Whirly: good to go

Tonight was my first group in CoH since returning. My level 7 healer was working the streets when I received an invite from a group in Perez Park. It took me a couple minutes, but I found my way to them, the Holiday jet pack helped.

At 7 I don’t expect to get invites from the finest groups in CoH. I certainly hope this group wasn’t the finest because they were not very good. Nobody was assisting the tank except me. Everybody had aggro making healing demanding. I have an area effect (AE) heal but that only works if everybody is close to me. Yeah, that would have been nice. A couple of times the group headed off in different directions and started fighting two groups. It was hell I tells ya.

Oddly enough, as crazy and uncoordinated as it was, it was fun. When the tank, who invited me, who I’d been following like a shadow, left the group, I found he was 15 years old…He didn’t do that bad a job.

We ran into a group in the Wailing Caverns we could not get past, in the time allowed, last night. It consisted of a Druid, a plant-guy and 5 plants. We couldn’t do them in place because of another Druid and plant-guy nearby. Moving them isn’t easy as the Druid will stand and cast unless the puller moves back out of range. They all head for the pulling Hunter and, unless we get control quickly, the Hunter goes down. Our first attempt failed.

Here’s what I had envisioned for the second try: Hunter would pull and move back. All mobs except the Druid would chase after the Hunter. Druid moves to get back in range of the Hunter. Hunter and I send pets after the Druid. I use my area effect (AE) fire to take out the plants, or at least soften them up. I fear the plant-guy and hope he heads off in a good direction. We get the Druid down as quickly as possible and then clean up plant-guy.

Here’s what actually happened: Hunter pulled and moved back. All mobs except the Druid ran after the Hunter. Druid moves and Hunter and I sent in our pets. I DOT (damage over time) THE DRUID. Druid puts me to sleep for 20 seconds. I awake and cast AE centered on the Hunter. Hunter dies. I die.

Next time I’ve got to ignore the Druid completely. I just can’t afford to be sleeping at the beginning of the fight. I’m not sure if sending my pet is enough to get her attention. We’ll see.

My new Blog is located Here.
The old stuff is Here.

When I started this silliness I wanted to focus on writing and not the minutia of creating and supporting a web site. I wanted easy and that led me to Bloggger.com. What a great thing they’ve created. I don’t know how to thank them. I wish I could.

Yesterday, in my surfing, I ran into the 5 minute setup for WordPress. After playing WoW for a couple of hours, an hour of CoH, and watching a movie I gave it a try.

It turns out, if you have a MySQL-php enabled site, it’s easy to host your own blog. I’ve decided to make the switch. I’ve copied a few things to the new place, but there is nothing important, so I’m going to abandon the old stuff.

I know I’m the only one who reads this, so I’ll see me there. ☺

There be Druids in Wailing Caverns. Stinking, scumbag, sleep casting Druids. Doesn’t 20 seconds seem too long? It does when you are the one sleeping. There are some good points. You get an unmolested opportunity to reflect on the fight without needing to react, react, react. Mostly thought, I mash an attack button hoping to get back in the fight as soon as possible.

They are runners as well. After all the hassle, you have to chase them down. We kill most mobs because we have to. Druids we hunt for pleasure.

Mark’s 22 hunter and my 22 Warlock took our first adventure in Wailing Caverns Sunday night. The first challenge was getting in as you must pass a bunch of mobs. We died to a group of them, but our second, slower, entrance was more successful.

There is a Tauren Druid inside who will buff you if you give her a click. The mobs were around level 20 and elite inside. We had very little trouble taking them. Our first disaster occurred when a caster aggroed on me from across the cavern. It was out of my casting range, my pet charged off to chase him down. Given some time I could have thought of a better plan. I didn’t and we just joined hoping for the best.

Mark sent his pet and started shooting arrows. I moved a little closer to get into casting range and we tried to make it a nuke fight. Our pets accumulated an add or two and it seemed best to move closer to help. It looked like we might pull it off, but the adds kept mounting until we lost the hunter’s pet. The Hunter was next then my turn.

We had less than an hour to play in the instance. We died one more time to an unexpected boss add. Mark dinged 23.

We camped in Ratchet with the intention of going back Monday night. I expect it will be good fun.

Mark’s 22 hunter and my 22 Warlock took our first adventure in Wailing Caverns Sunday night. The first challenge was getting in as you must pass a bunch of mobs. We died to a group of them, but our second, slower, entrance was more successful.

