• About Me

    Nashamire
    Chula Vista, CA

    My name is Dan. I'm a gamer. I'm a sports fan. I'm a father. And I'm a husband.

  • My Toons

    Name: Nashamire
    Race: Troll
    Class: Druid
    Spec: Feral/Balance
    Level: 85
    Armory Page: Here

    Name: Nashette
    Race: Tauren
    Class: Paladin
    Spec: Holy/Retribution
    Level: 85
    Armory Page: Here

    Name: Nashes
    Race: Night Elf
    Class: Mage
    Spec: Frost/Arcane
    Level: 85
    Armory Page: Here

    Name: Nashalo
    Race: Goblin
    Class: Priest
    Spec: Shadow/Holy
    Level: 70
    Armory Page: Here

    Name: Nashock
    Race: Goblin
    Class: Shamen
    Spec: Enhancement/Restoration
    Level: 85
    Armory Page: Here

    Name: Nashamire
    Race: Human
    Class: Death Knight
    Spec: Frost
    Level: 85
    Armory Page: Here
  • Categories

Lore Project [Ep.2.1]: Silverpine Forest


I started heading off south and before I knew it I had crossed over into a bigger war zone than I had anticipated. I was only walking down the road to the Forsaken High Command but I was instantly attacked by a wolf creature. I don’t just call it a wolf because it was standing on its hind legs, it was fighting as if it were human. I’d never encountered anything like it, in life or undeath. After Thooashak was able to pull him off of me, we both used our strengths to take the wolf creature to the ground. I stood over the dead corpse examining it when I heard howling coming from the mountains surrounding me. I decided it was best if I kept heading to the Forsaken High Command and report my interaction with the creature there. So off I went, only I had no idea what I was in for when I would arrive.

Read more »

Blog Name Origin (Day 7)

Been a bit since my last 20 Day blog challenge post, but that’s ok. I think my new Lore Project posts are being received well, so if I spend time on them and neglect these “fun” posts, that’s fine. I’ll just leave you guys hanging, waiting for my next juicy post.

So what is Day 7? It’s describing where the name of my blog came from. Well I think I delved into this in my day 1 post a bit but I’ll do it again here for those that aren’t up to speed.

Read more »

Lore Project [Ep.1]: Tirisfal Glades

It was dark, I couldn’t see a thing. In fact, I couldn’t feel a thing either. I’m not sure where I was, but it didn’t feel like I was there for very long. After what seemed like minutes, a bright light appeared and I was standing before a Valkyrie who welcomed me back into the world. It was then that I realized that that dark place was somewhere I was never meant to realize I was. But I did, I was dead, and I was in purgatory. Standing behind the Valkyrie that obviously snatched me out of the bowls of death, was a strange looking man, it was that moment when I realized what was really going on. I was undead, and I was brought back with one purpose in mind, to serve the dark lady.

I had heard of the Forsaken taking the bodies of the dead to resurrect for their own armies, but I never thought in my mortal life that I would be one of them. I was forced into a situation, it was time to decide whether I would revolt or give in to my dark fate. Where would I go if I ran, what would I do, who would accept me? The answers eluded me and all I could think about was a like serving the dark lady was better than no life at all. So I gave into the inevitable and headed over to talk to someone named Mordo.

Read more »

Lore Project [Ep.0]: The Beginning

So I have 5 85s, and I’m not bragging. I’m simply trying to bring a little highlight to the main point of the idea that I’m going to be bringing up in this post. I have 5 85s, and I don’t know a thing about the lore of the game. The Scarlet Monastery was the guys working for the Sheriff of Nottingham. Darth Vader led the scourge before Arthas Menethil. And of course, Gamon is Han Solo.

Why do I have no idea what the actual lore in the game is? That’s simple, cause all I’ve ever really done is just click “accept” on quests and gone and done the dirty work, come back and turned them in. Notice that in that process I did not say “read the quest text and enjoy/experience the real story in the game”. That would be because I’ve never really taken the time to find out any of that information.

