Valar Guild Meeting Minutes

Sunday, May 19, 2024

5:00pm Eastern Time

Discord: Valar Guild/meeting_place

Before-Meeting

[7:59 AM]Sandalf13: Good morning! I hope your weekl is off to a good start!

[6:15 PM]Varda: Good evening : )

May 19, 2024

[3:58 PM]Arien Valar: aiya

[3:59 PM]Arien Valar: anyb ody here?:

[4:00 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!

[4:01 PM]Varda: 4:00 PM]Varda: @Bounder @Guild-friend Valar Guild meeting time! Yay! Come say hi.

Meeting Starts

[4:00 PM]Varda: Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!

Membership

[4:00 PM]Varda: Membership:

[4:01 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Wrong place.

[4:01 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Right time.

[4:01 PM]Varda: ack Thanks!!

[4:01 PM]Varda: Mea culpa : )

[4:01 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: There we go

[4:01 PM]Arien Valar: did you have any information on Varda not being here?

[4:01 PM]Varda: Nope

[4:01 PM]Varda: I was in the wrong channel. cough

[4:02 PM]Arien Valar: ah there you are ey thats normally my place

[4:02 PM]Varda: Phar saved us!

[4:02 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Yay!

[4:02 PM]Varda: You had a stand-in today, Sunshine.

[4:02 PM]Varda: Ok, so on to Membership, heh.

[4:03 PM]Varda: Did y'all have any membership news?

[4:03 PM]Arien Valar: i am still on holidays until wednesday

[4:03 PM]Varda: Nice!

[4:03 PM]Pallando-Valar: I'm going on holiday this weekend. :p

[4:04 PM]Varda: Yay!

[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Yay!

[4:04 PM]Varda: And aiya Pallando : )

[4:04 PM]Varda: Fangorn, Elwing, hopefully Sauron, and I will be at Comicpalooza next weekend and don't know if we'll be back in time for the meeting.

[4:04 PM]Varda: We'll try though.

[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I've got an unexpected visitor here in my house.

[4:04 PM]Varda: A cat? : )

[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: A mouse!

[4:04 PM]Varda: Not Fladrif?

[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Been trying to catch it, but no l uck.

[4:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: It's getting a bit bolder though. Or hungrier. I'll get him eventually.

[4:05 PM]Varda: We have faith.

[4:05 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Set up a bucket with a small layer of water, a sponge and some jam on top of it to lure him in.

[4:05 PM]Varda: That could work

[4:05 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And almost got a container on him while he was on the counter earlier today.

[4:05 PM]Varda: Peanut butter is popular too

[4:05 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But it's been here for a week, so we'll see.

[4:05 PM]Varda: Speedy critters!

[4:05 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I don't have peanut butter, or cheese, or chocolate. I don't like them

[4:06 PM]Varda: Perfect! Won't care if the mouse gets them.

[4:06 PM]Eönwë Valar: Heya.

[4:06 PM]Varda: Aiya Eonwe!

[4:06 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!

[4:07 PM]Varda: Storms leave you be, Eonwe? We're ok. Neighbor's treel lost a lot of limbs but missed our house and theirs. Good rains.

[4:07 PM]Varda: Aiya Sandalf : )

[4:07 PM]Eönwë Valar: Bright and sunny out there.

[4:08 PM]Sandalf13: Aiya All! Just got in...had to get the tools in before the afternoon rainstorm began

[4:08 PM]Varda: Same here! Sunny, AC is on.

[4:08 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Aiya!

[4:08 PM]Varda: Grats for beating the rain!

[4:08 PM]Varda: Any other membership news?

Web

No new content.

[4:09 PM]Varda: Then, on to Gaming!

Gaming

[4:09 PM]Varda: slides a gavel to Eonwe

[4:10 PM]Eönwë Valar: Thanks.

World of Warcraft:

[4:10 PM]Eönwë Valar: World of Warcraft:

[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: This week's bonus events: Wrath of the Lich King Timewalking and Pet Battles.

This week's PvP Brawl: Arathi Blizzard.

[4:11 PM]Eönwë Valar: Mists of Pandaria Remix is now going through August 19th.

