Looks like raiding's back on the menu folks!

Next week the first of 2 new raids will open: Battle of Dazar'alor. This means that January 24th is when we'll slip back into our raiding suits and attack the Horde where it hurts them: the Zandalari capital city of Dazar'alor. Our main objective will be to dethrone their king and take the port for ourselves!

New raids are up on the calendar as you read this right now, the raiding topic has been updated for Tier 23 (anook.com/topic/8086) as has the tactics thread (anook.com/topic/8085). That last one still needs a bit of work though but most of it will be finished by next week!

Hope to see you all there for next exciting chapter in Whitestar raiding :D

P.S. Do read the extra comment below the raiding topic, it's important!

Good morning all. I hope you are all well.

Some of you already know this but I'm posting this here. Short version is I feel more comfortable living as a woman than I do as a man and am seeking advice. I'm not ready to go fully public with this yet (I think the term was "semi-closeted"?) but the more I open up and the more help and support I get the better I feel about it.

I won't force this on anyone but I would really appreciate it if you refer to me as a woman where possible. Please don't worry about "getting it wrong"; this is new and scary and a big change for everyone involved and I want to be absolutely sure this is the right thing to do.

If you want to discuss this further please PM me on Twitter/Discord or whisper me in-game.

Much love and good luck in Dazar'alor!

I can sort of explain myself now, I was so stressed with everything as my mother had had another couple of strokes (she is unable to walk for now) my uncle had let me know he had cancer that was being treated, then car died completely which meant I couldn't get down to see my mother (as my brother was fearing the worst) we got the car repaired it cost a fortune, and then two days later the brakes went ( we could hear them grinding when we got the car back )and that cost another fortune which we no longer had (as it was all 4 brakes and the callipers) there were other things too such as the lack of sleep due to the constant pain in my ears I have had them looked at (eventually) and I have lost some hearing it seems but they are trying to sort out the stuff with the pain which has been going on for nearly 3 years constantly, trying to get sorted to get the 570miles (or for you none old UK people approx 917km) we also had to do this damned diet (to rest the other halfs system or some such thing, no wheat, no lactose no decent food mostly) and that was a fortune to do aswell, but we are getting trough it (plus other niggling things) and again I am very sorry I was a total twat, I hope I will be back properly sometime I cant even log into Discord and say hello as my heaphones decided to give up too and most of all I want to say sorry to poor little Tam who took the brunt of it, toodles for now Theo(Derek)

Finished that one last week and had it scheduled for yesterday (thanks Firkan for reminding me it's up, haha) - now got a tad of time again, which means more work!

Maybe should've left the music away from most of this episode, but I want consistency, even if it sounds like trash, because the WoW music is sometimes louder than the background music...

Anywho, enjoy guys!

It's that time of the year again!

I hope you all enjoy that one, because I have, hopefully, improved upon the old format again.

Now I would usually go into my hibernation and complaining mode, but I have already, kind of, accidentally worked on a few clips that would fit better with another episode, so I guess this old dog has to go back to the lab!

As always, I love every single one of you weirdos, without you it wouldn't be possible. <3

Now I've just got to hide until Aeyvi forgot I shared all her secrets with the interwebs...

Merry Christmas to my Whitestar family, you guys are the best and I'm looking forward to many more adventures alongside you all. All my love to YOU! <3 #hugs

Merry Christmas, made this a while ago in Diablo 3

I know everyone already knows but after defeating the evil Lord Slug-- I mean G'huun, we're on official holiday break until the next raid comes out! The Battle of Dazar'alor will launch on the 23rd of January so we'll set foot inside on the 24th, providing we have a full team. That's my thing to worry about though ;) Guides and such will be up before then as well.

For now enjoy the festivities, celebrate Christmas and New Year's and any other holidays you observe and we'll see each other again in 2019 for another awesome year of raiding!

Dear guildies!

Seasons Greetings and all the best for you and your families :)

It was only fitting that this would happen. The past 4 months everything has gone down the drain and now I just spend an hour crafting a word document... and I CTRL+C'd it, closed it, but because it was 3 pages long Word doesn't save it, obviously (asks whether you want to save what you copied, if you do it'd take longer and I generally just decline all those prompts automatically...).

Now, onto the story itself... First off, this is a Vijo-long post, so you have been warned!

Furthermore, this one has a bit of a darker theme than usual, so if you're having a good day... please just move on and ignore this.

Excuse the bad formatting/structuring, but I really can't concentrate anymore...

So... this whole mess started 4 months ago. I crashed my car into another one (no person was damaged, it was only physical damage, but it was still a huge shock and all that was in my head was just "FUCKFUCKFUCK"... I had multiple breakdowns after that and had to ask my mother to resolve it, because I just couldn't stand it after a few days anymore). I pretty much lost 1k the past few months through stupidity and some bills. Most of it could've been avoided though.

Then... everything started happening at once. Because of the current girlfriend of my father I wanted to move out. I did not feel like I was at home anymore, most of the time I was eating bread or ramen, just something fast, so I could flee into my room and just isolate myself with you guys. The constant yelling at me and waking up to them "playing saxophone" was just disgusting. I still studied on the weekends for uni (more to that later), but that probably lasted a month before I was crushed.

