EnsidiaGamingCommunity

Let's start with some general questions:

Tell me a bit about yourself, for example what do you do for a living, what are your hobbies, what music do you like, which movies, books, etc. What you do for fun, what are your dreams in real life, anything really.

I'm studying at the moment and I'll be done in about a year's time (hopefully). My hobbies aren't really that exciting, mostly just working out and playing some sports here and there, mainly basketball or football. I enjoy a lot of different music, everything from Lady Gaga to brutal death metal to melodic death metal to black metal to hardstyle to trance. I listen to a lot of different things, watch a lot of movies aswell, and that's an even broader spectre than the music I listen to.I enjoy reading Andy McNab novels, mainly because he's awesome. Look him up! I dont have a lot of fun in real life because of several factors like having to study, living where I do and 99% of all my irl friends are out traveling the world. I have a pretty stupid dream in real life that I've only ever told 1 person, and its gonna stay that way because it feels kinda silly.

Let's get a bit more specific. Tell me about your personality in real life and does Tun the feral druid share this personality; has it changed in any way since you started playing World of Warcraft?

I'm the same person in real life as I am ingame. Loud, annoying and really hard to love.

Personally I don't see you as the typical "gamer nerd". When and how did you get started with World of Warcraft and gaming in general, any story behind that?

That's my brother's fault. He's my best friend and has always been the guy I've turned to for advice or help. He played video games, and when I was younger I used to sit on his bed and watch him play games. It was only natural for me to follow. The biggest moment in my life as a gamer was when I was 14 or 15 and I got to play my first game of CS with my brother. I could finally play with him, that was really huge for me. And really, I'm not a typical nerd. How many nerds do you know who can deadlift 150kg? :D

I don't hang out with nerds so none!

Why did you choose to play a Tauren Male Druid and what role did you have in mind for yourself when you picked your class? Did your Druid turn out the way you expected and are you still happy about you class choice?

I rolled a druid because I had already played a warlock, shaman, hunter, rogue, priest and mage in the US/EU/KR closed/open betas, so when wow went live sometime in February 2005 I just rolled a druid because I really didn't want to play a warrior. I didn't have anything in mind when I rolled it, I was still an ultra newbie back then. It turned into healing all the way through Vanilla tho, then going tanking in TBC and now mainly DPS in WotLK, so I guess you can say I've been around! In that sense, I'm extremely happy about my class choice now. Obviously I wish I was as OP as DK's on AoE fights, but you cant have it all I guess :(



Now, on to your history and how you ended up in Ensidia.

Trace your lineage - which guilds have you been in since you started playing, got any stories from those guilds or anything like that?

My lineage is that of a craftsman. A maker of toys. (If anyone knows what movie that quote is from, you get a cookie!) Anyways, I started playing in a guild called the Lodge back in the WoW EU Closed Beta. When WoW went live we started playing on Shadow Moon. Shadow Moon turned into a lag fest because it got infested with Czehcs, Russians and Polish people, so after a while we used free migration to move to Magtheridon.

The Lodge merged with our long-time partners Clan GLB and formed GLodge, and this realm would be my home the next 3 years. After a while I started getting to know the danish crew in Nihilum and I started talking more and more to the rest of the people in Nihilum as well. That meant after a while GLodge started doing outdoor raids with Nihilum on the drakes back then, Lethon, Taerar, Emeriss and Ysondre. Funny story there... I always stayed home from school on Thursdays to raid outdoor dragons with the Nihi boys, and one time we had a raid going etc. (Kungen was slacking), and our main tank got mind controlled. One of the GLodge mages (Glidebent) wanted to kill the naughty Alliance, so he pom pyro'd and started nuking like crazy. Only thing is.. He nuked our Main Tank, and he of course died since nobody healed him. Wipe! :D Other than that, GLodge was part of a very unique group of guilds that ever got to see pre-fix Princess Huhuran. Following the success of the Nihilum+GLodge AQ farming raffle, we got AQ opened in the least amount of time, but were still only world third. Once people got to Huhuran everyone noticed something weird. It was a really easy fight and nobody knew why. Turns out, next week when we entered AQ they implemented the 30% enrage. Kinda boring fight without that enrage!

The Lodge, Glodge, Nihilum or Ensidia. In what guild did you have the most fun and why?

GLodge. When GLodge was at its highest it was the best place to be on earth. I had my brother there, lots of IRL friends, the atmosphere was nice and casual and we still raided pretty hardcore with really good progress. Plus, I was the raid leader and guild master. I called the shots and I did whatever I wanted to. I remember inviting random gold betters to the guild, trashing them for 5 minutes and kicking them out again. Good times.

You played as a Guild Leader on the same server as Nihilum for a long time, how did that affect your guild?

