Gear Score, Schmear Score. But, wait…

So there I was.  Looking for the eight remaining burning embers I needed to complete the latest Wintergrasp Daily.  We’d already lost, so I figured everyone Horde was going to be gathered outside of the Vault looking for invites.  Or shopping, or hearthing.  You know, what winners do.

But the embers were all ashes and there were bones scattered here and there.  I was alone except for just 2 other green names.  I don’t leave the raid so we can continue to share our efforts.  Turns out there must be multiple raids, because we were basically soloing.  One guy’s kill is not lootable by me.  So be it.  “Divided we fall.”

Anyway I see a green name, Death Knight, run by below, and then a red name.  A Shaman.  Oh, this isn’t going to end well for the Shaman, right?

Except the Shaman was chasing the DK down.  :/  Hmm.

Well, he’s a brother in arms, this DK, and it’s just a Shaman.  So I join in.

The Shaman destroys the Death Knight. 

And inbetween the flashes of Holy Light and Lightning I see the gear.  Okay, it looks like basic PvP stuff.  The maces are orange, so they’re the Crusader Seal maces.  Two of them, nice.  Except why is this guy smoking me?  I’m not hitting him, he’s destroying me.  WTF?

I check the combat log afterwards.  He actually /flexes to add insult to injury.  Let’s see Dodge, dodge, dodge,dodge, miss, miss, miss.  Hmmm.  That’s my results on him.  Destroy, destroy, destroy, destroy.  Those are him on me. …  Did I have my fishing pole equipped?  I check.  No.  Am I wearing my nobleman’s monacle perhaps?  No, I’ve got my epic helm equipped.  What just happened?

I alt-tab out and go into the Armory.  Seems our Shaman has over 1000 Resilience.  Dag.  I’m running 400 or so.  He also had 7k health on me, and double the mana.  Those maces weren’t Crusader Seal maces, not doing up to 608 damage each.  That must have been arena weapons.

Okay, I’m beginning to get the picture.  He’s on two Arena Teams, 2s and 3s.  Face to face type.  He’s gotten himself the Conqueror title, so exalted with every battleground.  He’s wearing solid pvp gear from his head to his toes, pinkie finger included.

And, granted, even if his gear hadn’t been top notch, this guys been PvPing since he left his crib.  I’ve been PvPing since the last couple of weeks.  I’d be outmatched if he was dual wielding spaghetti.

I know there’s mouseover “gear score” add-ons.  I figured why did I need to have that?  Like I needed the boost to my ego (rather, the kick to it’s head) over and over?  “Oh, look.  The NPC vendor selling breaksticks has a higher gear score than me.”  )  I don’t need a “gear score” ability.

Well, if I’m sizing up the competition and deciding whether or not I’m going to be a hero, or a lemming, a little more information would certainly come in handy.

Grind & Craft, now PvP.

I’ve got five level 80 characters.  Four of them are Crusaders.  I don’t have the time, or inclination anymore, to get the fifth to Crusader, or anyone else in the “up and coming” ranks either.  The fifth started the process, but given he’s my oldest character, and his reputation with the cities is the worst (friendly, honored) I thought “No way.”

My Orc Warrior’s crafted, let me see, four full sets of Savage Saronite Plate armor.  One for himself, two for our Horde Deathknights, and one for my Paladin.  He’s crafted 3 Titansteel Destroyers (himself, Pally, my Alliance Druid).  He’s crafted two of the Titansteel spellpower maces (my horde Shaman, wife’s Alliance Druid), a Titansteel attack power mace (for my wife’s Shaman), and a Titansteel dagger (wife’s Alliance Mage).  I’ve crafted two Spiked Titanium Plate Helms and Boots (himself and the Pally), and also crafted the Tempered Titanium (tanking) Helm and Boots (for the Pally).  A full set of i187 leather gear for my Feral Druid, and my wife’s Balance Moonkin, and the i187 mail gear for the Hunter (who has crafted all this).   And the two epic leather cloaks (for dps and tanking, for my Pally).  Good thing Frozen Orbs are available on the Auction House!