When I move out, of course I have to work... and there come the 2 biggest beasts and fears I could ever imagine (next to my mom dying).

When my brother moved out ~12 years ago I was shattered. Not because he left us (sure, I always looked up to him, he was funny and always seemed to have a high spirit), but because I realized... "That will be me in 10+ years...". I was always afraid of moving out and living on my own. Right now I pretty much do that (buy own food, wash own clothes, etc), but... I back then it manifested that I couldn't do it. Same goes for working. I was brought up in a home, where you only heard how shitty it is to work, how uncomfortable, how stressful, how it just limits your life... I could never cope with the fear.

The only thing that brought me some peace was Youtube... I was a foolish boy who thought to himself he could escape reality.

When I was about 10 one of my friends had the brilliant idea that we should make a 'Youtube (Let's Play) channel' (similarly to 'Let's build a house in the woods, no let's build a camp in the woods! With traps and secret codes and stuff' - brilliant idea, never executed it apart from collecting 20 sticks)... I was like "What's that?". It sounded fun, so I chimed in, but back then only because it was fun. I liked the idea, I didn't know you could work off of it. They dropped that plan after a few weeks, but not me... I wanted to do it. I wanted to make it succeed. I felt like I was different, like I knew how to avoid being as obnoxious as all the other big Youtubers were (and still are).

I knew my content was shit. I knew I didn't make enough content to really have a chance, but putting 5 hours into a mediocre-bad video is just exhausting, without a result. It's fun, yes. But at some point you hope your work pays off. I spent a lot of hours and funds on this stupid dream.

A long time I thought what was holding me back was streaming "Surely, if I could stream everything would work itself out! Yes...". Once I was able to, I pulled through with a streaming plan (3 days/week, 3 hours/day) for like half a year-year? I don't even remember anymore. I lead everything to a point, where it could only succeed.

And then... it didn't. My hopes were crushed, but I wouldn't let my hopes of a peaceful life go to waste.

The thing I love about Youtube (even if it is a completely unsafe and risky job (Youtube could be dethroned in 5 years, ads could just stop giving you funds, etc) is that I don't have a real boss... If I feel like shit I cannot work on a video, but if I feel great I can just finish a video in one sitting... It just sounds so great... and editing is fun (at least when I edit content like this, if I was a professional movie maker it'd probably get grueling very fast). Youtube has given me security. I didn't need to worry about life or anything, I could always just live in this foolish world, hoping that one day YT would explode and I could live off of it, but alas...

Thus far uni has given me nothing but pain. I've thought about quitting in the first semester about 20 times already... I'm unsure what happens with my cat (if I move out, this is in the middle of a big city and he's not really a house cat). I'm unsure what happens with my car (will I keep it, will I even NEED it?!). I'm unsure what happens with my... home. Even if it isn't my home, I don't know where I'll live in a month. I'm unsure what I will work as someday (and this is just fucking frigthening when combined with my ergophobia). I'm unsure if this course is even the right thing for me. Medicinal Informatics sounded like the besst thing imaginable for me, but thus far... I've just heard how shitty I am at Programming, Maths and Medicine (all 3 things that I used to be good at)... I just can't Java.

The worst of all? I... don't need to worry about it. If I want to keep my cat or don't like the new home, I can always say I'll just stay here where I currently am and lead this miserable life, hoping that someday the world just ends or something stupid like that. Right now all I can do is wait and it's fucking awful. Wait for the appartement (which looks fucking horrendous btw, it's given me another attack after I came home after seeing that one... so much to do... so much to put into it in terms of money...), wait to get a job (and HOPE that I will enjoy that one, so I can at least calm my mind a little bit... because if I do not enjoy that job my whole world will fall apart for good... I know it takes a while to find the perfect job, but right now I put all my cards into that one thing... if my fears turn out true, I don't think I'll ever be able to work...), wait for the exams to find out whether I should stay or give up. I just HATE it. I can't do anything right now, besides wait for things to turn around.

I honestly feel like going to uni was the worst decision I have ever made in my life (funnily enough there's 2 kinds of students "UNI IS THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE!!!" and "FUCK I WANT TO KILL MYSELF UNI SUCKS." - you can guess which group I belong to... I feel like it highly depends on your mindset.. If I wanted to, I could spend the next 20 years studying (the only limitation I have is that I have to take [easy programming exam] in the first 1 1/2 years, the rest can take any amount of time I want it to). I've gotten nothing but pain, crushed dreams and me feeling like a disappointment from it. And bills.

My parents have praised me most of the time for how intelligent I am (though I always knew I'm not, I might be wise for my age, but I am not even close to intelligent) and right now I can't do anything besides cry and shiver all day.

My mother is starting to feel like shit because of me, I can't sleep, concentrate, eat or do anything anymore. Seriously, right now I spent 4-5 hours crying to myself in my room and the only things going on in my mind is the wish that I'd never have been born (and it's only getting bigger each day) or how I could kill myself. Before it used to be this "Well, I'd never kill myself, because I don't want to hurt my mom...", but lately the whispers are getting louder and louder... and my wish to die a fast/painless death is fading and I'd take a painful death, if it'd mean I could get some rest finally.

