I’ve been pootling my way towards the Love is in the Air meta-achievement. Truthfully I can imagine Tam being as much a fool for love as I can imagine him being a Merrymaker but, actually, presumably he has some sort of dark and decadent past in the mana-crack dens of Silvermoon before he became the patronising, obsessive-compulsive zealot we all know and love (not biblically) today. The thing is, I am really starting to enjoy the seasonal achievements. I have no particular desire for a big purple dwagon but I enjoy spannering around in Azeroth, having Tam make an idiot of himself.
They seem to be streamlining the Seasonal achievements so they’re not quite as punishingly Lady RNG dependent as they used to be – I think we have a guildie who spent a year of pain being one “be mine” heart away from a protodrake, poor bastard. The worst part of this one was definitely grinding mobs for lovely charms… I know they changed it during the maintenance cycle but the system was unbelievably harsh on healers. I spent a lot of time dutifully smiting baddies down to about 5% only to watch some smart-arse rogue pop up unexpectedly and ninja my long-sought killing blow.
After about, oh, two minutes of this (I have immensely low tolerance for mob farming) I teamed up with the Indecent Healer to go dorf smooshing in Ulduar-25. I think they’ve changed it now so you can’t but I have to confess we had an absolute blast… AND, if you ask me, we weren’t so much exploiting the system as redressing a balance issue (hmmmm…I wonder if Ensidia made similar claims!). I’m not sure if the changes had already hit because we quickly discovered you didn’t get charms if you were in the vehicle BUT if you stood behind the vehicle, cowering in your sissy robe, you did. It was altogether a ludicrous situation – and we both died a couple of times to swarming dorfs or exploding vehicles before we got the hang of it.
Essentially, one healer had to get in a demolisher, roll it down the ramp and then swap into the gun turret. Proceed to blast dorfs with air missiles (key #2). The second healer, meanwhile, had to get in a chopper and park it behind the demolisher. Disembark from chopper and commence cowering. If in dorf danger, leap aboard chopper and PUT THE PEDAL TO THE METAL . Once the dorfs lose interest, repeat phase 1. And when the demolisher explodes, leap into chopper and save other healer from wreckage, MAKING LIKE YOU’RE JAMES FUCKING BOND. If only the demolishers didn’t scale with gear – otherwise I could have even worn my tuxedo. Smooooooth.
Now, I know this made us bad bad people, but I stand by it. We only used this to get our 12 bracelets apiece, not for flogging them by the hundreds in Dalaran like some folks. And running over dorfs in a demolisher and whizzing about in a chopper, is basically MUCH MORE FUN than miserably mind-searing for hour after hour in some benighted corner of Sholazar.
Also, hell, all’s fair in love and war – and this was BOTH.
And given that Love is in the Air is a festival inspired by St Valentine’s, a day of mass produced romance1 – it strikes me that making my charm bracelets from running over endlessly spawning dorfs in a demolisher is ENTIRELY WITHIN THE SPIRIT of the bloody thing.
I also feel a bit dubious about the “lovely charm bracelets” themselves. I’m slightly reassured by the description of on the lovely charm collector’s kit which reads: “Pliers, bone saw, scalpel and sundry other tools allow for the collection of Lovely Charms from worthwhile enemies” so there’s hope that “lovely” is ironic and actually they’re made of bones, fingers, teeth and other less mentionable appendages. On the other hand, they certainly don’t look it:
So, how, exactly did I make this from dead enemies?
Now, I can just about work myself up to giving one to Sylvanas – I mean she may be an undead banshee queen but she’s still A GIRL, right? Cairne, meanwhile, already thinks I’m some kind of fickle sociopath so I’ve got nothing to lose there, and Lor’themar Theron basically looks like he’s forgotten his handbag so I can’t see him objecting either.
But Thrall?!
Srsly Blizzard, you want me to GIVE MY WARCHIEF A SPARKLY PURPLE BRACLET?! COME ON!!! Now Thrall may be a peace-loving pussycat but he’s not sunk that low. He’s not secretly playing with his My Little Ponies behind his throne in Orgrimmar. I want to give Thrall the severed heads of his enemies, not pretty jewelry.
And can you imagine the conversation?
Thrall: Ah, young Tamarind, what glory do you bring the Horde this day?
Tamarind: Um…well…actually I’ve kind of, uh, got a present for you…
Thrall: A gift from you, priest, must be mighty indeed. Is it the head of the brood mother again? I shall have my Lieutenants place it on a spike in the centre of Ogrimmar so all may know your strength and valour!
Tamarind: It’s, um, it’s not Onxyia’s head.
