Chronicles of Raivyne, Rogue of Thunderhorn

Written by a slightly whacky (i'm not nutso, the dr said so!) rogue. Seriously, there's nothing wrong with me. IRL I'm very mild mannered... like Clark Kent.

Friday, April 28, 2006

The Unholy Trinity

The combination of a Mage, a Warrior and a Priest make what some of us refer to as the Unholy Trinity. It seems that in the WoW world you almost always “need” these three classes. At least 100 times per night I see one of the following in the “Looking For Group” Channel: LF2M for “xyz” need tank and healer; “LF1M for “abc” need a mage”; or similar variations of the same. This seems particularly true for Baron runs. I hear “ZOMG need a mage to AoE the skele adds!!!” “Can’t do Baron w/out a mage!” Sure, a mage makes it a lot easier to complete the run, but are they absolutely necessary? Of course not! If you don’t have a mage, then do you have to have a lock for it? Negatory. You just have to make new plans…

Last night we did a baron run with the following group: Fury spec warrior, Priest, me (sword rogue), beast-master hunter and a feral/resto Druid. I’d done more groups w/out a mage than I had with one – but we always had a lock. So, I admit that I was skeptical about whether or not we could take the Baron and deal w/his skeles before he used them to heal. I’m glad I was wrong. We had the priest handle the AoE w/her holy nova spell and the druid main heal the tanks. It worked beautifully.

Now, I just need to figure out how to complete “The Challenge” without one or two mages. “The Challenge” is the BRD Arena fight that was recently added as part of the Tier 0.5 Upgrade quest line. I can sap one of them, a priest can MC one and a lock could charm one… *Sigh* it’s a conundrum I am puzzling out. Mages are not normally available to me, so I must find a solution.

***Disclaimer*** This article was, short, sweet and had no point - other than for me, the blogger, to think out-loud. Sorry for any inconvenience and/or waste of time. Refunds are not available. Tips are welcome and you may deposit them in the “Comments” section.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Enter Raivyne

Hello blogosphere, I am Raivyne. A young, lvl 60, female, nelf rogue playing on the Thunderhorn server. Yes, that’s right another rogue… and worse yet – a nelf! Ugh. I’ve never really chronicled anything, because I always decide to start from the middle, and realize there’s so much I’ve missed. Who has the time to catch up? Well turns out work’s full of time. Anyway, we will see where this journey leads.

First of all, forgive my writing style as it sometimes mirrors my thoughts – here there and everywhere. Lack of continuity. I’ve not written much for about two years now, so hopefully the clarity and charm of my writing will improve with time.

A bit about the name. When I played the original Diablo game, I picked Raivyn as my name. Since these many years, others have caught on to the spelling and I've been forced to add the "e" at the end. Why Raivyne? Well, what is a raven? A big ugly crow... Not quite. corvus corax is the Latin name for the common raven. The following is an excerpt from http://www.ravenfamily.org/nascakiyetl/obs/rav1.html : "Raven in America, particularly the Northwest coast region, is both demiurge and trickster, both hero and villain, and often at one and the same time." In Europe the Raven is viewed as a messenger, and often a harbinger of death. Actually the study of the raven in different mythologies is quite fascinating, but then again Mythology is one of my things.

My guild is Shadow Guard. . I love the guild and have made many friends there. I have some friends outside the guild as well. The guild leaders are my sister and her fiancé. This works out well mostly, but sometimes its **duck and cover**. Aside from minor incidents, the game has actually helped my sister and I strengthen our relationship. She has earned my respect in this game, and somehow it has carried into the real world. (You mean WoW’s not real? Pfft.) Our misunderstandings seem fewer now and this is a good thing.

Enough of the chit chat. Why a rogue, you may ask… The answer should be simple, but its really not. I’ve always been drawn to the rogue class, since I picked up my first pencil and rolled my first old school DnD character. She was an elf rogue, because I was an elf rogue. Long, small, lithe and sly. (Granted, I’m not 6’ tall, but everything else is there) Delicate in appearance, but rough as rawhide inside. Perhaps she was an intimate reflection of all my devious tendencies, the inner spy and rapscallion. I really cannot say why, but the rogue class has always just “fit”. Even physically. “Toothpick”, oh how I loathed that name, but I thrived on it. Martial Arts came natural too me, in fact so natural that they rarely held my interest for more than a year at a time. I’m no master, but the forms and balance were always there for me. I could look at something and mimic it.

I’m a sword rogue, because I have practiced with Bokken and made forms with Katana (albeit not dual wielded). I use throwing weapons most of the time because I have Shuriken IRL. I’m also proficient w/guns and bows IRL, but neither of which do I consider very rogue-like. If my toon could wield a Jo, I would carry one, because I can use one. The Sai and fist weapons are appealing as well. I’ve played w/dual Sai before and loved them, but I have never gotten my hands on a fist weapon. I hide in the shadows because I wish to remain anonymous.

I always aligned myself as Chaotic – Good (IIRC). This is how I see myself and how I identify with the world around me. Besides what fun is life if you can’t get your hands dirty every so often? In the name of a good cause, natch. I’m no delinquent but if I want to sneak onto an ostrich farm and have a go at riding one, what’s the harm in that?

I think that’s all for now. I will try and upload a picture of my toon and link a current profile. First I have to find the program that changes WoW SS to .jpg form… Anyone?

Actually this should be my profile by the end of the weekend: http://www.hitpoints.org/equip/viewtemplate.php?tempid=24633