Finally!

One rondel.

I so wish I could get a new dagger. Two preferably. Granted, I could be doing Ulduar 10 and 25 (maybe) or even Naxx 25, but my time for raiding is limited. I've geared up in virtually every other slot. I've yet to see a dagger drop in ToCr 10 or 25. But worst of all, I still have never seen the damn rondel drop in H ToC. I've even taken to bringing my comp to work so I can be sure I get a daily run in. Even then, sometimes I can't get a group, or the group I get in can't finish it. But most of the time we do, and it does not drop. It's really getting unusually weird how I can't upgrade my weapons. As a rogue, that's bad.

I ran a ToCr 10 man with a small guild. It went well and we downed anub. Apparently they liked my interrupts, CCing during FC, and dps, because they were all over me after that, inviting me to things. I think they were hoping I'd defect to their guild. Whenever we did a raid that didn't go well, they'd apologize profusely for wasting my time, and one person was continually talking about how great of a guild they were. They invited me to their first attempt at a 10-man ToGCr, which I was excited about, even though I didn't expect to get far. But before it actually happened, they asked me to come on a 10-man naxx run to gear up their other guildies.

Now I've only done 25 man naxx, and even then only a handful of times. Some of the bosses I've only seen twice. Apparently my performance was lackluster. I did fine DPS, but the setup for Kel'thuzad wasn't really working well. We eventually downed them, but I think I looked like I was floundering, which I was, because they were putting undue importance on keeping up the 10-yard distance and others were making it impossible. Unfortunately, I mistakenly got too close to both the tank and healer while trying to keep my range. After that, I didn't really hear from them. I logged in on Monday to do the 10-man ToGCr only to find that I was now on stand-by because they had a guildie rogue who suddenly signed up. I'd already checked out their guild and this rogue was brand new, like within the past 24 hours. They tried to say that he was a long-time member and he signed up last minute, but I know better.

It's just the way it goes. I can't blame them for preferring someone who's willing to join their guild. Still, I wish they'd been honest, and at the very least, honored my signup for that 10-man. It was just strange to have them be so hot on me, then so cold. People are fickle, I guess. I know I won't ever raid with them again, which is a bummer, because I was excited about having a regular ToCr 10-man.

I'm signed up to do 25-man ToCr with my guild this Sunday. I hope I get in. Right now there are three rogues signed up, which is unusual. If we don't get more than 25, or one of them doesn't show up (which is possible), I'll probably get in. But if there are more than 25 and all three of us rogues show up, I'll probably be picked last.

I'm too perfect to really need anything. Except daggers.

It's gotten to the point that I don't log in to Lewt unless I can expect to do one of the following things:

Run Heroic Trial of the Champion
Run 10-man Trial of the Crusader
Run 25-man Trial of the Crusader
Run 25-man Vault of Archavon
Run the heroic daily

I don't really need Emblems of Conquest. Actually, I guess I could keep getting those for my T8.25 helm, but I'm in no rush since I really only need it for the 4-piece bonus and I currently only have one piece. Apart from that, I have no other reason to run heroics except the daily for Emblems of Triumph.

I've gotten all the heirlooms I think I want at the moment. I have three shoulders, two chests, and two weapons. I also don't really care about any more of the Champion's Seals loot. Maybe the pony bridle, but I'm already an engineer, so what's the point?

I'm exalted with all the Northrend Factions. Except Kalu'ak, but I don't want the fishing pole. I have a perfectly good one.

I've maxed my two professions (mining and engineering). I've maxed fishing and cooking and have around 230 northern spices.

I would like to get the Salty title, but don't really ever expect to win the Fishing Extravaganza.

I love Lewt, but by now I have to realize that she only has a few things to work on. More time on alts?. Maybe if I ever get one of my alts to 80, I'll fall in love with them as much as Lewt.

Nah.

Should I be trying to PUG Ulduar25?