Thrall: No? You must have surpassed yourself, noble Tamarind. How do you honour the Horde, my friend?
Tamarind: Um, it’s not for the Horde, it’s for you.
Thrall: You intrigue me, Tamarind. Stop typing /bashful and spit it out. A warrior does not act coy before his Warchief.
Tamarind: Ta-daaaaa!
Thrall: …
Thrall: …
Thrall: …
Thrall: Look, Tamarind, we’ve come a long since you were killing level 6 burning blade cultists. In the light of our long friendship, let’s just pretend this never happened, okay?
Tamarind: Okay. Sorry. I just thought…
Thrall: WELL YOU THOUGHT WRONG, PRIEST. Now go away before Garrosh sees. And don’t even think of trying to pull this shit when he becomes Warchief if you want to keep your bollocks.
Tamarind: I’m really sorry.
Thrall: *mutters* I can’t believe thought Cairne was over-reacting when he got that restraining order on you…
- Which, coincidentally, is also St Cyril’s Day – he brought the Word of God to the Slavic peoples, and invented
SanksritCyrillic (duh, this makes more sense – I FAIL at Factoids, I was reading the wrong Catholic dictionary, alas!) in order to do it, which would be a Seasonal Event Tam could really get behind [↩]
I laughed so hard my 2 year old asked what was wrong with me…
I am sure Thrall was secretly touched… erm in an emotional sense.. !!
Thank you for leaving out the trouble you had finding a troll rogue
I shall carry the deep dark secret of Tamsrogue the Hunter to my grave
I thought St Cyril was responsible for Cyrillic – Sanskrit is significantly older than him.
Unless I have completely missed the joke…
Well … according to the Catholic Dictionary – which must be RIGHT – it was "saints script" oh wait … which you're right, is Cyrllic not Sanskrit. I LOOKED AT THE WRONG CATHOLIC DICTIONARY!
HERESY!
*burns at stake*
At least you’re wearing the right hat for it I guess…
I managed to really anger a priest on my realm with my misguided (but well-intentioned, I swear!) efforts to help her kill things – her ire made a lot more sense later on when I realised getting a charm depended on getting a killing blow. Er, whoops?
Can I just add, that the last time me and my guild payed Thrall a visit (not stirring anything up, but a bear mount is a bear mount) i did see a couple of my little pwnies behind his Throne….
"What??, I'd never lie to you!!"
My little pwnies! Bwahaha.
Also damn you, you damn dorf, how dare you go stir up shit with Thrall, bear or no bear! I'm no longer even vaguely guilty for all those dorfs I mowed down in my demolisher.
They weren't *real* Dorfs. If they where, it would have been your demolisher that had been broken, and not them.
…At least that's what all my toons keep telling themselves whenever we are killing Dorfs. "It's alright Redux, they are gnomes on stilts, you are not slaughtering your brethren, you are not, you are not, you are a good dorf, they all think you are doing a good job killing the impostors"
“pootling” made me giggle.
And my character was extremely embarrassed to hand over a sparkly bracelet to a warchief.. :/
Sadly it probably sounds like something Winnie-the-Pooh would do, not a badass priest in a bbq hat… but piffling and pootling is pretty much what I do.
I read your posts about not exploiting Ulduar by the way – and felt a pang of shame as I mowed down dem dorfs
Chalcara, my female orc hunteress has a crush on Thrall. I wonder if that makes things more or less awkwark…
My recent post Only 8 level left! And I got my butt out of Outland!
Chalcara, my female orc hunteress has a crush on Thrall. I wonder if that makes things more or less awkwark…
My recent post Only 8 level left! And I got my butt out of Outland!
I had a female orc warrior with bunches who also had a crush on Thrall – I left her on ED but I miss her cute, perky, green cheerleader ways.
In short: Thrall is worthy of many crushes
Oh yes. Yes he is.
(Luckely giving the bracelett to Sylvannas caused no trouble for Chal and her sisters, it even was the first time they talked to miss undead 2010 WITHOUT being threatened with the wrath of doom.)
Ahaha – Miss Undead 2010. Excellent
Chalcara, my female orc hunteress has a crush on Thrall. I wonder if that makes things more or less awkwark… My recent post Only 8 level left! And I got my butt out of Outland!
“pootling” made me giggle.
And my character was extremely embarrassed to hand over a sparkly bracelet to a warchief.. :/
Us alliance folk have to hand bracelets over to King Magni Bronzebeard and King Varian Wrynn..,.
My recent post It's 5 o'clock somewhere…
Magni could thread them through his beard – I reckon he'd be into that.
