Results tagged “Medros” from From the Abbey to Outlands

Hey all, I wanted to here that tomorrow evening, March 18th, I will be live as for sure a guest, perhaps even a co host for the Pixelated Live WoW special show. I am amongst WoW luminaries like Erin from ErinGames.com, Matticus from WorldofMatticus, and Darren from MyGameMug.com. The show is live at 7:30 PST, and is a video show, so do be ready to see the full Medros(ok, not full, but a head shot for sure) right there on cam.

iSeven, a long time watcher of the All Things Azeroth live show and fan of the show will be giving away a copy of WoW(for a spouse maybe? Don't forget to refer a friend first, though!), a couple of game cards, and a massive standup of Arthas! I know if I wasn't going to be on the show, I would be begging to win any of those. So be there, tune in, and watch live for a WoW Extravaganza!

I dinged 72 tonight in Borean Tundra, over a dozen quests still left to go, and wondered to myself. Is there a benefit to doing both of the starter zones, Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord? On beta I did both, and found I was barely halfway through Grizzly Hills before I got the quest in Dalaran to fly out to Sholazar. That was also before I had a 20% jump start in xp from my previously mentioned daily plan. I am almost certain I could get by pretty effectively without having to do the Howling Fjord, and instead moving on to Dragonblight right away. The lore of that zone makes it even more tempting, I assure you.

The flipside to all of that, of course, is gold. Cold, hard cash. If I do all the quests available as I go along, Borean, Howling, Blight, Grizzly, Sholazar, Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks, Icecrown, well I should hit 80 by Sholazar or Zul'Drak, I would think. In Beta I skipped a big chunk of Grizzly Hills to move on to Sholazar, and hit 77 about halfway there. I am pretty sure I would have left Sholazar late 78, or somewhere in 79 if I had stayed in Grizzly. This means it wouldn't have taken much in Zul'Drak, or maybe an instance or two, to hit 80 in that zone, leaving me roughly 2-2.5 zones of pure quest gold plus dailies.

This will be even better on Telaan, who will be leveled third, cause he is doing 2 dailies every day, and is nearing on 71.5. I suspect he will be into 72 before I pick him up to level again. How all of this might hit Ameland or Arita I am not sure, while I am pretty sure Connroe will be hit hard since he has about 22 levels to go and a long road to go. I think I will take him in chunks. In the end, this leveling thing can be tricky. In BC it took me 3 70s before I perfected it for Telaan, and I just do not know how close I can get this time to perfection. I had time between my toons to evaluate, collect, prepare. I do not see any Unidentified Plant Part type items that are tradeable in Wrath, so that might be hard. Time will tell, I suppose. What do you all think?

When Wrath came out, as I have chronicled before, I did a lot of different things. I rolled Connroe, my Death Knight, and worked him through the starting experience, then power leveled his Inscription to 360 or so. I worked on Medros, then Arita, and then Telaan, with a bit of time on Ameland to work on his skinning. In fact the only played toon I have done nothing on in the 9 days since Wrath is my lowbie hunter, whose enchanting I would like to get up so that I can DE all the greens I am making to progress my various skills.

The problem is that while I am 71 on 3 our of 4 prior 70s, I know people with less free time than I have who have gone from 65 to 75 in the same time. I have spent so much time repeating the same quests, the same areas, the same actions that I have slowed my own progress. Therefore I have decided to focus on Medros, much like I did in the early days of Burning Crusade, as my first and primary toon to level, and will level him up to 74. I will then decide if I want to level him to 77 or 80, or swap to Arita for some leveling. After both are up where I want, I will work on Telaan, as two Ret Paladins back to back would be really hard to do. I will still do the proper dailies on all three, but when it comes to questing Medros will be number one. What lessons have the first 10 days or so of Wrath taught you?

As I write this it is just over 48 hours since I installed Wrath of the Lich King and boy have I been busy! As I mentioned in a recent All Things Azeroth, I started off by making my Death Knight named Connroe, then I completed my daily plan. This plan was given to me by Makea of Murloc Queen and went like this: clear out quest log completely, travel around Outlands getting all of the daily quests you can, then log out on the Isle of Quel'danas and wait for Wrath launch. After Wrath is installed, turn the Isle dailies, then return to Shattrath to turn in dailies there. Once Done there, I flew out to the Netherwing Ledge and turned about 10 dailies there to complete the daily quest plan.