This is not living anymore. I just want it all to end.

I... I want to be a child again. I'm only 20, but I already miss my childhood. Playing games all day, having no worries (except for "Meh, that girl doesn't like me..." - right now I don't even want a GF anymore... I'd take a life of being solo (not even any kisses/one night stands), if I could trade in this... pain) and just having no responsibilities. Sure, I could never get the newest items, but honestly... I've recycled games so many times. I've had a lot of fantasy duels with myself, where I built Yugioh/Pokémon/One Piece decks and I just threw them at each other. It never mattered to me how new those cards were, so long as they worked.

Fuck, at times I even collected a bunch of those business cards(?) and imagined what effects they'd have and let them battle each other. I loved my childhood...

Due to medications I fall asleep at 10pm. I don't stay up longer than that and I only have like 2 hours/day where I am calm... Right before going to bed, but I'm so exhausted from all the crying/shivering, that I can't do anything useful then as well...

Because of all the bills I can't even afford christmas presents... I have 7 whole bucks on my bank account and the only presents I currently have are some self-made items for my brother/sister/bestfriend (and they are really small).

The only way I have found to calm myself is Fire Emblem (almost out of games), YGOTAS (amazing series, highly recommend if you somewhat liked Yugioh back in the day; can't calm me anymore, watched too much) and my sister (don't want to bother her every day, she's got a super busy schedule...).

Not even gaming itself can pull me up. I bought a Switch with the money my mother gave me for finishing my A-levels and it hurt buying it. I felt like I didn't deserve it. I lost so much money lately, that I just felt like the universe is telling me to not buy it. I love it... It's my favourite console already, but... I can't enjoy it. I've got anxiety and I'm shivering all day, there's nothing that calms me (sans the 3 mentioned things). Right now I spend my whole weekend just watching Youtube - something I hated back when I was still being productive.

Other than that, it's so cool to be able to say that I studied at Heidelberg! But... is it worth it if I don't even know what I want to do? I never knew it. This job was the only real job (not including voice actor + Youtube, since they are virtually impossible to achieve. The people that succeed are so few in that area, that chasing it is pointless) that talked to me and that I liked. And now I feel like a 40 year old (exhausted) in the body of a 20 year old with an afraid 10 year old in me... Most of the time I just feel like throwing up.

One day it spiked. Generally moving is super exhausting, so I just move out of my bed half a meter onto my desk chair (tops), but one day... it took me 40 minutes to go not even 10 meters into the shower. Not even showering, just GOING there... I made ramen and after heating the water up, all I could do was lie down in the kitchen and cry for a few hours. I don't know what, why or how I can fix this.

I don't know how to move on anymore. All I think of is death. There was this one time, where I just wanted to hurt myself at all costs... though it was also too exhausting. I turned on a cooking plate and about 5 centimeters before my face hit the plate I stopped. It might've been the last shred of humanity I have left within me or the exhaustion, but I didn't do it that day.

It just feels like I'm a shell. Before, I felt dead, but now I just feel empty. No joy. No hope, only pain.

Whenever something is going half-decently (i.e. appartement in 1 day.. Yay? Oh wait no, it looks shit), life is punching me in the gut, cutting my balls off and spitting on me. At least that's how it feels.

I've had my ergophobia for around 12 years now, my depression for about 11 and my suicidal thoughts for about 10 and I'm just tired of it. I know there's no fix, but this is just making it worse... Do I honestly have to endure all of this, simply because I don't want to hurt those that love me?

It's times like these, where I wish I was an arsehole, because then I could just kill myself and nobody would care.

This whole mess was my doing... If I didn't start with moving out, all could've been avoided. I'd still have my anxiety about this course, but I'd be fine with it... Now my mom has to pay a truckload of money to fix the appartement and she even told me she'd pay the rent for it for the beginning (since this one is owned by her and her siblings, she's essentially paying them and skipping her own earnings because of me).

It just drags me down more. All I can do is ask people for help, yet I hate doing that... She has the money, but it still wrecks me having to ask her for it every damn week. I plan on paying it back to her asap, but I can't guarantee that I can do it... I'm telling myself right now I'll work no matter what until I can pay her the 400+ bucks I'd owe her by then back, but I have no clue when/if I can pull through with that...

I just want to be a child again and go back to my home in Azeroth...

P.S.: If you feel like giving me tips like "Just think happy!" or "Don't worry", please don't. My father has those excellent tips covered. ;P And I know you all have your own problems. I don't expect you to know a fix for this, heck, I don't even know how to help myself right now... I don't mean to turn this into a dick-measuring contest whose life is worse (because I'm sure I have a good one, there's just so much change and fear inducing things happening for me right now).

P.P.S.: Sorry about another 500 paragraph post... but by now you should be used to me pulling that shit..

Hello! Just to let you know that due to RL stuff I cannot commit to raiding for the next couple of months.

@Visko will step in to fill the tanking gap.

In the meanwhile, I will join you on the warrior as dps whenever I can, for the needed stress relief of hitting stuff ;)