But that’s about to change…

I’d like to introduce you to my lore project. I’ve decided to turn things up on their heads. I’m tired of not knowing what’s going on. Why do people always root for Illidan like they do? I heard he was a baddie, so I want to kill him. But apparently there is more to him than his rough exterior? Like, why is he helping me in Well of Eternity?

I’ve been reading up on Warlocks in Mists of Panderia, and I really am interested in leveling one up. So a perfect chance arose to start leveling one up and to read all my quest text that I possibly can.

So the idea here is to read all the quest text and let you know what I’ve learned Lore wise. I want to share the knowledge, cause I guarantee there are people out there like me that think Jason (ski mask and all) taught Skadi the Ruthless his sweet moves.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? Well, we’ll get a few posts in and see what you all actually think. And while I’m on the subject of what you guys think… leave a comment. It let’s me know that I should keep going, although I don’t write just for people to read, since I love the creative expression, but I’d love to hear what you guys have to think anyways.

So here we go on a new dark artsy trip down lore lane. Can’t wait to see what the “real” story is. To Tirisfal Glades!

The Setup (Day 6)

I don’t have a SUPER computer like some people roll up with, but I have a smart computer. I bought an Acer “back to school” special about 4 years ago and it’s held the test of time so far. It’s a dual core with 8 gigs of RAM, and that’s how it came. Pretty sweet deal for 350 bucks. All I had to do was upgrade the memory card and there I was rolling with 50 frames per second on ultra settings. I love that computer and it’s durability. I’m mean, let’s be honest, 4 years is a long time for a computer to stay relevant.

And that right there is probably one of the best purchase I ever made. I cannot explain to you how much those 12 buttons on the side of my mouse have changed how I play World of Warcraft. Most notably, Bear tanking using that mouse is almost mindless. I would recommend the Razer Naga to anyone and everyone looking for a gaming mouse with plenty of macroing options.

That there is my Microsoft Reclusa “gaming” keyboard. It’s not anything to shout about but the blue backlighting does match up well with the blue backlighting of my Naga. I always wanted the G15 keyboard, but never brought myself to buy it. There aren’t many macro options with this keyboard, but with my Naga mouse, I don’t really need them.

Oh and I don’t know if you saw it in the first picture of my set up, but I used a foot pedal my wife got for a “medical transcriptionist” school she signed up for back when we were first married. It’s a USB foot pedal, so I plugged it in and found out that it could be used as a PTT button for my Mumble/Vent needs. So I never have to use my hands to talk to my friends. I just push down with my foot and boom! start talking. In case you missed it, it’s pretty horrible looking, but it gets the job done.

Oh and in case you were wondering (which you’re probably not) that’s a 25 inch HP monitor and a 23 inch LG monitor. It’s always nice to have wowhead up on one screen while I play on the other screen. Always used to hate tabbing out of WoW to find things. But for the past 2 years I’ve just moved the mouse over to the next screen and continued to work.

Anyways, that’s my “setup” and I’m very happy with it. This was kind of a weird post to write, but I am dedicated to the 20 day blog challenge! Until next time, “Lok’tar Ogar!”

Favorite Items in Game (Day 5)

If I were to go and look in the banks of all my level 85 toons, this blog post would never end. Why was void storage invented? It’s very simple, packrats like me don’t want to give anything they liked at one point away. So what do we do? We fill our bank with every piece of gear or junk we’ve come across for 85 levels, 3 expansions, and 13 holidays. But what happens when our banks are full, we start throwing it all into void storage and making room for more.

Well since I know what is written above is true for me, I decided to just think of a few items off the top of my head that are favorites for me. I’ve come up with three, let’s see if any of the three are sitting in your bank at the moment.

The first item that comes to mind is [Titanium Seal of Dalaran]

Why is this item of particular interest to me. Well first of all, it took forever for me to get. How many hours have you spent in Dalaran trying to cast your rod into that tiny fountain? I know mine are pretty numerous. Getting the right coin to drop is at the will of RNG. Knowing RNG plays the biggest part in getting the achievement for the coins, then throw in having to move where you are standing sometimes cause the cast just won’t hit the fountain for some reason, and you’ve got the perfect mix for a long day in Dalaran. In case you’re totally lost on what I’m talking about, the achievement is [The Coin Master].