So, all that grinding and gathering and crafting got me to one niveau.  The Crusader grind has added to it by providing a couple more items.  (And cash.)  My Belf Paladin is in 2 pieces of heirloom gear and wielding the grim reaper.  My Nelf Rogue is in the leather heirloom gear and wielding the sword.  My Forsaken Priest is temporarily modeling the cloth heirloom gear and wielding the staff, waiting to pass it on to my Goblin Warlock  My Pally is flying a Silverwing Hippogriff.

And now we PvP.

Goals:  Equip my Paladin in the honor bought pvp gear.  (Shoulders, belt, gloves, so far.)  I’m struck by the fact that I can’t use honor points for weapons.  That explains the Hunter I saw with full epic PvP gear, and using the sword from the Ebon Blade faction rep.

Secondary goal, equip the wife’s Shaman and my own Warrior in better-than-we-can-craft epics.  And, heck, frankly, give us something to do.  We’ve been at a bit of a standstill for a little while now.  (She’s got three level 80 characters of her own.  We’d only do the eyeball burning “Loremaster of Northrend” achievement (and for her an epic cloak recipe) on one couple, our Pally and Mage.)

Third goal: Get a couple of the heirloom items.  My Druid has gotten enough shards to pick up the Thrashblade for my level 60 rogue.  (It’ll go with the Crusader Seals purchased sword.)  (I actually took the Sharpened Scarlet Kris.  Slow+Fast is the new black.)  My Paladin will push for the 325 shard Staff of Jordan heirloom.  That’s going to be for my Worgen Mage.  (Maybe the pvp heirloom shoulders for the Mage as well.  The Crusader Seal clothie gear is very much “Warlocks Only” in look and style.)  The wife will earn enough shards to get the Spellpower plate (and xp boost) for her Holy Paladin.  Maybe the spellpower mace if we stick to it.  Shards are easy enough to come by with patience.

Casual?  Not really.  Personal?  Very.

What I take away from the Pardo interview

What happens when a hardcore guildmaster of hardcore raiders designs a game:

World of This

Prologue

You come from a humble background and are brought to the big city to prepare yourself for the war you’ve only heard about.

Chapter 1

Level yourself from 1 to Level Cap.  And be quick about it.  You, slacker, are holding up your friends.

Chapter 2

Raid the latest and greatest.  If you managed to keep up with your “friends.”

Chapter 3

Loot!

Epilogue

There is no happy ending.  That loot is only there to get the next loot which is only there to get the next loot which is only there…  Stress out, burn out, chill out, drop out.  Re-sub.

Too bad his creation has become something he does not appear to be all too happy with.  It’s too damn casual for him, basically.  If you’re willing to climb up a hill to go to school, both ways, he’ll do it in the snow.  If you do it in the snow he’ll go with bare feet.  If you do it with bare feet, he’ll add razor spikes.  He wants that gap between hardcore and casual.  The bigger the gap, the more of a winner you are.  The game must provide you the opportunity to make as big an e-peen as you can.  (Grand Marshal title anyone?  How many lives did that ruin?)

The winners, those who need that gap, always have Darkfall or Conan.  If they’ve got the balls for it.  (Those that don’t will roll on an RP server and park their mammoths on the quest giver in Wintergrasp.  They’re big like that.)

But wait, I invalidate his own argument there.  No, the “winners” have to play in a casual world.  Their accomplishments are meaningless when compared to other players with skillz.  Without the unwashed ranks of casuals to feel good against, what have you got?  You have to have casuals in order to make the leet feel leet.  If everyone else is in Tier 10 too, you’ve got bupkis.

I wonder if we’ll ever see a casual game for casual players.  And no, even I don’t want Sims with Swords.  How about something more about exploration than conquest?  A virtual world that’s more about “living” in it than reaching it’s conclusion over and over (and demanding new conclusions over and over).

I seriously hope WoW2 is not a game where you 1) RUSH TO LEVEL CAP, 2) Raid.  (Then you may as well simply offer max level characters out of the box and let them simply do arenas and puzzle events.  Screw the story and lore and backdrop.  They’re for the tourists who otherwise fund all this.  But then Guild Wars has already done that.)

