hit up a skinner. I know that Ertai and Lucin have lots of heavy leather, and I think that Silvanesti is getting to that point too.

If you need health/mana pots, and I'm not on, send me an in-game mail. I'll get whatever you need. I can make a lot of other pots too.

If you need gems to level jewelcrafting, let me know. I'll do my best to get those funneled to you.

Basically, lets try to leave the AH for selling our stuff and taking advantage of good buys from others. I think that we have enough trade goods and such in-guild to make sure nobody goes without something that they need. And if it's something that nobody can make or has quite yet, we can figure out how to get it.

Law School Exams Make Jason a Dull Boy

The University of Chicago law school is filled with 2 things right now: angst and misery. That's why I study at home and take breaks by logging onto Terokkar. I hate angst and misery. Life throws enough of that your way over the course of other things... why add to it? You might point out that I'm a Cubs fan, though. To this I have no answer, other than that the angst and misery is usually dulled to apathy and schadenfreude by late July when we're 10+ games out.

But anyways... sorry for the quasi-lack of instancing the past week. It's time to get back on track tomorrow night. I propose the following ambitious schedule...

Starting somewhere between 8 and 9, provided that Bill is on, get Bill is 2 crystals in WC and help him kill Dar'Kahn if he's to that point. That should give him 2 good staff options and a boatload of exp.

Then we wander over to RFK and/or BFD and get people who need quests there, their completed quests.

Then we wander up to SM and punk the GY (good quest in there and some grave moss) and the library. I'd suggest the armory, but that Herod guy is level 40, and a lot of mobs in there are high 30's. Once Hunk gets to 35, I think we can rock it no problem.

I think that we can also make a run at Ironaya in Uldaman in a week or so.

With that said, I'm going to be gone over the weekend. It's spring break, and I'm flying to Pittsburgh Thursday morning to meet friends, to drive to Buffalo Thursday night to watch Pitt's first round game. Hopefully we'll be heading back to take on the Dookies Saturday night, with Penguins games on Friday/Sunday.

And then I'm heading home next Tuesday where I might not have hi-speed Internet. So, I might be taking a forced break of a week and a half here, save next Monday night.

I don't want to hold you guys back--but at the same time, if everyone catches up during this period, I think we can start turning our attention to SM Cathedral, Uldaman and Zul'Farrak... and mounts! Sweet, sweet mounts!

I'll see everyone tomorrow night, and maybe for a round of PvP tonight.

The Weekly Main Event: Razorfen Kraul

You know, I like things with cool names. That's why every time I log in, I take a moment to admire my priest, because honestly, could you have a cooler name for a bad guy than Zarkon? I think not. Even Trogdor pales in comparison. Even if you give him the title of Burninator.

You know what else has a cool name? Razorfen Kraul. It's scary--and sort of German. You might even be able to convince people that it was the name of Hitler's bunker. It may even be possible to convince people in Barrens chat that Hitler is the final boss of the instance. People are dumb--after all, people in Barrens assert the superiority of Chuck Norris to Jack Bauer all of the time. I weep for our future.

But you know what has a dumb name? The Quillboar. Honestly people, Quillboar sounds like the brand of pen that Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence with. I mean, when given your choice of quill pens, would you choose 'Dove Quill' or 'Quillboar?' These men survived Valley Forge. They sure as hell are taking the Quillboar. It's manly. I bet you could convince people in Barrens chat that TJ only wrote with Engineer's Ink, a Quillboar pen and a kobold's candle for light.

Come to think of it, Quillboar is actually a pretty cool name... for a pen. But for a flipping pig with spines? We call dem Razorbacks. Instead they're called the Razormane or something dumb like that.

So Wednesday night, we set forth to eradicate the Germans from Razorfen Kraul. And we do so with a general whose name makes Patton sound like a wussy.

I'm done. I'm ready to go forth and conquer my property outline for the next 29 hours. And maybe sleep somewhere along the way.

You can find quest information here.

Blackfathom Depths

Lets hit Blackfathom Deeps tomorrow night around 9. You can find quest information here. It appears as if there is one quest that starts in Thunder Bluff and 3 that start with one person in the Zoram Strand, which is the Horde outpost near the Deeps.

This will be our toughest PvE challenge yet. Tough as in we might actually have to think about how we pull mobs and try a little. I'm sure we'll be up for it.

It's AB weekend. Hopefully that means alliance will queue. I want my boots. If you're on, hit me up, and we'll queue as a group for both AB and WSG.

Hope you all had a good week!