And after a long day of “studying for exams”…

Brajana – Level 80 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 424
• First Aid: 450
• Fishing: 392
• Cooking: 400

Lots of Leather! :)

Since I’ve hit 77 and I can fly again, I decided that it is time to get my leatherworking on.  Coincidentally, last night Tharaks (on his 78 mage, Trimk) proposed we do some AoE grinding.

Boy was it fun!  We headed out to the Basin and we’d get on our mounts, we’d each head in a different direction, meet in the middle and AoE down 6 or 7 mobs at once.  Even got him some herbs from the flower mob thingies!

I picked up about 120 [Borean Leather], which isn’t that much when you make it heavy, but with the leather I’d already picked up from questing in Sholazar, it was enough to get me from 413 to 421!  I made a couple [Bag of Endless Pockets] for Raks and another guildy, and went and picked up a couple new patterns.

I put my giant list to use and figured out what upgrades I wanted to have ready for when I hit 78.

I spent another hour farming [Icy Dragonscales].  They drop more than I was expecting, and I had 40 pretty quickly.  I decided to make [Dragonstompers] now, since they only require level 77, and then once the servers are back up after today’s extended maintenance I’ll farm some more so I can craft up my [Eaglebane Bracers].

Oh, and I need to figure out where to farm [Eternal Fire] for my [Virulent Spaulders], no way I’m paying 120 gold for 2 of ’em!  I was a little flummoxed about whether the upgrade was worth it, because new shoulders will break my T5 healy pet bonus, which I love to bits and pieces… but I figure I can always keep my [Rift Stalker Mantle] on hand for when my pet might be taking serious damage.

Brajana – Level 77 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 422
• First Aid: 413
• Fishing: 392
• Cooking: 400

Upgrades for Anti-social Hunters

Like pretty much everyone else, I have been looking in to upgrades.  For me, I like to focus mostly on reputation based or leatherworking upgrades, since those are not dependent on luck.  I also don’t seem to ever get to run dungeons, it just never fits in to my schedule, and I HATE PUGS, so I usually don’t run anything unless it’s all guildies (most of which are way ahead of me in level now).

Conveniently, I’ve had my work done for me when it comes to researching dungeon and heroic drops.  Let me point you in the right direction:

• The Hunter’s Mark – Lassirra has written a giant post with lots of great info on where to get what and why.  Check it out for sure, even if you just look at the lists of gear (but you should read it all!)
• Stabilized Effort Scope – Rilgon has listed his plans for upgrades, and included gems as well.  While this isn’t so much a guide of where to get all the gear in the game, it’s good to take a look at how some other people are planning to gear.
• BigRedKitty – A list of some heroic gear to watch out for, very short and to the point.

Now, it’s my turn.  These are upgrades you can get if you don’t get to run a lot of heroics, or if you’re trying to catch up to the rest of your group.  Sure, your T5 and T6 gear will be fine in heroics and probably Naxx too, but if you didn’t get a chance to get any of that, you might want to take some time to pick up some of these level 78-80 upgrades.

I haven’t done any serious number crunching on these comparisons, they are just to give you an idea and help you (and me) figure out where to focus efforts.

Note:  The 200-level crafted upgrades require Frozen Orbs, which are obtained from Heroics.  However, they are BoE, so they could potential be purchased before you set foot in a heroic.

Ranged

• [Nesingwary 4000] Engineering 450
  This is an amazing weapon.  You should probably pick it up as soon as you can.  And it’s pretty too.
• [Zombie Sweeper Shotgun] Argent Crusade – Revered
  While it is dwarfed by the DPS and AP of the Nesingwary gun, this might be easier to pick up, and it does have some hit rating.
• [Sin’dorei Recursive Bow] or [Sawed-Off Hand Cannon] Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard – Revered
  This is decent enough.  If you happen to be revered with your respective faction when you hit 78, you may want to pick it up.  No agility, but it has some hit, and a marginal DPS increase from the Relentless Strikes crossbow.
• [Hemet’s Trophy Gun] Quest – Sholazar Basin
  If you didn’t already have something like the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes or higher, this is a free upgrade.  Otherwise, it just doesn’t quite do the trick.