When in raid and there is down time, I’m always looking for something in the game that’s fun to mess around with while killing time (IE Noggenfogger Elixir). Well besides the time and effort it took to get my coin, the on use effect of it made it even more memorable for me. I used to love sitting around flipping my coin, ala Two Face from Batman. I still carry that thing on my paladin at all times.

The second item that comes to mind is [Nibelung]

This for me was one of those items that I dreamed of having but NEVER dropped. As I’m sure you can guess, I love me some bear tanking. But in WOTLK, I raided as a boomkin, so this staff was a must have for me because of the proc. I mean seriously, how cool is it to be able to proc Valkyrie to your side, and then on top of that it doesn’t stop at one. I believe it capped at three, but having three of them following you around and fighting for you almost every fight was pretty awesome I have to admit. I waited AS LONG as I could into Cataclysm to get rid of it for that reason too. This staff is the reason I wish you could transmog procs from weapons too. Even if they didn’t do ANY dps, just to be able to summon them would make me happy.

The third item that comes to mind is [Everlasting Underspore Frond]

This last one is one that was really awesome for me for awhile while I was leveling my paladin. If you read carefully that last sentence you’ll see that I didn’t say mage. So obviously I wasn’t making my own cookies and drinks for the previous 65 levels. But once I finished the quest line in Zangarmarsh and picked up this item, I became the wizardly paladin I always knew I could be. Every 12 hours I was able to make 10 Underspore Pods, which were more than enough for what I was doing. Apparently it is not available in the game anymore, guess I’m glad I was able to get it on at least one of my toons. I should really go click on it now and see if it’s broken. That would be entertaining.

So what are some the items you loved that are sitting collecting dust in your bank?

Birthday Bear

I just wanted to put a post up thanking K. Martinez (@rosaamarilla) from 45 Degrees Off for her awesome birthday present! In case you didn’t know, I turned 30 today. I know right, some said I was old, some said I was young. I’m leaning toward the old side. But either way it was a great day hanging out and celebrating with my daughter Addison and wife Joy.

Well earlier I put up a post asking if anyone that followed me on twitter would be nice enough to draw me a picture of a troll bear.

She responded almost immediately with…

So I’d like to share her art with everyone here cause I’m so ecstatic to have received it. What a great present for my birthday. Thanks again. Here is the full picture.

 

Edit: Also Featherwind (@featherwind_) from sugarpeep.deviantart.com left another awesome drawing in my mentions that I found when I got home from work today.

My Best WoW Memory (Day 4)

It’s hard to pin down one certain moment of pure joy in a game that you have been playing for years. When I sat down and took a look at what today’s topic was, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to, but I decided to just go with the the memories that popped into my mind first.

As stated in in some of the previous days, I joined the game the game with a group of my friends. So in my first year of playing I pretty much played when I got off work, and talked about it all day in school with my Navy buddies until it was time to go home again. Rinse and repeat. So when thinking about some of my best WoW memories, one definitely has to be the first dungeon that I ever ran. It was Wailing Caverns.

Wailing Caverns loading screen.

I remember it vividly because the whole 5 man group was filled with people that I went to school with. This made that first dungeon that much more enjoyable. There was one person in the group that had any WoW experience at all, and thankfully he was the tank. So he led us around by the hand while we gawked at everything around us and occasionally helped him kill mobs. Luckily for us the healer had experience in other MMOs so he was able to keep our trusty tank up.

I think the thing that I remember most about that run, besides the fact we didn’t finish because of the constant wiping and time taken, was my attempt to tame the Kresh. I kept attempting to tame him, and my other noob friends would start attacking him and break the tame. This happened for about twenty minutes before the five of us actually figured out what was going wrong. No one had played a hunter before, and it was a five man learning process. Maybe if I had known what wowhead or wowwiki were back then, I could have just looked it up real fast and saved us some time. But yeah, we were on our own, young and clueless.