I did a full 25 dailies on two of my 70s, and the rough numbers from those dailies was roughly 300k XP and about 150g. The one mistake I made was on making the fishing daily as one, and it gives no XP or gold, just the bag. On my Druid I did 16 dailies, netting about 200k XP and about 100g. I personally feel that since I would have spent time in game anyway, and am not hurting for gold, that this was all a very good way to spend a few days ore Wrath. Once I finished the daily turn ins, I took all my 70s to Northrend and trained them in all of their professions, costing roughly 300g for two primary and all three secondary skills. Once they were all at inns, getting rested XP, I logged back to my Death Knight and got him through the first phase of the starting experience.

On day 2 I began to work on Connroe right out of the gate, thoroughly enjoying doing the experience when it counted. I quickly made it through the experience and stayed in Stormwind at the end to begin making use of the 1500 herbs I had stocked up to level Inscription. Right now Connroe is *350* and am waiting to hit 60 or so in order to train up to Grand Master. Connroe is also right now at 150 in Blacksmithing, though I may take a break from leveling that for a bit due to the large number of new Death Knight miners in the game, including some guildies. The last thing that I have spent time doing, or I guess lucked into, was that I got all 5 toons(Medros, Ameland, Arita, Telaan, and Connroe) hearthstoned in Dalaran. I knew it would take a couple days for Argent Dawn to see a nice number of 74 Mages, and I found one in Stormwind who was willing to portal all of them to Dalaran for a generous tip. The Mages I saw in /2 were talking 100-200g per portal the night before, and I was not willing to throw my gold away like that.

As for today, I intend to finish getting all my 70s the Borean - Howling - Dalaran Flight Path connections(all Tuskarr villages, Dalaran, and the alliance settlements) in order to facilitate easy travel through the first 3 zones of Northrend. Then, I think I am going to let Connroe rest a bit, and work on getting Medros to level 74, the point where he would have gotten the ability to go to Dalaran anyway. So, how have you spent your first 48 Wrath filled hours? Are you, like the SK Gaming/Nihilum mega guild, trying to get into raiding and clear Wrath on 25 man? Or are you just relaxing and leveling comfortably?

I have a lot to do. I am collecting herbs for my guild, as well as for myself. I am debating furiously with myself about inscription and my lowbie hunter, Traluun, and trying to still get in time for job hunting, writing, beta testing, and have a small semblance of a social life. So it is with this in mind that I ask you, my readers, what do you think my priorities should be.

The reason this came up is that in conjunction with the recent beta build 8905, Blizzard's reps have posted feedback requests for all of the currently open dungeons in the beta, from Utgarde Keep to Naxxramas in both 10 and 25 man versions, and I realized that even with Med not even at 74 yet, I have not hit a single instance. Not even a one. I got my starter Death Knight through the old Starting Experience and into Inscription/Herbalism professions, worked a fair bit on Med's blacksmithing, and a bit on Arita's Northrend herbalism and alchemy, but I haven't *done* much in the beta.

Sure, I have moved and been doing renovations, and I haven't had the unregulated time I would like to be working on the beta and live realms. I also find it really hard to go from Medros, level 73 ret Paladin with awesome abilities and the capability to take down the mobs with ease, to Medros, level 70 Paladin, or even Telaan, Level 70 Paladin, or even still Traluun, level 45 Hunter. It's a bit of a shock, you know? A big change in the game and the world.

So, as my readers, I come to you, playtime in hand, and ask for your advice. Do you want more Wrath prep info as I push through the live realms to gather needed materials for the Inscription profession coming in 3.0.2, or should I spend more time on the beta realms, digging through the lore, the stories, and the experiences to give you all a better insight into what awaits us in the wonderful continent of Northrend, from gorlocs and proto drakes to dragon aspects and scarlet lackies? Sound off in the comments!

As I have been looking over my guild's Zul'Aman stat requirements, I have become frustrated that only one of my characters can go there. Arita, with 3 pieces of Tier 4 and more gear form high end places than any other character, and who was originally a secondary alt back in the day, is the only character I have that can meet the requirements. What follows is a list of the gear I want for Medros, though in no specific order. After the slot is the current piece in that slot.

