text:
Warlords of Draenor cinematic, release date, and other miscellaneous thoughtsPosted: August 16, 2014 Filed under: Leveling, PvP, Raiding & Dungeons | Tags: druid, hunter, leveling, lore, marksmanship, PvP, raiding, SV, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft 1 Comment
It's been quite a while since I chimed in here…
But now, with November 13th now solidly penciled in on the calendar, we have some long, long,
-awaited closure with respect to the Warlords of Draenor release date.
As I mentioned back in March, the 11/13/14 release date means, since it is indeed after October 21st, that
"Warlords will have both A) taken the longest time-after-previous-expansion to release of any expansion in the game's history and B) given players the greatest amount of down-time after the previous expansion's final content patch in the game's history."
So, we'll have to see how this expansion unfolds, with respect to measured content updates and shorter downtime between final patches and new expansions. That will be another year or two (or more). Blizzard says that they are already working on the next one, but we've heard that before. They're still bleeding subscriptions, and they failed to solve that problem this go-round, so we'll see.
The question is, how many of us will see…
* * *
Anyway, how about that cinematic? I have to say, I loved it, in spite of the exclusion of anything other than male orcs and a demon. The setting was compelling, the production spectacular, and the action was thrilling. I absolutely loved the flying-Grommash-axe-to-the-head killing of Mannoroth.
I've watched the cinematic approximately twenty times. It makes me want to do two things: re-read Rise Of The Horde, and read all of the books post-The Shattering – in particular, War Crimes. That's something to put on the list of things to get done within the next three months.
It was quite possibly the best cinematic yet. As good as Cataclysm's seemed at the time, this and the trailer for Mists absolutely destroy it, in my opinion. Wrath's was awesome too, and I loved the original WoW trailer as well. Darkbrew published a list of his favorites, and mine would be similar.
Here's a recurring thought I have every time we get the expansion trailer: Blizzard should make a complete movie with CGI. I'm willing to be impressed by the live-action movie that will grace us in a couple of years, but I would love to see something killer like the past couple of cinematics become a major motion picture. Perhaps the cost/risk would be too great – I don't know about these things. But hey, a guy can dream, right?
* * *
I'm still playing, although I basically stopped raiding near the end of June. My job has been stressful, and I wasn't finding it a productive use of my time to come home from work and promptly beat my head against a wall until a couple of hours after midnight, particularly when I would have to be back at work early the next day.
In fact, I'm becoming convinced that my raiding days may be behind me. Barring a change of circumstances, I'm not going to have the time and focus to commit to raiding and raiding well. Real life comes first, and I am at an age and in a situation where I can't let structure in WoW interfere with my future. The idea of not raiding can be a painful one, but the way I've felt the past few months, I don't know that I can do it going forward.
With that (and other things) in mind, my plans for Warlords have been shifting over the past couple of weeks.
I had already planned to not race to level 100. What's shifting may surprise the socks off of some of you…
I'm thinking of leveling a different toon first. As in, not Mushan.
* * *
Why not Mushan? I know, it seems anathema to lifelong hunters out there, but I'm not the average WoW hunter. I'll be honest: I'm not terribly happy with what I've read about the changes to Survival. It seems like it's a shadow of its former self. I know that's a simplified way to look at changes to the spec – and I'll certainly try it out when Patch 6.0 goes live – but I'm not feeling it right now.
And, while I feel a little better about Marksmanship than SV, it seems like, pre-numbers-pass, Beast Mastery is the way to go. And (here's where I know I differ from other hunters) I don't enjoy BM. To me, it's like being a guy with a water gun and a remote-control car, and you shoot your water gun and remotely control your car, which sometimes gets stuck on a rock in the dirt or some other protrusion and ends up getting stepped on. Perhaps this reflects the true lack of skill I have in the game, but I've never enjoyed playing a hunter less in the post-mana era than when I went BM for Council of the Elders in ToT.
Anyway… *washes hands of the issue* I'll be able to better make a decision on that when the patch goes live and I've had a chance to try out each spec to see if I like one of them.
* * *
As for what I've been up to in WoW, there hasn't been much of note.
I'm steadily making cloth for Royal Satchels: So far, Mushan and my druid, Anacrusa, are fully Satcheled-up, with a few other Satchels on various other toons. Now that we have a release date, I'm certain that I will not have full Panda-bags on each of my main toons, but I won't need that space immediately since I am not racing them all to 100 ASAP, so I will probably leave Modhriel (my Tailor) at Halfhill for the foreseeable future while that project is going on.
I've taken up PvP on my druid, which has been interesting. With a gear set largely composed of Timeless Isle gear, about a week ago I stepped in and started losing a lot of random BGs. Compounding the gear problem was my inability to play the spec well, and vice-versa. It's been a long time since I PvPed regularly on my druid – three years or so – so there has been a lot to learn. I felt a bit guilty for holding my teams back, but I shouldn't have – I wasn't the main problem. Most games, we were getting crushed. Ana in full Prideful gear wasn't going to turn most of those matches into wins, believe me.
Along the way, I've picked up a few pieces of Grievous, and the weapon will be next (and a huge upgrade). Things are getting better: I'm getting the hang of the spec, which is my #1(a) goal, with #1 being to have fun doing something that is both old and new.
Aside from that, I'm casually grinding Valor on my warrior, druid, DK, and paladin. My mage has had horrible luck getting a weapon to replace his T14 Sha-Touched sword, so I've basically given up on that (and on grinding other gear and Valor) with him. When he finally gets to Draenor, he's going to destroy mobs anyway, so I'm not terribly worried about it. Frickin' guy has a 544 ilvl, so I think he's going to be just fine, even in spite of his 491 weapon…
I've also been hitting up some old raids on Mushan. A couple of friends and I went into Ulduar last weekend and wiped the floor with 25-player mode, which scored me a boatload of achievement points. Before that, we did the same in ICC-25. I also finally completed my Valorous Cryptstalker set on my hunter (at least to a point where I could use the gear), which I may talk about in the near future.
* * *
Without making this a book, these are just some miscellaneous bits from the world of Mushan.
More, soon. :)
* * *
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. You can follow me on Twitter at @MushanEtc. Comments are welcome!
I'm still herePosted: May 21, 2014 Filed under: Leveling, Off Topic | Tags: blog, hunter, leveling, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft 4 Comments
Hi all…
I'm still here. I haven't written here in five or six weeks. But I'm still keeping up with everyone's blogs, and I still have plans for this blog, although if I do end up going a while before that manifests itself in the form of posts, I won't be surprised.
I can't do the squeeze-whatever-news-and-speculation-I-can-out-of-every-day thing, which is why I've kept quiet. I simply can't justify budgeting the time and emotional energy into "waiting and hoping" for, and writing regularly about, a launch that is looking increasingly like it could actually go all the way to the end of – or even pass – the December release window.
(To those who are doing so, by the way, kudos and thanks!)
So it's highly likely that posting will be sporadic for the foreseeable future.
However, a couple of things are happening.
For one thing, I recently returned to the game after a two-month break. I've actually raided with some friends a couple of times – although I have no weekly commitment – and I've done some other things here and there with my regular toons. But the majority of my time over the past couple of weeks has been spent leveling a new toon on a new server.
He's a Marksmanship hunter, Skinner/Herbalist, and I'm enjoying leveling him all by himself, with no guild and no other toons from my account on the server (so far). As such, he has to manage bag space and gold as he levels. I'm having fun dealing with these rather mundane issues.
Additionally, I recently got a promotion at my job, so I'm spending a lot more time at (and thinking about) work.
As it's taking more of my time, any WoW-related activities – and considering the conditions I discussed above (the waiting game) – consist of either playing the game or reading about it. Nothing terribly important is happening in my WoW-world, so there's little for me to write about. I'm leveling a toon, and that's basically it. It takes me back to earlier, simpler times.
There is a good chance that I could take another break before Warlords of Draenor manifests itself. I haven't decided, or given it much thought; the fact remains that we could be six-to-eight months away from a 'go-live' date. So we'll see how it goes.
Anyway, I just wanted to say hello!
* * *
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
My alt and profession mindset for Warlords part 3: AlphaPosted: April 8, 2014 Filed under: Gear, Leveling, Professions | Tags: Blacksmithing, hunter, Leatherworking, leveling, professions, questing, Skinning, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft 6 Comments
Back in December and January, I published speculative posts regarding my toons' professions in Warlords of Draenor: which alts I might level, what their professions might be, and why.
I have seven level 90s (all home-grown), but lately I've been thinking that – depending on how much I decide to actually play once my initial new-xpac buzz wears off – there will be a maximum of five that end up making the journey to 100. Could be a lot less, of course.
At any rate, at the time I noted that there were certain motivations for wanting to switch things up, and that there could be more on the horizon. As of last weekend's Alpha info dump, one of those motivations has been clarified. So, with those in mind, I give you the factors that will play into how I play profs in WoD:
- I don't know how many toons I will level because a) I don't know if I will continue to be a serial subscriber in WoD, and b) even if I am, I am determined not to burn myself out like I have in the past.
- I want to make it easier to level profs on my main toon (and possibly others).
I don't know if I will be raiding, so optimal prof usage might not be important.
- I already have plenty of gold, so if I never sell anything on the AH for the whole xpac, I'll still be fine. I have absolutely no need for a 'job' (or several) during WoD.
- Flying might not be a Thing in WoD for a while (or even the whole xpac).
- Alpha news: Professions will no longer provide performance bonuses (stat buffs / weapon bonuses / extra sockets / exclusive enchants / better gems, etc.).
#6 on that list was revealed in the Alpha patch notes, and answered a question that I had related in one of my earlier posts in the subject. As of 6.0, profession bonuses will be no more. Which basically negates any concerns raised by #3 on the list.
So, looking at my main, Mushan (hunter/LW/BS), I can tell you right now that he will be jettisoning Blacksmithing and picking up Skinning. Before the notes were released, this was already being seriously considered; now it's a no-brainer. I have another max-level Blacksmith (Droignon, warrior/BS/Mining) anyway, and Mushan was really, obviously, just using Blacksmithing for his own advantage, and Blacksmithing is such a nice person who deserves better than a one-sided relationship… I don't know, I try to stay out of it as much as possible (it's complicated).