It didn't really affect our guild that much, I think. You were a standing joke in the guild tho; "Come on be pro or Kungen won't recruit you" etc. It was a lot easier getting recruits tho, because there were A LOT of people who just migrated to Magtheridon in hopes of getting a shot in Nihilum, so you would just grab what you needed for progress and kick the ones you knew weren't going to be loyal when it was farm time.

I guess you can say Nihilum just made it easier for GLodge. We never really lost anyone to them either. They recruited Battlehunter, Deify, Hovsa and Scorp from GLodge. None of them lasted very long. Scorp and Battlehunter even both came back to GLodge afterwards. We recruited some Nihilum fallout tho in the shape of the twins from Norway Mariuz and Dionysos. But yeah, lots of people in GLodge were friends with a lot of people in Nihilum so all in all it was just positive.

Plus, if we were stuck on a boss I could just ask some of my Nihi buddies for leaks hehe :D. Anyway, it was A LOT easier on GLodge than Realitysucks/Eyeballers. Man, they lost a lot of members to Nihi. Oh, and didn't GLodge help you get sapphiron down as fast as you did by lending you 221 frozen runes?

Haha yes thanks for that! Realitysucks and Eyeballers loaned us a few as well but I don't think we paid those back since we stopped raiding :P.

Did Nihilum ever try to recruit you or any of your members? If they tried, did they succeed?

Haha are you kidding me? You tried recruiting me yourself for 2+ years! People in GLodge knew what I thought about talking to Nihilum about getting recruited tho, so I only know that Selenia was asked to join a few times, other than the 4 people I already mentioned. I can imagine a lot more getting asked tho, like Iudicia, Dyxie, Dagar and Aquene.
I guess you can say you succeeded in recruiting me, after a while. First time I was invited was back during outdoor dragons during BWL, and I ended up joining after you killed Kil'Jaeden.

All lies. We all know you begged me to recruit you for years :D

I've heard that you were kind of a Kungen fanboy before you joined Nihilum, is this true?! :)

Hey man, there's a little Kungen fanboy in all of us. I think I even sent you an ingame mail saying how big of a fan I was. Kinda cute when you think about it!

Now we go down memory lane.

What was your favorite 5 man dungeon from classic World of Warcraft?

Stratholme, no doubt. Nothing comes close. Well, ok, Dire Maul: West always had some perverted appeal to me for some obscure reason.

The classic dungeons were the best. My personal favorite was Blackrock depths!

Best memories from pre MC raiding (Ubrs, Stratholme, Scholomance 40 man)

Haha. If we're talking betas and stuff, then definitely when we tried raiding Scholomance at level 42 or something. We never even got the first trash mob to less than 90% :D. In Vanilla pre-tbc raiding was UBRS. That place was so good! Killing The Beast for the first time.. Trying your best not to die on General Drakkisath etc. Epic instance. Plus, I got full Wildheart in 2 weeks! Best geared druid on the server! :D

Ubrs was so amazing. I remember spending weeks of DKP on that Dal'Rend Main Hand sword and a week later they upped the droprate from like 1% to 20%+ :((

Best moments from MC/BWL/Anything pre TBC

My best memories are from BWL and AQ. Thats when GLodge was at its strongest I think. My memories of MC are destroyed by a bunch of terrible people we had in Clan GLB back then, who later formed Uden Lo (fu jollz, kiwa and that shaman who's name I forgot). BWL was a really nice instance for GLodge. If you remember, we recruited one of your old hunters Ogroz. He guided us through the instance so we killed the last 2 drakes and Chromaggus in 2 days. Sick progress!

Haha just like a true noob guild! :D

AQ was on a level of its own, because of all the crazy grinding beforehand. Being on the same server as Nihilum was really nice for this tho, since everything got done so fast. Killing Battleguard Sartura by graveyard zerging her was epic, especially the part where we ran next to ghosts from Nihilum doing the same thing. HAHA

WE WOULD NEVER EVER DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT!?!?!

Do you have any favorite people you used to play with back in the days, any anecdotes about them?

There's so many people who've quit that I really enjoyed playing with, and I'm bound to forget a lot of them. I can start with the Nihilum guys who don't play anymore that I wish did tho; Nessaj, Beastie, Carn, Epi and Remi. Danes 4life.

From other guilds I'll just mention a few: Taugrek, Zap, Madhoof, Dagar, Lazak, Rogg, Misjah, Skarr, Thia, Dionysos, Mariuz, Iudicia, Aquene, Dyxie. There's a lot more I miss playing with but they still play and I've just kinda lost contact with them so I won't mention them here!

One player deserves special notice here tho; Jihan. Awesome guy, I remember him joining a GLodge BWL clear and everyone did everything they could to kill him all the time, including priests spamhealing him during the priest call on Nefarian.

