… especially Daynear.
But seriously, a big thanks to Nymper for organizing yesterday’s series of old content runs. It was good gear/xp for the lowbies and a fun experience for everyone.
Long story short: WowMatrix is essentially dead.
Oh, they’re still puttering along. I even see an updated addon from time to time. But after some major addon hosts got tired of WowMatrix harvesting things on their sites without giving them the opportunity for add revenue, clickbacks, or even a “Thank you very much for letting us be in ur base, stealin ur bandwidth!” … well, they cut Wowmatrix off.
Problem is, I’ve gotten very used to how much time an Addon manager saves. If you find a good one it will not only check your current addons for updates (a lifesaver after any major patch) but help you find and try out new ones.
So I went to Curse.com (one of the sites that cut WowMatrix off, interestingly enough) to try out their own client. It’s worth noting that the Mac version is still in beta and that’s what I’m using, so this is all subject to change. It’s also worth noting that when I started up the Curse Client it threw me into a demo of their “Premium” service. As I’m a cheapskate you’ll find out about the non-premium version when this one expires.
First, let’s recap with a quick look at WoWMatrix’s window.
Not the prettiest, and if an addon had 36 million components it listed all of them, but it worked. I assumed Curse’s client would have a similar setup.
Augh, where did all of my addons go? WowMatrix would at least show an addon even if it didn’t recognize them! … Oh, wait … they’ve put them into a separate tab.
Panic attack averted, and replaced by minor annoyance. Apparently Curse didn’t know if an addon named ImmersionRP meant that it was an addon named ImmersionRP. … OK. One button click in this window clears out most of the issues. My current setup still hasn’t fixed Carbonite or PowerAuras yet, mostly because I’m not just a cheapskate but lazy as well and I don’t want to have to redo my preferences for those (or in the case of PowerAuras, export & import my settings).
OK, next step is to look for new Addons by going to that “Find an Addon” tab. Doing so results in …. absolutely nothing. Why? Because I don’t have my updated list of available addons, of course! One more button click and I can search away to my heart’s content.
Ah, much better.
Until my “Premium” service expires and it potentially all stinks again. I’ll let you know when that happens.
After much hopping around as an itty-bitty technicolor bunny of doom, Melina has her first title. She looks quite regal, doesn’t she?
(Do you have something worth a “Grats!” on the guild site? Post a screen cap on the forum or send it to me at splat [at] myguildhome.com!)
I’ve been thinking a lot about my editorials of late, as well as my brief forays into storytelling. I enjoy doing them, but both have their problems:
I don’t write enough stories to merit having a blog devoted to them. There, I’ve said it. As much as I like the blog I can either let it die an honorable death or have it linger on, wasting away to nothing. I prefer the former, and intend to harvest the organs (posts) so that another blog might live longer with useful content.
Now of course I could always integrate them into my guild site, but that leads to the second problem:
The Fortune Favors Guild Site is becoming my own personal rant space. That is not what should happen. That is not what I want to happen. The guild site is for guild news, advice, event planning, and so on. The guild is a collective of awesome people, not just me.
So I’m creating yet another blog where I can combine my editorials with any stories I happen to think up along the way. It won’t want for content (I have difficulty shutting up – you may have noticed…), and I won’t be usurping the purpouse of a guild site in the process. The downside is that this site will see a little less content, but what I do post there will be more fitting for a guild site so I think it’ll be for the best.
“I PvP like I fly – lots of flailing around, followed by a dirt nap.”
-Splat, GM of <Fortune Favors>
It didn’t take me too long to learn where my talents were when it came to World of Warcraft. In PvE I was a decent healer, reluctant tank, and so-so DPS.
In PvP, I said the above quote. A lot.
At the time I thought it was strictly my lack of skill. The few times I’d tried PvP games online before had met with similar results, and I was the lowest common denominator of that equasion.
Or so I thought.
My problem, apparently, was that I didn’t PvP well as a paladin. I saw my responsibility was to rush over to the enemy and smash it’s face in with a blunt weapon. That worked quite well against many foes. Against a warlock, I ran around in circles while I watched my health bar tick down to zero.