In all seriousness, after leveling Mushan in MoP as a LW/BS, I'm looking forward to being able to gather my own resources while I play him in Warlords. I have big plans for leveling him (which may or may not… OK probably will be revealed at a later date), and the main theme is going to be that I will immerse myself in playing him, as opposed to racing to the cap. I'm not going to worry about getting him capped ASAP, and then hopping on the druid to skin a bunch of dead things, and then hopping on the warrior and riding around mining everything I can in Jade Forest and leveling out of the zone before I do many quests from all of the gathering XP…
…like I did last time. All to get those crafting profs maxed on Mushan, who for the past two expansions has been able to craft amazing stuff, but somehow is incapable of gathering his own materials himself. This time will be different.
Skinning also fits Leatherworking hunters better in my opinion, lore-/immersion-wise.
#5 on that list (no flying) sort of puts the kibosh on possibly changing Ana's (druid/LW/SK) profs. Without the flying advantages, changing her to an Herbalist, as I mentioned in a past post, has no appeal for me. She'll remain a LW/SK, unless I decide that I really really want to change her into an Alch/Herb, which I'm doubtful will happen.
The list (updated @ Alpha)
There are no other changes that I can think of, with respect to how my toons will approach profs in WoD. With that, here's my list:
- Mushan (90 hunter/main): Leatherworking, Skinning (new)
- Anacrusa (90 Resto/Balance druid): Leatherworking, Skinning #
- Droignon (90 Prot warrior): Blacksmithing, Mining #
- Modhriel (90 Frost mage): Tailoring, Jewelcrafting *#
- Saldrahn (90 Blood DK): Engineering, Mining #
- Abenadari (90 pally): Alchemy, Herbalism **
- Ghilleadh (90 hunter alt): Enchanting, Skinning **
- Mydnas (85 druid bank alt): Inscription, Herbalism ***
# Mushan is the only real concern for the time being. The rest will happen only if fun-times permit.
* With all of the forthcoming stat changes, I'm not particularly enthused about JC anymore, but then again, it's not terribly important (see previous note), is it? As for Tailoring, that should be fairly straightforward to level, since killing equals gathering in that case.
** These toons will most likely not make the journey. One or both may be deleted for future character slots, unless they ever get around to connecting my server (grr..).
*** I don't care a lick about this toon or Inscription anymore, but she's the bank alt, so she stays for now. But I'll be very surprised if she doesn't mostly gather dust.
* * *
So, really? Hundreds and hundreds of words, and there are only two actual changes to my mindset compared with my previous post on the subject?
Yeah, sorry. That's how I roll, usually. But this post comes from the fact that I've been spending portions of cold nights in an easy chair under a blanket, in my pajamas, making plain text notes on my iPad. I'm casually working on a grand plan for my foray into Draenor, and prof changes were on my list of prep questions. I can now go back and edit those notes, which will give both my prep and leveling expectations more clarity. It's all part of a process that I am determined to enjoy as fully as possible.
Is it self-indulgent? Hell yeah it is. So is the vast majority of the rest of the stuff I post here. :)
* * *
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
Warlords of Draenor's release is a long way offPosted: March 11, 2014 Filed under: Leveling, Off Topic | Tags: leveling, Mists of Pandaria, questing, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft 7 Comments
Hello, everyone.
It's been a month since I announced on these humble pages that I am taking a break from World of Warcraft.
My time away – an admittedly short one, at this early point – has been good. Things have been busy at work; the new blog has been fun to work on; I've gotten plenty of Fable-playing time logged; and I'm just getting started on a virtual stack of books that need reading. Because I had become thoroughly exhausted with the game in the months before my break started, my playing time had been steadily withering, so making the transition from "very little WoW" to "no WoW" has been fairly pain-free.
One thing has not changed throughout all of this: I still love the flippin' game, and there have been times when I've missed it and wished for a moment that I could log in. But I quickly realized that what I'm missing is not the game as it stands today, but rather as it was in the past, and how it will be again later this year. Specifically: expansion time. Leveling time. The time when everything is new again.
As part of my effort to not completely lose touch during these next few months, I've determined to read the WoW section of my blog feed once per week, and to periodically check up on the news. Usually, this happens on a Sunday.
This week, I decided to make an exception, because of speculation that the beta – the arrival of which is already late in the minds of many – could be happening. I'm curious about the beta start date, because it has been written about so intensely since Blizzcon, and because it was expected as early as December, then January, then February…
In catching up on last week's blog posts this past Sunday, I noticed that anticipation for a beta was particularly high. It was this excitement that I remembered as I casually opened up MMO-Champion this morning, and swiftly found myself in a fierce battle to keep the orange juice in my mouth from destroying my keyboard and monitor when I read the following:
- Warlords of Draenor is expected to release on or before 12/20/2014, with a fall release expected. This is not a release date.
Once I had managed to get said orange juice flowing safely in the correct direction, I read on. There was little other information of interest to me, since the level 90 boost has little appeal for me at this point, and I will "only" be purchasing the regular edition of WoD. There was also no mention of a beta launch, which was the information that I came to the site for in the first place.
At any rate, given that the xpac will likely see a fall release, that puts the earliest launch date at September 23rd (if we take "fall release" literally). September 23rd is a hair short of two years since the launch of MoP, while September 30th is just a hair longer. Of course, "fall" is probably an approximation, so it's possible that if everything goes awesomely in Irvine, CA, we could see a release on the 9th or 16th. However, if we get much later into the fall – October 21st or later, to be specific – Warlords will have both A) taken the longest time-after-previous-expansion to release of any expansion in the game's history and B) given players the greatest amount of down-time after the previous expansion's final content patch in the game's history.
And if we do get into December before it's released? Well, then we're talking about what I would already categorize as a giant misstep on the part of Blizzard.
It turns out that I picked a good time to take a significant break from the game. When a company provides fairly regular content updates for a game – some would say they came too fast, and I have to agree with that sentiment – and then gives players little more than a new PvP season in an extended final patch, there is little to keep my interest. Late 2012 and the first three quarters of 2013 consisted of "content content content." 2014 is doomed to consist of "waiting waiting waiting" for much of the year, until this thing (WoD) happens.
So… what happened? Over the past couple of years, we've gotten a lot of talk from Blizz-folk about faster content, and we saw some evidence that that was a priority. Mists arrived chock-full of things to do at 90 – repetitive, grindy-as-hell things, to be sure – and with "move the story forward" patches in between raid patches, there certainly was plenty of content for about a year…
And now we have this Nothing. We've been told that there are different teams that work on expansions… so did the Mists team significantly outpace the Warlords team? Did the Warlords team bite off more than it could chew, like they supposedly did when they remade the world for Cataclysm?
Somewhere – dev team to dev team, or Blizzard to players, or whatever – the message went off the path. And I think that, at this point, Blizzard does itself and its players a disservice when it says that it would like to release expansions on a yearly basis, because then players believe that the company – this great company, which has made such a great game and done so many wonderful things – was actually working hard toward making that actually happen. All evidence at this juncture shows that it either is not doing so, or is just wildly failing to make that happen.
I was skeptical at the time, because those comments at and around the time of Blizzcon were comments that many players took and ran with, in spite of Blizzard's history and lack of actual promise. Those stated best intentions were believed by many to be modus operandi, and they are proving not to be so. I, like everyone else, wanted Blizzard to be what they said they intended to be. I was skeptical, but if they had dropped a beta on December 10th or January 8th, I would have been happy. If they had announced that WoD was arriving on May 20th or June 17th, I would have been happy. I also would have been surprised.
This doesn't surprise me. At this point in the history of WoW, this has become the norm, and it seems that Blizzard – as much as they purportedly intend to change for the faster – has become entrenched in this two-year cycle.
As such, I believe that they should just stop talking about it. They should just stick with "It'll be Soon(TM)," and "It'll be out when it's finished," and stop talking up what has become a pipe dream for everyone. I'll be finished playing WoW for a while before yearly expansions become a thing.
I was skeptical, but that does not mean that I'm not disappointed by this news. What do I want? I want to play through some new content. Of course. I find myself daydreaming about past new-xpac leveling experiences from time to time, and that is what I want to be doing again, sooner than later.
It looks like it will be later.
I'm already mentally extending my break. Originally, I was thinking about taking three months or so. However, with this news – and barring extremely unlikely "let's get the band (raid team) back together" overtures from my absent friends – four-to-six months or more is looking more likely. There are good things about this: no WoW means more time for other adventures elsewhere, both in and out of gaming worlds. But ultimately, I am disappointed… although I'm glad that Blizzard finally came out and confirmed that my skepticism wasn't unfounded.
Yes, I could still be playing. But right now, Blizzard has no new product for me. I'm not paying $15 per month to wait for half a year or more. I can do that for free.
* * *
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
Things fall apartPosted: February 10, 2014 Filed under: Leveling, Raiding & Dungeons | Tags: leveling, Mists of Pandaria, raiding, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft 6 Comments
* * *
Practically, nothing is happening right now.
We still haven't raided since early November.
Those of us that are left have either moved on to other teams (one person) or resigned ourselves to the fact that a long break is in the cards (the rest of us). There's nothing happening on this front.
I did have the chance to raid with an old friend in her guild about a month ago. We knocked over Nazgrim, Malkorok, and Spoils that night. It was nice to reconnect with her, but I was just a fill-in.
Oh yeah, and last Thursday, this happened:
I got to fill a spot with my girlfriend's team, which is halfway through heroic content. We downed the last seven bosses on normal mode in fairly short order (and no wipes), and I managed to finally complete my four piece bonus. I also didn't suck, which was a relief considering that, in addition to worrying that I would be rusty, I had never seen the final two bosses before that night. It was pretty fun!
It was nice to raid again on both occasions, but neither is something that will happen regularly. I was just helping out.
The January beta that some were hoping for post-Blizzcon didn't happen, just as I suspected it wouldn't. Since Blizzard announced last week that PvP Season 14 is ending "in a couple of weeks" (or so), the month of February will be comprised of two weeks (or so) of that happening, plus another two weeks (or so) of sorting out the titles and such. By then, we're either very near or already into March. Twenty weeks (give or take) of Season 15 puts us around the middle of July. With Patch 6.0 presumably happening around that time, a few weeks of that puts us into August, making the time between the launches of MoP and WoD longer than the time between the Cata and MoP launches.
