Necromania

No, this isn't a post about how much I love World Of Warcraft Forsaken, although I do.
This is another of my slightly rare Anime bumps. Which crazy cartoon did I FINALLY finish this time? Well, I'll have you know I finished a couple but this one was:
"Shikabane Hime" , or "Corpse Princess" in English.

I watched both seasons and found it entertaining. A couple excellent twists and addressed MOST of the larger questions the series presented.
I loved the opening and ending credit sequences and the images they evoke as well as how well it embodied the series as a whole. I wont lie, the fan service was quite compelling without ever being blatant or pandering. Well, maybe it was blatant, but not presented in any ways that made it seem crude or part of a joke.
This was one of those shows where I really liked the world the creators had developed and would LOVE to build a character duo for cosplay because I think many fans of the series would be able to identify what show you're from, similar to many pokemon cosplays.

As with many anime, the finale was good, but left one with a feeling of unanswered questions. I know this is fairly typical, and one of my more anime intense friends said "now to watch the OVA" but to be fair the end actually gave some closure to the whole series. Definitely better than many other anime I've seen. So perhaps my rambling is moot.

Apparently you can watch this thing ALL over the intarwebs for free, I think there's even some *gasp* dubbed episodes on Hulu, for heathens who *shudder* enjoy, such a thing. . . . like me. Honestly though, sometimes I like to watch a series in dub so I can actually WATCH the show, see the animation in all its glory and not have to READ the show, so I usually do both if I enjoy an anime enough. Evidence of this is EVA & Lagann where I can tell differen versions by how different the dub. Vs. the official sub./fan sub.'s are.

Anyway. if the art and the AMV peaked your interest, here's the first episode. Check em out.

Dieing to See Stockades

How to get anywhere in WoW. The art of the corpse drop!

Today's segment comes to you, thanks to the mind of my good friend Jubbles, who suggested I write about something we know a lot about, Dieing, and how to use it to your advantage in the Wide World of Azeroth.

Now, this is being written Pre-Cataclysm, but most of these guidelines are universal and I have not heard any major rumblings about if Blizzard will change death once Deathwing hits.

One thing I have always wanted to do in WoW (among, other things ) was to assemble a group and do the opposing factions lowbie instance. Thanks to dungeon finder, this is super easy and ally have done RFC and Hordies have rolled all over in Stockades. BUT, I would love to get a crew together of about level tewnty-ish, run down to STV, swim up the coast, and drop into Stockades, run it, and hearth out. Legit like.

Also, I had another companion, a "melee Lock," who ninjad an epic sword in ST long ago, who would bother me from time to time. I was out in Zangamarsh, finishing up the last quest there, that's about 66 right? And this kid, still not even 55, invites me to group and comes and finds me in the middle of a bunch of naga I had just cleared. He tells me that he has corpse drop explored, almost all of Outland before even hitting upper 50's. That he got a port around 50, and hasn't actually done a quest for two months.

So, the tips.

(Optional, because these feel a bit like cheating) Scout the target
Hit Wowhead , Thottbot , or even the excellent Wowwiki. Search it up, check the terrain, what kind of mobs are there, is it deep in enemy pvp territory (not that this is a deterrent, just good to have the info)? Then hop on your closest flight path.
Stock Up
Get yourself some pots (speed/health/stealth/water walk/water breathing) food, water for regen, make sure your hearth/ port mats are stocked and off cool down for when you achieve your target.

Do!:
Get Naked!

As many of us know, dieing means our gear takes a hit in durability, this is solved by taking it off as you are not killing anything (usually) your the one getting killed! Although do wear non-durability items, like off hand frills & tabards, and many of us like cloth hats, low repair bill, but the right combo means you die in style!

RUN!
Move out, your not going to get there standing naked at the FP, dive into the danger zone!

The 5 "D"s; Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive & Dodge!
This takes some practice but when you perfect the art it can prevent quite a few deaths, if you want to be VERY fastidious, practice in progressively higher level zones until you have it down. Basically, learn where aggro ranges on mobs are relative to your level and their level. This in turn feeds to scoping out clear areas between mobs. I love high mounds as that will often be enough to take you out of a threat range, or even along the side of a hill can keep you away from angry pats and gives you the distance from the large cat chomping on your tabard tails. Which actually leads into my next tip.

Location! Find a Good Plot.
So, you have a small army of kobolds behind you thumping away and you just ran into 30 more, your HP is dropping below 20% and at the rate they are hitting you, you have 2 more seconds of "aspect of the dazed" before your "feign death" becomes "method acting death." Find a good spot to die. You will need to run back to this spot and when you rez, take just as much time to check pats around you and which mobs are about, before you hit that "resurrect" button.

(warning: Crotchety old WoW player Rant)
Back in my day, we didn't have no, new fangled graveyards around every corner, or some zippidy do-da speed increase as ghost form. If that was your problem, you rolled Nelf, and many did. When we died, we had to walk all the way back across the zone, get back to our corpse, and by the time we'd walked back to our poor, outstretched forms all the mobs wed takin 2 minutes a piece to kill, had respawned. Whats the point of this rant? Well, dont complain about not having a graveyard close enough (except for BRM, that one is still silly) and suck it up and get walking, that's part of this seminar, your going to be walking around in that crazy gray-white world with that whooshing noise of "spirit wind" or whateverthehell it is (unless of course, you turn it off in the interface, but, well, that's no fun, unless of course, you're like me and are dead all the time).

Also Optional; Take a friend!
Nothing is more fun in WoW, than doing it grouped. Like many things in life and game-life, having a companion, even if that person isn't actually doing the crazy drops with you, maybe just some guildies in g-chat, can keep you company, share your triumphs, or, deride you for being silly and not asking for a high level escort.

Finally, but not cumulatively, take pictures! Pics or it didn't happen!















Happy Dropping!