Check out this awesome video editing job by yours truly!

This is actually me, on my Death Knight, off-tanking an alt Onyxia run! (I know, exciting!)

The entire purpose of the video was to try out frapsing a fight that’s usually high in lag, so that I can put together videos of me in action, resto-druiding it up!

So stay tuned, and enjoy the vid!

-Yellowletter

So a lot has happened since the last time I posted. And even MORE has happened since Fear last posted! (She’s too busy with hoochies and booze for us at this point. *Tear*!)

The thing is, I had so many achievements just come rolling through, I couldn’t even keep track of them all! But, this is my solemn vow, that I will start publishing more frequent posts for absolutely no one to read other than myself. I know, I know. It’s the least I can do, right?

So get ready to hear about all the achievements I’ve been doing (today Brewmaster, tomorrow The Insane!), my hardmode 10man group (so fun) and 25man raid group (not as much fun).

Here we go again! Twoandahalftrees (or at least this tree) is back!

-Yellow

And P.S., I’ve been listening to a lot of weird stuff lately (The Broadway Musical Wicked’s soundtrack on repeat springs to mind) but, here’s a video I thought was interesting.

I mean, stuff like that is why I play this game! I suggest watching it at least once through, but if you don’t wanna, at least fast forward to 7 minutes in and listen for 2 and a half minutes. It’s heartwrenching! The story basically is, Anveena is a human (not really human) in love with Kalecgos (also not really human). Anveena essentially is the power of the Sunwell, trapped inside a human body, and is being siphoned as the raid group enters the encounter. So, Kalecgos and the Blue Dragonflight come to the aid of the raid, with Kalec constantly yelling at his lover to wake up. When she finally does (around 8 minutes in), she says goodbye to her lover and sacrifices herself, making it possible for Kil’Jaeden to be defeated. Like I said, heartbreaking!

Enjoy!

Ok, disaster on the Frapsing project. I’m not sure (and call me a n00bbb for this), but I think you need the full software to take full movies. You can only take 30 second clips with the trial stuff?

So alas, until I decide to spring for the full software, no cool videos will be on this poor blog. =[ Or, maybe I’ll start posting 30 second clips. It’ll be like those porno teasers that 15 year old boys watch, with no intention of ever paying money to subscribe to the website. Yes, I just compared WoW videos to porno teasers. Deal with it.

The guild did kill Freya for the first time. We’re starting to finally seem like a raiding guild…mere weeks before 3.2. C’est la vie. Perhaps we’ll do better in the next patch.And, by the way, being the only resto druid in a guild, I feel, is a unique experience. We’re so severely underrepresented in the grand scheme of things, even though everyone knows Resto Druids are the best class for healers.

By the way, the achievement kick is going splendidly, in case anyone was wondering. 24 Reptuation factions at exalted, and hopefully Netherwing will be the 25th within the next couple of days. I won’t stop until I have “The Exalted” title!

-Yellowletter

This poor neglected blog!!! I’ll try to do better, I promise. I wouldn’t want all the people coming across this thing to get bored or anything! >.>

Just a quick word = I downloaded Fraps and I’m gonna start making some cool vidz! And for those e-perverts out there, the vids are of World of Warcraft stuff. Sorry. =[

Anyway, I think it’ll be fun, as long as my computer can handle it. I’ll post them up here if any come to fruition.

In other news, the ol’ Guild is finally progressing through Ulduar at a somewhat reasonable pace. Hopefully we clear it sometime before the next expansion. In all seriousness though, yeah. Next expansion is probably the deadline I’d set for us. (Hodir went down for the first time the other week! …months after 3.1…haha)

If by some miracle you stumble upon this poor, neglected blog, feel free to comment!

-Yellow

(Hey, nice pants, what’s the drop rate?)

I used to be normal. I used to scoff at people who collected achievements. I used to say Blizzard was just creatively making us spend more and more time playing this game.