And that's if everything goes as it usually does. We could be waiting even longer…
This will also mean at least an eleven-month period where Siege of Orgrimmar is end-game – possibly longer. This would put it longer than Dragon Soul (~10 months), and almost as long as ICC (1 year). So much for shorter turnarounds (and best laid plans).
As Jasyla said, "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" (a great post, by the way). Another thought: the news of another PvP season came down over a month ago. The current season is still not over yet. We're definitely seeing more of the same.
This is me, beating a dead horse
Did I mention that nothing is happening? I don't PvP regularly, so a new season is a definite stretch of four or five months (or more) where there is guaranteed to be zero new content. By the time that stretch starts, we will already be on the long side of five months with no new content. Without raiding, what's left? Archaeology? LFR? Pet battles? Obsessing daily on the when? Waiting, breath to breath, for the promise/fallacy of "faster content" to morph into reality? "Faffing"?!
Yeah, I don't think so. Not for me.
I love many parts of this game, but I've already done almost all that I want to do in Mists. My friends and I haven't made it to Garrosh's (temporary) downfall together, but that's basically off the table at this point. And without raiding, my motivation to explore "other" just isn't there. People I love to play with are absent. Pandaria itself has been done to death during my too-many journeys through the leveling and gearing process. If the expansion dropped next week, I have the five toons that I care about, geared* and perfectly ready to start the journey to level 100. I've already done "other." Five, six, seven more months of lonely solo play (and crappy / repetitive PuG group play) through overly familiar content has no appeal for me right now.
*Geared means "out of greens." I maintain that we will not need heirloom weapons to level.
Break time
I've been playing for seven years as of this month. I've taken a couple of breaks during that time, but I believe that the longest period I've ever gone without being subscribed was five or six weeks. I remained subscribed for the entire time between the release of Diablo III and Patch 5.0, even though I was relegated to playing on my girlfriend's computer (when I could) because mine was broken. I created my hunter during the eternity of downtime before Cataclysm launched. Good things have happened in times like this.
But I can't do it again. I can't justify four to six more months of subscription payments when the game isn't bringing me much enjoyment; when there is no new story, dungeon, or raid content, no raid team, and virtually nothing that I've left unexplored about MoP. And as much as I want to believe that getting hard-core into my Outland hunter (or another new toon, for that matter) right now could be worth it, I'm just not feeling it.
So I'll be letting my subscription expire when payment comes due soon. And for the most part, I'll be putting the blog on the shelf for a while.
* * *
The idea is to come back shortly before Patch 6.0 arrives. At that point, I can change my hunter's second profession if I decide to move forward with that, finish bag-space-clearing, and do any other prep that I feel I need to do. This will give me time to adjust to the forthcoming class changes, and allow me to take part in any pre-launch event, if they decide to give us one.
In the meantime, I have plenty to do. I've been working on an unrelated blog recently, playing more guitar, and spending more time reading. I just picked up Fable Anniversary for the 360, and will definitely be playing through that a few times. I'll also spend time with several other games that I recently picked up on the cheap. And baseball's Spring Training is around the corner, which is great, because I've got some serious baseball fever right now!
I think this break will be good for me. Perhaps when I come back – refreshed – I can find a better situation (or the situation will have improved within my guild) for raiding. If not, I'm still excited about playing through the Warlords launch content, checking out dungeons and so on, and most likely writing about it! And then I'll move on.
In the meantime: peace. I'll see you on the other side of the desert.
P.S. Thanks (belatedly) for the encouragement, Kheldul. I appreciate it!
* * *
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
Revisiting Outland with a new hunterPosted: January 20, 2014 Filed under: Gear, Leveling, Lore, Nostalgia, Raiding & Dungeons | Tags: hunter, leveling, lore, marksmanship, MM, nostalgia, Outland, questing, The Burning Crusade, Warcraft, World of Warcraft 7 Comments
In my "free time" – which, in World of Warcraft, generally constitutes time spent "not advancing" my level 90 characters or professions in some shape or form – lately, I've been leveling a new hunter.
Now, there is no need for me to make a new hunter, at least for the sake of hunters per se. I already have three hunters on my realm, and two of them are max level. However, I do love the class, and so when the time came to work on a new project, it was a fairly easy choice for me.
Anyway, I've got this new hunter. And this hunter has a purpose. Due to this purpose, it's extremely likely that he will never reach max level.
* * *
If I think about the history of my experience in WoW, with an eye toward my favorite parts of the leveling experience, something interesting happens.
Some people love(d) Vanilla WoW. And, the truth is, I did too; I didn't start playing WoW until the month after TBC launched, but I did spend a ton of time leveling through the "Vanilla" parts of the game when I started playing – I didn't have my first level 70 toon until just over a month before Wrath launched! And while there were frustrating and faulty aspects of that part of the game, I have a lot of good – fuzzy, but good – memories from that time.
However, that part of the game is gone. Forever.
It's not 100% gone, of course: there are areas of the game that survived the revamp (the "kill 10 Young Stranglethorn Tigers -> Stranglethorn Tigers -> Elder Stranglethorn Tigers"-type questlines come to mind, for one), but they're relatively few in number. As a whole, the Vanilla WoW experience no longer exists.
As such – and this is the interesting thing that I realized – the earliest "nostalgia-era" content that is still available in anything collectively resembling its original form is The Burning Crusade. And Wrath follows that, of course… and those two zones are the reasons that I made this new hunter.
If you've read some of my previous posts, as well as some of those from before, you may know that I'm at something of a crisis point as far as the game goes with me. A lot of times, what's needed in these situations is a break from the everyday endgame experience (or lack thereof), and that's what I've been looking for lately. Looking at the game, I realized recently that I had no characters that could play in Outland at-level – seven 90s, an 85, and two toons at or below 30. One of those lowbies is a hunter, and the other a shaman. I don't enjoy the shaman as much as I had hoped, and the other hunter is reserved for a different project, should I ever return to it.
Anyway, I decided that, while I'm not a fan of leveling the revamped content on Azeroth, I wanted to take another toon into Outland and Northrend… and I didn't feel like leveling a second DK (not that that isn't fun, but my DK is the last toon I leveled, so I'd like to give DKs a bit of a rest for the moment). So, hunter it was.
But, why Outland?
When I look back at the past few years and think about the toons I've brought to max level, starting with Mushan and including a (now deleted) mage, warrior, replacement mage, second hunter, and DK, I realized that my favorite zones to revisit during the leveling process are Outland and Northrend. They were the continents/expansions that I played before I raided, which means "back when I sucked." Back when I had no idea what was going on, or how to play. Back when the world was a complete wonder to me. When things were scary and new.
For some reason, nostalgia brings me back to those zones, to those expansions' content. To a simpler time. That's the number one reason. The revamped Vanilla content was okay for the first play-through, but there are certain aspects to the leveling process that make the experience uninteresting to me, including the lack of virtually any challenges along the way and the updating of the content to the current-as-of-Cataclysm time period.
* * *
I've set some parameters to encourage discovery, exploration, and learning… and also to ensure that I do not simply blow through to the higher levels like I usually do.
No heirlooms past level 58. I did use several heirlooms through level 57, because the goal here was absolutely to zip through large chunks of the pre-58 content at a time. Once I hit 58, I did away with them, replacing them with quest greens I had saved for exactly that purpose. I even equipped a level 15 (ilvl 22) cloak as I prepared for Outland, because that was the last one I had saved. Not that that mattered – everything has been nerfed, so the simple fact that I had something appropriate equipped in every slot ensured that questing would still be very easy.
I'm also not in a guild, for guild perk reasons (including the bonus XP perk).
Locking XP
Based on past (post-4.0) experience, a player can hit Hellfire, Terrokar, Nagrand, and SMV or Netherstorm, run a couple of dungeons along the way, and easily be 68 (and ready for Northrend) before completing any zones, and skipping the vast majority of the Outland content. My aim with this toon is to spend time in Outland, so skipping content is anathema in that scenario. Therefore, I went to Wowhead and looked up the required levels for quests in each zone. For instance, virtually all of the quests in Hellfire are available by the time players hit 61; thus, when I hit 61, I lock my XP. This means that, once I finish the zone, I can unlock my XP, move on to Zangarmarsh, and continue gaining XP until I get to 62 (when all quests in Zangar become available). Then, when I finish Zangar, I can start Terrokar with unlocked XP and re-lock it again at 64 for Nagrand. This preserves some semblance of "I'm playing at-level," which is another goal that I have. I could do each zone and run each dungeon without locking XP, but I would quickly outgrow each zone well before I finish it if I did it that way. I'm likely going to spend more time in Outland with my XP locked than unlocked, but that's ok.
By the way, I discovered the other day that locking XP also interrupts the accrual of "rest," which, for these purposes, does not disappoint me. Knowing that I won't be out-leveling a zone quite so fast makes for more fluid progression within the zone than 30 bars of rest would – to a point, of course.
Ground mounts only. Some people may think this is crazy, but I'm determined to play it very much like I did when I first took Anacrusa through it in 2007-08. And I couldn't fly back then. Taxis (flight paths) are allowed, of course.
Additionally, while I do have a vendor mount, I will not use it with this toon.
There are quests in zones, once you get to a certain point/level, that send you to a dungeon that corresponds with the story; in Hellfire, it's Hellfire Ramparts. In the interest of playing through the story, I will run the dungeons. However, I will only do this while XP-locked.
It's fairly clear, at this point, that managing the throttling of XP-gain is a large part of this endeavor. Part of this is an experiment to see how it affects immersion; I'm of the opinion that while going back several times to Stormwind to (un)lock XP is a slight annoyance, it's no more immersion-breaking than any other non-core activity in the game, such as doing my farms every day on max-level toons, or raiding the same instance every week.
* * *
It's an imperfect science, obviously: there are several aspects of the game that are impossible to recreate. LFD didn't exist back then, there were group quest elites, stats and specs and talents have been revamped, glyphs have been added, and things have been heavily nerfed. There's no way to go back 100%, but that's something I was fully aware of as I began the project.
