Sharing Experiences

So I am feeling better to a large degree. I need to start looking into a new mattress set/bed, which is daunting. But I closed on a new morgage yesterday afternoon. I thought I might share about how that all went.

The topic came up briefly while I was on vacation over Christmas - with interest rates so low, it might be a good time to refinance. I didn't really start looking into it until early February. I did a little bit of reading online, but nothing I saw told me what to expect from start to finish. So I went to the web site for my local bank and looked up morgage brokers their. Well, "mortgage advisors." I picked one and sent her an email, basically asking how I would go about starting the process.

We traded a few messages back and forth. I'd want the info for my current mortgage to compare, and she'd need my most recent pay stub to start the process. She pulled up some preliminary numbers and a possible interest rate. So I went in on Feb. 13th (heh), chatted, and signed papers necessary to begin. There was no serious committment yet, and no too much involvement from me. From that point, she started contacting people - checking my credit report/ratings, getting information on the condos from our property manager, and seeing what lenders would fit. Things looked good in general. My credit scores are high, interest rates are low, and we were on track for a new 30-year loan at 5% interest, with payment of one point. A point is... well, paying a chunk of interest in advance. Most of what I've read advises against it, but that advice seems based on assumptions that don't apply to me. Looking at the numbers, it appeared to save me money as long as I didn't sell/refinance within the next 18 months or so. Being change-averse and having no plans to move, it actually appeared to be a good choice. And the closing costs could be included in the new loan, so I don't actually have to pay it out of pocket.

So it was out of my hands for a couple weeks. Then I hear back that there's a problem, this being Feb. 27th. Because a few owners have not paid their assessment for the repair work being done, the lender wouldn't do the loan. Hmm. So because other people haven't paid what they owe, I'm punished? Well, she went back and shopped around some more. It appears there are a great many mortgage lenders out there, and they all interpret the rules a little differently, especially because there are so many new rules going into effect these days.

On March 6th, she got back to me saying they'd found another lender who would offer at 5.125% (and still a point). This one would require an appraisal, however, when the last one didn't. So an appraiser blew through the place real quick the following Monday, taking measurements and asking a few questions. I don't think he was inside more than five minutes, though. The appraisal value comes back higher than I might have expected, and things progress. So on the 19th, I was told everything was in place, we just needed to do the closing.

Yesterday, we did that - myself, my mortgage advisor from the bank, and an attorny at a local title company. There were a lot of papers to sign, many similar to those seen at my first mortgage. Initial here, sign there... Most of the papers are redunant "cover our asses" legal stuff. Yes, I agree to pay the loan. Yes, I allow this money to be sent to pay off the old loan. Etc. It took maybe forty-five minutes, and that was with some discussion (mostly between them) about how much things had changed and were changing. New rules are popping up frequently these, and even professionals in the field are sometimes stumped by the paperwork required. It's all basically done. The money doesn't actually get sent to close out the old loan until Monday as there seems to be a three-day legal window for the borrower (myself) to change his mind. But paperwork's done and I don't have to do anything for it to go through.

So... there was an emotional investment, some complications, and the process has drawn out for about six weeks. I hasn't actually taken more than a couple hours of my time personally, however. I start a new 30-year payment schedule, but with an interest rate of 5.125% instead of 6.5%. I don't have the papers in front of me, but my monthly payment (just principle and interest) goes from about $591 to about $435. And while it's harder to calculate without perfect records (I'm bad about that), the total amount looks about the same if you include what I've already paid on the initial loan, but the new one is much easier to make extra monthly payments on to pay it off faster.