Weapon

• [Savage Cobalt Slicer] Blacksmithing (395)
  Rilgon has pointed out the beauty of equipping a pair of these.  Hit rating is just as important as anything for hunters, and with 29 Hit on each of these… you’re well on your way to the cap.
• [Whale-Stick Harpoon] Kalu’ak – Revered
  You can easily get to Revered with Kalu’ak just by doing their quests.  This may not be the Slicers, but it’s got a good amount of agility, but also has some much needed hit.
• [Runeblade of Demonstratable Power] Ebon Hold – Revered
  This sword has really nice overall stats, lots of Agi, AP, Crit and even some nice Haste… but what it is missing is hit.  If you aren’t too concerned about hit, or you’ve made up for it somewhere else, you can’t really go wrong with one of these strapped to your back!
• [Icier Barbed Spear] Quest – Champion of Anguish
  Again, no hit, but otherwise quite pretty.  AND FREE!  Quest rewards are free!  So if you are looking to upgrade temporarily, and don’t want to worry about the cost… why not pick it up?

Head

• [Truesight Ice Blinders] Engineering 430
  If you are an engineer, you need not look further.  These also only require level 72, so if you get your engineering up fast enough, it’s a very early upgrade.
• [Helmet of Just Retribution] Quest – Utgarde Pinnacle
  The next three helms are quite equivalent, with just minor differences.  This one has it’s strong points in Stamina and Armour Pen, but it has low Intellect and no Crit.
• [Swiftarrow Helm] Leatherworking 420
  High points are Resilience and Crit, otherwise it’s about average between the three.
• [Toothslice Helm] The Oracles – Revered
  This has some pretty crazy high AP.  Otherwise, it’s pretty on par with the other two helms of this level.
• [Headguard of Retaliation] Quest – Utgarde Pinnacle
  This is actually the leather version from the same Utgarde Pinnacle quest, but it’s got a LOT of AP and Agility.  The downside, of course, is that there is no Intellect.

Neck

• [Titanium Impact Choker] Jewelcrafting 440
  Superior to everything else by far, except it has no crit.  Do what you can to grab one if you’re doing alright on crit.
• [The Severed Noose of Westwind] Quest – Icecrown
  Pretty nice quest reward from a group quest.  Stats are all slightly less than the Jewelcrafting necklace, but it has crit rating instead of armour pen.

Shoulders

• [Spaulders of the Black Arrow] Ebon Blade – Revered
  Really nice shoulders, especially the agility.
• [Virulent Spaulders] Leatherworking 420
  Less nice shoulders, 20 less agility for 14 more AP.
• [Swiftarrow Shoulderguards] Leatherworking 420
  About the same as the Virulent Spaulders, sacrificing some AP for Resilience.

Back

• [Ice Striker’s Cloak] Leatherworking 440
  Slightly low on the agility, but it makes up for it with the haste and AP.
• [Cloak of Holy Extermination] Argent Crusade – Honoured
  Nice agility and some armour pen, but only has about half the AP of the Ice Striker’s Cloak.
• [Bloodbane Cloak] Quest – Icecrown
  Meeh.  It’s got average stats all around.  Nothing to turn your nose up at if you haven’t picked up the other two yet.

Chest

• [Polished Regimental Hauberk] Argent Crusade – Exalted
  Okay, you probably won’t be able to get this right away.  It’ll take some time to get to exalted.  But I couldn’t leave this beauty out of my list, since it may or may not affect the order you go for your factions.
• [Gilded Ringmail Hauberk] Quest – Utgarde Pinnacle
  Comparing it to the next two chests in the list, this has Armour Pen but no Crit or Hit.  Otherwise almost even.
• [Razorstrike Breastplate] Leatherworking 425
  Crit, but no Armour Pen or Hit.
• [Assault Hauberk] Quest – Coldarra
  Hit, but no Armour Pen or Crit.

Wrist

• [Giantmaim Bracers] Leatherworking 440
  Actually not that much better than the Eaglebane Bracers.  More agility, and a little more of a few other stats, as well as some nice armour pen.
• [Eaglebane Bracers] Leatherworking 420
  If you are needing in hit, this is actually possibly better to wear than the Giantmaim.  But if you can make up the hit rating elsewhere, this just isn’t as good.
• [Swiftarrow Bracers] Leatherworking 420
  Resilience & Crit.  That’s all.