The goal is to immerse myself in Outland. Revisit and enjoy the lore, and experience it as authentically as possible from a playstyle perspective. Revisit some memories of formative times in my WoW-childhood. There really isn't a way to completely and accurately replicate that experience any more, but I can do things to mitigate the hyper-leveling paradigm that plagues** old content.
** "Plague" indicating a certain perspective; I know that there are many who are absolutely done with Outland in every way, but I also know that there are a lot of people who love TBC and love spending time there. So for my purposes, leveling quickly is the opposite of what I'm interested in. However, for others, it's a necessity.
At any rate, along the way, I am taking a lot of screenshots, reading quest text, and completing each zone the best I can.
By the way, I'm leveling as Marksman on this hunter, which is what I leveled Mushan and Ghilleadh with back in the day. I don't play Marks anymore on those toons, but it is absolutely killer for leveling. I approach the mob. I plant, and (unglyphed) Aim, and Shoot. 95% of the time, the mob either dies from a single shot or is critically injured (and is subsequently finished off with a Kill Shot). For elites or higher-level-than-me mobs, I do the "Aimed/Chimera" combo, and if it doesn't kill them, it usually does serious damage. Even without heirlooms, the damage is punishing if it crits, and with Careful Aim, that happens quite often…
Playing this way makes me feel more like a ranger than just about anything else in the game. And that's a fun aspect of this project, too.
* * *
As I mentioned above (and in a previous post), there's no way to 100% accurately replicate the experience of playing WoW or a new expansion for the first time – once you've done it, you've done it. However, there are ways to revisit it. I'm a leave-my-poor-arms-at-the-emergency-room-afterward raider, but I also love leveling, and I love some of the old parts of the game. It's fun and relaxing to lose myself in my new character, imagining him seeing this content for the first time and experiencing that wonder and awe with him. I've seen it before, but I also like seeing it again. And perhaps I'll learn something new along the way.
Of course, this dovetails somewhat nicely with the idea that it's nice to see Outland as it was a couple of years ago on the eve of Warlords of Draenor, since a great deal of that lore (along with that of the relevant books) will be somewhat pertinent to that expansion as well…
* * *
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
Psynister's heirloom guide (pre-Warlords)Posted: January 2, 2014 Filed under: Leveling, Raiding & Dungeons | Tags: gear, heirlooms, leveling, Mists of Pandaria, paladin, protection, questing, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft Leave a comment
For anyone who's interested in leveling alts between now and when everything turns upside-down for Warlords of Draenor – and hasn't seen Psynister's heirloom guides yet – and is looking for information on "what to buy" when picking up heirlooms for power-leveling an alt, GO HERE:
[Psynister's Guide to Heirlooms]
Amazingly enough, I recently started a new dwarf Protection paladin (to the complete/genuine shock of the entire world, I know…), and I immediately went to Psynister's site for heirloom info. Psynister, to my knowledge, doesn't play WoW on a regular basis anymore, but he has made attempts – at least, up through the enchanting changes in 5.3 – to keep his heirloom guide up to date.
Psynister is a long-time leveling aficionado, whose articles I have devoured for a long time. He loves leveling, and it was through him that I learned (after a short hiatus from everything-WoW) about the Ironman Challenge (after it kind of had already happened…) in 2011. Every piece of heirloom gear in this post is linked to Wowhead, which makes it a very nice resource for checking out the pieces for yourself and finding the vendors and required currency for said items.
I generally don't use heirlooms – particularly during what is, for me, the leveling sweet spot of questing (TBC/Wrath) – but I'll often use them to get to that point. Whatever your PvE-leveling method, Psynister's site is a great resource for gear info, so I thought I'd pass it along. Check it out!
* * *
Thanks for reading this PSA by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
My alt and profession mindset for WarlordsPosted: December 5, 2013 Filed under: Leveling, Professions, Raiding & Dungeons | Tags: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, druid, hunter, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, leveling, mage, Mists of Pandaria, professions, Skinning, Tailoring, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, warrior, World of Warcraft 2 Comments
On Wednesday, I wrote a ton of words about nerfing myself for the launch of Warlords of Draenor. Today, I'd like to elaborate more on some of the more structural changes I'd like to make, with respect to some other aspects of how I play the game.
I've reached a point in my life where the rat race like the one I embarked upon in Mists of Pandaria isn't appealing, practical, or enjoyable. At the time, I did it, but I was looking forward to better times – and they have certainly come, to some extent. But the way I played in Cataclysm and MoP – many level-capped alts, all ten professions capped (sometimes more than once), seven full farms, plenty of Auction House action, and so on – is something that I just don't have the energy or interest in anymore. So, while I still farm those farms, post those auctions, use those profs, etc., I am winding down as the expansion does, with an eye toward a more streamlined experience in WoD.
Originally, I had intended to write this post in point-by-point sections, but with the nature of alts and how I play/use them, everything is connected. So, one section it is.
. . .
Like many players who have several alts and most/all professions, I use my professions to support both my raiding toon(s) and each other. Miners provide ore for Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting. Skinners provide leather for Leatherworkers. Herbalism provides herbs for Alchemy and Inscription. Tailors, um, tail stuff, or something. And all of those profs benefit each of my toons, directly or indirectly. Additionally, they support my gold-making activities. And while I am no AH expert, and do not use addons for that activity, I've done well for myself casually auctioning my wares.
In fact, I've done so well this xpac that I could probably not sell anything on the Auction House for the entirety of WoD, spend gold like I usually do (which includes paying for all of my own repairs, by the way), and still have more than I need left.
In the absence of an active interest in the gold-making meta-game, there are diminishing returns the longer someone like me continues to fight the AH fight. Unlike some of my peers, I don't do much wholesale raw material buying, flipping, min-maxing my profit margins, and so on. I've done a little bit of that in isolated circumstances, but for the most part I've sold what I had/farmed/made, and left it at that. Going further – toward anything remotely approaching the gold cap – just doesn't interest me much. So with a tidy savings in the bank, I think it could be time for a rest.
With that in mind, I'm planning to chop the number of professions that I max out in WoD to less than half. I currently have 15 primary profs maxed over eight toons, so I'm thinking six-to-eight total would be good…
Before I go further, I'll also say that that number will correspond approximately with the number of toons that I take to 100, or even into Draenor. Of my current seven 90s and one 85, only three or four of them will likely be heading to 100. Certain profs will hit the chopping block as a result of this.
My 85 druid scribe is the first to come to mind. I've never really enjoyed Inscription, other than the concept itself and the convenience of making my own glyphs. I don't really need a second druid any more, since I made her for the express purpose of leveling as a healer back in the day, and now that I heal on Ana, the other druid has no purpose other than those conveniences and the fact that she has a guild bank. I haven't decided if I will delete her – for now, she stays, but that could change on a whim. But I'm done putting any effort into Inscription – that much is certain.
Anyway, one of the themes of the next expansion for me will be, as I wrote in my notes for this post, "Less alts. Period." I should have written "Less alts at max level with maxed profs. Period." but… I knew what I meant when I wrote it. When something is as much of a time/energy drain as alts have been this xpac, you don't forget.
Aside from Inscription, I don't necessarily dislike the other professions, since I finally got an Engineer (DK) to max-level. That was a rough one to level, but now that it's up there, I don't hate it. But it won't be a priority in WoD, in part because my DK will itself probably not be a priority.
. . .
My priorities, in fact, will look something like this:
Mushan – hunter, main raider; LW/BS.
Anacrusa – druid (healer), potential raider; LW/SK.
Droignon – warrior (tank), potential raider; BS/MI.
Those toons will be my three level 100 toons in all likelihood. And, because I probably won't be able to resist, I'll probably level my mage (TA/JC) at some point, because I like playing him. But he's not a priority. His profs will also not be a priority.
Additional profs that have potential to be leveled at some point include Enchanting (2nd hunter), Alchemy (paladin), and Engineering (DK). However, unless I decide to level the DK instead of the warrior for tanking purposes, all three of those toons will be sitting in SW collecting dust for the foreseeable future, and their professions will be leveled incidentally (particularly Enchanting, because of, you know, Disenchanting…) if at all.
So, with those things in mind, if I level the three main toons, I'll have five different professions maxed. Six if I'm able to level Enchanting while my worgen hunter sits on his butt in a tavern. Eight if I level the mage's professions. Eight is enough… right? Right?
. . .
It's my hope that by not letting gold/prof concerns drive my playing activities, I will cut down on wasted time and enjoy a higher percentage of my playing time. I pretty much hate playing the paladin, the 2nd hunter will be unnecessary, and the DK will be dormant until some unknown point until I get very bored. Cutting out a lot of that "toon-bloat" should make me something more of a lean, mean playing machine, or something.
And anything I need that I can't make myself or have made by a friend, I'll buy. I sold all that stuff for a reason. This will be the time to use the proceeds.
. . .
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments are welcome!
Leveling the new-xpac playing field via self-nerfPosted: December 4, 2013 Filed under: Gear, Leveling, Transmogrification | Tags: hunter, leveling, questing, transmogrification, Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft 7 Comments
Late last month, I mentioned a plan to abandon my recent "habit" of reaching the level cap with all deliberate speed at the beginning of an expansion, when Warlords of Draenor arrives. Since then, I've been putting more thought into this idea.
In previous expansions, the "race to max-level" generally involved playing through a zone until I reached the next level and could go on to the next zone, skipping the rest of the content until a later date. Higher-level zones equal more experience, after all. My first toon through the leveling gauntlet has historically been geared to the teeth (to whatever extent that toon had raided in the previous expansion), blew through the opening levels, and powered through the final zones in order to get started on daily quests and heroic dungeons. Later on, in moments of down time, those other zones were finished in order to complete achievements or get started on reputation grinds.
Having done just that in Mists of Pandaria, I found myself with plenty to do, but no reason to have done it so quickly. It took my guild more than a month after I reached 90 to start raiding, and that left me with LFR, dailies, the legendary quest grind, and so on. I spent way too much time being antsy to raid, frustrated with guild-mates and fretting over our inability to get ten people together in what I considered to be a reasonable amount of time.
With what has happened over the past year-plus, my perspective on the experience has changed. While I'm looking forward to WoD, I'm not going to hold my breath that people will come together quickly at level 100 – nor will I race to be first to that point myself.