[4:12 PM]Eönwë Valar: Been just long enough since I've been through Pandaria that it's pretty fun with the new parameters.

[4:12 PM]Varda :)

[4:12 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hmm, though I might need to add afternoons to my play time to actually get stuff done.

[4:13 PM]Eönwë Valar: Lvl 61 already.

[4:13 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: 19

[4:13 PM]Eönwë Valar: If anyone wants to see where I am right now: Aurast.

[4:14 PM]Varda: Heh, shows your goggles.

[4:14 PM]Eönwë Valar: And here's Phar: Calirona.

[4:14 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep, that's my flowerwolf

[4:15 PM]Eönwë Valar: Cataclysm Classic" will be live May 20th.

[4:15 PM]Eönwë Valar: Also check out these blogs:

[4:15 PM]Eönwë Valar: Unveiling Cataclysm Classic Zones, Dungeons, and PvP Season 9

[4:15 PM]Eönwë Valar: Cataclysm Classic: Battle for Control of Tol Barad

[4:15 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out This Week in WoW.

[4:16 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out this week's hotfixes.

[4:16 PM]Eönwë Valar: And I'll give Pallando a spot here to share:

Eve Online:

[4:18 PM]Pallando-Valar: Thanks Eonwe. As we get closer to the release of Equinox, CCP has started putting out more details around the expansion:

"Reinvigorating Nullsec" tells us about the new upwell structures coming: the skyhook (replacing POCOS in nullsec, and adding new resources to harvest), the sov hub (repalcing the tcu/ihub and changing bonuses) and the moon drill (bringing passive moon mining back).

"New Upwell Ships" also gives details about the new industrial ships, which have weapons slots, more tank, and slightly smaller general hold but very vast "infrastructure" holds, which can hold things like fuel, PI, and similar goods.

[4:19 PM]Varda: hmm

[4:20 PM]Pallando-Valar: The expansion is also going to bring us player-made skins and improvements to corporation management. I think we'll get a devblog on at least one of those before release.

[4:21 PM]Pallando-Valar: The new haulers seem a little too good to me, but we'll see how it works out in practice.

[4:23 PM]Arien Valar: less spying possible then? I remember when i was playing in Corporations I was kicked out several times because they suspected me spying for another corporation they were having war with or something like that . It really messed up the game for me

[4:23 PM]Pallando-Valar: In ongoing events, capsuleer day is still going on, and we're about halfway through, with just underr 2 weeks left. I had some good fun figuring out how to beat the harder tiers, but many have remarked that the rewards are not at all commensurate. Hopefully we'll continue to see events coming back, but CCP seems very focused on the nullsec work which my crystal ball says is going to continue through next summer.

@Arien Valar
less spying possible then? I remember when i was playing in Corporations I was kicked out several times because they suspected me spying for another corporation they were having war with or something like that . It really messed up the game for me

[4:24 PM]Pallando-Valar: No, not at all. IT's improvements to corp goals and the actual interface ingame.

[4:25 PM]Pallando-Valar: Lots of groups, especially smaller ones, are really bad at spy hunting, managing to let in obvious ones and then witch hunt perfectly innocent people.

[4:27 PM]Pallando-Valar: Very amusing when you're on the other side of it, I have to admit.

[4:27 PM]Pallando-Valar: That's it for now. I'm out next weekend, but I expect to have news when I'm back

[4:28 PM]Varda: Thank you! Very interesting.

[4:28 PM]Varda: Eonwe, back to you.

[4:29 PM]Eönwë Valar: Thanks.

[4:30 PM]Eönwë Valar: YouTube: Back to the Future

Varda: How law and enforcement should work so we can get on with things that matter!

Diablo IV:

[4:30 PM]Eönwë Valar: Diablo 4:

[4:30 PM]Eönwë Valar: A new patch is out.

Hearthstone:

[4:31 PM]Eönwë Valar: Hearthstone:

[4:31 PM]Eönwë Valar: Patch 29.4 is out.

