The sound of silence

It’s quiet here.

Too quiet…

 

If you have been watching movies as long as I have you have most certainly seen that line beaten to death.

 

The problem is that it’s true.

 

Last Tuesday, as though anyone reading this does not already know,  BRK announced his retirement from blogging and re-dedication to family. I read both his post and those of others on the topic of RL / Wow balance.

The first thing I did was take a good look at my own priorities, making sure they were still in line. 

Then I sat down with my wife and kids, first separately and then as a group and talked to them about both how much I play and how often. I wanted to know if I was unknowingly playing while any of them felt the least bit concerned with it.

I needed to make sure they knew that they come first, always.

 

Later on I logged into Wow and puttered around for a bit. I did not really have more than about an hour till I needed to take off and we had just won Wintergrasp, so i decided to try and run the vault.

I was lucky at finding groups, but unlucky with loot. The oddest thing happened though. There were six Hunters in the 25 man raid and three in the 10 man. All of them, myself included, had the exact same pet.

At level 23 my young Draeni huntress wandered all the way to the Barrens and camped for days to tame Humar the Pridelord. They have seen fifty-seven levels together since. Ever since Wrath made taming him stupid easy in the form of the quest mob Pitch there have been more and more of them around.

Don’t get me wrong, I think its a really nice pet skin as well. The problem comes when I can’t tell which one is mine in a raid. With all the “don’t stand in the bad thing” encounters we have going on I need to know for sure which one is mine.

My solution? Why, finding another cat of course. With the upcoming dual spec and remote pet stable access I can have more than one cat. That way I never have to wonder which one is mine again.

I thought about it for a few minutes. I had always like the look of the Frostsabre Pridewatcher, a little colorful, a bit distinctive, and best of all they were a common spawn that I could just run over to the area and tame without camping forever.

What I saw when I got there made me change my mind though. As I ran up to frostsabre rock I saw a flash of blue amongst the white. Pausing a moment to look a found none other than Rak’shiri looking back at me.

A trap and a tame later the newest addition to the family joined up to help take the raiding pressure off of Shadow. (he is a bit long in the tooth after all, just look how tired he is)

 

So if you are at all curious what I have been up to all week, I spent it in a cave. Just the two of us getting ready for friday nights raid. My entire playtime for Wed, Thurs, and Friday up till an hour before the raid was spent grinding that cave over and over again.

Two full clears per bubble.

Six bubbles per level.

Five levels in two and a half days.

When my bags filled I would drop my portable mailbox and mail everything off while mailing myself bullets, food, and drink from a bank alt.

I have a twenty eight slot ammo pouch, and I emptied it twice in that cave.

In the end it was all worth it as we raided Naxx together Friday night.

 

 

So when you ask why I have not written in nearly a week I can honestly say “Sorry, I was living in a cave”