"Dude. I Live Here Too, Now."

The dynamic in the Kitty Cold War is shifting slightly. We've been letting the cats interact in the mornings and at night and making an effort to pay attention to both of them, which is gradually making Dasher more assertive in defending himself, particularly when either lythandra or I are in the immediate vicinity. When shots start actually firing he still prefers flight over fight, but he will get to a point where he says, "This far, no further!" and start hissing and spitting back, at which point Buddha is stymied and they crouch down into an impasse to sulk at each other. Dasher also has taken somewhat to needling Buddha, in the sense of going to places he knows that Buddha will want to chase him away from. My guess is that he's trying to get a map of just where all the boundaries really are.

My general strategy has been, once they've both had their dinner and their pettins, to go on with life as normal as much as possible to establish a routine. Unfortunately, Buddha's routine is becoming "corner Dasher somewhere and stare at him," while Dasher's routine is becoming "find a corner and sit there, wishing somebody would come rescue me."

We did get the Feliway diffuser, as well as some new toys to distract them with. We're still investigating other techniques to bring peace to the household.

-The Gneech

The Levels Are Building Up

Still tearing through Evendim with my lil’ hobbitey warden. He hit level 39 tonight, which is not that far away from where Galadhalion was when he started really running into trouble — and that’s got me nervous. It may just be “once bitten, twice shy,” but I keep having this paranoia that any time now, probably when he gets to Angmar, Maedhroc’s going to suddenly stop being effective against much of anything.

But assuming that doesn’t happen, I’m going to have to start thinking about what my plan for the higher levels will be. I’d really like that Rift armor set for Maedhroc, but I haven’t even succeeded at getting Galadhalion to the Rift, much less successfully grinding it for an armor set. Am I looking at a long slog of begging, pleading, or bribing people to go to the Rift with me starting at level 50?

And what about Moria? It’d be nice to catch up with the rest of the Valar Guild who’ve been tromping around Moria and presumably having fun (since they keep doing it) — which I’m not going to have much luck doing if I’m busy killing Thaurlach over and over again.

Still, that’s stuff I’ll deal with when I get to it. The game is still beautiful, and I’m still really enjoying Maedhroc, so there’s no good reason to be having Gamer Anxiety, is there?

Besides, I’m a warden. I can solo balrogs.

-The Gneech

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

Postcards From Middle-earth

"Hullo, everyone! Maedhroc here, taking a break from helping the Rangers in Annunimas to catch up on my correspondence. I should warn you now, this letter will follow a theme of ( the strange creatures of Middle-earth. )

That's all for now. I hope to write again soon!

Your friend in the Shire,
Honorary Shirriff Maedhroc Thornhollow"