4/5 Dungeon Set 3

I've been meaning to post these screenshots for a while, as Scott wants to see my groovy shoulders.

This is a picture almost straight on at the login screen. You can see my DS3 Helm and Shoulders quite clearly. You can also see my cool glowing sword I got from Keepers of Time revered.



This next one is taken from more of a side-on position. You can see the shoulders more clearly, and can see the gloves under the robe's sleeves. You can also see my cool off-hand, which is some kind of nethermancer's manual.



I can't wait to get the robes, and complete the set!

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world...

Of all the films ever made, there's one which I seemed to know the story of off by heart, despite the fact I'd never seen it. It's probably the film which is referenced the most, and spoofed the most. Casablanca.

It's generally regarded as one of the best films of all time. I'm watching it as I type, and it definitely lives up to that standard! The acting is phenomenal. The characters and story are great. It's an extremely well made film!

It really makes me think about the state of modern cinema. Nowadays films seem to have two main goals. To make the audience laugh, and go make them go 'ooh, what a big explosion!' Casablanca has so far had no explosions, no action scenes, and no comic relief. Instead it concentrates on great characters. Actors who can actually enunciate. Women who are naturally beautiful, rather than being plastered with make-up. Actors who actually speak with the accent they're supposed to! (Ever see Leo Di Caprio as King Louis XIV?!)

Am I the only person who loves a good film these days, rather than just seeing the token black guy blow something up and say "damn!"? In Casablanca, the film was made totally without political correctness. Obviously the Germans are portrayed as the enemy, since the film was made during the war. But Sam, the black piano player, is not portrayed in any kind of politically correct way. He's treated exactly like a normal person. There's no "Daym nigga! That Ilsa beeyatch you nailed in Paris just walked in!" I'm actually overwhelmed with how great cinema can be, when done right.

It really makes me mourn, however, for the films of today. One can only watch Adam Sandler lose his cool so many times before all you can give him is a weak chuckle out of habit. But hearing Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart ask Sam to play 'As Time Goes By' sends a shiver down my spine. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine." "Here's looking at you, kid." "Louis, I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship." "We'll always have Paris." All lines I've heard so many times. But it doesn't lessen the impact of any of them.

I'll definitely start watching other classic films. The next one I'll watch is Gone with the Wind. Any other suggestions?

Dungeon Set 3: A Small Update

Just a small update since my large post earlier today. I just did a run of Steam Vaults, and got the Dungeon Set 3 Shoulders. Hurrah!
The 4 piece set bonus gives a chance upon being hit, when mana shield is active, to give +100 spell damage for 15 seconds. Not terribly useful, as mana shield only survives 2-3 hits when solo, and 1 hit when instancing. But nice, nonetheless.

I also, during the course of the instance, got to within 400 reputation of revered with Cenarion Expedition! I then bought a few Coilfang Armaments on the AH, enough to get me to revered. I now have my first heroic key!

World of Warcraft: Karazhan, Warriors, and Other News

Well, time for another World of Wacraft post, talking about several different things. It's been a pretty eventful week or two in my characters' lives.

First, my main, Dellenar, the level 70 Human Mage. First, a few weeks ago, I started the Karazhan attunement quests. The first few steps are just easy solo quests, and "go speak to this guy" quests. The first real step is to get the 3 shards of the Master's Key, to allow entry to Karazhan. The first key shard is a quest just to get the first one, and it's in the Shadow Labyrinth; the level 70 wing of Auchindoun. But to get in, you need a key, which drops from the last boss of Sethekk Halls, about a level 68 wing of Auchindoun. After doing Sethekk Halls, and also getting the mage Dungeon Set 3 Legs from its last boss, I did Shadow Labyrinth, and got the first key shard quest done. After this is a quest to get the Second and Third shards. One is in the Steam Vaults, which is the level 70 wing of Coilfang Reservoir, and contains two, yes two, pieces of the mage dungeon set 3. I did this about a week ago, got the shard, and the DS3 Gloves, which gave me 2/5 pieces of the set, and the rather useless set bonus of -0.25 seconds to the cast time of flamestrike. Flamestrike is pretty useful for AoEing in groups, so -0.25 secs is useful, but when that makes it 2.75 secs instead of 3s, it's a set bonus I wouldn't mind losing.
After this came the major snag. The last shard was in the Arcatraz, which needs a key to enter. The key, unlike the Shadow Labyrinth key, comes from a quest chain. The quest chain starts off with some nice easy solo quests, but the quest chain leads to a quest to kill a 70 elite. I seemed unable to solo it. But I didn't give up, and after trying a couple of times a day for about a week, I finally killed the guy. I then handed in the quest, took it to the big Naaru in Shattrath city, and got the follow-up: Get the two halves of the Arcatraz Key. One from the last boss of the Mechanar, and the other from the last boss of the Botanica. The Mechanar, Botanica and Arcatraz are the three non-raid wings of the Tempest Keep instance. So, that day, I went to the Mechanar, and got pretty much every single mage drop there in the one run, including the Dungeon Set 3 Headpiece! I also went to the Botanica, and got both the key shards. I completed the key, and found a group to go to the Arcatraz. We got to the container for the third Karazhan key shard, and I got it. After this the group kind of fell apart, but it didn't matter - I'd got what I came for.