Dagger Damnation

I've always been a dagger rogue. Even leveling, I used daggers. I remember farming for my Barman Shanker. I remember buying my Mass of McGowan. But wait! A mace?? Yes, before the days of the global cooldown, macro-switching weapons in combat was instantaneous. Thus, in those situations when certain mobs were stun-immune (such as that lovable leper gnome, Plugger Spazzring), swapping in a mace for more effective Sinister Strikes was the way to go. Alas, those days are over.

But as much as I love the daggers (my favorite combo being Perdition's Blade and Gutgore Ripper), they've been the bane of my existence during Wrath of the Lich King. The last lovely experience I've had with them is when I got my Dagger of the Rising Moon. Right now I'm rocking that and Broken Stalactite. That's taken me through a handful of Naxx25 runs, one Ulduar25 run, one ToC10 run, and two ToC25 runs. I've never once seen a dagger upgrade drop, much less get a chance to lose a roll on one. But hallelujah Blizzard! Black Knight's Rondel! Thank you thank you thank you! I was waiting for 3.2.2 to drop for weeks so I could dual wield that puppy. At least until my ToC25 runs finally paid off. Guess how many times I've run Heroic Trial of the Champion for it. Go on, guess.

Once.

Oddly, it didn't drop. Why haven't I run it more? Well, I've tried, at least four other times. Granted, many people have run it every single day since the patch went live and have never seen it. But still, I'd at least like to kill the Black Knight to see if he's generous that day. After my first successful run, the next one resulted in the tank dropping group after four attempts on him, because he wasn't geared very well and because the Confessor didn't drop Marrowstrike. Waste of time. Around four or five other days, I just simply couldn't find a group. Which surprised me, but I guess I'm just getting on too late or something.

But last night took the cake.

A guildie put together a group, but we had to wait for a healer who was already queued for Wintergrasp. But, Wintergrasp wasn't set to start for another fifteen minutes. After about half an hour, he was out and ready to go. When we entered the instance, the message popped up saying something like, "You have entered an instance that is already in progress. Would you like to be saved to this instance?"

Now, I'm not extremely smart. Nor am I, apparently, very experienced with WoW, despite my 4.5 years. I'd never seen this before. I thought that maybe someone had started the event already and anyway, I was just so happy to be going in here, whatever, yes, I want to be in this instance. So I clicked Yes.

The one who was saved promptly dropped group and logged. I, shortly thereafter, realizing my mistake, apologized to the rest of the group, and shut off my damn computer.

I swear it feels like I'm going to be going into Cataclysm with these same two, stupid daggers.

Hello. I'm Lewt.

I've spent approximately 1800 hours of my life looking at the rear end of a midget with green pigtails while she tip-toes around in the shadows and stabs monsters to death.

In other words, I have a level 80, female gnome rogue on the MMORPG World of Warcraft.

That's what this blog is about, in addition to occasionally talking about the various alts I've created and sometimes play. What this is, is an outlet for me to talk about WoW while I'm at work, since I can't play it here, and there's only so much theory-crafting and min/max-ing and gear shopping I can do in an eight-hour period.

I don't get enough WoW for my tastes. 1800 hours might seem like a long time, but it's not compared to many, and it's spread out over the past four and a half years. Although to be honest, I have at least that many hours spread out over my other alts. I sometimes think I could play WoW full-time, twelve hours a day, and maybe around five to six days per week. I think this while I'm at work, wishing I could be doing nearly anything else other than work. I think this as a hypothetical situation if I weren't married with two kids and a full-time career. I think this in bitterness at all the various forms of responsibility that prevent me from spending more than 8-10 hours per week on my beloved little Lewt.

Sometimes I read about gaming addiction and breathe a sigh of relief that it's not me. I get by at work and even excel occasionally; I spend time with my wife and kids and have an all-around healthy family life; I bathe and eat somewhat appropriately. I often see these things as the obstacles that prevent me from enjoying the game more. In fact, they are my anchors, the things that keep me from drifting off into the WoW Bermuda Triangle.

But even with those healthy elements, I still desire more of WoW, and since those circumstances aren't changing anytime soon, here I am, blogging about my little gnome rogue, named Lewt.