I’m just piqued that he’s even complaining just a little about the great game they’ve made.  NEWS FLASH:  Count your subs.  Know you’ve created something unique.  Rest on your laurels.  Go ahead and expand on what you’ve got, all of it, if you want for a followup.  I don’t want to see a World of Raids.

New Pet, $10.00. Psycho Tendency Assuaged, Priceless.

I saw this freakish little scene up by the tournament:

Druid in Tree Form, just standing there. (I was killing Cultists.) It was not. It was just standing there.

Seems they had gotten a new pet, the Lil K.T..

And they took it to the penguins to watch it kill them. Two of them where enjoying the scene when I took the screen shot.

 

 

Dragon Age: Origins

First off, we weren’t going to get this game.  I wasn’t totally thrilled with the trailers I’d seen (I thought the graphics looked dated).  The wife was thinking between WoW, Lotro, occasionally Warhammer, when would she get a chance to play?  And it’s $50.00.

But there we were, in Best Buy, and thinking (Logitech G35 headset already under one arm), “Eh, why not.  It’s supposed to be pretty good.”

And I’ve got to say, YOW!  It’s really much, much better than I was expecting.  The graphics are over the top really, really nice.  The fire effects, the armor pieces, the environments, they all look spectacular.

You’ve heard of the Uncanny Valley?  You won’t find it on this map.  Oh, the old people look a little odd, but for the most part, the people look really very nice and varied.  Hardest to make well typically, the Dwarf women looked really nice and pleasant.  Generally, the faces are incredibly good looking.  If you can imagine what’s “good looking” you can make that face.

Story wise, I’ll admit, we did not finish the game.  Not even in the slightest.  What we did, the wife and I, was play through several of the opening sequences.  Each of the races and class backgrounds, and I’m assuming sex as well, has it’s own storyline.  Play a Human and you start out the son of a noble.  Play a Dwarf and you can be a noble, or a ruffian.  Play a wood elf and you start out harrassing the hapless humans.  Play a City Elf and you are on the rough side of town, and the humans are out to make your life a living hell.  (Because Humans are punks that way.)

The Human start was normal enough.  What you’d expect.  That was my first run through.  Next I created a forest, i.e. Dalish, elf.  Interesting.  Very fitting.  (I was shocked at how abusive they were to the humans they’d found.)  I then created a Dwarf to see things from that angle.  I picked the ruffian start and man, this is adult stuff.  Your sister is involved in what???  I really liked his dwarven sidekick.  Guy with black cornrow braids?  Reminded me so much of a Vin Diesel type with his attitude, both in voice, manner, and appearances, and the humor evident in his eyes.  Now my wife created a Human Mage and she started out someplace completely different.  (And gets hit on by some Templar guy, who would have killed her, not that he’d want to, “But, hey, what are you doing later?”)  Then she created a City Elf woman, and the story she went through… Wow.  (Her story explains why elves would sooner shoot a Human dead than humor them.)  That’s some heavy hardcore stuff.  Speaking of which, the feather’s on Morrigan’s shoulder armor look incredible.

But I haven’t mentioned the blood.  It’s everywhere.  I mean, get the plastic sheeting out, Patrick Bateman’s coming to visit.  It’s just over the freaking top.  Even arachnids spout blood like some italian fountain and the stuff gets everywhere.  Well, everywhere on you, the corpse, and then forms a puddle under the body.  (Everything else is, thankfully, still pristine.)  The blood is way, way, way over the top.

Now we also haven’t got to the noody caboody parts yet, and the “sex,” so who knows how well done that is.  (Tasteful, or like the blood, off the wall and into the realm of teenage boy fantasies.)

There’s some very adult language and situations, and a lot of blood, but, so far, it’s turned out to be well worth the price.  We give it two thumbs up.

Ahead by a Century

Ahead by a Century

I don’t know why exactly, but I love this song by the Tragically Hip, a Canadian group.

I first heard them, this song, listening to Iceberg on Sirius radio.  After seeing the cool video on YouTube I was wondering if I’d like the rest of their music as much.  (Oddly, sadly, no.  Ahead by a Century remains the singular favorite of mine of theirs.)