Warcraft Rumble:

[4:31 PM]Eönwë Valar: Warcraft Rumble:

[4:31 PM]Eönwë Valar: Four blogs up this week:

[4:32 PM]Eönwë Valar: Turn the Tides of Battle with Earth and Moon

[4:32 PM]Eönwë Valar: Earn Powerful Rewards In Molten Core

[4:32 PM]Eönwë Valar: Get Ready To Lay Siege To Stormwind

[4:32 PM]Eönwë Valar: Claim Victory In Season 6 To Unlock New Rewards

Diablo Immortal:

[4:33 PM]Eönwë Valar: Diablo Immortal:

[4:34 PM]Eönwë Valar: A new class is coming: Tempest.

[4:35 PM]Eönwë Valar: Check out the latest hotfixes.

[4:35 PM]Eönwë Valar: And that's it from me. Back to you, Varda.

[4:37 PM]Arien Valar: oh btw i had an amusing screenshot/ gaming experience today .. not sure whether it was a bug. I was doing BRD per Dungeon finder in the hope to do my class quest but unfortunately they were just farming one boss over and over again , so i decided to leave the group. I was playing feral druid in kitty form at the time .. and as i was on the gryphon while in the finder this is what happened ..

[4:38 PM]Arien Valar: Gryphon kitty"

[4:39 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Flying kitty!

[4:39 PM]Arien Valar: flying kitty

[4:39 PM]Varda: That is cool, bug or not! Maybe you can pull it again.

[4:40 PM]Arien Valar: very cool indeed and funny

[4:40 PM]Varda: Thanks Eonwe, Pallando, and Arien. : )

Starcraft 2:

[4:41 PM]Varda: Starcraft 2:

[4:41 PM]Varda: The usual suspects that I know of, feel free to mention if you played too. Fangorn, Eowyn, and Floppa played together. Faramir played.

Lord of the Rings Online:

[4:42 PM]Varda: Lord of the Rings Online:

[4:42 PM]Varda: May 15 this past Wednesday:

[4:42 PM]Varda: Update 40

[4:42 PM]Varda: It's huge. All that new area underground.

[4:43 PM]Varda: The epic story continues beneath Umbar Baharbêl, inside the Umbar-môkh, also called the Neaths.

[4:43 PM]Varda: Fangorn and I have been running in it. Helps to be on the most updated part of the epic quests, so you can start the new one.

[4:43 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: So much underground, you wonder why Umbar hasn't collapsed yet!

[4:43 PM]Varda: But you can still go in.

[4:44 PM]Varda: Very thick roof! and yep! And why aren't those tunnels even more loaded with water than they are, heh.

[4:44 PM]Varda: Ghosts busy with buckets?

[4:44 PM]Varda: LotRO players in our kin branches this past week:

Landroval branch

Crickhollow branch:

Treebeard branch:

[4:45 PM]Varda: That's my news. Any additional gaming news?

[4:45 PM]Varda: Oh, in those tunnels in the Neaths, instead of stable masters or dock masters, we have tunnel guides. : )

[4:46 PM]Varda: Any requests, suggestions, wish list for the Landroval kin chest?

[4:46 PM]Varda: invites needed?

[4:46 PM]Varda: On to

Tolkien

[4:46 PM]Varda: Tolkien!

[4:47 PM]Varda: Topic: telling of the good times.

[4:53 PM]Varda: Aye, he would have known.

[4:57 PM]Varda: Anyway, that's all I have. Discussion is welcome, or move on to a new topic if you have one.

[4:59 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: If there's a weakness in Tolkien's works, it's that he has trouble writing about the good times, preferring to focus on journeys and battles Tough to make the other stuff not boring!

[4:59 PM]Varda: That's true for most writers.

[4:59 PM]Sandalf13: Indeed. The term was coined by Robert Lowth in a book he published in 1788 (so it far predates J.R.R.!) entitled "Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrew Nation." This technique was successfully employed iby Edgar Alan Poe, in many of his poetical works, i.e. Annabel Lee and The Raven.

[4:59 PM]Varda: and yes. But he did try and did well.

[5:00 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: True enough!

[5:00 PM]Varda: Aye, reading Poe aloud is close to singing. He was very conscious of the sound of the words and the sentences, and chose subjects that he thought would give beauty even if dark.