I think what makes this one of my fondest memories is the fact that it was my first instance and it was done with all of my friends that I knew offline. Now-a-days not one of them still plays, so I have turned into the “One Man Wolfpack”. I love the people I know and have met in game, but I feel very disconnected when I’m offline. No one to talk to about that AWESOME raid night. But that was definitely a memory I look back fondly on, and later on when we weren’t quite as unseasoned we continued our group work in AV premades, another fond memory.

Newly minted Deathwing kill for Nashette.

Now another thought that came into my mind was another time I will always look fondly on. And this happened just last night. I was never really a part of a steady raiding team til this expansion. So I have never been a part of a kill on an end raid boss. I had the chance in Firelands with Ragnaros, but my raid team was able to down him on a day I had duty (24 Hr workday in the Navy) so I wasn’t able to be there. And the next week after my group got the Ragnaros kill, we all agreed we’d rather move into DS than run more Firelands.

So last night we went into Dragon Soul and took down all 8 bosses in two hours, it probably would have been quicker too had I not been rusty after two weeks off. Since that was the first time I’ve ever had a chance to beat the end boss of a road while it was still relevant, it will always be a memory that I will remember. I’m sure that I’ll have many more as MoP comes out, but this is my first one, so it will always be remembered. Sure “Maw of the Dragonlord” didn’t drop for me, as usual, but the excitement of getting my “Destroyer’s End” title was enough for me last night.

So yeah, there’s a couple of my best memories from WoW. What are some of yours?

The One in Which I Oust Myself (Re: BBB)

Back when she was a Draenei.

So today’s post (and it still may) should be labeled Day 4 – Your Best Wow Memory (How ironic that it’s actually one of my least favorite things to recall). But after reading the newest post on the Big Bear Butt, I thought that I should weigh in on what my thoughts on the situation are. The post I’m talking about is his “Who Should Be Held Accountable” post. It was promulgated from the fallout of his “I Have Met the Asshat, and it is Dalra”. If you haven’t read it, here is a basic rundown. BBB ran a LFR on his newly minted 85 Holy Priest and was flabbergasted by the behavior of one of the DPS in his group on the Spine of Deathwing encounter. While everyone was beating on the Hideous Amalgamation, this DPS decided it would be best to beat up all the tentacles and spawn endless mobs basically wiping the raid for no reason whatsoever. BBB then posted his name and guild on his blog in an effort to bring attention to the problem with DPS in LFR doing whatever they want, when they want, with no regard to the other 24 people in the raid. I don’t believe his intent was malicious, but the guild associated with this asshat apparently did. Well BBB’s second post got me thinking about a situation that I myself had been in. I’ve never posted this publicly, and I’m sure I’ll lose some “street cred” for my acti

ons in it, but I think it is a good example to be used in the question brought up by BBB.

Back during the beginning of WoTLK, I was raiding in a pick up group for Vault of Archavon. I had been partaking in my favorite alcoholic beverage for several hours before I joined up, and although I wouldn’t blame my blood alcohol level for what happened, I know it did have a place in what happened. After the group formed up, and we all zoned in the rules were clearly stated, “Main spec roles only”. So we went on our merry way to the first raid boss. I was playing Holy Paladin in this particular Vault of Archavon, and there were no others that had been identified in the group. So we downed the boss, and the tier 8 holy paladin gloves dropped. Being the only Holy Paladin in the group, I was pretty stoked that the gloves dropped since I wasn’t part of a regular raid team and I hadn’t had a chance to pick the gloves up. I needed them to pick up my 4 piece bonus. So I put out my /roll just so the raid leader would know I wanted them and that they weren’t shard fodder. Well much to my surprise, another paladin rolled on the gloves… and beat me. I quickly looked over my skada logs and saw that this particular paladin was a retribution spec. As I was writing in raid chat that I thought it was main spec only, the raid leader passed the gloves to the other paladin.

 

This is where my normal sane state of mind went out the window. I started complaining in raid chat and was told that the retribution paladin was supposed to be in Holy spec for the fight but the pull happened “too fast” for him to switch over so he had to do what he could to help the group succeed. The problem with that was that he would have been the 7th healer in the group of 25. Basically, he wasn’t a healer for the raid, he just wanted the loot and a lie was formed. I quickly checked guild names and lo-and-behold they were both in the same guild. In fact, the group was comprised of 3 guilds, me in mine, and the rest in a combination of the other two. I continued to complain in the raid chat about how it was not right what had happened but the group moved on to the last boss without worrying about what I was saying.