And then I stayed up the first four hours of Midsummer’s Festival, and got my achievement (I think) before anyone else on the server.

I think this because I ran around with a shaman from my guild named Aricinia to all the major cities, and all the fires in Eastern Kingdoms ten minutes after the event began. It gave me a strange feeling of satisfaction when a fire was still lit, untouched, and I got to be the first person to pee on it. Peeing on fires never felt so good.

Anyway, I stood outside Dalaran’s North bank for an hour in my Festival Regalia, dancing in flames with my new title.

I know, I know. I’m awesome!!

And by the way, I see no one is reading this blog. And that makes me sad. Everyone who stumbles upon this, come back! Send your friends! Do it for the trees. Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires. And in the process, save trees. Trees being us.

Or at least me, since it seems like as soon as we made this blog, Fearghas became obsessed with being a stupid cat! So now the name doesn’t work. C’est la vie.

And by the way, the pic is of me about to get busy on Kologorn. Haha, enjoy.

-Yellow

For many reasons, I think this is an insufficient way of doling out hard-earned loot. I offered a new system based on wishlists – people submit wishlists of loot based on what is highest priority for them, and loot is given out accordingly.

In the past, I have seen people who have raided with us have gotten completely screwed out of loot because of the “roll on loot” system. At least two of my friends from the guild stopped raiding altogether because they lost out on a weapon off Kelthuzad to someone who raided with us for two weeks and had better dice. I think that this type of loot system is no way to do things.

Some things that were said, and my responses -

“Making loot lists is like having a second job.”

1. Making a loot list is not like “having  a second job”. The loot list I made above for my priest took me, at most, a half hour. It requires perusing a couple blogs/forums online, and knowing some sort of basic knowledge of what your class needs and what is available. Essentially, all it asks is to know your class, NOT have a second job which you will work for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Can’t really compare the two in my opinion.

“Things were fine the way they were.”

2. Show me any other raiding guild on this server that has been basing their loot on a “roll, one item per week system”. And tell me that the members of those guilds didn’t gquit in two seconds. A lot of guilds use the loot list system as their prefered methodology for distributing loot. Rolling on gear means, literally, people just take what they can get because they want to “get theirs” for the week. Doesn’t matter if someone else needs it more. Doesn’t matter if its really not that big of an upgrade. Doesn’t matter if they did no research whatsoever into figuring out what they need. They just want to get theirs. If you need another example, try pugging 25man with people. They use the same system. And, I personally, think a GUILD should not use the same looting system as a PUG.

“How are we to know that this is being done honestly too, the only people who know the list are the loot master and the person whos list it is, at least with rolling its out there in the open for all to see.”

3. The fact that people would even incline that the new loot system is some sort of way to manipulate loot is, suffice to say, pretty typical but also somewhat hurtful. What I do, in general, I do for the best of the guild. I really like this guild, and want to see it succeed. That said, if people think that a new loot system which doesn’t rely purely on luck and which actually requires some knowledge of your class is a bad thing, and that we should continue rolling on gear, and that’s the final decision in the end, then that’s fine. I want for the core of Azeroth Crusaders to stay intact. I, however, may not be part of that core.

“What’s this thing about attendence? I play soccer during the week and I’m not giving that up. I think the attendence thing is bull$%^%.”

4.  The attendence issue is far less extreme than any other raiding guild. No one is saying everyone MUST go to every raid. What they are saying is people like Yansa and Haykon and Starfira and Kokoballs and others who make every raid and contribute every week will get PREFERENCE if an item is wanted by multiple people, based on the fact that they’re there every raid.. How is that unfair in any way?

“No one ever voted on this. We need to have an officer’s meeting to decide. IMO.”