[5:01 PM]Sandalf13: Especially in "The Bells"

[5:02 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Makes you wonder if he sang the words while writing them down

[5:02 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The art of Spoken Word.

[5:03 PM]Varda: The tintinabulating of the bells, bells, bells. (think that's how it went?)

[5:03 PM]Sandalf13: A lot of Poe's poetry is dark, or should I say VERY dark.

[5:03 PM]Sandalf13: The Bells

[5:03 PM]Varda: It's always a good exercise to read words aloud

[5:04 PM]Varda: And yes. Poe thought the subject that was the most gripping of the mind was the death of a beautiful, wonderful woman.

[5:04 PM]Varda: Anyway, that adds to showing how hard it is to write happiness and beauty. : )

[5:04 PM]Varda: The sudden turn to something wonderful when all seems dark. The eucatastrophe.

[5:05 PM]Arien Valar: there is a simple reason for this

[5:06 PM]Arien Valar: dark times cause a lot of emotions and feelings , so it is much easier to put that into poetic form

[5:06 PM]Varda: Good times do as well but expressing that is difficult.

[5:07 PM]Sandalf13: Remember Tolstoy: "Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

[5:07 PM]Arien Valar: in traditional gaelic songs there are a lot more about lost love , deceased lovers , dire war times than funny or happy ones

[5:07 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And yet, nearly every song these days is about love...

[5:07 PM]Eönwë Valar: Even in the "good times" there's something to overcome, it just tends to seem petty to talk about the neighbor giving you the Evil Eye when a dragon is burning the next village over. Layers of conflict.

[5:07 PM]Varda: I cough disagree with Tolstoy on happy families all being alike.

[5:09 PM]Sandalf13: You could very well be right, but I think Tolstoy's comment also proves up Arien's idea...it is so much easier to write about unhappy things than happy things, because oftentimes, happy things, or things that make us humans happy, tend to be the same.

[5:10 PM]Eönwë Valar: Word of Bilbo's belongings being auctioned off would've been out of place while telling about the Battle of Five Armies, but it was important once the larger conflict was resolved.

[5:10 PM]Varda: I agree that it's easier to write about unhappy things. Our minds tend to dwell there.

[5:11 PM]Varda: The happiness that comes may be in vastly different settings. Even in awful ones as in seeing a star break through the reek.

[5:11 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: That is true. It's very human to clump all our happy experiences together in the past while bad experiences linger.

[5:11 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Like how people are more remembered for the bad things they do than the good.

[5:11 PM]Sandalf13: So true.

[5:12 PM]Varda: Aye. A person does a wonderful thing advancing all humanity but is only remembered for foul-ups. Seems as if it should be the reverse.

[5:12 PM]Varda: Notice the unusual, the wonderful that happens. It's a special treasure.

[5:13 PM]Sandalf13: Good luck with that...I think that would take a huge change in the way that we humans tend to view the world.

[5:13 PM]Eönwë Valar: "Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil men do lives long after them. The good is oft interred with his bones." --- Julius Caesar, WIlliam Shakespeare

[5:13 PM]Varda: Then we could do that change by using it in our own writing, in our way of speaking of wonderful things rather than just the sorrows.

[5:13 PM]Varda: Nice one, Shakespeare.

[5:14 PM]Varda: And yet, thanks to those little sung great moments, humanity has advanced to have things like chatting on computers continents apart. : )

[5:14 PM]Sandalf13: Shakespeare had some phenomenal insight in the the human psyche.

[5:14 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Summarize 20 years of war in a single paragraph, spend 3 pages talking about the warmth of a summer day in the following peace time. It would make a nice change.

[5:15 PM]Eönwë Valar: I think we remember about people what's it's convenient to remember. Sometimes that's viewing them as some saint, sometimes it's as a monster. Sometimes it changes, and sometimes we forget what's important to remember about them in the first place.

[5:16 PM]Sandalf13: Indeed. Good point, Eonwe.

[5:18 PM]Varda: Aye.

[5:20 PM]Sandalf13: Perhaps it is human nature to delight in the failures of others, to make us feel better about ourselves...so we are attracted to the bad things that others do, because it might make us feel better about ourselves by comparison...so dwelling on unhappy things similarly might make us feel better about our own relatively happy lives.

