Ganking.

"Cry more noob."

It's a statement heard often on a pvp (player vs. player) server in WoW.
On a pvp server, players are allowed to attack other players in contested (neutral) areas. Unfortunately, however, this has lead to high level and high geared (good weapons, armor, etc.) players going around and killing low level or lower geared players. This kind of killing doesn't require any kind of skill or finesse, it's just killing an opponent who couldn't hurt you if they tried. It doesn't sound like much fun. The players doing it number in the thousands. On my server alone. I've done it myself some. I've never really understood why, it was just something to do. I will admit that there's something a bit ego feeding (or I suppose Id feeding) about having absolute control and power of someone else. I suppose that's why most people do it. People lack a feeing of true control in their lives. As such, they instinctually seek to dominate something around them. Thus come the natural human lust for power. People want power because it makes them feel more  "in control" in their lives. WoW is no exception to this. Moreso, it's more of a haven for this type of personality. People who feel less in control are more likely to immerse themselves in games as it establishes a realm in which they can achieve a higher level of awareness of what's going on around them than in the "real". So while ganking seems like just immature childish behavior (and for some players it is just that) it also carries with it a sign of a bit of a deeper issue that most, if not all of us, share. I've met a couple players that have been against ganking. Out of all of them, I've only seen one stay true to that. Myst has singlehandedly changed my perspective on the entire concept. She's the only person I've met who's never wished to harm another player without just reason. It's an inspiration to me every day. I do my best now to be kind and courteous to all players I see now (well, courteous at least) in hopes that I can some day feel the same kind of caring she does for people. We'll see how it goes. Until then, I have to give a message for anyone who ganks constantly and thinks it makes them some sort of god.

If another person's feelings completely don't matter to you, do you yourself matter at all?

Serenity and Serendipity

So, ever since I got my flying mount, I've been grinding up gold to help Skat get her own epic flying skill. (unbeknownst to her of course) Well, yesterday I started grinding more gold, doing quests and whatnot, when I noticed Skat nearby in icecrown. She had been telling me she was having some trouble doing quests because of all the horde around, but was going to try anyway. I finished up the quest I was on, and flew over to where she was. I didn't let her know I was there, I just kept a watchful eye in case any horde decided to try anything. I watched her fighting some mobs and completing some quests (i know, stalker right?) and going about her business, making sure noone bothered her. I like watching her by herself, because I know she's not trying to look any specific way to impress me or anything of that sort. It's her in her natural environment, if that makes any sense. So I kept a watchful eye, playing my bejeweled addon and talking to her on skype. After a little while, she caught sight of me on her minimap and asked if I was nearby, I talked her into thinking I was elsewhere for a little bit, but then realized she was about to move on to some quests I hadn't done, so I went down and joined her. We ran through some quests, grinding up more gold as we went. I frequently asked her how she was doing on gold and asking how much she had curiously, though in reality I was calculating how much more we'd need and how long it would take to get it.  We kept questing, kept grinding. I watched her gold go up as my own followed suit. Before I knew it, we were done. I had her fly to where the lessons would be taught, under the guise of having her check how much it would cost. Once she landed there and told me how much (i knew how much it'd be anyway) I opened trade, and gave her what she needed to get her flying and a new epic flying mount. She tried to hide how overjoyed she was, but I could hear the grin spread across her face from ear to ear. I'd done what I'd set out to do. I'd made my babe happy. I'd also eliminated my need to ever use a regular flying mount again! She mounted up, and I told her to fly off and test it out, and she immediately crashed. Timing eh? So, while she was gone, I messaged some friends and pulled a group together to take her through the same instance I went through, to get her the same drake I had. The group was just about ready by the time she got back. A few minutes later, we were off. One successful instance run later, Skat is flying on her brand new drake, and I couldn't be more content. I watch her zoom off to have some more fun as I head off to get to bed, as it'd finally gotten late. I laid down listening to the grin on her face, and fell right to sleep.

