Get all the CXP!

So in case you haven't heard, the powers that be at Star Wars: The Old Republic decided to unintentionally extend the bonus command experience gained in Black Hole, Oricon, Czerka, Yavin 4, Ziost, and Section X  dailies.  Apparently due to a glitch with this last patch, the bonus experience continued past maintenance this last Tuesday.  Sooooo, have fun and hurry and taken advantage of it while you can!  They've stated that they will not be doing anything to fix this until patch 5.5 comes out sometime at the end of September or beginning of October.

I admit I came to appreciate CXP a little late to the game and so I'm trying make up for lost time.  One tip I've found extremely useful, especially if you play on a high population server, is the PvP zone instance.  Certain nodes and updates can be positively painful to obtain with rude people ganking them while you're fighting the mobs around them or waiting for overly long respawn times.  Not to mention just the simple fact that you've got 20 other people in the same zone doing the same things and well, you get the picture.  Transferring to the PvP instance has in most, if not all of the incidences that we've done, have been fairly empty of other players, regardless of faction.  Of all the times we've run in the PvP instance, we've had only two events where we actually had to PvP.  First was two stealthies decided to jump us in Section X.  Problem for them was that we were better geared and probably had more PvP experience than them.  They managed to kill 2 of the 3 of us, but made the mistake of sticking around long enough for us to pop back up and get some health back.  Suffice to say, there were two dead stealthies after that.  The other was a target of opportunity that one of my guildies could not resist taking.  I actually felt sort of bad for the guy since he was only trying to get his dailies done and probably didn't expect to be messed with.  So while its mostly peaceful on the PvP instance, just be prepared.

I should also mention that the Umbara exploit is still in place until the next maintenance.  As stated in the above link, Eric Musco has warned that they are fully aware of this exploit and plans on penalizing anyone who took advantage of it!

Lastly, I want to sending out prayers of safety to my viewers and friends in the Southeast right now as they prepare for Irma to make landfall.  Just as with Harvey, Irma is expected to be particularly devastating as one of the largest documented hurricanes on record.  I encourage everyone to take a minute or two to consider making donations to agencies who are surely on call at this minute to help people get back on their feet again.  Heaven knows they are going to need it.

Here are some reputable charities with proven track records:

Global Giving
Red Cross
Salvation Army
LDS Church Humanitarian Aid Fund (100% of funds donated are used for relief services, not administration)
Florida Humane Society
Florida SPCA

Again, I can't stress enough - please know who you are giving your money to before you hand over your credit card or cash.  Unscrupulous people are out in force right now trying to take advantage of the misfortune of others by swindling you of your money.

Join me tomorrow while stream World of Warcraft tomorrow afternoon!  www.twitch.tv/scrappywheelz

~~~~   Scrappywheelz    ~~~

Houston Strong

On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall at Corpus Christi, TX,  near Houston.  And once again history repeated itself, sort of.  Anyone that was alive in the early 2000's remembers Hurricane Katrina and the disaster that was.  And I'm not really talking about the hurricane itself.  Or the floods.  Or the poorly maintained levys breaking.  I'm talking about the human disaster that played out in the weeks and months after the storm had subsided.  All the news reported was efforts to help.  People transporting people by boat when they had been living out in the open on the tops of their roofs for days.  Animals clinging to logs too exhausted to swim anymore.  Old and disabled people abandoned by their 'caretakers' to roll the dice with fate.  Lousisana's Superdome became a gigantic shelter with thousands upon thousands of displaced people camping out practically on top of each other.  People who had no place else to go sat in the heat, wondered if they were going to eat that day and worried about sending their family members to the bathroom because they never knew if they were going to be physically attacked or sexually assaulted by the predators that shared their roof.  And the worst of it - the politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington DC and in the affected areas playing the blame game with pointed fingers instead of rolling up their sleeves and putting their power to do good to work, delaying help and funding for weeks!  It was a pretty bleak picture for a long time.

Its not going to be like that this time.  People in the wake of Katrina saw that the most effective help that those people and areas received were not government agencies.  They were by organizations, old and new, whose sole purpose was to intervene in times like these.  And this time, while the support of government agencies are important (why should we pay taxes if all its going to do is pay politician salaries?), this time we know where our time and money should be going.

Today, Wednesday, September 6th at 8pm EDT, a group of us who stream on Twitch** are going to have a fundraising stream to help those affected by the hurricane.  Our group specifically plays the game Star Wars: The Old Republic.  As the guild Unholy Alliance on the Harbringer server, we'll gather to raid, to goof off, laugh and help raise awareness of the different ways you can help.  Join us for the fun, but also consider making a donation too.  Think about it.  There were 114.8 million families living in the United States in 2010.  If each family in this country donated just $1, that would be $114.8 million going towards helping put people back on their feet, returning animals to their owners and cleaning up the mess Mother Nature made.   That's a lot of power to do good for just $1.

I've included of list of reputable organizations you can make donations to, that have proven track records of effective emergency help:

Global Giving
Red Cross
Salvation Army
LDS Church Humanitarian Aid Fund (100% of funds donated are used for relief services, not administration)
Houston SPCA
Houston Humane Society

US Only

Text HARVEY to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross adds $10 to monthly cellphone bill.

Text STORM to 51555 to donate $10 to the Salvation Army adds $10 to monthly cellphone bill.

Keep in mind -- donating money without making sure where your money goes risks it going to the wrong people and there will always be people whose purpose it is to defaud others at the expense of people who could use it more!  Do your due diligence before handing over your cash or credit/debit card numbers to anyone!

I never want to see Katrina happen again.  I have family and friends that live in the Houston and southern Texas areas, or personally know people who were displaced to different states because where they lived was destroyed or no longer safe to live in.  Most of ones I know that lived in Texas during Harvey had the ability to get their families to safety, but not everyone has the means or the ability to do that.  Let's make sure everyone gets back on their feet - in a safe home, with food, clothes, pets and family members.

See you at 8pm EDT on my Twitch channel! - www.twitch.tv/scrappywheelz


**  Disclaimer:  I am an affliated broadcaster with Twitch.  Any monies raised during this event will be strictly for relief effots and will not be used for personal gain or to pad Twitch's pockets!  This is not a Twitch sponsored event.

~~~   Scrappywheelz  ~~~