Marc Morales Dot Com

Huataurga of the Nightfall

2009-06-16T08:18:00.003-06:00

On Sunday Bone Brigade managed to take down Sartharion with all 3 drakes on 10-man. It took us over 5 hours and hundreds of gold in repair bills.

The 10 man version of the fight is much harder than the 25 man in that the same number of things are going on, but you have less people to manage them with. We tried 2 strategies:

1.) The standard 25 man strategy - dps Sarth to open, then dps the first drake when he comes down, AOE adds, dps the second drake, into the portal that spawns, kill the 3rd drake, then kill sarth, all while avoiding flame walls and staying out of the blue shit. We tried this for a couple of hours, but kept having problems with either DPS dying or healers having to move at an ill timed moment killing the tank or whatever. It takes just one mistake for the whole thing to go down the tubes.

2.) Target the boss and kill him before the 3rd drake touches down. The first time we tried this we got the boss down to 8% before we wiped, that was the point we decided this was doable. We tried a this for a couple more hours, swapping between who was tanking and healing so we could get the most bang out of the damage and still keep the tank alive, but we finally found the right combination and manage to take him down.

So now I have both titles, 'twilight vanquisher' from the 25 man version of the fight, and now 'of the night fall' from the 10 man.

I'm a horible horrible person.

2009-04-20T13:35:00.003-06:00

So the new content patch dropped last week, and part of my to-do list was to set my pet gorilla Avalanche free and go tame a new bear. I knew which one I wanted, so off I went to Venomspite in search of one of the beautiful white polar bears that populate the area.

I found one right away at the base of the mountain protecting the northern side of the town. I dismounted, fired off an ice trap and began taming. A moment later I realized I was being attacked, by this bear's cub.

Now I was having second thoughts. Did I really want to take this momma away from her baby? Was I heartless enough to leave this poor bear cub an orphan? Before I could stop myself, the taming process completed and the momma bear was mine.

The polar bear cub was still here and still gnawing at my hooves. To make me feel worse, his momma, now compelled to defend her master, began attacking her cub! It was bad enough that I was leaving a bear cub an orphan, I was not going to let him die at his mother's paws. I sent the bear to attack a wolf in the distance and played dead. The cub soon lost interest in me and wandered off.

I'm going to have to do a lot of good to make up for this awful kharma.

The Patch Drops Today.

2009-04-14T12:43:00.004-06:00

I just read the live patch notes. With the nerf to explosive shot, the change in TNT, and the change in Lock and load, I'm expecting a drop in DPS. I just don't know how much.

*Lock and Load redesigned: You now have a 33/66/100% chance when you trap a target with Freezing Trap, Freezing Arrow or Frost Trap and a 2/4/6% chance when you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap or Black Arrow to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo. This now has a new spell effect and sound.

This used to proc from traps and serpent sting. Now since I have to keep up black arrow, I'm wondering if SrS is even worth keeping in my rotation or glyphing for?

*Explosive Shot: Base damage lowered by 10%. Attack power scaling reduced by 12.5%. The periodic damage from this ability no longer triggers Judgement of Wisdom and Judgement of Light.

Straight up nerf, unless LnL starts proccing a WHOLE lot more.

*T.N.T.: Increases damage done by Explosive Shot, Immolation Trap, and Explosive Trap by 2/4/6%.

A version of this talent in a previous build had it also refreshing your Immolation trap effect. Between this and Black Arrow, there may have been a increased chance for LnL procs, but this is no longer the case. There's no point in trap dancing at all now (not that I was in the first place).

We're now forced to take all 3 points in hunting party since it increases agility now on top of its mana generating effect.

Black Arrow, our new sort of ranged trap, increases all damage by 6% and also deals an amount of shadow damage. As I mentioned earlier this is the only way to get LnL to proc now.

