Servers and Latency

 Do you remember why you chose the server you play on as your home base? In all honesty it has been over six years so the exact reasons for me are pretty fuzzy. I think the platewearer and I chose Eldre'Thalas because of the ones that were available to us at the time it shared our time zone. Or so we thought.  Recently we have been experiencing some crippling latency whenever we attempt to play, especially during peek hours.

Normally when something like this happens you go through the check list.

1. Is there anything running in the background on my PC?
2. Is my hardware having any issues? (Check network card, router, modem, etc.)
3. Is my server having issues?

But these were all coming up fine.

Another common issue people then look at is their service provider. We happen to use AT&T. Since World of Warcraft uses AT&T data centers as their hosts we should have awesome speeds. What could be the issue then?

So we decided to dig a little deeper and discover exactly where our server was located, then trace the connection to see what could possibly be going on between here and there. Low and behold our server was NOT located in the East Coast as we had thought but in Los Angeles, California, WAY across the country. Well THAT might have something to do with it. Sure enough when we log into a server out of New York our connection was SINGING....

So that leaves us with a bit of a delema. If we are on a closer server our latency issues disappear, but HOME is Eldre'Thalas. If it were just the two of us to consider, the faster connection speeds would be the deciding factor, but we have the guild as well. When you have 100+ depending on you, and you have been leading said gang of misfits for almost six years, to just walk away...Add to that the cost of a server transfer, because lets face it, the thought of abandoning Daraia at this point is unthinkable to me. The decision is not so cut and dried.

If you are having latency issues and none of the previously mentioned items seem to fix it check into where your server is located because in 2010 several of them in the US were moved. Then check your connection, places like Speedtest.net can give you a concrete answer as to wither or not your connection is the issue. We were also able to find some help on Wow Interface. (Sorry we only looked at PC stuff not Mac.)

At this point I am just gritting my teeth and bearing with it. Hopefully things will improve in the near future. If not, if Eldre'Thalas is once again offered free server transfers we may be seriously considering a guild relocation.

Blue Dragonhawk

So last night I bit the bullet and finally did it. My last mount for the Mountain o' Mounts achievement was the Cenarion War Hippogryph. It took having two guild mates threatening to buy it for me to get me to cough up the dough. I can't help it I am CHEAP. (Can't you hear the little birdies singing?) Wait, lets just go with "Thrifty" it sounds better. Sad thing is I STILL have mounts I want to get. This is quite the change from the individual in Burning Crusade who was always saying "Why do you need another mount? Your butt can only sit on one at a time ANYWAY."

This whole journey started when I was attacked by the Time Lost Protodrake while out picking herbs during the first few weeks of Wrath. It spawned right on top of me and all I saw was the silver dragon as it swooped down. My first thought was "Oh crap a rare, I am going to die" since my last experience with a rare dragon was during Burning Crusade when it took 5 people to take one down. Surprisingly the thing had hardly ANY health and was dead at my feet in a matter of moments. Even more shocking it had a MOUNT on it. Nowhere is there a warning label which states "Caution, this creature's venom will infect you with an itch to collect MORE mounts to keep him company". Before this time, if it wasn't BLACK I wasn't the least bit interested in acquiring it.

I find it ironic that almost exactly one year ago I discussed this achievement and stated that there was NO WAY you could do it without spending a GREAT DEAL of money.  Let me just share that the ONLY expensive mount I own is the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth and THAT was only purchased at the request of my guild for raids. While I was EXTREMELY reluctant to make the 16k plunge the convenience is well worth it. The largest chunk of my collection is made up of reputation based mounts that I seldom use because they are land based. Only one of them is a "real money" mount and I got THAT as a gift. Of the mounts I DO use they are almost exclusively drop or achievement based.

My rare mount farming partner is thrilled I have hit this milestone because he figures any mounts that drop will go to him. (He still has about 25 left to go on his achievement.) My problem is that the itch I got from my Time Lost hasn't lessened in severity. So I will still be hitting up Utgarde Pinnacle for the Blue Protodrake. Rivendare will fall at my hands yet again until I get his Deathcharger, and even after my partner gets his Feather duster I will be doing stealth runs of Sethekk Halls. Most likely I will work on getting the Turkey but I have given up on the Sea Turtle, unless he is kind and comes up while I am fishing for fish feasts.