“Ahead By A Century”

First we’d climb a tree and maybe then we’d talk
Or sit silently and listen to our thoughts
With illusions of someday casting a golden light
No dress rehearsal, this is our life
That’s when the hornet stung me and I had a feverish dream
With revenge and doubt tonight we smoke them out

You are ahead by a century

Stare in the morning shroud and then the day began
I tilted your cloud, you tilted my hand
Rain falls in real time and rain fell through the night
No dress rehearsal, this is our life

That’s when the hornet stung me and I had a serious dream
With revenge and doubt tonight, we smoked them out

You are ahead by a century
But this is our life and disappointing you is getting me down.

I think the video is great.  Grainy, artsy, dark.  It’s “light” in the right place, when he’s with his girl in the tree, and then dark, and getting darker afterwards, as she’s doing dangerous things and the group is arriving in the car.  And she knows what’s going on.  You see her seeing him begin to doubt and smiling at him to assure him that everything’s fine.  But it isn’t.  She fiddles with her ring.  She knows they’re coming.  Is she ahead by a century in figuring out life’s tragedies?  Or is there something else going on that I’m not hip enough to get?  Regardless, I love the guitar work and the tone.

So, man, what’s this all about?  This isn’t Facebook.  This isn’t a musical interests blog.  This is a World of Warcraft blog.

Well it sure is.

So there I was, dual speccing my third character.  My Druid, Greenclaw.  He’s been Feral for a long, long, very long time.  And there’s this thing with Anzu, and how you need to heal the Eagle totem… I’ve said too much.  Anyway, I dual specced him into a Tree, i.e. Resto Spec.  But I’d never healed with a Druid before.  I’ve got several HoTs, several direct heals, and I took the glyph selections from Talent Chic as well as a tank-oriented healer talent spec.  I dropped some gold in the Auction House for the i187 healing/caster stuff.  I picked up a ring, and then the Argent Dawn ring.  I crafted myself a Faces of Doom for my off-hand, and grabbed the caster dagger from the Tournament quartermaster.  (Sweet that it’s a Darnassian dagger design.)  And also the caster neck and belt from them as well.  In short, I dropped a ton of mats, seals, and gold, to do it as best I could on a short moment’s notice.  I must be resto NOW.  (Actually, in Feral form, as I tried clearing around Anzu’s summoning spot, the Heroic Level trash mobs thrashed me.  Soloing in normal mode was one thing.  Soloing in Heroic mode, in crafted blues and a couple i200 epics?  Very different indeed.)

But, with the advent of the cross-server PUG, maybe I can start from the beginning, Utgarde Keep, something like that, and learn how to heal.

(My wife’s a druid too, so, together, Heroic Setthik Halls, and Anzu, and more importantly, the Raven God as a mount, shouldn’t be impossible.)

Dude, what’s that have to do with the music lead-in?  What does Anzu have to do with Ahead by a Century?

The two are related in that most “LFG’s” I see in general chat are LFG for Heroic TOC.  Where the hell are the regular folks?  The only people raiding are done with Ulduar?  I’ve never even looked inside.  :/

Is everyone ahead of me, gear/progression, by a century?

(How else could I talk about a video I like and dual speccing into Resto for seemingly my own purposes???)

Anyway.  And since life is fairly fun afterall, let me leave you with Vampire Weekend’s A-Punk.  Makes me wish I was back in UofM, Munich Campus, drinking beer in the Boot Room again, this playing on the jukebox…

We were otherwise listening to Men Without Hats’s Safety Dance back then. 

Way before Heigen stole it.

Ah, those were nights!

Hunka hunka burning sameness

If Elvis were talking about burning love, you’d be thinking “Wow, he’s talking about something remarkable. Something worth singing about. Something he thinks we’d all be interested in knowing about.”

Ooh-hoo-hoo, I feel my temp’rature rising
Help me I’m flamin’, I must be a hundred and nine
Burnin’, burnin’, burnin’ and nothing can cool me, yeh
I just might turn to smoke but I feel fine

Wow, Dude. Something’s rocking his world.