Single-best financial decision of the year, methinks. Compare to my single-best last year... which would probably be stopping my collecting of Magic cards. >.>


Last night I got my first experience with the Vault of Archavon after a Wintergrasp victory I wasn't even involved in. While this might seem straightforward and took relatively little time, it was actually a microcosm for many aspects of the game for me.
I was reluctant to join. Even being invited/suggested by a guildmate, there were only three or four guild members on at the time, so that means the 10-man group would be mostly comprised of strangers. Why is this a big deal to me? Some will find this psychology backwards, but I'm more eager to do things that are new and unfamiliar to me with friends in the game. Part of this is simple comfort level - if I screw up among friends, I'm less likely to catch flack about it, I'm more able to relax and enjoy. Part is reputation - I want to make a good impression (for myself and the guild) among those I don't already know). Also, I'm one of the more experienced (as far as WotLK dungeons/bosses completed) of the guild, so I rarely know less than my grouped guildmates about an encounter. And for a tank, encounter knowledge is very important, as I'll address in a moment.
Getting together groups is like herding cats. As a correllary, I might say that getting together pick-up groups is like herding other people's cats. It took a little bit to get together a full ten-person group for the run. In particular, two tanks, two healers, and six DPS. Actually, last night wasn't too bad, but there were still some issues, like getting a death knight signing on as a 'tank' when they were decked out in DPS gear. We ended up with another DK who didn't have much more health than the first, but at least was wearing gear with solid defense. I still had 6-7k more health, sliding me toward the role of main tank. There's some leeway in group composition, but there are also some assumable requirements, especially when the group isn't used to working together.
If I get into more raiding, I'm going to need some addon help. Paladins have multiple buff spells they can drop onto other people. I'm accustomed to dropping Blessing of Kings on most of my party-mates and being set. Once you have a second paladin in the mix, however, it takes some coordination. Last night, I simply didn't put buffs on most of the group because of the hassle involved in targetting and selecting buffs for each person/class after the other paladin made his rounds. Some better unit frame addon, or familiarity with one I think I have installed (but not active) should ease this.
Once we got together and got moving, it didn't take long. There are four mobs between you and the boss. They're tough, but not that tough. We did, however, end up fighting #2 and #3 at the same time, and I didn't realize it until one dropped as they were pretty much on top of each other.Our DK off-tank bit it there, and I'm not sure why. I understand they have an armor-reducing debuff, but I didn't notice it popping up on me.
Archavon, the Stone Watcher
So we got to the boss. Our guildleader was good enough to give a quick rundown in guild chat for those of us involved. In the raid, we mostly got a "everyone knows this, right?" I happen to have read up on the encounter earlier in the day, by coincidence, so I knew the theory. But theory and practice aren't the same. I was mostly concerned with the lunge/swallow maneuver, where he basically takes whoever's highest on his threat table out of the fight temporarily. This is where the second tank is supposed to make sure to taunt him so he doesn't nail someone softer/less ready for it - and the tanks trade back and forth when this move comes up.
Worried about that, and trying to keep spells going to pump out the most threat I could, I got a little tunnel vision. I completely spaced the damaging cloud he creates until someone said something after I was picking him up the second time (when the DK was first "eaten"). It was simple enough to start pulling him around, but it's something I didn't see/recognize until I was reminded, and the tank(s) is the person who has to know about that to deal with it. If you just fight him in the same spot, the cloud hangs there, and everyone in melee range is taking damage. This gets back to the importance of a tank knowing the encounter. A tank has to keep a boss fixed on them. That means the boss will only follow the tank. Which, in turn, means that any boss fight that involves moving the boss (and there are many for various reasons) requires the tank to do that. Everyone has to watch their position to some degree, but a healer will be looking at and reacting to health bars more than anything. DPS will be watching cooldowns and threat. It's the tank that controls the movement of the battle, and failure to properly pull a boss from place to place will actually wipe the group in some fights.
Thankfully, Archavon wasn't that difficult for us. Other than juggling him between tanks, the main thing seems to be putting out enough damage that he dies before enraging (which happens after five minutes, if I recall). I didn't see anyone die, cloud or otherwise, though a few people were close at times. He went down, we got a couple quick Emblems of Heroism, and... well... pants I didn't look at much. I believe they were Hateful Gladiator's Felweave Trousers - PVP-oriented, warlock-only legwear. Two of them. In a group with no warlocks. Cuuurses!
Still, it didn't take much time and was a good experience. I don't know that I'll be lending my services to people whenever the Vault is available, but I feel I could do that again now that I've done it the once.