. . .
With that changed perspective, I find myself looking forward to jumping into WoD with more of an interest in the story taking place on the ground. I used to be guildmates with a couple who level together at the beginning of each xpac, completing each zone as they go. While that approach didn't resonate with me at the time – not because I didn't understand the attraction of leveling that way, but because it seemed like a less efficient way to gear for raiding* – I find myself looking back with envy and regret that I didn't approach things that way at the beginning of Mists. So this time I'll probably go about it that way.
*And there's my old tunnel vision, coming back to repeatedly bite me in the ass…
The old way: geared to the teeth, overpower early content, build to better gear, power through the end zones. Gear up. Raid.
The new (for me) way: Play the story. Enjoy the journey, because once it's over, it's over for that toon – and that first toon gets to see it when it's brand new. Take your time, read the quests, relax and have fun. Worry about raiding when you get to that point, and not before.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
. . .
But what about the gear?
As it stands, if I never raided SoO again, my ilvl going into The Squish would be 563**, including the Legendary cloak, great weapon (not the Garrosh heirloom – more on that later – but still very good), CD-reducing trinket, and so on. Even if I hit the ground walking, so to speak, I'm still going to be able to handle enemy mobs with little thought in such gear. This, of course, contributes to blowing through quests, which contributes to faster leveling and forgetting why I'm there.
**Note: 563 is a full 100 ilvls above launch-period heroic dungeon gear. Holy crap! And I have… let's see… exactly zero heroic SoO pieces to my name. The gap is massive.
But what if I didn't have that gear, to start with?
I'm actually considering downgrading my gear for Warlords of Draenor, in order to somewhat level the playing field between Mushan and Mushan's enemies (which will presumably be numerous…).
At first, I thought about replacing it with gear one can purchase from the likes of Trader Zambeezi, but that gear is ilvl 372, which is essentially level 85 gear, so that's out of the picture. I don't really feel like hitting level-91 mobs with level 85 gear – this route I'm considering isn't intended to be a semi-Ironman, extreme soloing adventure. So then I thought, what if I spend the next few months farming heroic dungeon gear? If I could put a full set of that gold-ish looking stuff together (and transmog the crap out of it, of course, because, seriously… that gear does not look becoming on a night elf), it would make WoD a real adventure at the beginning, methinks. And I already have Tempestuous Longbow in the bank, so worrying about a weapon would be a non-issue.
Then again, despite my earlier professions of love for the dungeons we can choose to run nowadays, I am getting pretty sick of them, in all honesty. I'm not sure I could stomach farming them for some hare-brained scheme now that the flow of new gear has stopped and I haven't needed Valor Points in a while.
My other thought was something a little more interesting and easy: a full set of gear from the Timeless Isle. I made a set for transmog purposes a while ago (although I don't think I can wear it in all seriousness… I was just checking it out at the time), and of those pieces there are two that have two whole secondary stats per item. However, I have a bunch of unmade pieces sitting on an alt, and I figure that since I'll probably farm Ordon b-holes at some point until I get to Exalted with Shaohao on Mushan, I'm likely to get more.
Once 6.0 drops pre-xpac, with The Squish and stat/gear/enchant/gem changes in effect, I can make all the pieces until I get serviceable ones ("or die tryin'"). I can combine 496 Discipline of Xuen with my Darkmoon Trinket – 484 Relic of Xuen*** – to fill the trinket slots with all kinds of Xuen… and I can use my 491 Sha-touched weapon. I have an absolutely sick number of Timeless cloak tokens, and a few rings, so I think I can make do with this kind of strategy. I just don't know if it's enough… ah, who am I kidding? All things being relative, this set would be way weaker than what I'm wearing now, but would still be "last-xpac-current" enough that I would feel competent.
***Due to bag space concerns, I've deleted so much gear this xpac… it's kind of sad. But I did keep the Relic. For some reason, I have a hard time deleting Darkmoon trinkets. I didn't delete Greatness for a long time, and kept Hurricane until sometime after I was deeply involved in the Pandaria campaign.
This is, of course, assuming that The Squish won't diminish the relative power gap between SoO gear and Timeless gear. I'm assuming that it won't.
. . .
You may ask, And what about that heirloom bow?
In all honesty, at this point, if I never get the bow, I don't think I'll care. In addition to the fact that I feel less and less inclined to care much about killing Garrosh, the heirloom bow would work against what I'm thinking of doing anyway.
OK, how about the Legendary cloak?
This is where I pause…
…because one of the things that interests me is how far I'll go into the mid-90s or later before my first and only legendary becomes irrelevant. I've never, ever had one before. So I'm torn. I may just keep the cloak equipped, for fun and for pride. Removing all set bonuses/CD-reduction gear and the rest of the current raid gear will be a massive self-nerf as it is, and would likely put me exactly where I want to be, which is not overpowered vs. the first couple levels of mobs on Draenor.
. . .
As shown in the screenshot at the top, I'm also looking at going in with a nostalgic look via transmog. I've spent so much time leveling alts through places like Nagrand that I thought it might be fun to wear this simple Tallhide Mail set for that throwback feeling. I wore the Gryphon Mail set for most of MoP, although for the past several weeks I've been rocking a T7 Cryptstalker set, which reflects my (recent) darker mood regarding the game while also looking like I mean business.
A small part of me thinks that going into Draenor wearing something that looks badass would be more appropriate in the larger scheme, given that we're chasing after a warmonger who doesn't know when to quit. However, on a personal level, I'm intentionally entering WoD not as an end-game raider, but as (possibly) a Timeless Isle-equipped adventurer who will get caught up in events that, as usual, I wasn't (supposed to be) expecting. Thus, a simple transmog like this – tied to so many memories of picking up Tallhide BoEs in Nagrand – lends somewhat to the immersion level, given what I'm going for.
. . .
So, what do you think? Full Timeless? Heroic dungeon gear? Is there a better idea that would make what I'm aiming for more interesting?
Or do you think the whole notion is preposterous and stupid? I think it could be fun and challenging, but maybe you think I'm off my rocker.
One thing that I'm well aware of is that, like previous expansions, it's likely that I'll replace this gear as I go through the campaign in WoD. That's ok. Like I said, I don't necessarily want to make this into an Ironman thing, where I'm fighting a constant uphill battle while being massively undergeared. I'm just looking for a different experience, and upgrading from, say, a Timeless-dominated set with quest greens and dungeon blues from Draenor will be a more natural extension of that, as opposed to wearing all of my current gear until 94 or so (and wondering if I'll ever really be challenged).
Anyway, let me know what you think!
. . .
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc.
New hunters: where to go for help/advice/infoPosted: October 15, 2013 Filed under: Gear, Leveling, Lore, Professions, Raiding & Dungeons | Tags: achievements, blog, crafting, dailies, dungeons, fishing, gear, hunter, leveling, lore, Mists of Pandaria, podcasts, professions, PvP, questing, raiding, reputation, Warcraft, World of Warcraft 3 Comments
On Monday, I got my first ever hit via Reddit.
Wait… what?
That's what I said to myself when I saw that. As far as I know, I have never been linked on Reddit before. Since I was curious, I followed the link back, and it was to a thread by someone who is new to the game and chose to roll a hunter.
The link to Mushan, Etc. was put there by my friend Cheap Boss Attack, who referred to my blog as "a nice hunter blog." To which I say, thanks! and /salute! @ Cheap Boss Attack. :)
But at the same time, I was troubled, for two reasons…
1) While this may be a decent blog – and perhaps even fun to read from time to time – I don't know that I have much specifically helpful hunter content to offer a new hunter here; and
2) There is no longer quite as long of a list of places to send a new player/hunter for advice.
Nonetheless, in case other brand new players come to my blog looking for guides or whatever, there are a few places that I can, in turn, recommend.
Resources for new hunters/players (Not a complete list by any stretch!)
Scattered Shots – the hunter class column at WoW Insider
WoW Insider is a wonderful site. It's extremely active, with many new posts a day concerning most aspects of the game. There are weekly class columns for most of the classes, including hunters. WoW Insider is also a great source for up-to-date news, lore, commentary on the design of the game, daily Breakfast Topics to promote reader discussion, raiding and PvP columns, a weekly podcast, and much more. It's a site with something (or many things!) for virtually everyone, and has a very large base of active commenters. Additionally, there is information in the form of new-player "getting started" guides there for new players (of any stripe), which can be very helpful for someone just beginning to explore this huge game.
Scattered Shots – specifically – is the hunter class column. It has been written by different people over the years, and went through a long hiatus during the spring and summer between columnists. However, it is currently active and is being written by Adam Koebel, who seems to be doing a great job. The previous columnist, Brian Wood, wrote Scattered Shots for several years until this spring, and although the game tends to change from patch to patch and expansion to expansion, the pre-Adam posts are definitely worth the read if you're looking to get a feel for the history and culture of the class and the hunter community.
If you're looking for a site that is chock full of information on gear/items, quests, NPCs, professions, loot tables, and more information than I am willing to categorize in this post, WoWhead is your place. It's a massive database/news site/blog that has a just a ton of info on just about anything you could need to find. Definitely a place to bookmark and visit often.
For good basic guides on how to raid with your class once you hit the max level – as well as dungeon/raid boss guides, news, forums, reputation guides, lengthy quest lines, etc., Icy-Veins is a great resource for any class.
Darkbrew (The Brew Hall) not only blogs about hunters, but he's a co-founder of the Hunting Party Podcast, which is the podcast for World of Warcraft Hunters. He posts each episode on his site, and you can also find podcast information at OutDPS!, which Darkbrew recently took over when the podcast's co-founder, Euripides (founder of OutDPS!), retired. The Hunting Party Podcast is both entertaining and informative, and listening to back episodes can provide a further look into the history of the hunter community, and of the game itself.
For all the latest news, datamining, first looks at new gear/quests/mounts and pets/blue posts and changes, etc, MMO-Champion is a great site. Not only do they have frequent posts (and updates to those posts) with info on the game as it changes, but there are also forums with helpful guides to many aspects of the game. Additionally, in the past couple of years they've put together a great site in WoWdb, which is, among other things, a comprehensive item database with some excellent search-filtering features. Another great resource.