But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about something remarkably average. That’s to say, something with utter sameness, just the paper mask over the face is all there is to set folks apart.

I’m taking about the races in World of Warcraft.

This thought occured to me as I, Honorus, Human Paladin, astride a charger, facing off against this gigantic Tauren astride his massive, armor plated, kodo. And I was thinking “Who are we kidding. In ‘real life’ he’d squash me like a bug.” Comparing mass, he and his mount were like six of me and mine.

But in World of Warcraft, sparring in the tournament, we are 100% identical, this Tauren and I, and our disparate mounts. We have identical health, identical abilities, identical response times. If I were a Gnome, it would be no different. If he were some 30′ tall Titan, riding on two M1A1 Abrams strapped to his feet, it would be no different. Our differences amount to nothing more than a paper mask we wear for Halloween.

If I was going to picture fantasy battles, I’d picture a group of Humans surrounding one Tauren and he’d be swinging a tree trunk side to side blowing them all away. That’s just the level 1 noobs mind you. Because a Tauren is like four times the mass of a human. Give them some advantage due to their stature.

But in World of Warcraft Tauren = Orc = Human = Gnome. I.e. 10 = 8 = 6 = 4.

So it doesn’t matter whatsoever what race you play, they’re all pretty much identical except for certain “flavor style” racial abilities. (Have you noticed how they seriously toned down racials so we’re all the same? Fear Ward anyone?) In the end it’s just a mask you wear.

If I rolled a Tauren, it’s because I wanted to be a Juggernaut. A powerhouse. A force of Nature. But noooo. In effect I’m just a Gnome that can’t squeeze into unusually small hidey holes.

And with the Worgen and Goblins able to become Death Knights (RETCON MOR!) I mean, c’mon. The Worgen are humans who escaped the Scourge behind the Graymane wall, no? Yes, yes, they succumbed to the disease that turned them into werewolf like creatures, but they were never minions of the Lich King. They were in Gilneas, and the Goblins we’ll get to play soon were on some jungle island, and yet, all of a sudden, the Lich King had actually made some of them Death Knights already, once upon a time, too?

So, pretty much, everyone is identical except for class. It is, pretty much (Tauren Paladin anyone??) irrelevant what race you want to play. It’s nothing more than a paper mask you wear. Only the classes are differentiated.

And what a shame. That’s something I think Warhammer got right. And with the introduction of the Slayer, they too have started down the road of everyone can be anything. (The Slayer is the Dwarf equivalent of an Orc unit.)

You know what I’d like? I’d like for Race to matter as much as Class.

Is that too tough to balance for Blizzard? I think the game would be better if they could make the effort and make it work so that race mattered. Instead they’re going the other direction towards homogeneous sameness in everyone and everthing. (Stat consolidation on future gear is only part of the symptoms of this.)

Are we headed to a Hello Kitty Island Adventure kind of game? Suitable for all ages, sexes, cultures, and pulse rates?

Butters: I don’t play World of Warcraft.
Cartman: Butters you said you’re on your computer all the time.
Butters: Ya, but I’m playing “Hello Kitty Island Adventure”
(All stare at Butters)
Cartman: (calmly) Butters go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
Butters: (nervously) Oh alright then.

Or not.

Paladin Flexibility

So there I was.

To catch you up briefly, Msaker, by Orc Warrior, used up a lot of good crafting mats to equip my Human Paladin in some decent (non-raider, non-instancing) gear.  Tempered Saronite Helm and Boots for tanking, and Spiked Saronite Helm and Boots for DPSing.  (I.e. the iLevel 200 stuff.)  My hunter used up the last 4 Arctic Furs in all of existence (Dear World, Please forgive me.) to make the Nerubhide and Icestriker cloaks for him.  And the Orc also made the Human his Titansteel Destroyer and Titansteel Shieldwall.  And working on the tournament I picked up the Teldrassil Defender.  (Spiffy graphics, and even though the moon already glowed, it was enhanced with a quick and cheap Crusader enchant.)  So Honorus has been the greatest benefactor of a huge portion of my hardwork in materials gathering.  (That and the wife and I have 9 characters between us with Artisan Flying.  The tournament has been beddy beddy good to us.  It’s not “casual” gameplay at all!!!)