Hands

• [Grips of Chronological Events] Quest – Stratholme
  Nothing very exciting for gloves at these levels.  These ones have slightly low Agility but it makes up for it with Armour Pen and AP.
• [Swiftarrow Gauntlets] Leatherworking 425
  Like the rest of the Swiftarrow set, this has resilience and crit going for it.

Waist

• [Giant Ring Belt] Sons of Hodir – Honoured or [Waistband of the Thuzadin] Quest – Stratholme
  These are identical.  So you might want to save your gold and do the Strat quest.  Really high AP.
• [Swiftarrow Belt] Leatherworking 425
  Do I really need to describe it again?  Crit and Resilence, obviously.
• [Ranger’s Belt of the Fallen Empire] Quest – Gundrak
  Added this in because of it’s hit and agi.  This is the only belt here with any hit, and it also has 8 more agi than any of the others.

Legs

• [Giantmaim Legguards] Leatherworking 440
  Look at all that Agi and AP!  These pants will make you hurt people.  Not much that’s bad about them at all.
• [Swiftarrow Leggings] Leatherworking 425
  I’m not going to say it again.
• [Jormungar Hide Legguards] Quest – Storm Peaks
  These actually aren’t too bad.  No intellect, but more crit than the Swiftarrow.

Feet

• [Boots of Twinkling Stars] Kirin Tor – Exalted
  Takes a lot of rep, but these are nice if you don’t get another upgrade before you make it to exalted.
• [Swiftarrow Boots] Leatherworking 425
  Blah blah Crit Resilience blah blah.
• [Dragonstompers] Leatherworking 400
  The hit rating and AP on these boots makes them very appealing to me.

Finger

• [Band of the Kirin Tor] 7500G
  If you’ve got the money, why not?  It’s so shiny!
• [Titanium Impact Band] Jewelcrafting 430
  If you aren’t swimming in gold, this is a nice alternative.  Or a nice compliment, if you need a second ring.
• [Ring of Scarlet Shadows] Jewelcrafting 420
  Really nice hit bonus for a ring.
• [Ring of Foul Mojo] Quest – Gundrak
  It’s decent enough.  Only if you need a second ring to pair up with another one though, probably.

Trinket

• I’m not going to cover trinkets.  They’re pretty complex, and I get a little flummoxed when trying to compare them.  Once there is more info and data on them, I might do a post just for them.
  

[Veteran of the Wrathgate]

They were all right, it IS cool.

The chain is long, and a bit interesting along the way, but when you get to the end and the post-quests, wow.  Pretty neat.

Anyway, as yesterday was my final day of classes, I took the afternoon and evening to start getting caught up on some play time, since I haven’t been on much in the last couple of weeks.  And it was great.  I got almost a level and a half yesterday!  Like I mentioned, I finished off the Wrathgate line, as well as almost all of Dragonblight.  Next stop?  Sholazar Basin!  I can’t wait.  There is not a whole lot of skinning to be had in Dragonblight, and the blood on my [Skinning Knife] is beginning to dry up.  Not cool.

I’ve got my leatherworking up a bit more though, and when I hit 77 I will likely start some leather and elemental farming so I can make some of that pretty Swiftarrow set when I hit 78.  I spent a good couple hours on Wednesday planning out my 78 upgrades, because I realized I didn’t know anything about which factions I needed to focus on or which recipes I needed to buy, but now I can approach my next couple of dings with aplomb.  I make a point to only plan my upgrades on stuff I’m sure I can get, so quest rewards, crafted items or reputation rewards, because I don’t like to depend on drops.  And it looks like Ebon Hold is my first target, with all their shinies at Revered!

Brajana – Level 76 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 413
• First Aid: 400
• Fishing: 381
• Cooking: 400

“Gorilladin: I’ll just tank the d@mn thing myself.”

The title is a reference to some shirts BRK was recently vendoring.  I like it.  And I love my Gorilla, it has been amazing to level with him!

By the way… I FINALLY picked out a name.  My Gorilla is now called “Hanno”  (which means merciful), named for Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer who noted what he observed as a tribe of very hairy women when he was traveling through Sierra Leone. He called them “Gorillai”, which is the origin of the name Gorilla.

❤ Wikipedia.