The next step after this in the Kara quest chain is to go to ANOTHER level 70 instance. This time it's a caverns of time instance, the Dark Portal. To enter requires you to have done the Durnholde Keep instance, but I'd done that a month or so previously. I did the Dark Portal today, which gave me honoured with Keepers of Time, and nearly Revered! It also got me the Master's Key. Hurrah! I can finally enter Karazhan! Now to find a guild to go with...

Over the last few weeks my reputations have done pretty well. I've got to revered with the Scryers and with Kurenai! Unfortunately, these are pretty much the only two factions that getting revered with gives you nothing! I'm within 2000 reputation of revered with 3 factions, however; Keepers of Time, Cenarion Expedition and The Sha'tar. Pretty much 1 instance run with each, and I'm ready to do their heroics! I also got to Honored with the Keepers of Time, which also gives me nothing. Well, it gives me access to a "Frost Glyph", which adds 20 frost resistance to a head slot item. Since I'm a mage, I have Frost Ward, meaning I really don't need much extra Frost Resistance. The one resistance I do need is arcane, and I got that glyph from the Sha'tar.

So to summarize what I needed to do to enter Karazhan:

1) Reach level 68 (I think)
2) Get to Karazhan, get and do two solo level 70 quests in the nearby areas.
3) Travel across the eastern kingdoms to find a guy.
4) Get to Shattrath City (easy as a mage with portals!)
5) Clear Sethekk Halls to get Shadow Labs key.
6) Clear Shadow Labs to get First Key Shard.
7) Get follow-up.
8) Get to the first boss of Steam Vaults to get Second Key Shard.
9) Do a quest chain ending in an elite-killing quest, to get the quest for the Arcatraz Key.
10) Clear both the Mechanar and the Botanica.
11) Get to the first boss of the Arcatraz for the Third Key Shard.
12) Go to the CoT: Dark Portal instance, and complete the whole event.
13) Return to Shattrath, then return to Karazhan. Phew!

Easily the most epic quest chain I've done so far; and it isn't even finished! The chain continues inside Karazhan. And upon reaching Honored with the Violet Eye (Karazhan faction) you get yet another quest chain. The quest chain has taken me to 2392/3000 towards friendly, without even setting foot in Karazhan, which is always good!



Now, to my new Alt, Nellacon the (currently) level 22 Draenei Warrior. About 2 weeks ago, Scott got a 10-day trial of the Burning Crusade. Obviously this meant he rolled a Draenei, and he chose the Shaman class. I decided I'd also roll a Draenei, and level with him. So I rolled a Warrior. After a couple of weeks, we're both level 22. Scott really loves his shaman, and I don't blame him. It's THE class for him, I think. The shaman can Melee DPS, Magic DPS, Heal, and they have enough survivability with Mail armour, and some totems, to allow you to solo elites pretty well.
I'm also loving my warrior. It's such a contrast from the mage. I can't make a full comparison, obviously, since with my mage I'm level 70, and used to seeing 1.8k normal hits and 2.5k crits. My warrior is level 22, and crits for about 120 with heroic strike. I've decided to level as a dual-wielding Fury warrior, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, fury gives great DPS, and some really good grinding talents. Also, I want to keep my 1H weapons skills high, so that if I tank an instance, I can do it without missing every melee swing. I'm really enjoying playing the warrior, and also levelling with a friend. I can't wait for Scott to have a high-levelled character, so we can take on some of the group quests I can't solo.

In summary: WoW is excellent at the moment!