Comments

  1. I'd personally like to have another go at Archavon but still don't feel that I'm up for much more than DPSing on him, as I did last night. o.o

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perhaps not. I'm not a very good judge of bear-tank capability. He's not going to crit you. You've got a lot of health. Armor may not be as high, but is there enough difference that the extra health doesn't make up for it? I don't know. I was a little worried that the DK tank last night only had a bit over 22k health, but that seemed to be plenty for the boss fight. I also have absolutely no feel for how well you hold threat on bosses, be that good or bad. A majority of the Northrend stuff I've run playing healer for you has been sub-80. In those dungeons, I frequently have Reya dropping a Renew and switching over to dealing damage - you just don't take much damage in most of those fights. The couple heroics we tried (HoL and Ajol'Nerub) were... well... bordering on disasterous, but I think there were a lot of factors involved in that. I think unfamiliarity hurt us. And while you were heavily concerned about your gear and changes to class abilities, I know Reya's not the healer she could be. Her gear is pretty good, but the simple fact is that Shadow is not healing spec. With Holy or Discipline talents, healing would be both more effective and more efficient. So I know things could have been better on my end, too (and I'm looking forward to the dual-spec system for that purpose). I've been convinced of the value of clearing things on normal before attempting heroic, to get a feel for them. I'd like to see you tank a normal HoL run in the near future to see how a non-heroic level 80 goes (and knock out a couple quests).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Normal HoL with Elly tank? Alright, that settles what we're doing this upcoming weekend :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm tempted to join you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I should be a fairly decent tank for non-heroics. For heroics, though, people often get impatient. If I don't have at least 2 ticks, 3 preferably, to gather initial aggro, I -will- lose aggro. Unlike the other tanking classes, bears have no snap-aggro... NONE.... Supposedly Blizz is looking into that, but they've been saying that for quite a little while, now. The closest we have is Challenging Roar... But one Heroic Strike or it's equiv from another tanking class will counteract it... Plus the fact that Challenging Roar is just an AOE Taunt... Very small AOE, at that. I think I should do fine with a standard HoL run as opposed to a Heroic run. I can hope, at least. I'd like to run Normal Utgarde Pinnacle, as well. The Quest Reward Leather Chest piece in there is better than my crafted Dark Arctic Chest piece.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And, just as a side note, I think I'm going to start Re-Marking everyone's general notes so I can keep track of who is who. o.o Gets confusing, sometimes. o.o;;

    ReplyDelete
  7. What else is on your list? I think we'd both like to see the stamina trinket from heroic Ajol'Nerub, but we may have to work our way up to that. ;) Normal UP seems feasible to me. Hmm. I don't think I've run that with Reya yet. The heroic version is a little bit of an obsession for me with Sash, as King Ymiron drops an epic tanking sword. Well... it's on his loot list, I haven't actually seen it drop yet. The bastard. <..>

    ReplyDelete
  8. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJJJJJJ!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yeaaaaah. I'd probably have better luck getting myself into raiding with others for a drop from Naxx or something. But then,I've been over my aversion to that approach. I just really hope I'm not "finally" upgrading to the Red Sword of Courage a month or two before the next expansion as happened with those blasted Spaulders of the Righteous...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Heroics of almost everything are on my list for either Tanking upgrades or Leather Healer Gear for when I get dual-spec'd with resto. For normal runs, though, it's pretty much Violet Hold, Utgarde Pinnacle, and HoL. At least at the moment.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adventures in Rokugan (ongoing)

Harbinger of Chaos (Godbound)

RPG Desires?