Jihan 4 life! Best rogue ever :)

Do you have any favorite PVP moments and during what period did you enjoy PVP the most?

That's easy. Season 3 with Soujeeh. 2666 rating baby! Undisputed rank 1 in the 2v2 bracket for 4 months on Conviction (wow) and worldwide rank 2 2v2 rating. Easily the most fun I've ever had in PvP

Your all time favorite moment in World of Warcraft.

GLodge's first C'thun kill. That gave me a feeling I haven't felt since. Never been so happy about a kill before or since, which is why I dont get hyped when we down new bosses now I guess, it just means nothing compared to C'thun. Maybe Arthas will fix that, we'll see.

Was World of Warcraft really, as some people claim, better in Classic? Try to be objective and, if not Classic, what expansion is the best one?

Yes classic was best. TBC second best and WotLK worst. 40 man raids were epic, they were amazingly fun and hard to organize and lead. Everything was a challenge, content was hard and there was still a "new game" feeling to it. PvP was awesome because people in sick gear (read: gear from raiding) completely raped everyone else. People in good gear back then earned it, they deserved their epics.

Back then, there were very, very few who even had a full epic set. Wearing Naxxramas tier items back then was a symbol to people around you, it meant you were good. Nowdays it's casual paradise. I have 450 days /played on my druid and I have 11 days on my warlock and they almost have the same gear. I dont like that. It all started with PvP epics in Vanilla getting so easily accessible and it was just too much in TBC already.

WotLK is too easy. Simply put, I dont feel challenged. I fuck up, sure, but thats because I dont pay attention. Losing focus should never be the challenge, actually being able to do the right thing at the right time should. Anyone remember the old Fankriss fight? Huhuran? Ebonroc? Compare that to Lord Jaraxxus. What a joke.

You've been around since the start. What big changes have you seen since World of Warcraft Classic and TBC - for the better and for the worse? 

a) General gameplay, game mechanics

Crushing blows getting negated by 400 defense. They've also dumbed down a lot of stuff, like removing a bunch of skills from gcd. Also, no more stance dancing. Generally, making the game easier because it's too hard for a lot of people. Granted, some things were just stupid to have on gcd like last stand, shield wall, barkskin, etc. But do it wholeheartedly or dont do it at all. DAoC had no gcd and that worked just fine! There's too much managing gcd's now and I really dont like it.

b) Raiding

BRING BACK 40 MAN RAIDS!!! Oh, and bring back group-based buffs. I dont like raid-wide buffs, it's making the game too easy and the setups too flexible. I like some classes being better than others.

Couldn't agree more, I really enjoyed 40 man raiding and group-based buffs. The game is way to dumbed down now ;(

c) Pvp

I liked TBC PvP the most. It was balanced, there wasn't huge gcd burst gibs and every class didn't have 4 ways of cc'ing someone. Then again, I suck at PvP now and I was really good then, so I'm probably biased. Vanilla PvP was just awesome. I loved that. I was so overpowered it wasn't even funny. Marloc, Pangea, Heero, Kluen and Aleo can just bring their pathetic dps!

Was World of Warcraft more fun for you before you became a serious top end raider? 

I'm actually not sure. I didn't really end up joining Nihilum because I missed hardcore raiding, I was raiding plenty before I joined them. I joined up with Nihi because I had more friends there than in my current guild. So, I guess it did increase because so many of my friends quit and that was the reason I joined Nihilum in the first place. I dont mind the time I spend on playing at all. Besides, I definitely play a lot less now than I did before. You raid hardcore for a few weeks then you just raid a few hours every week after that. No biggie!

What players that left the game would you want in Ensidia if they still played and why?

Selenia, Iudicia, Zap, Potemon, Skarr. Simply put because they're all amazing players, I know they can do the raid times and they're all very good friends of mine.

Recent and Ensidia related questions

People play World of Warcraft for different reasons. Why do you still play the game and what are your current goals?

I play it because there's no alternative atm. When Diablo 3 hits I'll be gone. That's at the latest. I might even quit when StarCraft 2 hits. My goals are to see and beat all content ingame. Pure and simple.

How much do you currently play World of Warcraft (main, alt, outside raids, raids.) and does the game still get you excited?

The amount of time I spend on WoW varies a lot really. With Icecrown around the corner I'm doing my dailies on my druid, and I try to PvP as much as I can, but it's demoralizing because I suck so much at it. Couldn't ask for a better partner than Soujeeh tho <3.