[5:20 PM]Eönwë Valar: YouTube: Linkin Park - Leave Out All the Rest

[5:22 PM]Arien Valar: I know what you mean

[5:23 PM]Arien Valar: weird enough alas

[5:23 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I remember a comedian saying that in a few years we'll be tearing down statues of people because they ate meat.

[5:24 PM]Eönwë Valar: I think you mispelled "prophet" there, Phar. heh.

[5:24 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: hehe

[5:24 PM]Arien Valar: because i remember feeling almost guilty about my happy life when so many friends are going through rough times and almost wished for some troubles to go through so i might share in their pain or understand them .. really understand them , not just say i would ...

[5:25 PM]Arien Valar: but as you know .. be careful what you wish for you might get it alas

[5:25 PM]Arien Valar: i had to learn that as well

[5:25 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Don't take their sorrow, share your happiness! Try to make their lives better instead

[5:25 PM]Arien Valar: oh yeah i do try that nowadays

[5:26 PM]Arien Valar: i try to make at least one person laugh every day , or at least smile ^

[5:26 PM]Varda: You are our sunshine. : )

[5:26 PM]Arien Valar: I was silly when i was youngerf

[5:26 PM]Sandalf13: Good for you, Arien! I must apologize for being the first to jump ship this evening, but I have a ton of work to get done before dinner...I shall check in again later for Ar's report. Namarie, all you fellow Valarites (is that the right term to use?) and sei gesund!

[5:27 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!

[5:27 PM]Varda: It is 27 minutes past the hour. : )

[5:27 PM]Eönwë Valar: Take care Sandalf.

[5:27 PM]Arien Valar: Namarie, Sandalf ! 5:27 PM]Varda: the gavel runs past while munching a sandwich

[5:27 PM]Varda: the hammerpad hops up and down to help it make the sound of

[5:27 PM]Varda: thunk!

After-Meeting

[5:27 PM]Varda: After-meeting!

[5:27 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Always interesting when I have a reason to link a my little pony video in a meeting... Pinkie Pie - Smile Song for Arien!

[5:28 PM]Eönwë Valar: There, better link for the song I linked above. The first one cuts out before the end.

[5:28 PM]Arien Valar: sends some sunshowered honeypies to go with the gavel' s sandwhich

[5:32 PM]Varda: yay!

[5:32 PM]Eönwë Valar: Children of the Sun

[5:44 PM]Arien Valar: Namarie friends

[5:44 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!

[5:50 PM]Eönwë Valar: Sleep well Arien.

[6:44 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Mouse has left the premises. I had a plastic bag with some old bread I'd been meaning to throw out until I spotted the mouse at it and figured I'd use it as bait. And sure enough, a few minutes ago I found him in the bag, so it was easy enough to take him outside in the bag and set him free in the grass.

[6:47 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Twas an interesting six days!

[7:01 PM]Eönwë Valar: Hopefully the mouse takes the hint and goes elsewhere.

[7:02 PM]Eönwë Valar: Did you shout "Good morning" at him while you let him go? Gandalf got the message pretty clear from all of Bilbo's "Good morning"s.

[7:02 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I think it was pretty difficult to find food here, he was becoming more present as the week went on. Other than the bread that is

[7:02 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I did say goodbye!

[7:04 PM]Eönwë Valar: NSYNCH - Bye Bye Bye lol

[7:34 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Perrrrsonal gaming report

[7:34 PM]Sandalf13: I am with you, Har!

[7:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For (non)flashgaming, I give you Puzlogic Plus

[7:35 PM]Sandalf13: I got my work done, and am sitting at my kitchen table, watching the late afternoon sun go down over the mountains, and eating my dinner...tuna fish salad on bread, and a real salad on the side...very tasty!

[7:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: A logic numbers puzzle game, sudoku-inspired, with relaxing music and no timer, so go at your own pace

[7:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Ah, not bad

[7:36 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: You get a bunch of blocks of various colors and numbers, and you have to place them so you don't have duplicates in any row or column.

[7:38 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Additional rules are added along the way, such as grouptotals sorted by color, and there's also tools and hints to help you, though you get extra stars if you disable the hints and make no mistakes.