There is a Tauren Druid inside who will buff you if you give her a click. The mobs were around level 20 and elite inside. We had very little trouble taking them. Our first disaster occurred when a caster aggroed on me from across the cavern. It was out of my casting range, my pet charged off to chase him down. Given some time I could have thought of a better plan. I didn’t and we just joined hoping for the best.

Mark sent his pet and started shooting arrows. I moved a little closer to get into casting range and we tried to make it a nuke fight. Our pets accumulated an add or two and it seemed best to move closer to help. It looked like we might pull it off, but the adds kept mounting until we lost the hunter’s pet. The Hunter was next then my turn.

We had less than an hour to play in the instance. We died one more time to an unexpected boss add. Mark dinged 23.

We camped in Ratchet with the intention of going back Monday night. I expect it will be good fun.

I was tricked into re-activating my City of Heroes account by Mark. I pre-ordered CoH back before it came out and was able to play a little before release. We then played for a while after, maybe a month. The boys didn’t seem to take to it so we moved on. I had forgotten my user name but luckily saved my old activation message from NCSoft. There was a 1.9 gig patch to download as I’d not played since 2004. It took all day.

I’ve forgotten how to play. My first attempt almost got me killed. I dropped back to a level 2 character and poked around to get the hang of it. There is a generic holiday guy you can do a quest for, find stolen presents. He has a helicopter for to take you to the mission, very handy. Everybody gets a holiday jet pack so can fly, nice.

CoH is a fun game, but it gets grindy after a bit. My highest is only 16 and I have a lot to re-learn. I think it will be entertaining for a month at least.

I watched the animated “Aeon Flux” when it was running on MTV. It was odd, quirky and fun, but was shown in pieces making it impossible to understand the story. How could I not see this movie?

I entered the theater after reading less than glowing reviews. At times, a reviewer doesn’t fit a movie and can’t connect. I’ve enjoyed science fiction my whole life. I was hoping the movie worked for me where it hadn’t for others.

In the future, blah, blah, 2415. Aeon is assigned to kill Trevor. It turns out things are not as they seem. Aeon gets to figure it out while jumping around as a super martial artists with a gun and attending meetings in her head. Tricky business, but spandex helps.

The film captures the feel of the animation very well. Unfortunately, the story seemed a little thin for a feature film. I don’t want to give away any of the plot as there is so little of it. Suspended logic is required with a movie like this, but there is one particular stretch I’m having trouble with still. It has to do with the leader’s long reign and the fact that no one seems to have noticed.

While I enjoyed the movie somewhat, I didn’t connect. I didn’t care how it ended I just wanted them to get to it. An animator can craft a project perfectly to fit their vision. A film maker tries to make perfection as well. With Aeon Flux, the animator succeeded.

Mike is on vacation leaving Mark and I to entertain ourselves for the next three weeks. We have a history of trying new combinations of characters just to see how they fit. This time, Mark thought it would be fun to try two pet classes.

He’s brought up a Night Elf Hunter to 22 to match my 22 Gnome Warlock. We’ve only worked a couple of hours together so far, but it seems like a good pairing. The Hunter does all the pulling, he’s got the tools, Hunters Mark, Tracking and I try to do something constructive before the mob dies.

This combo is a little weak in healing, though we can both heal our pets, the Warlock can make health stones and we can always bandage. My Warlock has taken up Alchemy for health potions as well. I hate Alchemy, all those weeds in your inventory, but I’m going to see if I can just collect those required for health potions.

I know of a couple who eventually divorced because of his addiction to Everquest. He stopped going to work and passed on his anniversary dinner for a raid. After they separated he broke into her house to play EQ on her computer.

I try to not let gaming negatively affect my life. I still have a job and a family. I sleep, bathe and socialize in a normal fashion. We all understand the problem though. You want to play, but some real life thing gets in the way. You have to judge, balance, choose the right path.

Friday, a regularly scheduled fight-night, was to be our last of the year. Out of the blue, an invitation that would be hard to refuse with, “Sorry, I’m playing computer games tonight.” It just couldn’t be done.

Could I have said no to the invitation if Friday was canasta with friends instead of WoW? I guess it would depend on the invitation or how important the canasta game was. But, I know nothing about canasta.