Now let me say, AoE grinding always scared me.  My mage does not like to take on more than one thing at a time.  It usually results in a dead Gnome.  And I was always the same way with my hunter.

But after so much time studying and practising my Huntering skills, my hunter has become like an extension of myself.  I’ve played her enough that I know exactly which keybindings do what, I know where my panic buttons are (AH! Feign! Feign! Feign!), I know what abilities are best used when.  I’m comfortable in my Troll skin!

When I’d first heard about the AoE tanking of the Gorillas, I was a little nervous, but excited.  I don’t want to be pulling aggro and getting myself killed, but I wanted to see what kind of stuff I could take on.

And it’s AMAZING!  It’s almost a chore to try to pull aggro from my gorilla.  I just send him in, bounce him around to a bunch of mobs within the area, pop a Mend Pet on him, and give those mobs an arrow shower!  It’s so nice to see 5 or 6 XP gains pop up at a time.  Wee!

It’s going to take a really great gear upgrade for me to break my T5 2-piece bonus.  I rarely really need to use Mend Pet, thanks to the healing caused by my Volley.

I haven’t really used other Tenacity pets since Wrath came out.  I did pick up Sparkle, my Rhino, and he is pretty decent at single target tanking… but so is Hanno, AND he can multitank.  So there.

Anyone else having a little love affair with their Gorilla?

Blog Announcement

With the coming of the end of my school term in the next couple of weeks, and with all the lovely content spewing forth, and with Unemployed having official sign ups again, it seems it is time to reinvigorate Mend Pet.  I am announcing the return of my weekend regular posts of This Week in Raiding and WoW Word of the Week!  I will also try to post daily during the week, but I still might miss a day or two here and there.  School isn’t over just quite yet.

Also, while I’m leveling, I’m going to end my posts with a little update on my skills and level, in case you are curious about where I’m at. 🙂

Brajana – Level 74 Troll Hunter

• Skinning: 450
• Leatherworking: 405
• First Aid: 400
• Fishing: 381
• Cooking: 392

Brajana’s Adventures in Wrath

So things have been pretty busy for me, IRL.  Wrath came out midnight on Thursday, but unfortunately I had two very large and difficult exams on Thursday, so I didn’t make it out to the midnight launch.  Instead of getting only 2 hours of sleep because I’m busy working on a Death Knight, I only got 2 hours of sleep because I was busy studying relational database design and token ring network topologies.

My original plan was to head out to EB Games and pick up my preordered copy at 2:30PM, after my second exam.  Unfortunately, I also have an extremely large final project due on Tuesday, and my group partner decided Thursday afternoon/evening was the time to work on it.  So we worked til 6:30, I managed to convince her we needed to take a dinner break so I could go pick up my game, and finally I was able to play 10PM that night.

I didn’t ge to play much Friday because I had ANOTHER exam on Saturday morning.  But I got a bunch of Fjord quests done anyway. Saturday, I had my exam at 10AM and then a couple local guildies and I had an afternoon of board games.

So my real Wrath time didn’t start until about 7PM on Saturday.  But I had all of Sunday to play, even if I shouldn’t have.

I’m sitting about 75% through level 73, with all of Howling Fjord and most of Borean Tundra finished off.  Here’s my take so far.

Howling Fjord is amazing.  I loved it there, and enjoyed all of the quests.  From the first quest on, I felt really engaged and interested in the story, and found the atmosphere beautiful.  I felt like I was just flying through the content, and there was no time that I felt like I really wanted to stop.

Borean Tundra… well, my first impressions weren’t great.  After figuring out how to navigate Warsong Keep, I get outside and am surrounded on all sides by these Nerubian creepy crawlers and everything was all grey and burnt red.  As someone who never enjoyed places like Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge, I was not very pleased.  But once I got out of the initial area, I was a little more satisfied.  Borean Tundra has some fun quests, like the D.E.H.T.A. quests and the seige tank quest, but I got very sick of swimming very quickly.

“Go swim out to these ruins.”

“Go swim out to this rift.”

Come on.

The Tuskarr are my favourite thing in the expansion so far.  They’re so cute!  They are walruses riding turtles!  And their quests are fun!  And they have a little non-combat penguin pet at exalted.  hehe!