[7:38 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: No guessing needed, just logic, though it can be difficult to find, so good luck

[7:57 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: K, enough puzzling, moving on

[7:58 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Blizzard gaming:

[7:58 PM]Sandalf13: On top of all my other problems with gaming, I would find a game in which additional rules are added as one proceeds would be even more trying to my limited talents!

[7:58 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, you get plenty of levels per new rule to get the hang of it

[7:58 PM]Sandalf13: I suppose that is a help...

[7:59 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But yes, I've also played puzzle games like that where you ended up with like 12 different rules and mechanics by the end of it. Luckily, the ones that apply to each level are usually easily identified.

[8:00 PM]Sandalf13: As you already know, I greatly admire your skills in this matter...and to be truthful, I am a little envious of all you gamers who find the playing so easy.

[8:00 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: We each have our strengths. I happen to be attuned to pattern-finding and logic puzzles. Plenty of people out there who are better than me at that stuff anyway, but still

[8:02 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hearthstone: Level 91 on the reward track now. Close to the big 100!

[8:03 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: I've been having a lucky streak of ranked wins spread out over several days for quests, and managed to hit the 12 wins in a row achievement, last in its series, without even noticing I was close to it

[8:03 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also got the death knight class to level 43 along the way.

[8:04 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Also bought the new Mini-Set for 2000 gold, and am saving up for the next one already, it's just good to have the 2000 in store even if the next expansion is still months away!

[8:05 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Well, probably not months. We'll see.

[8:06 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Opened a few more packs as well, and got another legendary card out of it, The One-Amalgam Band, playing into decks with lots of minion types.

[8:06 PM]Sandalf13: Do you gain a reward of some type for reaching "thje big 100?"

[8:08 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Yep. 100 on each season's reward track is the final main reward of that track, after which you just get gold for each level. 100 gives you a choice of a series of hero skins, one for each class, all quite interesting looking cosmetics. Gotta catch em all

[8:08 PM]Sandalf13: Similar to the skin that you showed me last week?

[8:09 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Yes, though the reward track skins are new thematic skins for the 9 "default" heroes/characters for each class, based on class sets in the World of Warcraft game. So no actually new characters, but new appearances for the standard ones.

[8:10 PM]Sandalf13: Ah. Thanks1

[8:10 PM]Sandalf13: ! 8:10 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: No problem

[8:11 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Warcraft Rumble: Collection level 33! More experience bonuses for me.

[8:13 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Managed to clear dungeon level 19 with my undead leader Rivendare, and in the new beast dungeon week, I got Hogger through levels 15 and 16 with some ease so far, getting all slots to silver. Dire Maul seems to be a good dungeon for it, no overwhelming amount of flying minis on the computer's side.

[8:15 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: In the heroic sigil campaign, I completed Marshal Redpaw, and did Foe Reaper 4000 (a giant harvest golem) with all 5 families as well, before starting on the Dreadnaught, last boss of the Westfall zone.

[8:16 PM]Sandalf13: Ah...the Dreadnaught...the first "modern" battleship built for the Royal Navy in the days before World War I.

[8:17 PM]Sandalf13: And that was its name...HMS Dreadnaiught.

[8:17 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The weekly events do seem to alternate, with the Darkmoon Faire back again, with the random chests it had in the first week. But this time I had help from a friend in our Warcraft (and Warcraft Rumble) group, and managed to gather enough tickets to buy the Darkmoon Faire account portrait, with spooky eyes

[8:17 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Hmm, this boss is a large boat too, bombing you from the shoreline until you smash it with minis

[8:18 PM]Sandalf13: Maybe you can post a picture of your Darkmoon Faire portrait?

[8:18 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Not sure about a picture but maybe I can find one online.

[8:19 PM]Sandalf13: That would be good...

[8:21 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Let's see if this works...

[8:21 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Optimal path and dmf ticket values

[8:21 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The portrait is the little circle with the 4 eyes on the fourth row.

[8:21 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: The portrait is the little circle with the 4 eyes on the fourth row.