But as for Varian Wrynn *shudders*
/o night after totc25:
“Balls, they fixed the dwarf thing”
“Lol, shame”
“NOOOOO!”
Mighty conga line of lemming dwarves, we’re going to miss you. Most non-raid fun I’d had in ulduar in ages
Tell me about it. Thrilling though blowing up dorf is, I still contend it is surpassed, infinitely surpassed, by HI-SPEED CHOPPER RESCUES.
Ohh, there’s also suicide seiges too. Take a seige engine, steam rush off the starting area, see where you land. If you’re really lucky you fall through the floor and into yogg’s brain room or something.
Oh yes. Yes he is.
(Luckely giving the bracelett to Sylvannas caused no trouble for Chal and her sisters, it even was the first time they talked to miss undead 2010 WITHOUT being threatened with the wrath of doom.)
/o night after totc25:
“Balls, they fixed the dwarf thing”
“Lol, shame”
“NOOOOO!”
Mighty conga line of lemming dwarves, we’re going to miss you. Most non-raid fun I’d had in ulduar in ages
At least you’re wearing the right hat for it I guess…
I managed to really anger a priest on my realm with my misguided (but well-intentioned, I swear!) efforts to help her kill things – her ire made a lot more sense later on when I realised getting a charm depended on getting a killing blow. Er, whoops?
Hahahah, Thrall definitely should have said that rather than the in game response of it’s nice or whatever. LOL
I just blanked Thrall being generic – Thrall is NOT generic, he's *THRALL*.
And one does not give "lovely bracelets" to Thrall.
Ohh, there’s also suicide seiges too. Take a seige engine, steam rush off the starting area, see where you land. If you’re really lucky you fall through the floor and into yogg’s brain room or something.
Ohh, there’s also suicide seiges too. Take a seige engine, steam rush off the starting area, see where you land. If you’re really lucky you fall through the floor and into yogg’s brain room or something.
Ohh, there’s also suicide seiges too. Take a seige engine, steam rush off the starting area, see where you land. If you’re really lucky you fall through the floor and into yogg’s brain room or something.
Ohh, there’s also suicide seiges too. Take a seige engine, steam rush off the starting area, see where you land. If you’re really lucky you fall through the floor and into yogg’s brain room or something.
I tried to tell Varian that the were made FROM HIS DEAD ENEMIES body parts!
Unsurprisingly, he didn't listen….. >.>
First time I've had to scuttle out of a throne room in shame.
My recent post Blizzard's Money Laundering Scheme
Varian is a complete psycho anyway … even if you did give him a bracelet made FROM HIS DEAD ENEMIES body parts, he'd probably be "Hine, this sucks, these body parts are neither dead nor big enough to satisfy me. Try again."
These forays into metrosexual gift exchanging have left Hine so ashamed that she won't be able to show her face in a capital city for awhile unless she's in Taunka, Vry'kul, or Iron Dwarf form.
My recent post Blizzard's Money Laundering Scheme
I laughed so hard at the Thrall monologue I woke up a cranky one year old. Totally worth it!
I'm not sure anything is worth waking a cranky one year old … but if you say so, that's a high compliment
I laughed so hard at the Thrall monologue I woke up a cranky one year old. Totally worth it!
I gave my bracelet to Prophet Velen.
I don't know what the lore says, but Velen seems like a nice grandfatherly type to me, so I imagine he accepts any bracelets he might get like any grandfather might accept a gift from a five year old, full of macaroni and dripping with glue and glitter – with a bland smile and a nod.
My recent post Advice to New Bloggers
Ahahaha – he does have that look about him. Although he also looks like he's one of those super-nice people who would consider it his social duty to show appreciation for the gifts received by wearing them. So he's probably hung all over with these rubbishy lovely charms like an Xmas tree.
Well … those tentacles have to be good for something.
I managed to grab the achievement on my mage, Eyowyn, and dear god I am thankful that the RNG is gone. This holiday is a lot mroe fun and I lot less nerve-wracking now.
Mah site's fixed, btw.
My recent post How to Train your PUG: Part 3
Yeah, I've had a lot of fun with the two seasonal metas have done this year – last year when I was considering getting involved the whimsy of Lady RNG made me run away screaming. Also being 80 helps – trying to get achis at level 40 or whatever feels impossible.
Thanks for letting me comment
Sorry for nagging you 
I gave my bracelet to my bank alt. What the hell does that say about me? ^_^
I'm starting to feel the holidays again, myself. I think it's just the winter one that drives me insane. Between actual holidays and WoW holidays, it's just… ugh. Anyway, can't wait to finish Valentine's, and I'm totally in for when Lunar Festival starts.