Have a question about hunter pets? Wondering what special abilities certain pets have, which pets are best in certain situations, or which pets bring which buffs to your group? Want to know which food you can give your pet without him spitting it back at you? Petopia is your one-stop shop for pet info!
El's Extreme Anglin' – World of Warcraft FIshing Guide
Fishing can be both an enjoyable and profitable activity. If it interests you, or if you need to find certain fish, or have any other questions about anything fishing-related in WoW, El's Anglin' is the top resource. He cover's fishing, cooking, achievements, and related topics on his site.
WoWpedia is the wiki source I use whenever there's something I want to know about the game that I feel they might cover better than most. There's information on almost everything – I tend to use it most for lore and history, but over the years I've gone there for information on just about anything you can think of.
Looking to optimize your gear and character for end-game raiding, dungeons, or PvP? Mr. Robot can help you gem, enchant, and reforge your gear, as well as find upgrades, and also has an in-game addon for all of that. There's a lot to explore on Ask Mr. Robot – I use it all the time. Check it out!
As I noted above, this is nowhere near a comprehensive list of resources. There are also some important links to resources that I didn't include on this list at the right side of my blog, so feel free to check them out. Additionally, check out resources you can find on other peoples' blogrolls, and links to great sources of info in articles on the sites I mentioned. There's a lot of info – and fun stuff to read – out there, and I don't even know about all of it!
World of Warcraft is a big game – and by that, I'm not referring to how many copies it sells or subscribers it has. What I do mean is this: we're four full expansions past the game's release, and looking at possibly a fifth during the next year, which is also the 10th anniversary of the game's release. That's a lot of lore and history and community and commentary to discover: you could theoretically lose yourself for hours on some of the sites I mentioned above, and for days on others!
I hope that someone finds this post helpful. I'm not a guide-writer or a theory-crafter, and I'm not even a nine-year "been here since WoW-beta" veteran. But I've been around a while, and have found all of these tools useful. Hopefully, sharing them with you can open your eyes to new things as well.
Thanks for reading this post by Mushan at Mushan, Etc. Comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!


text:
I am looking for a SubSee +5 dioptre in good condition.
If you have one please contact me by PM with your price and cost to ship it to me in Scotland if possible.
WTB SubSee +5 magnifier
Started by jander4454, Dec 09 2011 09:58 AM
No replies to this topic

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The State Fair's road from riches to ruins was not long.
It began with a big idea, move the State Fair from the Richmond International Raceway, 20 miles up 95 to the Meadow Event Park in Doswell. The thought was simple, there'd be more room to grow on this 331-acre site. It's a true place to call home that's designed for agricultural needs. This was the birthplace of Secretariat.
In 2007, the fair ponied up $45 million in an investment account to help repay future debt. It took on more than $75 million in bonds to pay for construction at Meadow Event Park. But that big idea collided with bad timing. The economy tanked. The stock market plummeted and that $45 million investment account took a huge hit.
The fair opened in Doswell in 2009 to a record crowd. 250,000 people visited, but the group was unable to make money. That year losses were tallied at $1.8 million.
Even as the economy worsened the fair failed to curb spending, taking out direct loans and lines of credit in 2008 and 2009. And according to the State Fair's own IRS tax records, people were still making huge salaries. The State Fair's president Curry A. Roberts compensation package was estimated at $278,000 in 2008. It was around $242,000 in 2009 and $234,000 in 2010.
Three other top executives also drew outsized salaries totaling more than $1.1 million between 2008 and 2010. By the time bankruptcy was filed late last year the fair was T80 million in debt.
"A lot of people fell on hard times during this recession. Certainly not isolated to individuals that maybe lost their house or even their business. I can even affect the state fair," said Mark Motley, the President of Motley's Auction and Realty Group, who is handling the auction.
Not only are the land, the buildings and ticket booths up for grabs, but even the State Fair brand and web site. A separate online auction will take care of the tractors, trucks, cars- any and all of the State Fair's personal property.
Motley believes the fair is not dead, this is its second coming. "I think the state fair is positioned in a perfect way for somebody to come in and reopen this and really to revitalize this entire property, said Motley.
We could will find out on Tuesday who will be the new owner and possibly if they plan to continue the tradition.
Copyright 2012 WWBT NBC12. All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 12
On Your Side
Video and Pics
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2014 Worldnow and WWBT. All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.


text:
Fantastic solo, alright song.
He's got to be my favorite death metal vocalist so I'm very glad to see him capable of growling again.Digging: CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe
Digging: CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe
not bad!
Eh, not too into it - it's a really mediocre song coming from Swanö. It's got some pretty weird/forced combinations of styles and the transitions are awkward. Not too mention the lyrics are pretty bad/cheesy.
I like it! It's pretty fat
Super poppy. Pretty meh.
Favourite artist, but this song is nowhere near the quality of, say, any song found on Moontower. Basically everything that JasonCarne said applies to this song. I'm Hoping that this is the worst song on the albun, otherwise I can't see it being higher than a 2.5/3.
Ending choruses are awful. Cleans sound like a billy goat. Growls are still awesome. Lyrics blow.
Music is not proggy, sound super radio-friendly. Got a feeling this is the "sell out" radio song to
get on the charts. We know Swano is capable of much, much more so hopefully this one is an isolated
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


text:
I saw a story on an Internet news page about a scientist who invented a product that makes baits light up so that fish home right in on them. It's a titanium dioxide spray that produces a color within the ultraviolet range, which is invisible to humans but supposedly drives fish crazy. Would this really work? The manufacturer also claims that it allows fish to see baits and lures up to a half-mile away. Is that possible?
Virgil Merryhopper
Charleston, South Carolina
A: The jury is still out on whether most fishes can detect UV light. There is evidence that UV rays stimulate light-sensitive cells in some fishes' eyes. However, most species have not been tested for this, and some, including billfishes, have lenses that actually block UV light. Interestingly, most species of billfish "light up" when they're excited, and much of the light they radiate is in the UV portion of the spectrum.
As for fishes being able to see objects a half-mile away, it just isn't so. Most
fishes' eyes don't have as much resolving power as human eyes, which means a
person's ability to see underwater with a mask may be better than a fish's. And how far can you see underwater, even in
ideal conditions? Water absorbs light quickly and differentially, so light reflected from or emitted by a submerged object can't travel a half-mile to begin with.
- Ray Waldner


text:
Marina del Rey Beach House in Marina Del Rey
- bedrooms 3
- baths 2½
- sleeps 7
- pool no
- hot tub no
- pets allowed no
- type House
- community
rates (USD)
/ week
$ 5,300 - $ 11,000 / month
vacation rental description
Spacious 3 Bedroom 2 1/2 bath condominium only 1 block from the
Beach that occupies the entire second floor of the building. A
total of 1650 square feet. It is located on the Marina del Rey
Peninsula, one of the nicest residential areas in Los Angeles.
vacation rental location
property availability
- dates with deals
- unavailable dates
Last modified on 08-6-2014 at 12:29 PM.
email owner view full calendar
Steven Jirucha 310-614-8240
house rental amenities
The unit includes a 2 car garage, fireplace, 2 decks, front yard w
BBQ, fully equipped kitchen, laundry room, and satellite tv w VCR & DVD.
The master bedroom has a Cal King bed, the second bedroom has a queen bed
and a twin bed, and the third bedroom also has a queen bed. All linens and towels
are included and the beds even have down pillows. The unit is very attractively
decorated and we keep it very clean!
activities and attractions in Marina Del Rey Los Angeles Area
The Marina is close by. It is one of the largest small craft
harbors in the world. Sunset cruises, fine dining, and boat rentals
are available. The Marina del Rey beach is only one block away.
Its a quiet beach as there is no public parking near by. The Venice
Grand canal is only 1/2 block away where you can feed the ducks.
Walk about 16 blocks north and you are in Venice Beach at the world
famous Venice Boardwalk. You can find chain saw jugglers, snake
charmers, and fire eaters there on a regular basis. Santa Monica 3d
Street Prominade is one of the most famous shopping destinations in
the World. Its only a 15 minute drive away. This unit is a great
central location for general sight seeing in Los Angeles as it is
only 15 minutes from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and is
close to the intersection of the 405 and 10 freeways, the starting
point for most day trips such as Disneyland, the Studios, Hollywood,
vacation rental rates
Summer, Holidays $2600/week
Off Season $1950+/week
Monthly (off season only) $5300/mo
Termination Clean-out $175
Room Tax 14%
Steven Jirucha 310-614-8240
accepted payment methods
Prior to paying a reservation deposit, always verify payment instructions by calling the phone number displayed on this listing page. By contacting the owner directly and paying by an approved method - credit card, paypal, check or bank transfer - your reservation payment will be protected up to $1,000.Learn more in our Security Center


text:
More From Texoma Spiral Bullet Tooth Auger
Terex introduces Texoma Spiral Bullet Tooth Auger
Posted by Amanda Bayhi on Jan 03, 2013
Terex has introduced its Texoma Spiral Bullet Tooth Auger for digger derricks; this auger is designed to be used in ...
Do you want some tips to stay safe on the job site?
Equipment World has created an entire section devoted to safety.
Here are the most recent tips we've posted:
Hauling headaches: Know your load limits when trailering equipment
One-man machines: The operator should be the only person on a wheel loader


text:
Two killed in wrong-way crash in south San Antonio
San Antonio Police: Wrong-way driver crashed into minivan on I-35 South
SAN ANTONIO - Two people were killed after a violent wrong-way collision on the South Side late Tuesday night.
San Antonio police identified the victims Wednesday morning as Timothy Ray Furr, 53, and Melodie Ann Trevino, 48.
Police said they received several calls about a red Dodge Ram pickup truck traveling north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 35 South near SW Military Drive around 11 p.m.
A short time later, the driver of the truck identified as Furr slammed into a minivan driven by Trevino.
The minivan spun out of control and was T-boned by a big rig, police said.
Trevino was pronounced dead at the scene. San Antonio fire crews had to cut her passenger out of the minivan.
He was identified as 23-year-old Rafael Trevino and was listed in critical condition at San Antonio Military Medical Center.
The wrong-way driver, Furr, was also taken to SAMMC but died a short time later, police said.