[8:23 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: But with the way your portrait also displays your pvp rank, which in my case is (silver) III, it looks like it has teeth as well

[8:23 PM]Sandalf13: Thank you! It reminds me Argus...the Greek hero with 100 eyes...

[8:24 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Heh, good point.

[8:26 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Though in this case it's a reference to the Old Gods in the Warcraft universe. C'thun and N'zoth in particular have a thing about eyes.

[8:30 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: For quality upgrades, haven't seen the right talents yet for the 2 uncommons I have waiting, and I haven't been using the big red buttons to reset the grid to see more, preferring just to save gold for a while. But I did upgrade the Huntress to uncommon, so now there's 3 waiting for their talents

[8:31 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: WoW:

[8:32 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: More raiding! With normal difficulty of the 3 raids completed in the last 3 weeks, this time around we went straight into heroic for Vault of the Incarnates, clearing the first 6 bosses out of 8.

[8:34 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Weekly quest is timewalking, and while the dungeons were easy enough, the final reward for the quest was a weapon which, while the secondary stats are better for my feral spec, is still worse than the polearm/axe I already have with its shadowflame effect.

[8:34 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Ah well!

[8:35 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: More alts! With the Pandaria Remix event going, and me also still wanting to quest through Zandalar to unlock allied races, I've been alternating a bit.

[8:37 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: My horde main, Calkin, has made it to level 28. He's cleared the main quests of Zuldazar, saving the king and confronting Zul's rebellion, but at the cost of the life of Rezan, the loa of kings. That storyline will be revisited later after the main quests of all 3 zones are done, but for now it's done with for Zuldazar.

[8:38 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: After that I went into the swamp of Nazmir to stop an army of blood trolls, but their power and numbers are a bit larger than expected, so the plan is now to recruit 4 loa of Nazmir to our cause, and right now Calkin's at the Necropolis: the temple of Bwonsamdi, loa of death.

[8:38 PM]Sandalf13: Any relation to Macaulay Culkin?

[8:39 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Nah Nearly all my characters start with Cal, and I wanted to make this one a druid focused on the moonkin shapeshift form. Hence, Cal-kin.

[8:40 PM]Sandalf13: Your reasoning is sound...

[8:41 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And for the Pandaria event I created a new character, Calvirona, linked by Eonwe earlier in the gaming section Also a druid! Gotta love druids. This one's feral spec, melee damage, but also has a bit of a flowery vibe, as seen in the link.

[8:43 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Remix characters start at level 10, and I've gotten her to level 19 so far. Got through the introduction quests that gave her a cloak of infinite potential, constantly upgrading with threads of time from enemies and quest rewards, boosting stats permanently. Or well, at least for the duration of the event.

[8:45 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: After that she launched into battle against the Horde in the Pandaria starter quests, making friends with the Pandaren in Paw'don village, and aiding the Jinyu (fish people) against an attack by Horde-supplied Hozen (monkey people). After that I helped a pandaren Loremaster to create a vision-brew that set me on the path to find the missing prince Anduin. Which is where she's at now!

[8:46 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: She's also gotten the first two Infinite Power achievements for adding threads to the cloak, for 40 and 100, giving starting bonuses to future Remix characters. I plan to complete the final one, for 4200 threads, before making my Vulpera character. Hence the alternation with the horde druid.

[8:46 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: And that's my report for the week!

[8:47 PM]Sandalf13: You always keep my interest! Have a wonderful week, and thanks for your report! Namarie!

[8:47 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Namarie!

May 21, 2024

[10:27 PM]Sandalf13: Don't remember if I posted this before, but here it is (again). How true! And I found it funny that they selected some random guy in Nebraska, of all places...why not California? Or Oklahoma?

All modern digital infrastructure"

May 22, 2024

[4:06 PM]Varda: Because they found out about you, Sandalf!

[6:20 PM]Varda: We were wondering how to make it interesting telling about a good place to be, and commenting that a little conflict or flaws mixed in helped. So:

[6:20 PM]Varda: YouTube: "Weird" Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise (Parody of "Gangsta's Paradise...

[6:25 PM]Ar-Pharazon-V: Party like it's 1699. Second Age.

Thus ends this week's meeting. Come back and see us next week!