My recent post BAST: The Lich King Is Dead, Long Live the Lich King
It says you're a profound and terminal narcissist, obviously
Awwww – the thing about the holidays is that they should be a break from the grind, not part of it.
Shoulda given it to Vol'jin – he's baked enough most of the time that he'd probably have given you a hug and put it on immediately…
My recent post Bone(Bow)Storm!
Ya mon!
Still chuckling now at the Thrall monologue….. Cairne taking out a restraining order, I think I got away with it being a Druid, Thrall pobably thought "bloody tree hugging hippy".
On a side note I noticed something in your pics from your Merrymaker post .. what unit frames do you use?
Thank you – delighted to have amused
And, yes, I reckon druids could get away with, err, all the free-lovin nonsense but not spiky, sensible men of the cloth like Tam.
I use a combination of Xperl and Vuhdo – I really need to either adapt Xperl or change it. I think my vanity likes the little animated face but actually it's silly and over-cluttered at the moment. What, in particular, did you notice?
Hi Tam, I'd have replied sooner but its difficult to get past the Kumquat article,cant see the screen thru tears of laughter not only did it need a NSFW tag , it was possbly not wise to link it in to one of the priests in my guild prior to the "heal Valerie the big green dragon fight" either, RL must have been baffled by various Kum on the dragon, Kum more on left side, Kum in the portal comments followed by fits of giggles.
Anyways back to the point, I just liked the look of your unit frames as they looked basic and minimal and as a healer i dont really need whistle and bells frames, I've used VuhDo thought it was fantastic lots of nice things for trees e.g hot timers, swiftmend blob etc etc, but went back to grid, (even tho VuhDo is possibly the better of the two IMHO), it just didnt "feel" right. since I made my enquiry I've gone with Shadowed unit frames (SUF) as they are really basic and have a small footprint.
Hi Tam, I'd have replied sooner but its difficult to get past the Kumquat article,cant see the screen thru tears of laughter not only did it need a NSFW tag , it was possbly not wise to link it in to one of the priests in my guild prior to the "heal Valerie the big green dragon fight" either, RL must have been baffled by various Kum on the dragon, Kum more on left side, Kum in the portal comments followed by fits of giggles.
Anyways back to the point, I just liked the look of your unit frames as they looked basic and minimal and as a healer i dont really need whistle and bells frames, I've used VuhDo thought it was fantastic lots of nice things for trees e.g hot timers, swiftmend blob etc etc, but went back to grid, (even tho VuhDo is possibly the better of the two IMHO), it just didnt "feel" right. since I made my enquiry I've gone with Shadowed unit frames (SUF) as they are really basic and have a small footprint.
p.s.
At the risk of sounding like a stalker/regular reader glad to see your posts are more upbeat again and the toolpokes that frequent this game aren't dragging you down, I always think Albert Finney Saturday night Sunday morning saying "dont let the bastards grind you down" i'll bugger off now as this is turning into a huge reply.
Oh dear, this was good, very good. It should contain a huge NSFW warning under the title though, I had to almost choke on laughter so that collegues wouldn't hear ^^
Oh dear, that was too good.. you should really put a NSFW warning at the top, had to choke on laughter so collegues wouldn't hear it ^^
My recent post Poking monsters to death
Thank you kindly – also I don't feel I've done my duty of a blogger if I haven't embarrassed a reader in front of their work colleagues
(also weirdly a few people find that RO is blocked at work – it must be all the dodgy analogies :/)
My last job had extremely attentive IT people who routinely blocked any site I read regularly.
Maddening.
BASTARDS! I thought IT people would *understand*, dammit.
I love that you will killing Dorfs, I was doing the same thing, but about 5 mins in to smoshing those dorfs with demolishers I got bored… so I hopped in to a chopper and went to see how much of Ulduar I could pull in one lap around it >:D
Then we procedded to have races around Ulduar and see who could survive the longest =D If you haven't tried it maybe you should as when you pull a spider it's hilarious listening to the others in your party scream >:D
Also, Thrall wasn't phased by myself, a blood elf female disc priest, handing him a lovely charm bracelet =D would have been a lot better if the bracelets were made from bones and teeth tho *thinks about this and goes in to a daydream*
OMG – my spelling fails!
* were killing Dorfs not will killing xD
* Proceeded
Hmmm..maybe all those fuckers who stole my kills relentlessly for about half an hour the other day were misguidedly trying to help as well…
[...] Running over dorfs for love by Tamarind at Righteous Orbs. [...]
[...] Running over dorfs for love by Tamarind at Righteous Orbs. [...]