A (not) So Typical Weekend

Part 1–

Friday morning: The crew and I started our day with several hours of viewing youtube videos. This journey stemmed from our morning reading session. We happened to be purusing WowInsider’s Reader UI of the Week. It’s a great place to get some visual ideas for UI’s, kind of like a brainstorming bin of sorts. What’s also nice about it is that the UI creator lists all the addon’s they’re using.

In the comments section, some kind person was answering another commenters’ question about the Weak Auras addon, and suggested they go to youtube for some tutorials. Wait! I have a youtube account. Why not browse around and see what I can dig up? Off we went, me and the crew.

In our searches, we came across one “Touchymcfeel.” (site link) Low and behold, he had a series of UI addon videos for a priest. There are others, but the priest one grabbed our attention. This is the link for the priest videos we went through.

It is quite true that most of the addons I have in use are pretty much in their “out-of-the-box” state. Minor adjustments for size and positioning aside, they’re mostly game ready. What this really means though, is that I’m not getting full use of all the possibilities these addons possess. Granted, there is usually more than what I really need, so I found this series of videos both interesting and informative. Integrating all these addons into a productive, effective and interesting UI is another challenge one faces. Overall, I found all the videos, even those slightly outdated, to be very helpful.

Friday afternoon: We spent some time with Thdoria, our brave test subject. I must say, she’s been wonderful risking life and limb in shabbily thrown together armor and braving the world at war to test out our whims. Of coarse, this was after all three adventurers had taken care to harvest and replant their farms, and, made their obligatory visits to the Greenstone Quarry. (Ay has decreed his desire to possess that mining pick, at any costs)

During the testing portion of the afternoon, several bars found they’re way to the far side of the playing field, and duely marked “hidden.” lol! They only show on mouse-over. Ah, the clutter is getting an overhaul 🙂 For someone who just -has to have- everything available somewhere on some bar, this is turning out to be very interesting.

“Good fortune to our friends!”

UI Working

Added some updates to the UI section. Replaced recount with TinyDPS, and installed a reforgeing mod. Addon page has the links. Also added two screenshots to the visual progression of the new UI build. It’s coming along rather nicely. Add your comments or thoughts anytime!

Today, Aygaren picked up two more of the Pandaran Treasures. I think between him and Dufit, about 15 of the 20 are now gathered. Today was special though. After uncovering numerous polearms, which are pretty much useless for this crew, Ay came up with a staff.

How nice of somebody to leave this behind!

One greatful Belf

You know she just had to have it! Since it was actually useful, she kindly sent Ay a few more flasks, along with his daily living steel bar.

With the new patch hitting the PTR, things are “on the fly” for our little team. Having a couple of days off this week did’nt help, but neither did it really hurt. I think they’re calling it “renewed vigor!” lol, strange crew they are. Even Ay turned up with a new weapon today! Massive, mean looking two-handed sword. Those Klaxxi folks sure are kind to their paid mercenaries.

“May your feet find good paths!”

Dufits’ World, pt4-Memories

Welcome! May your feet find happy trails today. However you chose to spend your “holiday” time, I hope it was very enjoyable for you.

I’ve got a little story for you today. Who knows? Perhaps you may recall a bit of yourself from times past, as I did.

Dufit had been following through with the Domination Offensive story questline, finding them both informative and enjoyable. Late last week, Dufit had picked up his orders for “The Darnassus Operation.”  It was quite the covert operation, sneaking into Darnassus and tagging the Divine Bell location for pick-up. Ha! There did seem to be a lot of extra guards roaming the city that day. And of coarse, this little excursion did auto flag him for PvP. No problem.

After a successfull mission, Dufit headed for Halfhill in hopes of catching a possible Galleon spawn. Since his success with the Sha fight, he’s been anxious to try the big mushan. Anyway, he set up a campfire near the decorated tree, on the edge of the hill near the flightmaster. Clear view of the spawn field.

While he was enjoying a bit of refreshment well earned, he began to feel some sort of bug stings in his back. “WTH?”, he exclaimed. And to beat all, there was this pesky little bird poking at his freshly transmogged helm. Jumping up and taking a mid-air spin about, he eyeballed this alliance hunter standing well back of him shooting away at will.

Taking a second or two to survey this situation, Dufit quickly realized this hunter was in PvP spirits, and he himself, was still proudly showing his own flag. “Mess up my freshly cleaned hat will you?”, thought Dufit. Slightly enraged and irritated, the alliance hunter quickly found the next 8 seconds to be the last 8 seconds of his life. Needless to say probably, this small comotion caused a number on-lookers to gather about. There was quite a show of merriment and laughing at the now deceased hunter. One would have thought that this hunter, having the time and upper hand to engage Dufit, would have assessed the situation before opening fire. Strange as it may sound, this level 90 hunter reminded me of my early days in Azeroth, and how much of a hunter noob I was on a PvP server.

Meet Khrox, alliance BM hunter.

So, over the weekend, I went back to my beginnings where a dusty BM alliance hunter has been in storage. A lot has changed since his retirement at 85. Had the pleasant opportunity to chat with a guild leader this hunter used to run bg’s and arena with. Of coarse, the chance to experiance the alliance side of the Pandarian story, started this dusty hunter on his journey. Guess he’s about half way to 86 now. It was the chat with his former GL that brung life to many old memories. We were alliance, on a slightly heavier horde populated PvP server. Leveling was tough back in vanilla, lots of ganking and corpse-camping…lol! I was a total noob back then, but I survived and learned along the way. Back then, there were always folks about who would lend a hand or share some of their experiance and knowledge.

This dusty old hunter entered Pandaria fully pvp geared, with the knowledge and experiance of more battles than he can recall. I doubt if he’ll have any trouble reaching lvl 90. What struck me though, was Dufit. His quick dispension of that pesky hunter came from the experiances of long past times. In reality, it was an old alliance BM hunter that passed that knowledge along to this goblin spriest. Karma?

Dominance Offensive completed

Now the proud owner

Dufit has gone on to complete the Dominance Offensive story questline. As enlightning and enjoyable as they were, it was that afternoon in Halfhill which holds it’s own special place in the  memory bank. And those old memories are the reason why Aygaren and his horde family steadfastly remain kind and helpful to others along their journeys.