I did actually start a Death Knight, which I wasn’t planning to do for a long time.  But I’d come up with a good name (wish I could do that with my Gorilla…) so I started him up and did about 20 minutes worth of quests.  I like the starting area, even though I haven’t seen much of it yet.

I have also now tamed a Rhino!  I wasn’t sure what to replace, but I figured… I never really used my wind serpent, and I can always go back and get a new one if I feel it’s necessary.  So I said goodbye to Sparkle, and hello to… Sparkle!  Yes, I named my Rhino after my wind serpent.  He’s fun, and I can’t wait to get him out on the AV bridge and make him punt gnomes all over the place.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Next time I’ll talk a little bit about instancing and how that’s going.  When I leveled from 60-70 I only ran 2 instances.  Now that I have a guild to level with, I’m getting a lot more action in there.  It’s been pretty fun!

The Story of Gorilla

This story is from back just after 3.0.2 hit, but I’ve just finally gotten around to finishing the post on it.

The second pet I’ve picked up is Gorilla.  Okay, he doesn’t have a name yet.  I’d picked out a name, but it is apparently a “reserved” name that can’t be used.  Fooey.  I liked that name so much for him that I am having trouble coming up with something else, so for now… he’s Gorilla.

Anyway, this gorilla is not just any gorilla.  He’s Unk’loc.  He’s blue and white.  I’ve always had a thing for white pets, I don’t know why.  But there is a story behind this guy.

See, back when I was around level 50, I decided to switch my Turtle tanking pet for a Gorilla, and this is the one I picked.  He was a rare, but darn pretty.  So I headed to Un’goro and… boom!  He was sitting RIGHT there waiting for me.  Well, that was easy.

I used the gorilla a bit, but I used my cat more.  When I got to 65-ish, I wanted to pick up a Warp Stalker, and I had a choice to make.  My gorilla was still sitting at level 60, and I hate leveling pets, so I waved goodbye to my gorilla and made room for Willy the Warp Stalker.

Little did I know that when 3.0.2 hit, Warp Stalkers would become relatively useless, and Gorillas would be the stars of the show.  So, I released Willy to make room for this new guy.  Little bit ironic.  Just a little.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as lucky this time with the spawn of Unk’loc.  I arrived at the cave, and found a good camping spot.

It started the day after patch day, 8AM.  I had a lot of school work to do that day, so I figured it was a good time to watch a camped mob while I worked.

2PM rolls around.  It’s been 6 hours, and this guy has a 6-8 hour respawn.  Some hunters have come and gone, most not willing to sit and wait it out, but we each promised to let each other know if we caught him, so we could time the respawn.  He should be there within the next two hours.  Unfortunately, I had a job interview at 3PM.  I had to go get out of my Pajamas and get downtown.  So I left for… two hours.

4PM, I returned to camping.  No news on whether he’s spawned.  I sit and wait, get my unarmed skill up to 347 on the gorillas, get the [25 Fish] achievement in the little pool.

9PM.  I just can’t do it.  I need to get out of this cave!  The new patch has hit and I’ve barely scratched the surface!  I take a 1 hour break to run some dailies.

10PM.  Back to the cave.  No news, no gorilla.

1AM.  Homework is done, I’m going to bed.  Stupid gorilla.

The next day, while I took a few minutes to check in when I woke up, I had class all morning.  I returned at 12PM to wait and watch.

I sit there until at least 5PM.  Talk to the other hunters, they are amazed at how few hours I’ve been out of the cave.  I want to play!  Come on!  But I can’t give up now, because then all of this will be wasted.  And he’s really pretty.

I take the evening off, starting to give up on the effort.

Day 3, 7:35AM.  I have mail!  It’s one of the hunters who was also camping for the gorilla.  She’s caught him, and it was only half an hour ago!  What does that mean?  Unk’loc WILL respawn sometime between 1PM and 3PM.  Luckily, it’s Friday, and I’ve got the day off.  I return to the cave around 12:45PM to wait.  And wait.

2:40PM.  I’m watching TV while keeping an eye on my screen.  A flash of white goes past my screen.  Wait!  Was that him?

OMG!

*plops down a Freezing Trap*

*tames*

Bing!  And he’s mine.  Within 10 seconds of taming him, a group of level 50 alliance walk in, and kill every gorilla in sight.  Talk about timing!