Anyway, so I’m interested in getting a Horseman’s Helm.  (And just getting the achievement to kill him.)  Msaker has the old (level 70) one and loves it.  I wanted to get an updated version for my Paladin.

I spec Retribution and travel to the Scarlet Monastery.  There’s a crowd, but not a lot of talk.  Then folks start talking.  Deathknight /s “DPS lfg.”  Warlock “DPS lfg.”  Umm.  I see where this is going.  DPS folks all gathered around waiting for 1) someone to tank for them, and 2) someone else to heal for them.  (Then off they go to their happy DPS lives while the healer and tank respec to DPS as well and carry on with their lives.)

Well, hell.  I appeared to be part of the problem.  There I was.  Ret Pally, LFG.  Good grief.  (See, tanking is a responsibility.  Healing is a responsibility.  DPS fails to kill a boss?  “Tank better” or “Your healing sucks.”  Hey, sign me up for the acid eye wash.  Bring it!)

Well, the Deathknight says “I’ll start a group.”  Warlock says “Invite me.”  Deathknight says “LFM.”

Well, heck with it.  I’ve actually spent more than a couple Titansteel bars to let them sit unused in my bags.  ”Invite me.”

Invited I linger a bit in Ret spec.  “So, what are you?  Tank, healer, or DPS.”  The Warlock lol’s “I’m DPS.”  I tell them I’m Ret.  But: I can spec Prot, if your good DPS can make up for my bad tanking.  (I haven’t tanked an instance, for reals, in … forever.  Not on a Paladin.)  I respec, equip my tanking stuff and we wait.  Two more Paladins join the party.  The first is actually geared with a Titansteel Shieldwall as well.  And he’s got 27k health to my 22k.  I guess he’ll be tanking.  Except all of a sudden his health drops to 12k.  Huh??  I hover over him and it says he’s Holy now.  Okay, so we’ve got a healer.  The other Paladin stays Retribution.  (He’s wearing an Explorer’s tabard.  I don’t even care what his gear is.  Later, after a fight, while we waited for his mana to recover on his own … That takes FOREVER by the way, I offer him some mana replenshing tea.  “No, thanks.  I have potions for that.”  And so we wait a while longer.  And we wait.  DIVINE PLEA YOU MORON! (I quietly say inside.  Having only discovered this wonderful ability a short hour earlier myself while perusing Paladin Tanking over on ElitistJerks or Maintankidin website.)

Anyway, long story short, I tank five summons of the Horseman.  No deaths.  And none of us were geared in anything exceptional.  Horseman ain’t so tough.  Or my tanking wasn’t so terrible.  (And no helm, or mount, either.  Sigh.)

Then it was back to the Tournament as Retribution.  (The best 2,000 gold (after cold weather flying) that I’ve spent was to dual spec my Warrior Arms/Prot and my Paladin Prot/Ret.)

I am loving the flexibility of the Paladin. 

And, yes, I have LOTS to learn yet to play him effectively in any role beyond smashing weak non-raid single targets.

A Fool and his Durability…

I don’t know why this thought occurred to me, but it did, and it was “A fool and his durability are soon parted.”

I was thinking that when I got invited to a Chillmaw/Commanders group.  I was the 3^rd person to the group.  And with me they were ready to go.  “They” being a Ret Pally and a Priest.  And the Ret Pally wasn’t putting a shield on and switching specs to Prot.  Meaning I wasn’t going to cat this one, but bear it.

And I’d just, moments before accepting the invite, been fooling around with my action bars.  And while Chillmaw was hammering me I was wondering where my Maul button was.  (“Why do I have a blank space there where a button should be?  Like a Maul button?”)  But I had my Swipe button.  And I had my Growl button.  And we all three lived to walk away from the fight.  Yay.

So my action bars were a mess, kind of, they looked orderly, because, on the recommendation of pwnwear.com (great site) I switched from Bartender 4 to Dominos.

I also picked up an add-on called OptionHouse which reports to me what add-ons are loaded, and what resources they’re gobbling up.