Sniper training has been changed, now instead of having to be 35 yards out from your target to get the bonus damage, you just have to be stationary for 6 seconds, although the talent text says this lasts for only 15 seconds. We'll see how this works in practice, but in Naxx there are just as many fights one can't stay still for as there are fights where one must be up close and personal with the target. We'll see how this works out in Ulduar.

So tonite I need to:

Pay 1k gold for the dual spec feature.
Lay out my SV and BM specs
Buy a new bag
Buy a shitload of bullets
Work out new rotations for my builds
Raid.

Wish me luck.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

2009-04-13T07:18:00.002-06:00

Caro and I were totally exhausted yesterday. She spent Saturday on a plane coming home from Chicago, so she had an excuse. I just had a sore back and legs, don't really know why.

So we crawl outta bed around noon and have some leftovers for lunch. Around one, the power goes out.

We check the bills (yeah, they're paid) and call the apartment answering service. They get a guy out here who sees that it's not just our apartment, but all of them in the whole building. He resets the building breaker and apartment breakers, to no avail. He calls the power company.

Centerpoint comes out, trips the breakers and gets power back on for 15 minutes before it all shuts down again. The problem is that out building has a bad main breaker. Nothing he can do, tells the office to call their electricians.

Around 4, the electricians are here, scratching their asses, trying to figure out where they're gonna get a 1200 amp breaker at 4pm on a Zombie Jesus Sunday. At 7pm, we decide to go out for dinner.

Carrabba's that the best Caesar Fucking Salad in Houston. Hands Down.

We eat, watch a little of the cubs game, kill some time at Walgreens ("Hey, do you have the bloody hooker deluxe edition of the ShamWow!?") and head home.

It's 10pm. They're still working. We figure it's time for bed anyway. We're still exhausted.

11:00: Power's back on. I go downstairs to congratulate the electricians on a job well done (sic) but they're gone. Oh well. At least we got lights again.

If such a thing as "Anti-Street Cred" exists...

2009-03-12T13:59:00.002-06:00

...then this man is swimming in it (pun intended).

None of you will know what any of this means.

2009-03-11T15:01:00.006-06:00

On Sunday we didn't have the raid make-up (or even just the people) needed to get any of the 25 man content down. we wound up 8 manning a non-heroic Naxxramas instead. But last night we did a complete 180. Malygos? Downed in 2 attempts. Sartherion? Downed in 2 attempts - with 2 drakes up. Heroic Naxxramas? Cleared 3 quarters, leaving Construct and the last 2 bosses. All before 11pm. The best night of raiding yet for this group at this level. Next week, we try to kill Sarth with all 3 drakes up.

Caro has us signed up for the WoW PVP tournament, just to get a new vanity pet. 200 matches. This will be painful.

Again, HCS's first gig this season is March 29th at Bayou City. You should come.

So, um...yeah. How ya doin?

2009-03-09T14:04:00.003-06:00

Oh I'm doin' alright I guess.

Caro and I had a good weekend. I made french toast for breakfast saturday morning, then we just kinda hung out 'til it was time to meet up with friends for a 4pm Imax screening of Watchmen.

Watchmen was great. Caro nailed it when she said that she knew the movie would be good as soon as the opening credits rolled. I would totally see it again. You should all see it. Then go see Slumdog. Then the Wrestler.

We kinda just farted around on Sunday. Caro's starting to work out, so I bought some new athletic shoes to work out in with her.

Caro and I (or should I say Lleyla and Hua) did manage an 8-man clear of Naxxramas with the guild Sunday Night, and I scored a second gun to have on hand if my main one breaks from too many Volleys. I do wish there was a new level of ammunition to get with reputation, 7g a stack for Mammoth Cutters is just painful.

We're also back in the choir this season, after skipping christmas. Our first gig is the Bayou City Arts Festival on March 29th.

Legal Immigration...