When do hunters learn Mend Pet?

Level 12.

That means for your first two levels with a pet, you have to just keep them alive.  Bandage them maybe, if you must.

Find out more here.

This question frequently shows up in my Search Engine hit statistics… apparently a lot of people are curious about this, and reasonably so, you’d think you’d get it at the same time you get your pet, but that is not the case!

Falling in love with Huntering, all over again

This past weekend, I was feeling in a very unproductive mood.  I didn’t want to do work, I wanted to do weekend stuff, like sit on my bum and play World of Warcraft all afternoon and evening.

So that’s what I did.

The only problem was, I didn’t know what I wanted to play.  I didn’t feel like working on achievements or grinding on my hunter.  Ferguson hasn’t healed since the patch, and I am sure I’m out of practise.  I don’t want to group for anything anyway, I just want to play on my own for a while.  My mage was sitting at level 55 waiting for someone to take her through Sunken Temple before all the quests turn grey.

Yup, I was in a ‘start a new character’ mood again.

I’m enjoying the achievement system, but I bet it’s a whole different experience when going through from level 1.  All the statistics would be accurate, you’d start off with 0 points instead of 1000.  I want to experience that.

So, I head to the character creation screen.  I’ve run out of room on Hydraxis, so I head to Dark Iron – my Alliance server, home to my little mage.

But what to play, what to play…  I don’t know what class I want to play, so I’ll pick my race first.  That will help me pick a class!  So…

Night Elf? Uh, no.

Gnome?  Got one of those.

Human?  Boooring.

Dwarf?  Dwarves are cool – but female dwarves are ugly!

Male Dwarf it is!

What class to play?

My options are:  Priest (got one), Hunter (got one), Warrior (started an alt warrior recently, got bored at level 13), Rogue (same as warrior) and Paladin (I hate paladins almost as much as Night Elves).

Well, I have to pick something.  Something fun to play, that I’m likely to get over that level 13 hump with.

I know that I like priests and hunters….  But I hated leveling as a priest.

And thus, I have a new Male Dwarf Hunter, Drostan! (it’s Gaelic!)

And right after I finished picking out his grey hair and pale skin and started logging in, I knew I’d made the right choice.  It’s been so long since I leveled as a hunter, but it was so enjoyable to me.  And now that I know so much more about the class, it will be great to try to do it all over again, play without Steady Shot or a warrior tank to level from 1-60 with.  It will also be neat to see how the pet changes work at lower levels.

I got from level 1-11 on my first day, and picked up a bear named Righneas (Gaelic for tenacity.. hehe!)

As I venture through, I’ll likely post little pointers or things I’ve noticed going back through the class.  It’s going to be a fun ride, I think!

Right now, i’ve gotten him to… 13.  That’s the level the majority of my alts stay at, but I am determined to make some more progress with this little guy.

I’m a rock star!

Last night, we killed the new temporary boss in Karazhan. Boostah had run Kara earlier in the week, before the boss was installed, and so he had a raid saved with only the new boss left, no trash or anything.  Woo!   So a bunch of us pilled in, looking to get the new pet and such.

Well, of course he dropped the [Arcanite Ripper]… I hadn’t really looked at it before, but I had heard about the sweet Use ability… turns you into Bergrisst of L70ETC.  It’s actually a really amazing hunter weapon as well.  So Boostah, the ret paly (?) and I rolled on it… Woo!  I won!  I felt a bit bad, since it was Boostah’s raid and he had organized everything… but come on, I have been switching between [Hellscream’s Will] and [Blackened Spear] since shortly after I hit 70, over a year and a half ago.  It is time for me to get rid of my last blue quality item!

Unfortunately, it does bring me 7 below the hit cap.  I will probably have to shove a hit gem somewhere in my gear to make up for it, if I find that 7 hit rating is making a significant difference.  I think that’s only like, 0.05%, so if it means I’ll be missing only that much on raid bosses, I can probably live with it.  If anyone knows the math better (I’m too lazy to look it up) please correct me!

Oh, and the funny thing… back when I was using [Hellscream’s Will] all the time, I always joked about how it looked like an electric guitar strapped to my back, and I always wanted to swing it around and play it… well, now I can!