Because I’ve been having issues.  Memory issues.  What?  See, I crash a lot lately.  Icecrown has become Lagcrown.  I herk and jerk across the landscape, I actually lose visibility of my entire interface (without ctrl-z-ing for it) in places when I fly too close to the ground.  (Like a Druid herbalist does a lot.)

Anyway, my fix last night, while the wife played LotRO, was threefold, and based on recommendations from pwnwear. 

OptionHouse, Dominos, TweakWoW.

I loaded OptionHouse.  I saw that Autobar consumed the most memory at 5%+ or so.  That’s a chunk of memory.  But I can’t live without it.  Gathermate took another 5% or so.  I can’t live without that either.  Healbot came in around 3%.  Huh?  So I dropped Healbot since I’ve always had Grid loaded as well.  (Clique + Grid2 should do me for what I’m doing now.  I’m not a healer type at the moment.)

(I’ll have to work an alternative to using AutoBar.)

I noted that Bartender4 was pulling 2.5%.  And after I loaded Dominos I saw it was only pulling about .5%.  Not a bad improvement.  And I’m sure I could do this with Bartender4, but being new to Dominos, and doing some initial playing around with things, I actually managed to very easily configure my bars for my Druid forms.  And not just my usual Bar #1.  I can now have multiple bars shift when I shift.  Kind of a nifty thing.  (I’m a by the numbers keyboard user, I like to push 1-2-3-4 in something like a “rotation,” so having less-often used spells on the bar above, that’s still form specific, is nice, and keeps my fingers from having to move all over the place.)

(Hmm.  Maybe I’ve found my alternative to AutoBar afterall.  If I can swap bars as I go in and out of combat I may be on to something.)

Anyway, the third add-on is TweakWoW.

Now the thing that sparked my interest was pwnwear.com’s mention about how TweakWoW was updated recently to take into account multiple cores.  Say what?  The number of cores in the processor on my motherboard.  Hmm.  I’m always thinking “modern = two core processor”.  And doesn’t my box say “Core 2?”  Yeah.  But it also says “Core 2 Quad.”  I’ve got 4 cores.  And I knew that since I run a Widget that shows me 4 cores working as I work on my machine.  But I never thought much of it.  I assumed the WoW client would take advantage of what I had and use it to it’s fullest if I told to give me the Cadillac version of the game experience.  Oh?  No.  No, it does not.  I was shocked.  So, using TweakWoW I told WoW that I had 4 cores, not 2.  Four.  And, for some reason, my texture memory was at the minimum setting.  Hmm?  I’ve got a Gateway FX computer.  One of the negatives given in a review of it was that it had a ridiculous amount of memory on it.  6 Gigs.  That’s right, somebody thought “That’s just too much.”  And, TweakWoW advised that I should up the texture memory level (if my machine could handle it) to improve performance in places like Dalaran.  Oh, yeah?  So I upped it from 8MB to 320MB if memory servers.

And so with all these changes I loaded up and into Dalaran.  Hmm.  Was I imagining things, or did everything look … better?  The real test was to go scour Icecrown for ore with my Paladin.  Sweet.  It was smooth as butter.  And that’s with a lot of settings already maxed, or bumped up some from what I already had.

So, thanks to the advice I found over at pwnwear.com, things are running a little smoother again.

Oh, yeah, pwnwear also has a lot of Deathknight analysis.  I respecced Cenotaph into his Blood + Pale Horse leveling spec so that might be amusing.

It’s me, not you. Not really. It’s you.

I was doing quests in Storm Peaks.  Again.  The intro to the Sons of Hodir quests and I was doing some running around for Thorim.

Once upon a time, that is to say the first three times I did these quests for him, Thorim was an icier Vrykul.

Now, the fourth time running into him, he’s a Titan just like his brother Loken always was.

It’s funny, and good, how often and how much Blizzard subtly messes around with the world improving it, adjusting it, fixing it.  The guards around towns usually always sport something different in their gear sets.

Anyway, Thorim used to look mad, or sullen.

Now he just looks bored and petulant.  Drumming his fingers is a nice touch.

Oh. Troll on a helicopter. Been there, done that. Boring.