Kadi

This makes me cry bitter, bitter tears. Of course, I happen to be USING one of those that is on the 'nerf' list... *sigh*

This makes me cry bitter, bitter tears. Of course, I happen to be USING one of those that is on the 'nerf' list... *sigh*

To the casual observer strolling through the streets of Silvermoon City, nothing was amiss between the two blood elves sitting on the park bench, having a quiet conversation. The truth, however, is that something is wrong. Very wrong. Someone has come back from the dead. Hearing the news, coming from my twin sister, I was in shock. 'How could this be?' I asked myself, as I looked into Vara's eyes, which had more urgency in them than I've seen in a very long time. "Ana," she says to me, her blonde hair framing her thin face, the hem of her flowing dark warlock robes fluttering in the slight breeze, "I swear that's what the supplier said, and he has never lied to me before. He was in Undercity last week, and swears that the woman he saw had our sister's face, but she looked... different. He didn't tell me about it, though, until he saw her again as he was passing through Taren Mill. He's certain it's her." "Sumehra's dead, Vara." I tell her, though my hand starts to nervously comb through the ends of my long, dark hair, the plate armor I have become accustomed to wearing suddenly starting to feel very tight and constraining. "I saw her fall myself during the invasion of Silvermoon. He said she was wearing plate armor, and she's never worn plate a day in her life. She found it uncomfortable, and 'unpretty', and since she would never resort to violence anyway, at least not by her own hand, it seems very out of character for her. Even during the invasion, she refused to wear it, and that's partly what cost her her life. It can't be her. It doesn't make sense." I let out a long sigh, shaking her head at my twin, but non-identical sister, Kadivara. "I know that her body wasn't found, even if our parents' were, but I know what I saw, Vara. She's dead." "Maybe she's not anymore, Ana. You've seen the death knights that have suddenly started appearing in our cities, even Silvermoon. Even the orc Warchief has said that they are no longer scourge." The blonde elf snorts a little at that before she continues, "But would that make it possible that Sumehra is one of them now? It would explain the plate armor, and the change in her appearance. They say that the death knights are kinda like the Forsaken only more evil and with fewer rotting bits." "You mean undead." I state, then sigh again, letting the hand that was fussing with my hair fall to my lap. "I need to find this woman, Vara, and see if its her. Its too dangerous for you." "Ana, don't give me that." Kadivara says, rolling her eyes. "Just because I've decided to put my warlock training on hold to go to war with the alliance doesn't mean I'm incompetent. You're so puffed up now, miss 'I'm so powerful because I'm a blood knight'. You have gone soft, sister. You were always the nicest one in the family, but even you used to have a healthy streak of ruthlessness like the rest of us. Now, I can barely see it. You just throw your hands in the air and heal people now, and you do very little to help us fight the Alliance. Remember their betrayal, Sister? I do." "That's enough, Vara." I say in stern tones, though probably a bit more sternly than I should have. She does have a point in a way, even if she's twisting it like a knife in my back. "I will go speak to her, if I can find her. If it really IS her, why hasn't she come here looking for us? I think that's an important question, and if she really IS a death knight, even a 'weak' one, she could kill you with one blow, Sister. I don't trust them, and I don't want to lose you as well." Kadivara pouts a little, but doesn't argue any further. "Very well, Sister. Just don't let your ego get in the way." "I won't, Vara. And thank you for telling me. Right now, though, I need to go think about this. It's a lot to take in, and I want to do some planning." I stand up to leave, and my sister's eyes follow me as I do so. "Take care, Sister. And I'm glad to see that you're starting to get back into the family business, even if you are still softer than my feather pillow in dealing with buyers." The blonde elf says, wishing me what is, by her standards, a rather fond farewell. "We will speak soon, Vara." I say as I turn to leave. She does not reply as I start to walk away from the park bench and down the streets of the city that I still call home.

Says the person who wanted to raid last Friday! Happy Birthday!

Count me in as well! Hooray for gifts of scrunchies and bloodthistle!

Lately, I have found Dell's stuff to be overpriced for what they offer. Instead, I took a quick look at HP's website, and they have some pretty decent deals right now. I was able to customize an HP A660t to add up to $599 and that included 2.6ghz Core2 Duo processor, 3gb of memory (free upgrade), a 750 gb hard drive and an Nvidia Gforce 9300 video card. On-board sound these days is usually pretty good, but if you aren't satisified, then you should be able to use your current Creative Audigy 2 with that system. For $100 LESS, customize the A660Z the same way, but also upgrade the processor to an AMD Athlon 2.5ghz.

(Post deleted due to double posting. Somehow I hit 'enter' long before I intended to)

I actually heard about the most recent spate of them, and even though I try really hard to keep my main computer clean (by only doing casual browsing on my laptop and not my gaming machine, using Firefox and AdblockPlus, etc), I know it's never foolproof. I was getting some wierd messages on my firewall yesterday, and in addition to the usual cleaning/scanning/etc, I ordered a Blizzard Authenticator as well... before I even read this thread and I'm doubly glad for it now. It's seven bucks, and they even ship it to you for free. I hope they can get you fixed up, Spleen. Every case that I've heard of where it happened, Blizzard did take care of it, but unfortunately it usually takes time.

Happy Birthday, Chief! I baked you a lovely cake to help celebrate your special day! Enjoy!

Yes.