The crash tied up Tuesday night traffic for a few hours and first responders had some initial trouble getting to the wreck due to recent rain.
San Antonio police have not said why Furr was driving the wrong-way.
|wrong way double fatal 2.jpg
|wrong way double fatal map.jpg
For a list of recent stories Jenna Hiller has done, click here.
Copyright 2013 by KSAT.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Reducing food waste at the University of Nebraska at Kearney is the main goal of Project Clean Plate, which will take place Tuesday- Friday, Jan. 22-25, at the Market @ 27th.
"Project Clean Plate is a sustainability program to try to reduce waste within the Market @ 27th," said Jen Kacere, RHA adviser. "Earlier this week, we tracked the amount of food and liquid waste at lunch and dinner." The project is spearheaded by the Residence Hall Association and UNK Dining Services.
There will be several programs throughout the week to encourage and teach students effective ways to reduce waste. The programs will begin with a "Sampling Day" on Tuesday, Jan. 22.
"Students will be able to sample the food before they take it to reduce the amount of food we waste," Kacere said.
The next event will be "Portion Day" on Wednesday, Jan. 23. On this day, pre-portioned food will be available for students to give a visual of what appropriate portion sizes look like.
"Thursday, Jan. 24, is 'Sustainable Food Day,'" Kacere said. "UNK Dining will be educating students on what sustainable menus are and how to use them on a daily basis."
"Finally, to further encourage students to reduce waste, we are taking it to the extreme by providing the last program, 'One Plate, One Bowl and One Cup,' which will occur on Friday, Jan. 25, during lunch," Kacere said. Students will also have the opportunity to sign a "Plate Up Pledge" during the week.
The goal of the project is for students to become more conscious of the food they take, compared with what they consume.
"We want to reduce what we throw away on a daily basis," she said. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 29 and 30, after the week of programs, RHA and UNK Dining services will measure the amount of waste accumulated in the cafeteria to learn if their efforts were successful.
General and news information or questions:
Across the Midlands Information:
Comments: email@example.com
Phone: 308-743-2494
News Fax: 308-743-2660
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2014 WorldNow and NTV. All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.


text:
No Memory Card? No thanks!
If you take memory cards out of your camera and use a card reader to transfer images to your computer, have you ever forgotten to put the card back in the camera? Something interesting happens, you pick up the camera and start firing away, only to realize sometime later that there was no memory card […]


text:
291 West Sunrise Highway
Freeport, NY 11520
100 Cleveland Ave
Freeport, NY 11520
Looking for a New or Used BMW in Freeport? You've come to the right dealership! At Hassel BMW we provide everything automotive, with great prices and customer service. With a new or used BMW from Freeport's Hassel BMW you'll get a reliable and stylish new car at a price you can afford. Call us or make the drive from Queens, Oceanside, Hempstead, or Long Beach and see us in person.
Hassel BMW's used vehicles are carefully inspected by our technicians to guarantee quality for our Freeport customers. We are continually receiving vehicles for our used car inventory, so check back often. Visit our inventory page to browse through the Freeport used cars we currently have in stock. If you see something you like, give us a call or stop in and see us at 291 West Sunrise Highway.If you're looking for a vehicle to drive on the streets of Freeport in style, check out our large inventory of new BMW vehicles featuring the 1Series, 3 Series, 5 Series, 7 Series, 6 Series and X5 and BMW diesel and hybrid cars - and BMW X1, X3 and X6 have arrived.. You'll find that we have a vehicle for every need, from getting around town without having to fill the gas tank, to hauling equipment or kids! We even have the new BMW hybrid cars. The service you'll get at Freeport's Hassel BMW will be 2nd to none! Call to speak to a friendly salesperson, or stop in and see us at 291 West Sunrise Highway.Be sure to check out our remaining 2013 BMW inventory, We serve the Oceanside, Hempstead and Long Beach area with luxury, sports, & exotic cars & convertibles. Be sure to check out the BMW i3, perfect for city driving.
Need a car loan? No problem! Hassel BMW has a great finance team that will help you get a BMW car loan or lease in Freeport to put you in the new BMW or used car you want. We make the buying process easy by providing the lowest possible rate, so there will be no need to go from bank to bank. If you need BMW Finance in Freeport check out our Finance Department to see all of our financing options.
Get the repair and parts your BMW needs from the industry experts at Hassel BMW. Our mechanics will make sure your car is fixed right the first time, and our professional parts department has a large inventory of auto parts to fill orders quickly. For BMW car repairs in Freeport and original BMW car parts, visit Hassel BMW located at 291 West Sunrise Highway.
Feel free to contact Hassel
BMW today if you have any questions or if you'd like to
schedule a service appointment now. We look forward to meeting you soon
and serving you for many more years to come. If you need directions to
our BMW
dealership from Queens, Oceanside, Hempstead and Long
Beach, visit our Directions Page.


text:
Designs by:Maggie Weldon, Donna Harelick, Marie Murray, and Rosemarie Fagan
Skill Level: Easy
Bunny Cape, Romper & Booties: To fit 6-12 months (use smaller hook), To fit 12-18 months (use larger hook)
Esther & Ernie Bunnies - About 22" tall (incl. ears)
Baby Chick Purse - About 8½" wide by 8½" long
Egg Purse - About 6½" wide by 7½" long
Bunny Purse - About 8" wide by 8" long
Easter Baskets - Base about 6" round
Easter Bunny Bib - About 8" wide by 10" long
Materials: Worsted Weight Yarn:
Yarn needle;
Bunny Cape
For Smaller Size: White (W) - 10 oz (550 yd/503 m); Pink (P) - 2 oz (110 yd/101 m);
For Larger Size: White (W) - 14 oz (770 yd/704 m); Pink (P) - 3 oz (165 yd/151 m);
For Both Sizes: Small amounts Black (B), Orange (O) and Green (G); 1" Button; Small amount of Fiberfill.
Bunny Romper
For Smaller Size: White (W) - 6 oz (330 yd/302 m);
For Larger Size: White (W) - 9 oz (495 yd/453 m);
For Both Sizes: Pink (P) – 2 oz (110 yd/101 m); ¾" buttons - 2.
Bunny Booties
For Smaller Size: White (W) - 2 oz (110 yd/101 m) Pink (P) - 1 oz (55 yd/51 m)
For Larger Size: White (W) - 3 oz (165 yd/151 m) Pink (P) -2 oz (110 yd/101 m)
For Both Sizes: Small amount Black (B); ¼" White pompoms - 4; ½" White pompoms - 2.
Esther & Ernie Bunnies
Soft White (W) - 7 oz, 462 yds; Pale Yellow (Y) - 3 oz, 198 yds; Linen (L) - 1 oz, 66 yds; Frosty Green (G) - 4 oz, 264 yds; Brown (B) - 1 oz, 66 yds; Small amounts of Black (BL), Orange (O), Dark Green (DG) & Soft Rose (R). Blush; Fiberfill Stuffing.
Baby Chick Purse
Yellow (Y) - 3 oz; Soft White (SW) - 3 oz; Small amounts of Orange (O) and Blue (B);
Egg Purse
Purple (Pp) - 2 oz; Pink (P) - 1 oz; Small amount of Yellow (Y).
Bunny Purse
White (W) - 3 oz; Pink (P) - 1 oz; Small amounts of Orange (O) and Green (G), Pink Felt; 20 mm Glue-On Oval Eyes - 2.
Goose Basket
White (MC) - 4 oz, 264 yds; Small amounts Rose (CC), Light Orange (O) & Black (BL).
Duck Basket
Yellow (MC) - 4 oz, 264 yds; Small amounts Blue (CC), Orange (O) & Black (BL).
Bunny Basket
White (MC) - 4 oz, 264 yds; Small amounts Pink (P), Purple (CC) & Black (BL).
Goose Toy
White (MC) - 2 oz, 132 yds; Small amounts Pink (CC), Light Orange (O) & Black (BL).
Duck Toy
Yellow (MC) - 2 oz, 132 yds; Small amounts Blue (CC), Orange (O) & Black (BL).
Bunny Toy
White (MC) - 2 oz, 132 yds; Small amounts Pink (P), Green (G) & Black (BL).
All Toys
Small amount Fiberfill.
Easter Bunny Bib
Blue (B) - 2 oz, 132 yds; White (W) - 1 oz, 66 yds;
Crochet Hooks:
Bunny Cape, Romper & Booties
For 6-12 months: Size G-6 (4.00 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge. For 12-18 months: Size I-9 (5.50 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge.
Esther & Ernie Bunnies
Size G-6 (4.00 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge.
Easter Purses
Size G-6 (4.00 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge.
Easter Baskets
Size K-10½ (6.50 mm) and size G-6 (4.00 mm) or sizes needed to obtain gauge.
Easter Bunny Bib
Size G-6 (4.00 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge.
Bunny Cape, Romper & Booties
With smaller hook: 7 hdc and 6 rows = 2"; 7 dc and 4 rows = 2"; 7 sc and 8 rows = 2".
With larger hook: 6 hdc and 4 rows = 2"; 6 dc and 3 rows = 2"; 6 sc and 6 rows = 2".
Esther & Ernie Bunnies
7 sc = 2"; 7 Rows sc = 2"
Easter Purses
3 sc = 1"; 4 Rows sc = 1"
Easter Baskets
Rnds 1-2 of Basket = 1¾"
Easter Bunny Bib
6 sc = 2"; 7 Rows = 2"
Crochet Pattern for Cute and cuddly Easter Collection
Children love Easter! There's nothing better than waking up Easter morning to discover a colorful basket full of goodies. For the very first time we've pulled together the best of Maggie's Easter crochet patterns for babies and children and put them all together in a wonderful holiday package. The Maggie's Crochet "Cute & Cuddly Easter Collection" is the perfect way to crochet a little joy for kiddies of all ages this season. The adorable crochet pattern collection includes:
Bunny Cape, Romper & Booties
Esther & Ernie Bunnies
Baby Chick Purse
Egg Purse
Bunny Purse
Easter Baskets & Toys
Easter Bunny Bib
This wonderful collection, sold separately, would normally cost over $32. We are excited to offer the full collection at a special holiday price, a steal at less than half the price.