Scott Simpson

Over the last few days, I've been watching loads of The Simpsons. I'm up to season 5 episode 7 as we speak. And I've noticed something. Scott would make a fantastic character on The Simpsons. He gets into extreme and ridiculous situations. He has little camp moments, like this classic Homer/Wiggum moment.

Wiggum: Lots of ghost cars on these roads.
Homer: *whimpers* Will you hold me?
Wiggum: Only if you hold me too.

I Simpsonized a photo of Scott the other day.



It looked something like this. If you ask me, he'd make a very good animated sitcom all of his own.

A Night... Both Good and Bad

Well, the day started out very well. Me and Macd went to the cinema and saw Harry Potter V. It was much worse than my low expectations. Bunch of Bollocks, basically, from somebody that has seen the book.

After we came out, we met Scott, and went Out. It was great fun at first. At the start, Scott was deliberately trying to make a "quote of the night" by saying stuff like "I'm a camp Han Solo", which he clearly isn't. Once he got a bit plyed with his drinks, he came out with the real stuff. The ultimate being: "Neil, next time you're with a girl, and having sex with her, give her a Salami Slapper, from me!". I don't think that even needs any explanation.

In the end we decided to go to the garage. Which was a total disaster. I was feeling a bit tipsy, but as soon as the Scissor Sisters came on, as about the third song, Scott basically demanded I dance. Now I obviously wasn't in the mood to dance, and Scott, upon hearing this told me to "fuck off". So I did.

I can't believe how insensitive he is. He thinks that just because HE likes a particular song that everybody should love it. I'm tolerant of bands like the Scissor Sisters, but I by no means like them. If, however, Scott had in the end come to Bloodstock, I might have felt like I owed him something. But no, he didn't come, and I missed out on the BEST music festival ever to come to Britain. Since then, I've been going to lots of 'his' places, like Club Tropicana, but whenever I even suggest going to a Rock bar, he acts like an asshole. Maybe people with such different musical tastes shouldn't mix in nightclubs. I wanted to try to fit in with his kind of music, but he went absolutely mental when I wouldn't dance.

Am I in the wrong, for not being in the mood to dance, in a nightclub? Or is he in the wrong, for being totally insensitive of my feelings, and my musical tastes? Hmm...

Life as a Septagenarian

So, I'm level 70 now. It's an incredible feeling, so I thought I'd share a couple of screenshots of my epic journey through the worlds of Azeroth and Outlands!



This is me, riding my first mount. It was such an incredible feeling!














This is me standing at the Dark Portal, about to go through! This was absolutely orgasmic! It was almost as incredible as...



This is me as I dinged 70. After months of grinding and questing, I finally hit the max level!



This is my character as he appears on the login screen today. Every item I have is of Blue quality, except the staff and belt, which are green. Check out my awesome helmet!

I really can't wait for Scott to reach higher levels, so I can quest with him!

Queer Eye for the Macdonald Guy, part 2

Please note that this entry is NOT the entry I would like to publish. It is, in fact, not even close. But Scott has been getting on my back so much that I'm being forced to publish this very rough draft.

A new development in the Macd saga! Just days ago, the news reached my ears that Macd "pulled two girls in campus". Scott and I are unsure how to react to this news. Do we believe it? Did Macd make it up to impress us? Or did it actually happen?

Now, if it did happen, this is NOT the good news we've been hoping for. Any guy who feels it's a "conquest" to pull two girls in one night is not the emotionally mature guy we hoped he was. Why can't he try to find a nice girl, and have a relationship?

As promised, here are my theories. So what do we know about Macd? He's never had a serious relationship, or even a casual one. His only one "girlfriend" he avoided seeing, and possibly only went out with because of the fact that we'd make fun of him if he didn't. The only girls he's ever kissed, he never saw again afterwards. Scott and I are seriously worried about him. This is NOT the behaviour of a nearly-twenty year old guy! Why has he seemingly given up in his quest to find a girlfriend? Allow me to present the only theory which comes to mind.

Now, there's no plausible reason why a teenage boy would only go after one-night kisses. I'm sure if he wanted, he could take her home for a one-night-stand. So why wouldn't he go any further? Simple. He's a latent homosexual.

Allow me to elaborate. He's never shown any real interest in girls, except when the whole group is talking about them. He's never shown any active pursuit in girls, except for totally unavailable girls (Lisa, Debbie, that chick from drama). I'm of the opinion that David Macdonald is gay, but doesn't know it. There's no other rational explanation!