5. Does anyone rememeber Delvina? I do. He/She raided with is for two weeks, killed KT, and won Betrayer of Humanity over Qooju. Remember Qooju? I guess he kind of got disheartened with the game, after farming Naxx for weeks and never getting a better weapon that Death’s Bite. I don’t find that to be very fair, and yet it’s just one such example of the “Roll on loot” system screwing someone who comes to raids all the time. Think about how many people used to raid with us and don’t anymore. For some of them, losing loot based PURELY on luck was disheartening enough for them to stop raiding. And Qooju is just one such example, there’s many more.

Yeah, officer’s meeting always get LOTS done.

We have a case of too many chiefs, not enough indians. People get promoted to officer positions after very little time in the guild. There are officers who do not raid that are ballsy enough to complain about the looting system. The people who want to keep this “Roll for loot” system also tend to be the best geared in the guild.

Sorry for the ultra-serious post. I just don’t think rolling for loot is any way to distribute hard-won raid booty. =/ (Pun intended.)

-Yellow

Now, this started out as a few offspec rolls on loot absolutely no one else wanted, messing around in cat and getting 1200 dps in a heroic and having guildies make fun of me, but lately I have been raiding not sporting bark and leaves but with claws and sneaky stealth mode. (Being able to stand by the rogues way up front is so cool!)

I have become much more confident in a melee dps role, and I am working on tanking as well, even though it is absolutely terrifying. No one wants a dps only druid, amirite?

Yellow and I have been raiding 10 man Ulduar with another guild, HelloKitty Island Advtr, and I have been doing it entirely as dps (or deeps as I like to refer to it). I have found myself doing research til 4 in the morning trying to figure out how all this works…I gem for agility then find out that I should be gemming armor pen, I look at one loot list only to discover that another one has a completely different idea of what is best. I have gotten better at being mobile and looking up, am finally able to offer my innervate to someone else, and get really cool roaring sound effects on my finishing moves. Most important, it is a completely different experience for me, one that is more exciting and nerve racking than healing, which I am very familiar and (relatively) confident with. When I check out Recount to see how my dps was and find that it was actually decent, it makes me really happy.

Stumbling through blogs and information, making mistakes, learning…it is an ADVENTURE, and I encourage anyone potentially reading this, stuck in the dullness of routine to shake things up a bit.

So….

A few nights ago, I finally accumulated enough Conqueror badges from guild 25 runs to buy a tier item. Although my healing gear is nowhere near perfect, I found myself desiring to go a different route…and spent my badges on the T8 feral helm. Whoops.

I’m pretty sure that my feral set, the one supposedly for offspec, is better than my resto one. How’s that for a “hobby”?

I don’t know if this is a bad thing, that I should be gearing myself up as a healer to help the guild, but I can’t seem to shake this kitty obsession. I was able to go cat when we had an abundance of healers during our guild’s first downing of General Vezax, which was extra sweet. I am absolutely looking forward to the patch when feral droods will get to look awesome, so I’ll have an excuse to sit in kitty even more!

Just the two of us...we can make it if we try...Yellow and Fear chilling in Ulduar

-Feargie

So this is going to be kind of out of order. I know, I know I said I would post something about the patch notes and I will. I just want to make sure my thoughts are organized and, you know, make some sort of sense before I put them on the internet. And, I’ve been having so much fun with the achievements, I thought I’d write a little something-something about that first.

I heard through the grapevine that there is a title out there called “The Insane.” There are a few things you need for this title. First, you need to literally be insane. I don’t mean like, “Wow, I love this game way too much, I write a blog about it,” insane. No no no, I mean, “I’m stuck in bed with a crippling disease and all I can do is play WoW, I’ve forgotten what fresh air smells like,” insane. Here’s a list of the achievements you need for this AWESOME title.

You must be a Bloodsail Admiral and be Exalted with all the goblin factions. The thing you should keep in mind, basically, you have to kill goblins to get the title, and then earn rep back from the guys you were killing. I know, I know people have said this isn’t that hard. I just don’t get why the Goblins don’t react poorly to you when you’re trying to earn rep back. It’s like, “Hey, you’re the guy that killed 895 of our guards that one time for 6 straight bloody hours! Welcome back!”