Shipping Policy
Orders are generally shipped within 1-2 business days of the order being submitted to us. We ship orders daily each week with the exception of Saturday, Sunday and any major US holidays. Our shipping and handling charges include the costs for Customer Service, processing and postage. Shipping and handling is non-refundable. We accept payment through PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover Card. Orders paid by PayPal eCheck will not be made available to download or ship until the payment has cleared. This can take 3-5 business days. We do not accept Cash; please do not send us cash!
Return Policy
Our policy lasts for 60 days. If 60 days have passed since your purchase was made, unfortunately we can not offer you a refund. To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging. To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase be sent with your return. Please do not send your purchase back to the product manufacturer. There are certain situations where only partial refunds are granted: Books with obvious signs of use Any item not in its original condition, is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to our error. There are certain situations where no refund will be granted: CD or DVD that has been opened Clearance/Bargain Items - Only regular priced items may be refunded, unfortunately Clearance/Bargain items cannot be refunded.
Download Policy
Maggie's Crochet Brand offers download versions of most of our products. Adobe Reader is required when opening the patterns. If you do not have Adobe Reader installed on your computer or device, you can download it for free at http://get.adobe.com/reader/. Please note: Using other programs such as Preview or PDF Complete will cause errors such as passwords not working, printing errors and more. Due to the nature of downloadable products, we cannot and will not refund the cost of the item. The order can be mailed to you if you are having trouble downloading. Shipping and handling charges will have to be charged using a credit card by phone. Please contact customer service if you need assistance.
Copyright Policy
Any person in violation of our copyright will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This site is owned and operated by Maggie Weldon Designs. All the content on this site, including but not limited to photographs, pattern designs, logos and text is owned by Maggie Weldon Designs. All materials contained on this site are protected by both United States and International copyright laws and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Maggie Weldon Designs. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. A copy of downloaded patterns may be printed by the purchaser, for personal use only and are not to be distributed. Items made from Maggie's Crochet patterns may be sold, however a notice must be attached to each item giving credit to both Maggie's Crochet and the pattern designer.


text:
Katsurahama Ryo Cape and Watatsumi sh...
Loading ...
Fotografia panorâmica por Thomas Humeau Criado em 11:25, 02/01/2011 - Views
Katsurahama Ryo Cape and Watatsumi shrine
Katsurahama beach with the Ryo Cape and Watatsumi shrine.
Katsurahama near Kochi city in Kochi prefecture on the Pacific coast of Japan on the Shikoku island.
For more info on Kochi:
Katsurahama beach with the Ryo Cape and Watatsumi shrine.Katsurahama near Kochi city in Kochi prefect...
Katsurahama beach with the Ryo Cape and Watatsumi shrine.Katsurahama near Kochi city in Kochi prefect...
View from the roof of the Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial museum.Sakamoto Ryōma (坂本 龍馬, January 3, 1836 – Dec...
Sakamoto Ryōma
Statue of Sakamoto Ryōma in Katsurahama, Kochi on the Shikoku Island in Japan.Sakamoto Ryōma (坂本 龍馬, ...
Katsurahama beach with the Ryo Cape and Watatsumi shrine.Katsurahama near Kochi city in Kochi prefect...
Kochi Castle
高知県南国市、国分寺近くにあるCafe + 雑貨 CottonTime ランチの様子はここが詳しい↓ ひでちゃんの食べ歩き【ランチ】CottonTime 肝心の人にピントが合ってないのはご愛嬌
The house where Yataro-IWASAKI was born, the founder of Mitsubishi-combaine. He was born in 1834 in t...
The eight islands of Japan sprang into existence through Divine Intervention.
The first two gods who came into existence were Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto, the Exalted Male and Exalted Female. It was their job to make the land for people to live on.
They went to the bridge between heaven and earth and, using a jewel-encrusted halberd, Izanagi and Izanami churned up the sea into a frothy foam. As salty drips of water fell from the tip of the halberd the first island was formed. Its name was Onogoro.
So far, so good. But when Izanagi and Izanami first met on their island, Izanami spoke to Isanagi without being spoken to first. Since she was the female, and this was improper, their first union created badly-formed offspring who were sent off into the sea in boats.
The next time they met, Izanagi was sure to speak first, ensuring the proper rules were followed, and this time they produced eight children, which became the islands of Japan.
I'm sure you did not fail to miss the significance of this myth for the establishment of Japanese formal society.
At present, Japan is the financial capital of Asia. It has the second largest economy in the world and the largest metropolitan area (Tokyo.)
Technically there are three thousand islands making up the Japanese archipelago. Izanagi and Izanami must have been busy little devils with their jewelled halberd...
Japan's culture is highly technical and organized. Everything sparkles and swooshes on silent, miniaturized mechanisms.
They're a world leader in robotics, and the Japanese have the longest life-expectancy on earth.
Text by Steve Smith.


text:
Net Chair
Furnish any room with extra seating while giving your home ultra modern flair with the Net Chair by Zuo Modern. Constructed entirely from solid steel, this contemporary side chair features a flared, wire frame that's both stylish and durable. Wide, sturdy steel legs ensures a reliable stance while a chrome finish adds radiance. Rubber feet are included to prevent the steel legs from scratching delicate floors. Striking a fine balance between minimalist design and everyday comfort, the Net Chair is enhanced with a plush, faux leather seat cushion to keep you comfortable and supported.
- Solid steel wire frame
- Leatherette cushion
- Available in your choice of color
Weight: 18 lbs
Height: 33"
Width: 32.5"
Depth: 26.5"
Seat Height: 17"
Seat Depth: 19"
- (1) Net Chair
Small Parcel / FedEx / UPS
- Some assembly required
One year manufacturer's warranty against defects
1-877-224-6663 or 973-276-0444
Copyright 2003-2013 by Evofurniture, LLC. All rights reserved.


text:
In retrospect, picking up Bryzgalov at the trade deadline, proved to be a pretty good move. Apparently, Bryz loved his time in Minnesota and wants to re-sign with the team. There's one major...
How the Anaheim Ducks' latest signing stacks up against some other recent Free Agent contracts.
Bob Murray states the Ducks "have younger players coming along who are pushing people out of jobs," announces three players who will not be returning as Ducks next season.
Local IHOPs celebrate
Heading into July 5 the Oilers have a glut of needs to address. While we all dream of the A-List names to fill these roles, its just not possible to outspend all the GMs in the league in this...
Who should Scott Howson be looking at? Hockey's Future posts their top 10 college free agents. The vast majority of the players on the list fit the Oilers' needs. Hopefully the Oilers flush House, Plante and Vandevelde and go hard after 2-3 of these guys. The top 10: Greg Carey, LW - Junior, St. Lawrence University Dan DeKeyser, D - Junior, Western Michigan University Eric Hartzell, G - Senior, Quinnipiac University Eriah Hayes, RW - Senior, Minnesota State University-Mankato Antoine Laganiere, RW - Senior, Yale University Drew LeBlanc, C - R-Senior, St. Cloud State University Rylan Schwartz, C - Senior, Colorado College Andrej Sustr, D - Junior, University of Nebraska-Omaha Shayne Taker, D - Junior, University of Notre Dame Ryan Walters, LW - Junior, University of Nebraska-Omaha Other notables: Mike Boivin, D – Senior, Colorado College; Austin Czarnik, F – Sophomore, Miami University; Kyle Flanagan, F – Senior, St. Lawrence University; Giancarlo Iuorio, F – Senior, Niagara University; Pat Mullane, F – Senior, Boston College; Nate Schmidt, D – Junior, University of Minnesota; Trevor van Riemsdyk, D – Sophomore, University of New Hampshire
A look at the Redskins unrestricted and restricted free agents entering the off-season as the Redskins are currently $4 million over the cap. Who will stay and who will go?
AIH had an exclusive opportunity to sneak a peek into the Winnipeg Jets' negotiations with Kyle Wellwood for his brand-spankin' new 1-year, $1.6m contract. A really great look into the inner...
The NHL's initial proposal seems ludicrous, but bear in mind that in negotiations, you are supposed to start out high with the idea that proposals will be negotiated toward a middle ground. NHL...
How long, how soon, and how much will the Habs sign P.K. Subban? That and other Sunday Brunch links
As part of the new SB Nation launch, prior users will need to choose a permanent username, along with a new password.
Your username will be used to login to SB Nation going forward.
Please login to your Vox Media account. This account will be linked to your previously existing Eater account.
As part of the new SB Nation launch, prior MT authors will need to choose a new username and password.
Your username will be used to login to SB Nation going forward.
We'll email you a reset link.
If you signed up using a 3rd party account like Facebook or Twitter, please login with it instead.
You must be a member of Eyes On The Prize to participate.
We have our own Community Guidelines at Eyes On The Prize. You should read them.
You must be a member of Eyes On The Prize to participate.
We have our own Community Guidelines at Eyes On The Prize. You should read them.
Choose an available username to complete sign up.
In order to provide our users with a better overall experience, we ask for more information from Facebook when using it to login so that we can learn more about our audience and provide you with the best possible experience. We do not store specific user data and the sharing of it is not required to login with Facebook.


text:
With the deepest natural harbor, ports in the South Hampton Roads region of Virginia have been a driving force in the regional economy for more than 400 years. The major industry of port and supply chain are deeply embedded in ODU, from the College of Business and Public Administration's Maritime Institute to the student chapter of the Propeller Club.
Travis Hansen, an MBA student at ODU, is general manager at Maersk Line Limited, one of the largest American shipping companies in the world. "I work in a business role professionally and operate at a GM level, but I need a foundation to stand on. ODU's MBA program helps me understand the financial decision-making I need," he says. He also appreciates how the ODU MBA program caters to working professionals like him. "Old Dominion's global focus, Maritime Institute, graduate student networking, hands-on learning activities, caring professors and supportive staff are also meaningful to me," he adds.
Matthew Cleary is another ODU MBA student who works at Maersk as a vessel manager. After earning his undergraduate degree, he spent 15 years working in ocean transportation before returning to college. "My fellow students are one of the best parts of my experience at ODU. ODU attracts top students from around the world. I've been able to share time inside and outside the classroom with students from China, Kenya, Iran, Columbia, Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Austria, to name a few. Plus, our faculty hail from many nations."