The Farstrider Scout

I’ve updated the blogroll, and I’ll be adding more links this weekend.  I’m also resolving to have at least two posts this weekend, possibly more.

Edit:  Apparently there’s no longer a blogroll column.  I’ll have to fix that later.

Or more specifically, why do most people only roleplay in towns?  And by battlefield, I’m not just talking about the BGs, I’m talking about that [enter instance name here] run you just did, that random PUG that you just finished off the rest of your Hellfire Penninsula quests with, etc., etc.

I understand the appeal to roleplaying in a city, at one of the local taverns or around the bank, but it always seems to stop when people leave, unless it’s a prior planned event.  They slip back into that OOC chat/l33tsp34k mode, and it’s all over.  WHY!!  It doesn’t have to happen this way, trust me, I know.  My wife and I do our best to remain in character no matter where we are.  It’s one thing in those hectic situations, and probably completely hopeless in the BG’s where you’re grouped with up to 39 other d00ds from random servers within your battlegroup, but that doesn’t excuse you from trying!

Another issue with this is the quality of roleplay.  On Horde side, you really only have one city with an actual “tavern” big enough to support a decent sized group of people – Silvermoon.  Silvermoon City on Moon Guard has been turned into the cesspit of roleplay, where you’re able to find half demon vampire catgirls and whatever other out-of-this-world, god-moded, Mary Sue-ism that you can think of.  Aside from that, it’s pretty much empty, and so I purposely avoid it, with the exception of my bank mule.  Alliance side isn’t nearly as bad – you’ve got several taverns in Ironforge and Stormwind, and more than a few empty houses there and in Darnassus.  I can’t speak for the Draeni, as I haven’t played a dedicated Alliance character since long before BC released.  Shattrath has the World’s End Tavern.  It’s empty.  All the time.  Or at least when I’m on, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time around there waiting for my BG queue to come up.

I’ve managed to find a few instances of completely random roleplay, but always in the cities.  Outside, everyone rushes past each other, running here and there, completely oblivous to each other.  Even the times where I’ve patrolled on wolf back, flagged for PvP and RP (I use FlagRSP), people usually just stop and stare for a moment before zipping along in the same direction they were going.

Is anyone else out there as frustrated by this as I am?  Or do you fall into that “zip around” category?  Either way, here are a few tips:

•   Slow down, pay attention to the world around you.  Level 70 isn’t going anywhere.
•   Get FlagRSP or something similar, and set it up.  Keep your description short – two paragraphs at the most (that’s another rant for another time).
•   Don’t be afraid to talk to people.  I have problems with this myself, but many times I’ve found that if you are the one to break the ice, people open up quickly.
• Do your best to stay in character, all the time, no matter where you are.  The more you do it, the harder it will be to slip in to OOC.

And if you happen to play on Moon Guard, and see a Blood Elf hunter on wolf back walking down the road…  Take a moment to stop and talk to him – he might have a tale or two to tell.

Theme updated!  I’m not too keen on it, since it’s your generic WoW style, so I’ll be finding something more suited/customized in the future.  It’ll suffice for now though.  On to the question at hand!

I’ve been playing hunters since beta, starting with a NE hunter named Taunus (who is now sitting on Argent Dawn, collecting dust. His first pet was Ithera, a Strigid Screecher from Teldrassil. I didn’t want a cat like every other night elf hunter seemed to settle for, but there wasn’t much else to choose from aside from spiders and bears, neither which I was keen on. So I got an owl, and we were inseparable companions for the longest time, until one fateful day in Booty Bay. Something happened with my character, and while I was booted from the game, Taunus and Ithera stayed in the world. I could log in to other characters, and he would not be logged out. I opened a GM ticket, but it would be 48 hours before he would be logged out by a GM. My guildmates watched my character from time to time, and shortly before control was returned to me, they reported that Ithera had just faded away… Gone for good. After talking with a GM, I was told that she could not be returned to me. My only choice was to head up to Felwood and tame an Ironwood Owl. It took me several tries, thanks to a swoop or screech ability they had at the time. I’m not sure if they still have it, as ever since I started using an owl as a pet, I have done my best to avoid killing them.

Ithera 2.0 stuck with me until my early to mid 50’s, when they came out with the Alterac Valley battleground, and with it, the Frostwolves. The fastest pet in the game at the time, alongside a Zul’Gurub bat, Drisko dragged so many Horde troops off their mounts, I lost count. With the Improved Eyes of the Beast, a talent that doubled the channeling time for Eyes of the Beast (since removed), Bestial Swiftness, the talent that increased your pet’s speed by 30%, and dash, I could cover from Astranaar all the way to the Alliance flight point in Azshara in just under two minutes. Launching off of the cliffs overlooking the Wetlands, up near the Ironforge airfield, he became a brilliant white comet. I didn’t care much about the 2.0 attack speed, all I wanted was that speed.

Three years and three hunters, and several wolves and cats later, I’m playing a Blood Elf hunter. His first pet was a black Dire boar from Durotar named Taugar, who got armor as soon as I could go to Razorfen and tame the black armored boar there. Taugar and I did relatively well in PvP, epecially in Warsong Gulch, where he was extremely usefull in stopping flag carriers in their tracks, and stopping those chasing me. He tanked fairly well as well, but a combination of that dead time between Gore and Charge skills, and going back through Felwood again has stabled him, probably permanently.

Felwood brought me back to the owls, and I fell in love all over again. So Vree, my current pet, was tamed in the exact same spot as Ithera 2.0, from the exact same spawn. With Cobra Reflexes, Avoidance, and shadow, fire, and arcane resistances, Vree shreds through nearly everything, and her “Peeeer! peeer!” of doom puts fear into the hearts of many Alliance (or at least really really annoying them).

I’ve been debating through getting another wolf (maybe once they change Furious Howl back to the way it used to be?), a different colored owl (black, maybe), or a warpstalker, but I’ve got some time before I get to that point.

That’s right, first post…  Again.  Since the fallout of my previous gaming group, I hadn’t updated my website at all, even though it was going to be something to fall back on.  Not that anyone reads the crap I write any way, right?

In any case…  First order of business is a new theme.  Previously (with PHP-Nuke) I had started going with a space theme, since I’d been playing EvE Online a lot at the time.  Between now and then, I’ve picked up World of Warcraft again, so that’s the order of the day.  I’ve been reading a lot of blogs, namely BRK, Shifttusk and many others. I’ll include links at a later date. But all that reading has inspired me to start my own, even though A) I doubt that many people would ever read this, and B) the chances of me actually keeping up with this are about as likely as… Well, considering that I’ve tried restarting the site twice in the past year or so, and not touching it for 3 years before that, I don’t have a good track record. BUT! I am going to do my best to commit myself to at least a post a day (grrr, willpower) for several reasons. One, my writing has really suffered over the past few years, to the point where I can’t seem to come up with anything creative and concrete. Two, the Big Red Ravager hasn’t posted in a while, and I didn’t realize it until today. He was my one hope for 2v2 arena team information that included a hunter, not to mention that he was essentially the Horde representitve, IMO, where BRK is for Alliance. Three, I have yet to find a hunter blog that covers PVP in the fashion that I want. I’m also hoping to cover the roleplaying side of my character as well, so things may bounce around a bit. I’ll be sure to identify in-character posts though.

In any case, that’s all I have time for now, but I do have two topics I plan on covering in the near future: Mania’s question (even though it’s a little late in the game), and one big peeve of mine: What happens to the RP when people leave town? I mean seriously, what’s up with that?