Anyways, I've recently started pugging quite a lot because I'm just getting in as much playtime as I can to play my offspecs and just generally play my alt to get more comfortable with it, but I'm usually saved to everything non-heroic raiding by late friday, so after that it all depends on PTR. I'd say I still play around 40 hours a week. I could be playing all the way down to about 5-6 hours tho, I Just choose to play more. So I guess you can say the game still gets me excited, I guess it has to since I play that much. :P

Lets play a game. I'll mention two out of each class in Ensidia and you have to pick one. It can be due to any reason, because they are your friend, they have hot sisters or maybe they are the best player.

a) Goza/Ragebar

Aids or plague.

b) Jinxarn/Hams

Jinxarn, a really old friend of mine by now!

c) Belth/Mek

Mek, he dies a lot less.

d) Poptisse/Korta

Poptisse, not half as emo as Korta.

e) Aryu/Ekyu

Aryu, calmest guy I ever met. (<3 ekyu)

f) Zemme/Spritzor

Spritzor, really nice guy

g) Tjani/Nopher

Tjani, swiftmends me and doesnt steal my loot.

h) Fenita/Clozern

Clozern, BY FAR. Kenny4life.

i) Munken/Caleb

Munken, at least hes not drunk on raids.

j) Krem/Naihiko

Naihiko, because he does more dps.

All your hard work pays off and one day, you become GM of Ensidia. However, the guild needs to be streamlined and you have to /gkick one of: (Stolen from Poptisse's interviews)

a) Meka
b) Mackzter
c) Kungen

Who and why?

All 3 of you. No more whining, yelling, screaming, cursing and sucking. Tun would rise to the throne with his minions Clozern, Muqq and Buzzkill by his side. One regime to end all others.

Who do you consider the biggest lootwhore in the guild and why?

Buzzkill. Mainly because he's the one trying to act the coolest about it. It's a close run between him, me and Fenita tho, but I'd give the prize to Buzz for sure.

If you were gay you and were forced into marriage, who in Ensidia would you pick and why?

Muqq. For some reason I'm convinced he'd make a really great housewife. He knows how to take care of a man.

What's the most important thing you need for you to perform at your maximum level during raids (can be several things, a long sleep, some mods, being in a good mood, silent vent)

First of all, I need noise on vent. I feed off a loud vent. The flaming, the hate, the yelling. I love it. Anyway, the source of my raid performance comes from PUMPING IT UP. Training is believing. I train, therefore I am.

I'm the exact opposite. I just want you noobs to stfu so I can focus!

Are you happy with the direction Blizzard is taking World of Warcraft?

Haha no. It's turning into a big money machine where they just cater to the masses (although the new gate/tries system doesnt really help anyone..), and I'm just not another one of the 100.000 faceless players. I want challenging content and I want to raid it as much and as often as I want to.

I wish they would take a step back and see what they're doing to the game with Cataclysm as well. The game is already dumbed down way too much and they want to make it even more simple. I don't like that, at all.
Obviously it will still be a great game solely because it's made by Blizzard. I've always loved their games and I always will. No other company comes close. That being said, they really need to realise they're screwing up WoW for the hardcore players.

Icecrown (These questions were asked before Icecrown was released on live servers)
 

You've played a lot of PTR lately, what are your thoughts about Icecrown?

Everything in there is absolutely amazing. The aesthetics, the bosses, the design of the instance. The fights are unique an the bosses even LOOK amazing. Marrowgar is probably one of the most epic looking bosses ever (nothing comes even CLOSE to Ragnaros tho).

But.. The tries/gate system is just a huge steaming pile of dog waste. That alone has made me think about quitting WoW. Think about what I'm saying here. Quitting WoW, right before you get to kill _ARTHAS_? When it comes to that kind of extreme you know its gotta be bad.. It's absolutely ridiculous that gates/tries system and I pray every day they change it.

 Are you particularly excited about any of the bosses that you've tried so far?

Every boss except the Gunship Battle have been really unique and exciting for me. I'm just looking forward to beating Arthas on 25 man heroic mode. You see, thats another thing. Back in the day you just said "I'm looking to killing Kel'thuzad/C'thun". Now you have to specify what you mean because there's 10 man normal, 10 man hard, 25 man normal, 25 man hard.. That sucks!

What are your thoughts on druids in Icecrown? Do you think it will be a good instance for your class?

It will be a great instance for druids of all specs. There's no class that just sticks out by doing several thousand DPS more than someone else (except DK's on AoE), and resto druids seem really strong atm as well. So thats good for all my furry, hairy or barky friends!


Icecrown is coming soon. What guild/guilds do you see as big competitors?

None. It's not been 1-2 consistent guilds threatening us, so if anything happens it will be another obscure random guild from somewhere nobody has ever heard of. Stars, Paragon, Premonition, etc are all overrated.

Do you really think any of those guilds will have a chance against Ensidia in a fair race to Arthas?

Not a chance. Ever.

If Ensidia manage to get Arthas HM world first, how will you celebrate?

Definitely NOT by screaming on vent. I never understood that. Maybe I'll log off early and get a good nights sleep or something. Nothing special tho, it's just a game.