Ald Demo

I managed to snag an ArcheAge beta key from an Alienware giveaway last week which got me into the Closed Beta Event 2 that started yesterday.  As an avid and always outspoken advocate of expanded character creators, i have only good things to say about ArcheAge.  It's not really a surprise since Korean MMO's always have great creators.

The most important aspect of a character creator to me is the hair options.  This is one aspect that could use a lot more options in the current beta build.  I doubt it'll be expanded on any time soon since this is pretty much what Korea has as well.  The options available are pretty good though.  As usual, i tried my best at a Han Solo impersonation.

(21) Hair Styles, (60) Hair Colors

Another week and another legendary cloak complete.  This one will be my fourth and final one for quite some time since it's my last class at cap.  I managed to squeeze in a few LFR runs before the Gaze of the Black Prince buff was taken away and snagged my final runestone.  For once, the drops cooperated with me.

Of course the best aspect of having this cloak on my Warlock is that it fits the color scheme pretty damn well.  The only glaring flaw in my set is a lack of any green weapon.  I blame the RNG gods for that though and hopefully that won't be an issue soon.  If only Warlocks could equip the Drakebinder Greatstaff.

Bet you thought this was going to be about something else eh?  Nope!  Not this time.  It's about my lonely guild of about 5 players that finally managed to level our guild to 25.  It only took about seven months, which is of course how long I've been playing now.  I'm sure we could have cut the time substantially if we didn't all have crazy hours and other responsibilities but it's done now and we can stop being the only ones without Mass Resurrection.  I do enjoy making everyone run back though so it's bittersweet.

After 3 weeks of terrible luck despite the Gaze of the Black Prince buff, i managed to finish off my third legendary cloak.  This time it was for my Hunter and it was long overdue.  The buff was a myth as far as my Hunter is concerned.  I had much better luck with Titan Runestone drops before the buff was even implemented.  Random is random i suppose and i'm just happy to finally finish it off.

Another day and another transmog down.  This time i decided i wanted a sort of battle mage look, complete with a big sword of some sort.  Well it was easier than expected and all i had to do was hit up the auction house for some crafted blues.  The shoulders took some waiting and seemed the most difficult to get my hands on since i didn't know a tailor.  Reminder to level tailoring at some point!  The sword is of course the same Slayer of the Lifeless i have on both DK and Warlock now.  I think i need more variety.

Kanrethad, you silly silly bastard!

After 30 failed attempts over the course of this last month, i finally defeated Kanrethad Ebonlocke in my Warlock class quest chain.  My reward being all my fire based spells go from red to green of course.  This essentially brings me closer to completing the whole green theme I've been working on since hitting 90. Challenge modes should hopefully finish me off if i ever get around to actually running them.

The aspect that i enjoyed the most from the quest chain is the fact that it was completely mechanics based instead of gear dependent.  Fail at the mechanics and you fail the last encounter, which i did over and over. Ironically the part that i was actually failing on was probably the easiest mechanic to avoid - line of sighting Chaos Bolt.  I seemed to always get myself in positions that prevented me from using my Demonic Circle port or my Demonic Gateway.  Keeping myself cleansed and removing his damn dots was another one that i tended to fall behind on during the chaos.  Alas, the quest chain is complete and i have green fire.

Even my mount fire is green.

I couldn't resist, although i really didn't try.  My childhood got the better of me, as it usually does, and i couldn't stop myself from reenacting this scene from E.T.  While it just sort of happened while i was flying through and wasn't premeditated, i admit i got carried away for a good ten minutes.  I'm a sucker for screenshots anyways so all is good.  I think i still have the VHS laying around somewhere.

This is what happens when one person asks if anyone happens to have a food table and everyone jumps the gun without first responding!  We all got a pretty good chuckle out of it but i swear there's some secret hidden pattern in there somewhere.  Only Shawn Spencer would know for sure.

The RNG gods were not with me for the last few weeks as i attempted to finish off my second legendary cape.  I decided to go with mage next as my luck on hunter has been even worse, if that were even possible. Although i had better luck on mage, the circumstances leading up to completion were ridiculous and could only happen to me.

I began the day only needing one Titan Runestone drop off one of the eight bosses in the first two wings of Siege of Orgrimmar.  I figured no problem and that the odds were in my favor.  How quickly i sometimes forget just how unlucky i can be.  I should have known better.

My first queue pops and unfortunately takes me directly to General Nazgrim already in progress.  As i'm running in i see a ready check and don't hesitate to click not ready since i'm not in the room.  The tank begins the encounter anyways and locks me out of the room.  I'm not ashamed to admit i was hoping for a wipe so i could actually get credit for the fight and hopefully my last runestone.  Well that didn't happen but it didn't count against a possible loot lockout so all was well.

My next queue got me into the first wing where i proceeded to go 0/4.  Only four more chances in wing two at that point.  Well there i was 0/3 in that wing and on my way to Nazgrim again.  No way could i go 0/8 is what i was thinking as i ran back after a trash wipe prior to General.  Well guess what happened as i was running back?  You guessed it - the tank begins the encounter without any ready check and locks me out again!  I sat there twiddling my thumbs as they killed him.

Well that forced me to have to do the same wing again from scratch.  This time i made damn sure my butt was situated in that room before a tank even thought about starting the encounter.  We killed the boss on the first attempt, which seems to be a rarity in LFR on this particular boss, and i got my final runestone.

Now i have a cape that only dirty anime fans would enjoy.