You need exalted with Ravenholdt. I know there are junkboxes you can turn in for rep from doing a little research, but I’ve personally never even SEEN one. All I know is, killing those level 20 guys in Tarren Mill and Arathi Highlands gave me 5 rep a kill. Needless to say, I’m still neutral with these guys.

Exalted with Darkmoon Faire – Yeah F that. Enough said. Sorry. Not so creative on that one.

Exalted with Shen’dralar. So if I told you there was a group of elves in Dire Maul you needed to grind rep with, wouldn’t your response be, “What Elves?” And my response would be, exactly.

So to everyone, please don’t attempt this. For everyone’s sake. I heard rumors that someone wrote a guide about taking 3-4 months to do this, working on it for no less than 4 hours and for up to 12 hours a day. That person should be forced to get a job, immedietely.

Anyway, to a far more sane way to get Rep titles, I can help. I just recently got my Ambassador title, but I’m saving that for another (painful) post. I did, however, just finish grinding rep with Argent Dawn, and here’s some key tips. First of all, I thought to myself, “Eh, my trinket is in the bank, I don’t feel like getting it, how much rep could it actually give me.” And the answer is, A LOT. Like, more than you get from just running Stratholme. You NEED that trinket. You need it like Tom Cruise needed Jack Nicholson on the wall in “A Few Good Men”. I’m serious. Get it now.

The trinket, while adding no stats to your gear, allows you to pick up scourgestones. From a full run, I would pick up around 60 Minion’s Scourgestones (from “rank and file” scourge), 70-80 Invader’s Scourgestones (from “tougher” scourge), and 9 Corruptor’s Scourgestones (from the bosses in Stratholme). Each turn in is worth 50 rep. So you turn in

20 Minion’s at a time = 3 turn ins = 150 rep
10 Invader’s at a time = 7 turn ins = 350 rep
1 Corruptor’s at a time = 9 turn ins = 450 rep

Also, you get a token worth 100 rep. So our 19 turn ins yielded us 950 rep PLUS 1900 rep from tokens, equaling almost 3000 rep from one run! It adds up really, really fast.

Also, many one-time turn in quests are available for massive rep, most notably the quest which you search temples for “info” on the scourge. This gives you an improved trinket, granting 48 spellpower against undead, or attack power if you’re into melee, plus the ability to gain scourgestones. So logically, this was the last quest I completed, as I had hit exalted when I completed it.

So really, there you have it. Pretty simple. And I’ll be talking more about the patchnotes and Ambassador soon! Next up, Yellowletter the Explorer! Cheers!

-Yellow

So recently I decided, achievements mattered to me. For a long time, I would refuse to pay any attention to them, claiming they weren’t important, and they were Blizzard’s way of sucking us deeper into the game. And actually, I still believe the latter.

However, the other day, I saw someone with a bunch of titles. She had a mod that kept the titles rotating, exclaiming for everyone to see how she was a matron, a love fool, a magic seeker, an obsidian slayer, and a really cool person! (That last one isn’t an actual title.)  I thought, I want that mod! I clicked to look at my titles and saw:

Yellowletter, Champion of the Naaru

Yellowletter, Champion of the Frozen Wastes

…and that was it. Pretty lame, in my opinion, to see those two things rotating back and forth, like a broken news ticker.

So I decided, hey! I’ll go get titles from achievements! And this is what this post is all about. I’ll be tracking my achievement progress here so everyone can come along for the ride. The first one I decided to go for was the Ambassador title, which means I need to gain exalted reputation with all five Horde home cities. (Did I ever mention we’re hordies? I should have. Go horde!) I’m so close to it I can smell it. The title, I mean.

Anyway, I’ll also be posting something tomorrow, some thoughts if you will, about the patchnotes and why it MIGHT not be the end of the world, as a lot of people on our server are claiming. (One person was telling people to cancel their accounts to protest. I hope he follows through with this.)

-Yellow