I can relate to how you feel. Before I was in CS, I was in a well-known guild that is a conglomeration of two types of players: raiders and friends/family. I used to raid with them before TBC came out, and at the time of the expansion, I rerolled and fell out of the 'raider' category. I had many friends there, and they are good people, so I stuck with them doing 5-mans and learning to play my class better until opportunity knocked. It did knock, and not from where I thought it would. I became involved with a Kara raid made mostly of CS members, and I loved the experience. Even when not in their guild, they made me feel like a welcome part of their little group. Over time, I felt more 'separated' from my old guild, and finally switched my tag. Though this guild, like any other, has its ups and downs, never once have I regretted my choice to come on over. I would go on, but I can already see Waldy and Kailand's eyes rolling. They think I talk too much or something. Welcome to the family. I hope you continue to enjoy your stay with us.

*walks up to Kadi with a very long sheet of poorly-scribbled paper* I has a Christmas list. It's kinda big. /puppyeyes Awww, the puppy eyes! Well, I can't open up shop until next week, but I'll give you your free complimentary scrunchie right now!

I'll be picking up the game at midnight, though I do plan to install and go to sleep afterwards. I took Thursday and Friday off work (I had pondered Monday as well since I won't be on WoW on Saturday, but I decided against it to prevent burnout issues). From there, it'll look something like this: Step 1: Play my PALADIN (hear that Baracko?) to 80 Step 1b: Try to level Blacksmithing as much as possible in the meantime. If you need something made, see me! The plate patterns for the 70 to 80 grind are really quite good. Step 2: Start doing some of the level 80ish things while I... Step 3: Level up my Shaman, but at a 'no real hurry' pace. I'll probably level up as Ret until about 76-78 or so, then switch over to Holy, which is my planned spec for the Xpac. After being able to play around with a bit, and with a few macros, it won't be quite so terrible (though I'll still QQ about not having real AoE healing).

Have heals, will travel. I heard this place used to be hugely paladin unfriendly. It'll be a good chance for me to give the class changes a nice shakedown run before the expac comes out.

The other part of the conversation, other than 5-mans, that I was having with Waldy was in relation to what I was doing at the time, which is trying to solo the Headless Horseman. He hits like a truck, and something like SEal of Blood would have put me further behind on having me try to keep myself healed up between consecrate ticks, and judgement/holy shock cooldowns. That attempt last night did renew my interest in playing Holy. I plan to play around with it a bit more, both on live and Beta, to see if that feeling will hold.

We would have to check your qualifications, Kadiana. Can you see Kalimdor from your house? Nope. Kalimdor is just a bit too far away from Silvermoon for that. I do think that Thrall is kinda sexy though, for an Orc. Does that count?

This is why there are so many 'Sons of Gruul' around.

Seriously, that guy should learn to bubble. That's what I do.

All new recruits need to wear scrunchies. Didn't Kalea inform you of this? Here, I'll find a manly one for you. *rummages through her collection* Hm... I guess I gave them all away. You can have the one I was saving for Calendor, though. Do you like pink sequins?

Nooooooooooo! Not the scrunchies!!! *dives into the fire to rescue them all, making sure to put up fire protection aura first* *Emerges, looking a little singed around the edges, cradling what she was able to save* Meanieheads! No heals for you! *stomps off to her tent*

Me: Well, there was this one time back when I was raiding with... *drones on* and then... *drones on some more* Although, I would like to nominate myself for Secretary of State. I can bore everyone in negotiations so they give us what we want just to shut me up. And I know my way to ANYWHERE! Especially Albuquerque. Plus, I can give out scrunchies as a free 'parting gift'.

Hope you feel better soon!

Warning, incoming 'complaint'. If you don't like it, stop reading now (you know who you are)! I don't know if it's the biggest, but to me, it's definitely the straw that breaks the camel's back. The sad thing is, that the changes, meant to nerf ret, also nerf Prot and Holy, who really didn't need it. I was rather 'meh' about Holy before these changes. While it wasn't "bad", it was disconcerting to see everyone else get new spells to get a whole 'toolbox of healing' (HoTs, Group Heals, Single Heals), while Paladins were stuck only as Single Target (or limited 'dual target' with Beacon of Light), having to rely on a Glyph or a talent in the Ret Tree to get HoTs. The emphasis on making Healing paladins do judgements to get the most out of their specs also baffles me, as it burns the GCD and becomes 'clumsy' to switch targets, judge, and switch back to do a heal. And even then, it really only does any good if: a) you have a lot of melee on the boss for the teeny tiny little heals/mana regen you get b) you get a crit, since you don't get the haste buff without a judgement crit. The recent feedback from the Devs on the state of Holy, even after the 'nerf' isn't encouraging. We've basically been told to "Well, MgT used to be pain, isn't it better now with Beacon?". Well yes, a little, now that only 2 other party members have to die in AoE fights instead of 3 (depending on the use of Beacon), but I can certainly do without the condescending attitude. Granted, they SAY that they will compensate holy and prot if the Ret nerfs appear to be too much for them, but considering how badly done the holy tree is to begin with, and the fact that prot doesn't even have a 21 point talent, I'm not real encouraged by them fixing anything with paladins for the better any time soon. *sigh*

I'll be happy to bring either of my alts along to this, depending on if you need a healer (Kadi) or another DPSer (Burana). Of course, I'd prefer to bring Burana because she needs the badges and gear more than Kadi does, but I'm not too fussed about it either way. Just let me know what you need!

I've heard these rumors for awhile now myself, and I'm glad to see that many of them weren't too far off base. As a huge fan of Bioware games, and of the Star Wars Universe, I'm really looking forward this. You are right, the 'swtor.com' site is the official site for the game. I dont' know who can change the thread title from 'KotOR' to 'TOR', but that might be appropriate since this does take place 300 years after the KotOR games and BioWare is apparently being really careful to make a distinction between the two settings.