Of course I wasn’t being feared by warlocks all the time. I even managed to get out a healing spell or two, since I was holy spec.
Ever wonder why you hardly ever see people healing in a battleground? It’s because the other faction sees the glowing hands as international sign language for “I have a crick in my back, please help me get rid of it.”
There are ways to spec and play a paladin to make it actually viable in ranged combat, but I never tried them. I never even considered them, even though I’ve seen PvPers play ranged paladins (“shockadins”) and play them well. Don’t even get me started on retribution spec.
And then one of my little baby hunters was challenged to a duel by a warlock. He feared me 3 times. I was not properly geared. I had put no points into increasing the damage output of my pet bear (mostly for self-preservation).
And I kicked his butt.
So it seems that I actually like doing a little PvP from time to time on my hunter. I may not be the best there is but I don’t die as often, I have more crowd control options to assist my teammates, When I’m left as the only person guarding the flag I at least have a pet to keep me company, and frankly it just seems to be more fun for me.
Ranged? Melee? How about both? My pet will be all business in the front while I party in the back! That’s right, I just compared hunters to mullets. Mullets of power. Do not mess with these mullets or their pets will eat your face.
… now if I can just get that one person in each battleground to stop complaining about how bad our faction is instead of helping to defend &/or capture the flag (whichever needs more people at the time), I’ll be set.
And I didn’t put it here. Instead, it’s been posted over on Klinderas’ blog as a guest post while he packs up and heads home from college.
Be sure to check out the rest of his blog and leave some comments if you like what you see. And if you’re here because you clicked on the link on his site, …. you poor poor fools!
No, seriously – glad to have you here. 
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
10. Spring is rearing it’s ugly head and all your guildmates are remembering that the day star doesn’t burn you if you wear sunscreen.
9. Hey, you’ve already forgotten what the “RP” in “MMORPG” means – ignoring that 2nd “M” in there isn’t going to kill you.
8. Instance server crashed, going down with all souls on board. While your 80 is in Limbo you might as well do something to pass the time.
7. Your rampant paranoia and fear of ninja looters prevents you from grouping with anyone unless they can show you 2 forms of ID and a blood sample.
6. You’re leveling through Outland and are honestly embarrassed (Warning, strong language beyond link) to be seen by anyone until your gear looks nicer.
5. You hate people. (But love gatherings!)
4. You’re trying to get a group together for Gnomeregan. (Been in LFG channel for 2 years, 3 months, 5 days, 2 hours, 57 minutes and counting! Just need a healer and G2G .. oh wait. There goes the tank. And the DPS. /sigh.)
3. The only person you’ve found that’s willing to quest with you is this guy.
2. You have a life outside of the game, requiring you to go AFK so frequently that anyone you group with eventually just leaves you to your own devices.
1. You play a paladin, druid, or hunter. Soloing things 4 levels higher than you is the norm. Why would you want to share loot & XP?
… she just earned this achievement:
Have your own achievement you want to send me? Send it along to splat (at) myguildhome.com and I’ll post it here for all to see.
Warning: this one's a little geeky.
I got hooked on WoW from the moment I made my first character. I found the game to be a visual treat with an easy to use interface.
… and now my screen looks nothing like it did back then. I have systematically replaced a good portion of the user interface (UI) by downloading addons that helped my experience in some way, and from what I’ve seen there are people who’ve gone even further than me when it comes to redoing how you interact with the game.
So… here’s some of my favorite improvements. All of these are free, and most are available through WoWMatrix.com. If you can’t get them there, Curse.com has them.
- Auctioneer: My first addon ever, and still used almost every day to help bring in the big bucks. If your system can’t handle it you can always try AuctionLite, but I’ve found Auctioneer is the one that has the features I use.
- FuBar: Totally pointless by itself, FuBar allows you to use an entire subset of addons that are placed in small horizontal bars at the top and bottom of your screen. (You can move and/or turn off the bars if you need to.) Any addon name that ends with “Fu” probably uses FuBar. Speaking of which…
- PerformanceFu: System seems to be going slow? Wondering if it’s latency, lag, or just TOO MANY ADDONS installed? (*cough*) This one measures what’s going on and can occasionally speed things up for you. At the very least it’ll tell you which addons are the system resource hogs.