Well after realizing they didn’t care about the injustice, I decided to take things into my own hands. This is where my judgment got away from me, and looking back at it now I’m pretty ashamed. I ran over to the boss they were currently fighting and decided it was time to “Hand of Reckoning” the boss as much and as often as possible till the raid decided to deal with the problem and not just brush me aside. Well, after pulling threat repeatedly, the raid group wiped. Then the raid group disbanded. Then the trade chat call outs began. Then I started realizing I had stooped to their level. It

was not my shining moment.

I was threatened in whispers. I was told I would never raid on the server again. I didn’t discover myself, but was told by guildies, that I was being bashed in trade chat. It was a nasty situation, and for once I thought about quitting the game realizing I was taking things too seriously. I decided before things got too out of control that I would talk to our guild master and let him know what went down. I apologized to him and told him it would never happen again, and he took it. I then apologized to the raid leader and several of his guild mates that had whispered me. I knew what I did was one of the very things I hated, and I knew it was my fault. Sure, I was slighted, but the reaction to it was mine.

So in reaction to BBB’s post, I think it is fully within the rights of the person with the problem to call out the guild of the person who acted inappropriate.

In my case, I would totally have understood if someone decided to write a blog about me and posted my name and guild in it. And I believe it would totally be within their rights to do it. What is a guild? The American Heritage dictionary defines it as “An association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards.” By the very definition, if someone that doesn’t hold the same standards of behavior or bear the same interest in the pursuits of his guild, the point of the guild is missed. So if you go by definition, if they are in your guild, your guild is subject to scrutiny. Now, in the moment that I did what I did, I was not keeping the standards of my guild in mind. Did I misrepresent them? Yes. But I believe it couldn’t be held against the people looking outwardly at my guild if they wanted to call out our whole group. For the most part, all the heat fell on me thankfully, and I’m glad it did. I deserved what was said to me and about me in that moment, but my guild didn’t because that’s not who they are.

The proper action for me in that situation would have been to do the very thing that I allowed them to do to me. A simple forum post stating that the members of guild X and Y had not stuck to their own rules would have sufficed. And in that case, calling out the guilds would have been fine also, because the two guilds leaders were in the raid. It’s a fair assumption that when a guild’s leader is part of the incident, that it is indicative of what their guild is about.

In conclusion, I do believe that calling out a whole guild is wholly appropriate. If the person is in your guild, they’ve already been allowed to represent you in any forum where your name is shown with theirs. The Navy let’s people in all the time that are eventually kicked out because of things like drug use, excessive DUIs, and behavioral issues. I’m sure the Navy would love to have those people not be associated with them at all because of their disgrace to the service, BUT they were part of the Navy when it happened and regardless if they didn’t hold the same values as the Navy as a whole they were a part of it. So the Navy’s name get’s pulled through the dirt. If you don’t like it, screen your members better. And I know that sentiment is not one that most people would agree with, but sometimes if things are going to be taken that seriously, they need to be serious from the start.

If you don’t like the way someone outside of your guild has represented you, be polite in trying to resolve the situation. It all comes back to the idea of respect. If we all play with respect for the other players around us, then things would be a lot less hostile. But since there will always be people out there that don’t care about others, then they and their counterparts need to be ready to deal with the consequences and own up to it. I did, and I think I’m better off for it.

Your First Day in WoW (Day 3)

When I was in my “C” school phase of training for the US Navy, me and my friends used to always shoot the breeze about our favorite video games. I think it all started cause we found SNES emulators on the lab computers that we had to use everyday for school. I remember beating Super Mario 3 when I was supposed to be studying about submarines. We started talking about what games we used to like back in the day. I always look back fondly on any of the Super Mario games, even number two. Just think what those developers were thinking to themselves when trying to figure out how to make Super Mario Bros. better for their second installment.

 

Developer 1:Sure side scrolling was great in Super Mario Bros, but just think how much more epic it would be if we added vertical scrolling to the mix.