2008-09-29T10:13:00.001-06:00

...is a joke. Go look

Aftermath

2008-09-16T08:36:00.002-06:00

I've heard from all of our family, we're all accounted for and safe. Mom and rick have some downed tree issues, nothing affecting the house. Stephy is OK in her new house. Dad's neighborhood took a sound thrashing, but his house made it thru OK, as did Rosie and Frankie, from what I hear. We haven't heard if Caro's Mom's apartment had any major issues, her Dad's theater had water come in fromt he roof and thru the walls. He'll be dealing with that for a while, but at least the structure is still standing.

I made it into the office with the rest of the IT crew yesterday. We got power back around 10am and began prepping things for business around noon. Apart from a few minor phone issues, things seem to have gone off without a hitch.

Flooded in again

2008-09-14T08:07:00.002-06:00

Well, we're flooded in again, so I cant make it out to the office to check things out. I've tasked a coworker with it, but he cant get into the building.

From the outside, he doesn't see any visual structual damage. He's also not seen a single sign of electricity anywhere along the route, including at the building.

I'd like someone to email or otherwise get hold of Mr. Pratt to have him check out the inside of the office if he can get in...

The worst is over for us

2008-09-13T07:52:00.002-06:00

We've had the last rain band pass us by here in the Galleria. We still have power, but are flooded in as the previous pictures show. The water hasn't entered the apartment, but is pretty close to the door. At least the rain has stopped.

I haven't heard from my mom or dad this morning, Caro's dad is dealing with the storm damage to the theater.

I think we'll all be ok.

2008-09-13T07:48:00.000-06:00

2008-09-13T07:45:00.001-06:00

we're still here.

2008-09-12T21:24:00.003-06:00

Well power is out for most of my family south of houston. Mom, dad, and sis are all out of power, but are otherwise fine. My office on the west side is down as well. We're still up, but I dont know for how long....

Ike is almost here.

2008-09-12T18:53:00.003-06:00

The pictures in the previous posts cant really show how strong the wind is right now. the sky is darkening and the wind is picking up the dirt in the street, making it hard to see.

Power is intermittent down in pearland according to my mom and a buddy. Ours still still up for the moment.

2008-09-12T18:40:00.001-06:00

2008-09-12T18:36:00.001-06:00

2008-09-12T18:32:00.000-06:00

Big wheel keep on turning

2008-09-12T10:07:00.002-06:00

After our experience with hurricane Rita a couple of years ago - the evacuation was far more dangerous than the storm could ever have hoped to be (at least for us in Houston) - I made a decision for Caro and I that we wouldn't waste time running from the next storm. Many in Houston apparently feel the same way. Apart from the folks living in flood prone coastal areas, I don't personally know anyone who's running. Traffic is incredibly light, lots of business are closed, we just seem to be sitting here waiting.

The news is taking full advantage of this and is doing their level best to keep people watching by scaring the ever-loving shit out of them. It's like Houston is suddenly Tina Turner, and Ike is coming home to beat the snot out of us. (I can't take credit for that simile, it came from a headline on fark last week.)

At any rate, we have tons of water and food, and books to read. We also have a flashlight/radio/cell charger that uses a hand crank, thanks to caro's mom. I just hope power isn't out for too long.

Personally, if I get a chance to see Anderson Cooper here covering the storm in person, it'll be all worth it. I'm gonna kick him square in the nuts.

LHC Rap

2008-09-03T14:57:00.001-06:00

This is just awesome:

2008-08-10T15:57:00.001-06:00

Omg

Recovery

2008-06-16T06:26:00.001-06:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the HCS Spring review Saturday! We hope you had as good a time as we did. Caro and I spent Sunday pretty much not moving. Now it’s on to the auction and Christmas.

gettin ready for the show...

2008-06-14T12:31:00.001-06:00

Big Show and Upcoming auction

2008-06-13T10:17:00.002-06:00

Houston Choral Showcase's Spring Revue is tomorrow at The Lowe Theater at St. John's School. Details and map are here. Come see me and the wife on stage.

The choir's annual fundraising auction is soon as well:

New Reception Photos

2008-06-12T10:38:00.003-06:00

The photos from the reception have been posted on our wedding site. How many people can YOU name?