An Informal Introduction.

Hi. So, I feel I should start off by mentioning that the color designation for paladins in World of Warcraft is pink. I feel pink is a manly color (if you can pull it off) and as such, have made it the color for my text. If you feel this is effeminate, then perhaps you're just a little insecure. Some of the worlds greatest (and my favorite) things are pink. That may or may not of been a sexual innuendo, take it as you wish.

Moving On...


So, I'm Archaeonis, a level 80 paladin in the wondrously wonderful wacky World of Warcraft. (I ran out of "w" words faster than I thought I would) I've resided in the World of Warcraft in one form or another for around 3 years now, and my addiction (though only recently re-acquired) is as strong as ever. I've been joined by my wonderfully inspirational and heart-warming soulmate, Skat (Whom may also be referred to as "Myst" in this blog) A level 80 hunter. I also have a level 80 hunter named Leose. (Leose being my preferred pseudonym) I don't play on Leose very much anymore... Because... Well...  Lemme put it this way.

You get the idea, yes?











I started WoW with Leose, a hunter, and though he was my first character, I feel that a paladin is a better fit for me in pretty much every way. I just feel more comfortable with a close combat character. Myst has only been playing a few months, and I feel that she is much better with the fundamentals of a hunter than I am. To be honest, I feel that with a little time she's gonna grow to be a pretty incredible hunter. She has a few hurdles to overcome first, but the bulk of those are just self-confidence. (As a paladin, I'm not allowed to have confidence problems) Once those aside, she's gonna be beastly. I can tell. I don't think she really believes me when I tell her she will be, but honestly I don't blame her. When we're young we never believe older people when they tell us what we'll grow up to be. Not to say that Myst is immature in anyway. She is simply young in WoW. I look forward excitedly to watching her grow to be the hunter she doesn't yet realize she can be.

Ok, so now that the introduction is over, lets get down to some recent events yes?

I recently got my riding skill up to artisan level. For those not in the WoW know, there are creatures you can ride in WoW to get around faster. There are four levels of riding skill : Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Artisan. There is also a seperate skill called "cold weather flying" but I will not be covering it, as it doesn't have any changes to the kind of mount you can ride.  These levels determine the type of mount you can ride, each mount basically being a multiplier of your normal ground running speed. Apprentice is the first riding skill you can achieve. Your character must be level 20 to learn this skill (the requirement was level 40 when Leo was leveling up,  WoW players have it easy nowadays -_- ) Apprentice riding lets your ride regular ground mounts, which increase your speed by 60%.  It should be noted that you cannot fight while on a mount, it is merely a way to get around faster, nothing else. Journeyman riding (available at level 40, ((used to be 60 -_-)) allows you to ride "epic" mounts. The term "epic" in WoW refers to an item classification level. Items are classified by their value and use. Epic is one of the highest levels, second to legendary. Epic ground mounts increases speed by 100%. So now we're really burning rubber, er... dirt, yes?  Well, when the WoW expansion "The Burning Crusade"  was introduced, it brought with it two new riding levels,  expert and artisan. These riding levels allowed you to ride new (at the time) flying mounts. Both used to be attained at level 70, but again, these level requirements have been reduced since. Expert riding allows you to use flying mounts that increase your speed by 150% in the air and 60% on the ground.  Artisan riding skill (also called "epic flying") allows you to use epic flying mounts, which are 280% in the air and 100% speed on the ground. There are special flying mounts that are 310%, but they are rare, and don't require any other riding skill than artisan.

Long explanation, I know, but I felt like explaining.