Developer 2: “Sounds quite interesting but I think that if we added dinosaurs that spit eggs out of their mouths, it would add much more to the game.

Developer 3: “Why don’t we do both of those things AND add the option to pick from 4 different characters that can do 4 different things when you pick them.

Developer 1:Genius! I think we have found the winning recipe.

 

Well, as one of the least played of all the Mario Brothers, I think that fell flat, but it was still one of the games that I look back fondly on. I remember playing Battle Toads a lot, but was only until I got to the 3rd level in the sewers where I could never get past the stupid speeder bikes. So I would play it up to level 3, die 3 times, use a continue and try again for about thirty minutes then turn the game off and try again in another hour or two. They brought up games like Earthworm Jim, Dr. Mario, Turtles in Time, and others, but I digress. The point I’m trying to make is we brought up all the games that we love and once loved and someone brought up the topic of World of Warcraft.

Well I’ve always been a first person shooter type of guy myself. My favorite series of games has always been Halo, and always will be. Modern Warfare comes in a close second, but it couldn’t compare for me. So someone bring up the idea of an MMORPG, didn’t really mean much to me. I argued with my buddy about how much better FPS games are and he argued about MMORPGs. Well after the argument went on for a few days, he asked me if I had ever even tried one, and of course I had to say no. Well according to him, I couldn’t really argue as effectively as he could since he had tried both and had a more objective view. At least, that’s what he said. So he gave me a trial account CD and told me to give it a try.

So I took it home and installed it. I remember it taking about 20-30 minutes to install and all I could think was “this better be worth the wait”. Well I fired it up and the music hit on the sign in screen and I just had to sit for a second and listen. As long time WoW players know, the soundtrack of WoW is one of the best game soundtracks around. I learned this from the very first time I logged in. But having my computer in the living room of our studio sharing sound space with our television, and my tendency to ignore everything around me with headphones on, I turned off the sound of the game that day and didn’t even hear much of the game for the next four years.

So after realizing I had to have a username and password, I closed the game and fired up Firefox to get things set up. After setting it all up on the blizzard website, I double clicked the WoW icon again wondering what I was getting myself into. After seeing the login screen again, this time with no beautiful music,  I typed in my newly minted username and password and clicked the login button. Then came the server selection screen. What the hell is this? I thought I was playing WORLD of Warcraft, not WORLDS of Warcraft. I had no idea what the difference between a PVP, PVE, RP, and a P-PVP server were. So after reading server name after server name I finally decided to text my buddy and find out what a “server” was and what I needed to select. After getting his text back, I logged into Gurubashi-US (PVP) and the character creation screen popped up.

2 factions, 5 races per faction, and 9 different classes to choose from, needless to say it was time to text again. If every race could be every class, which is what I had thought at first, that would be 90 different combinations available for me to choose in setting up my character. So after letting me know he played Horde side, I decided on an Orc cause I thought they looked the coolest. Then I read the little note about hunters that was available, not the more elaborate one like they have now, but the old one. And if you have been playing for awhile, you know they weren’t very helpful in telling you exactly what your job would be later on down the road.

Next came the moment when you choose the letters that would show up above your character for the rest of their lives in Azeroth. I didn’t take this part very seriously on my first day. Early in the aforementioned class, we had been talking about pirates, so I thought it would be awesome to name my character “Argamatese”.

So I clicked the create character screen and off to the loading screen I went. It went by pretty fast from what I remember, much faster than my add-on infested loading screen now. There I was standing in Durotar, looking like a peon with nothing but my rickety axe. When I created my first toon, Hunters didn’t get pets to start, or bows from what I remember. So I went off beating things and leveling.

I remember how awesome it was getting each new skill with each of the new levels that I gained. It took til the next day for me to be able to tame a pet. I tamed everything I saw. I started with a boar, moved to a crab, then an alligator and finally ending with a Raptor. But I could tell I was going to be hooked on the game, and I was.

So there it is, my first day in wow. I probably should have wrote a bit shorter, but one I get going I really don’t stop. So congrats if you made it this far. See you at day 4.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.