- GarbageFu: Puts a new button on every vendor’s window that allows you to sell ALL your grey items in one click. Also, if your bags are getting full you can shift-click to get rid of the cheapest grey item in your inventory to free up some space.
- Omen: Threat management is a must, even more important than who’s doing the most DPS. While I’ve abandoned my DPS meter completely I still like to make sure I’m the biggest threat when tanking and not the biggest threat when doing anything else. Omen let’s me know if I’m doing it wrong before someone who isn’t supposed to be the meat shield becomes the meat shield.
- AuldLangSyneFu: Tells you how many friends & guildmembers are online, as well as other information. I don’t gnow how I ever GMed without it, but I find it’s useful even on my characters that are in other guilds.
- Bartender: This got installed when trying out another addon which I ended up despising, but Bartender is awesome once you get past the “What the heck why are all my buttons in the middle of the screen?!” moment. True, it takes some configuring to get it the way you want it, but with that reorganization I was able to make my UI much more intuitive. (That means I die less, and when playing a healer that means everyone else dies less too.)
- Power Auras: Notification system (mana low, mana high, rage high, health of player X is low, debuff on mob X has worn off, etc.) is one of the ones that requires a higher level of geekiness. After installing it it you bring up it’s configuration window by typing /powa (as in:” I have it.”). Even then it might take a bit or a lot to get used to it, but fortunately you can import settings made by others and some people managed to pave the way for us so you can look at what they did and modify it to make your own.
- Carbonite: Tells you where to go to complete quests, shows unexplored areas of the map, shows more in your minimap than you really should be able to see, allows easy transfer of friends lists between alts, and a few other features too. This used to be an addon you had to pay for, but now it’s free and has replaced two other addons of mine (QuestHelper & Cartographer, if you’re curious). The settings that controll it are … almost more confusing than Power Auras. However once you bang your head against the keyboard enough times to get it the way you like it (Warning: Get a spare keyboard if you really want to configure it using this method. Preferrably someone else’s keyboard.) you’ll wonder how you played without it before.
Lately I’ve been finding reasons to avoid playing with Splat.
I’m not talking about the time I’ve been spending away from the game entirely. (The apartment looks a LOT better and I’m not even done with the spring cleaning!) Lately when I log in, I find myself gravitating to my bank toons and other alts.
I’ve done this before – it’s why Artus and Elumi both made it to 50. It’s also why Splat took so long to get to 70.
… and why Elume never made it that far. She used to be my main, and I enjoyed playing her immensely. Most of my “n00b” mistakes were made with her, from not DPSing with a wand to begging guild members for instance runs. Suffice to say I learned a lot.
Then a few alts later Splat came along, and guild members were already calling her my main before I got her to level 20 – I enjoyed being a paladin that much. The mana-economical heals! The plate armor! The ability to run into Scarlet Monestary by myself and decimate everything at a level where I was told it couldn’t be done! Mwa-hahaha… um …
*Ahem.* Moving on.
Splat wasn’t the end of my character creation spree (also known as my alt-oholism), but I always came back. No mater what class or character I leveled, I knew that Splat was my main.
I’m just not as sure of that now. You see, hunters are just that much fun.
I’d rolled a hunter or two before, but never really got into them – mainly because I was playing them wrong. I could play a healing spec and do a phenomenal job, but when it came to DPS I never quite did it well, then lost interest and deleted the character or turned it into a bank alt.
Until I learned what I was doing wrong. Now I love the class (even if I have a somewhat unorthodox take on how to play them) and have made four of them (so far) spread out between various servers and factions. I really should just pick one and start leveling it, but I love them all.
I know I’m giving up a lot by switching from paladin to hunter. As a holy spec I had a lot less competition when it came to instance groups, but I’m not going to play a specific class/spec JUST so I get picked for instances. That wouldn’t be fun for me, and I’ve already ranted about that.