So, I got my artisan riding skill yesterday, after three years of being too lazy to grind the gold for it. (grinding is WoW lingo for doing specific tasks for one single goal, usually gold, reputation, or experience) I achieved this by finding a rare pet drop (drop is WoW lingo for a piece of loot (loot is WoW lingo for any piece of treasure received)) on a mob (mob is WoW lingo for enemy), and selling that pet on the auction house (place where players can auction items to other players) for a considerable sum of gold.  I then grinded up the rest of the gold I needed with a lot of help from my lovely counterpart, and 4250 gold later, voila! I'm flying around at breakneck speed. Later on that day, I did a heroic instance (an instance is a dungeon, heroic being a difficulty classification) with some friends and said counterpart to get a drop from a boss in the instance. That drop is a Drake mount.  Drake is WoW lingo for dragon more or less. There exists dragons in WoW, but also drakes. The difference between the two is unknown to me at this time.

This is my drake, which I have dubbed "Serenity"

Aint she grand? I feel stupid now for not working for epic flying sooner. It's fun to zip around the world of Azeroth. Now I get to help my baby get her epic flying so we can both race around.

Moving on!

Yesterday when I was off I logged on to Skat's character and snagged a rare pet (hunters get pets that fight with them) for her. Overly pleased for myself for putting a smile on my baby's face, I sent her an email with pictures of her new super kitty and went about my normal activities. So when Skat got home she of course was ecstatic and couldn't wait to see her new pet for herself. Well, no sooner had she logged on and start talking about how excited she was, than she was ganked by a horde. (gank is a term meaning killed in an unfair way by another player on the opposite side. we're on alliance, the other side is horde) Now, I will say that there's a few things that will really invoke my ire, and one of them, is someone making my love's disposition go from overly ecstastic, to frustrated and despairing. So, before she was even finished telling me she was ganked, I was already halfway there on my epic flying gryphon (a filler I was using until I got Serenity) I got there in time to see her mount and fly up in the air where she couldn't be attacked, the perpetrator (an 80 warrior) taunting away. This warrior had more health, and definately had better armor and weapons than I, but I'm not new, and I'm DEFINATELY not new to scrappin' in WoW, so I immediately flew off my mount and charged after him. He decided to show his true nature, and flew up and away with his mount, landing a few feet away and using his charge ability, in which he zooms to me, stunning me for a few seconds letting him get hits in before I can react. I had used my own stunning ability on him already, but he was in the process of flying off, so it didn't hit him, meaning I had to wait to use it again. Not that I felt it was vital to my victory. I was pissed. I was furious. I understand that Myst is going to get ganked sometimes, as was I, but not that day, not when she was that excited. Meanwhile, as my rage was growing, the warrior was winning the battle, using a warrior ability called whirlwind, in which he spins around which his weapon out, doing massive damage while making him nigh undefeatable for a short amount of time. My health drops to 28%, so I throw my protective bubble around myself and begin casting a heal on myself. I get a heal off before he uses an ability he has to break said shield, buy myself enough time to gain a little bit of time to damage him, but still he's got my on the ropes. Or so he thinks.  He's used his strongest abilities now. He's thrown his hand a bit too soon. He forgot I was a paladin. He didn't know who he had fucked with, or rather, whose boyfriend he'd fucked with. By this time Myst had realized that I had arrived and says into my ear with almost perfect timing "kick his ass baby". It was time to remind this warrior what a paladin is. I immediately use my spell named "lay on hands" which heals me for the ENTIRETY of my health. Following this, I immediately cast avenging wrath, boosting my own damage dramatically. I also use an item called a trinket, the one in question increasing my attack power even further. I then proceeded to turn all the fury and power I possessed onto this warrior. Launching my own wave of devastating attacks. His health plummets, he's doing everything he can. He's doing his own severe damage, but it's not enough. His health drops below 20% allowing me to use my executing ability, befittingly named "Hammer of Wrath" The last thing he sees is a large hammer, hurled directly between his eyes. He falls. I stand before him, bleeding, but victorious in the eyes of my baby. I mount up, go to meet her, and we fly off, leaving the crumpled body lying in the grass.

So that's a taste of the kinds of things that goes on in the daily life of this paladin and his hunter love.

 Keep a wary eye out and you may just find tale of more adventures (and misadventures) of the paladin known as Archaeonis.