For those of you still working on collecting, don't give up. From what Bornakk has stated the number of mounts we will have available to us is only going to increase as time goes on. Also the addon Livestock is great for giving you variety. What I most enjoy about it is the fact I can chose which mounts I want included in my random selection.

So happy hunting and Good Luck!

This Evil Box of Wires

For some computers are almost an extension of themselves. They understand them, manipulate them, use them in ways that I personally find fascinating.

I am not one of those people. The on going joke in our home is that I learned everything I know about computers in "self defense". It is somewhat disheartening when my 4 year old son is consistently able to do more with a computer than I am...but I continue to learn out of pure stubborn will (and constant prodding from the plate wearer in the family.)

These past few weeks have been repeatedly frustrating for me as Wow, for whatever reason, has been randomly crashing and I have been unable to determine why. My Husband and I run identical systems and he runs a PLETHORA of more mods than I do but I have yet to discover any consistency in the reasons for my disconnects. I can be mid raid (yeah, DC on Thad and KT is OH so fun) or just flying across the old world. I even tested to see if was just ONE character but no I have the same problem on ALL of them.

So for the last few days I have been going over the Mods that I DO use to see what might be going on. One of my guildies told me to "get rid of any mods that didn't contribute to my job." (What I thought was funny was in HIS opinion that meant ANY mod that didn't deal SOLELY with Rogue DPS.) Unfortunately, as I told him, my job ISN'T to just be "dps" I am a Raid Leader, a Class Lead, a Group Lead AND a Guild Leader. Getting rid of mods that help me in THOSE areas would actually negatively effect my ability to DO my "Rogue dps".

It has been an eye opening experience for me in that I never considered myself a "Mod Junkie" but I now realize I use A LOT of mods and there are quite a few that I REALLY don't know how I would function with out. I also discovered a bunch of additional mods (courtesy of my Husband of course) that I have absolutely NO idea why they are there or WHAT they do.) So what DO I use?

Archeron - This Mod tells me what has happened in a raid or party (Why did people die? Who pulled? etc.)

Ackis Recipe List - Scans my trade skills and tells me which recipes I don't already have and how to obtain them.

All Played - Tracks the time played, rested Xp and Money for all my characters.

Atlas - Maps of all the instances

AtlasLoot - Shows the possible loot from the bosses in instances and raids.

AtlasQuest - Shows the quests for dungeons and raids

Auctioneer - Helps me to track items going rate on the Auction house. I recently purged my file as it was HUGE. (Since I scan it every day.) But I also have guild members who rely on that to get the most up to date prices for our server.

Big Wigs Bossmods- Warns of Common Boss buffs, de buffs and attacks in raids. I personally like this one better than DBM because it is more frequently updated.

Broker2Fubar - Allows me to put addons on my Fubar that normal don't have that ability

BugGrabber - Collects all those annoying error messages rather than having them pop up on my screen.
BugSack - Takes all those collected error messages and puts them in one place so I can pass that information on to Mod developers.

Chinchilla - Allows me to change the Shape, Size and Configuration of me mini map. (I keep getting rid of this but My hubby keeps bringing it back. He LOVES it. Personally I think it is just due to the name of it.)

Dresser - Allows me to dress/undress my target so I can see what gear will look like on them.

DualSpecer - Another Broker Addon that allows me to switch specs from my Fubar

Elephant - Records all my Whispers, Chat, Guild and Officer logs (or anything else I ask it to). Again something I have to purge on a regular basis.

Enchantrix - (part of Auctioneer) that tells me what an item will generally dis-enchant into and the going rate on those materials.

Failbot - Tells me when people in the raid miss things that they SHOULD be able to avoid such as flame waves in OS or Eruptions in Hegin

Fishbringer - Compares my fishing level to the level of the zone telling me what my percentage is for 100% success in getting fish (rather than trash) really nice for when you are leveling fishing. Also counts how many fish until your next level of fishing is achieved.

Fubar 3.6 - Allows you to access mods via easy to see bars. It has MANY plug-ins in addition to working with Broker that allows you to input those mods that don't already have Fubar access.
Of the plug ins Fubar has I use: BagFu, ClockFu, DungeonDuiFu, DruabilityFu, ExperienceFu, FactionsFu, GroupFU, GuildFu, InstanceInfoFu, LocationFu, MiniPerfsFu, MoneyFu, QuestFu, and VolumeFu.

Guild Check - Lets me know who leveled, who left, who joined, and what changes were made to guild notes while I was off line.

InspectEquip - Tells me where that cool looking piece of gear I see is from.

Learning Aid - When I learn a new spell, Pet, Trade level, etc this pops up to let me know. (Very handy when respecing to just grab all your spells and then replace them on your tool bar.)

Lib: Itembonuslib - Tells me the item level numbers on items (very helpful when comparing gear for Flame Leviathan fight in Ulduar.)

Lightheaded - Allows me to access Wowhead in game.

LittleWigs - Like BigWigs this mod tells about Common Boss attacks, Debuffs, etc only for the 5 man instances.

Loggerhead - This automatically turns on my combat log when I enter any instance as well as requests if I wish to reset said log.

Mapster - A map mod that allows me to pull up the maps in a window format. VERY nice when used with other mods like TomTom or Gathering.

Omen - My Threat meter...How I would suffer without thee....Its dulcet booming doth ring in my ears on frequent occasions...

OmniCC - My cool down counter, lets me know when I can use a move or how long I have to wait until it will be available again.

Outfitter - Allows me to switch gear with the press of a button. From Pvp to Fishing. Mute to Combat.

Quixote - Gives me information on the quests I am working on.

Raid Tracker - Lets me know what raids I am saved to and on which characters. (VERY helpful when you have Multiple high level characters.

Rating Buster - Lets me do side by side comparison of gear.

Recount - Activity meter (shows Damage, Healing, interrupts, etc) of any fights that have taken place.

Ready Check Announcer - Announces to the Raid/party the results of a ready check I have conducted.

RedRange - Shows me when things are out of range for me to use.

Reputation Monitor - Tracks on screen the reputations I have gained/lost that session.

Satrina Buff Frames - Tracks buffs, debuffs, etc as you set it up. I personally have it configured to track my Slice and Dice, Ruptures and Hunger for Blood.

TargetCharms - This mod, provides me with a bar with all the marking target symbols on them whenever I am a raid or party leader. Makes it much simpler to mark when necessary.

TomTom - My personal navigator for WoW. Helps me find where I am going and gets me there via the most direct route.

TradeTabs - Allows me to access all my trade skills via a tab able window rather than having to open each one separately.

TrinketMenu - Provides a two slot window that allows access to my equipped trinkets as well as to switch out trinkets as needed, VERY nice when you have "use" trinkets as part of your rotation as it can free up space on your action bar.

WIM (WoW Instant Messenger) - I would go CRAZY, (OK, crazier than I already am) without this mod, it allows me to keep each of my whispered conversations in seprate "tabbed" windows. It also tracks those conversations so I know who all I have talked to in a given session. Being that I average a good 5-7 conversations at a time in a given raid it is VERY helpful.

Nirriti's Group AggroMeter - Tells me each person's aggro percentage within the group/raid.

ZOMG Buffs - Tracks who is buffed, who is giving what buffs and what buffs are available to be given.

Now these are all the mods I USE...I also have all these...THINGS that my Husband uses and pushes over on to my box when he does our standard update that I have to manually go through and disable. (Bejeweled, Comix, Scrolling CombatText, and Peggle are just a few of his favorites that I can not abide.) Not that there is anything WRONG with them per say...just that I have NO USE for them what so ever and some of them I find down right annoying.

So this will be my on going project. Trying to determine if I can FIX whatever is ailing my Evil Box of Wires before I have to purge even more items from it.