Head - The Horseman's Helm

• Amani Mask of Death  -  G'eras  -  75 Badges

Shoulder - Warchief's Mantle

• Ragesteel Shoulders  -  Blacksmith
• Pauldrons of Gruesome Fate  -  G'eras  -  60 Badges

Wrist - Sha'tari Wrought Armguards

• Eternium Rage-shackles  -  G'eras  -  35 Badges

Waist - Rubium War-Girdle

• Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable  -  Moroes  -  Karazhan
• Deathforge Girdle  -  Talon King Ikiss  -  Sethekk Halls
• Chain of Unleashed Rage  -  G'eras  -  60 Badges

Ring - Ring of Ghoulish Delight | Violet Signet

• Eye of the Stalker  -  The Black Stalker  -  Underbog (Heroic)

Legs - Legguards of the Shattered Hand

• Doomplate Legguards  -  Exarch Maladaar  -  Auchenai Crypts (Heroic)
• Ornate Leggings of the Venerated  -  Blackheart the Inciter  -  Shadow Labyrinth
• Wrynn Dynasty Greaves  -  The Curator  -  Karazhan
• Bloodlord Legplates  -  The Maker  -  The Blood Furnace (Heroic)
• Vanquisher's Legplates  -  Pathaleon the Calculator  -  The Mechanar (Heroic)
• Bloodthirster's Wargreaves  -  G'eras  -  75 Badges
• Legplates of Unending Fury  -  SSO Badge Vendor  -  100 Badges

I know, a long list, and I should point out that at halfway through 73 and having worked through Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and part of Dragonblight, I still have some of the pieces I want to replace, though I have had a hard time adjusting to the stats on gear in Northrend. I still have my helm, belt, my Violet Signet of the items on this list, and my Bulwark of Kings, Royal Cloak of Arathi Kings, Justicar Gauntlets, Skyguard Silver Cross, Darkmoon Card: Crusade, Shattered Sun Pendant of Might, and Vortex Walking Boots.

Really, I have only replaced a few pieces, but I am finding it really hard to find groups on the beta realms, especially when the realms are going up and down so frequently. I also have a hard time deciding on items with procs, which a lot of these have. The pendant, card, and cross all have procs that are huge. The cloak, the chestpiece, the guantlets and the boots are all late game epics, which took a lot of time and effort to get. Time will tell on the rest!

I am tired from renovations and a lot of stuff in life, but I have had time to look in at the beta, and I figured I would give you all a few of my favorite sites from the beta. Just click on the thumbnails for larger versions.

Here are a few of the random thoughts that have been running through my head lately.

BM can rock, but most likely at 70 - I have respecced Traluun to become Beast Mastery, and begun leveling him again. After doing my normal daily stuff on my 70s, Traluun has gained 3 levels, much improvements in armor, and I am beginning to lean how to play as a Beast Master hunter. While Venara, the Humar like cat he runs with, is a nice pet and does good at what she should, she doesn't currently do what I would have hoped she would in dps and aggro control. I am enjoying learning the different aspects of the Beast Master tree, but I don't think I will never duplicate a BRK video.

Shard, Shard, Shard, Shard, Void. Win! - As a Jewelcrafter(Telaan) who Mines as well as Medros, most of the results of which get prospected to get gems. Due to this, I have found I get a lot of Adamantite Powder, as well as a lot of Khorium Ore and Eternium Ore, which cannot be prospected. At the point I checked last night, I had nearly 600 powder, 300 Khorium Ore, and 500 Eternium Ore. I decided to do something with all this ore and powder, since it will be all useless in a few months.

Being a JC on Telaan, and an Enchanter on Traluun, I made up 33 Braided Eternium Chain and mailed them over to Traluun, who will actually be able to make use of the Large Prismatic Shards that the chain's are guaranteed to  Disenchant into. I was really happy, though, to find that I only got 32 shards, as one of my Disenchants gave me a second Void Crystal. I had always wondered how likely the 'rare chance' to get a void crystal on any one item might be, and as I got the crystal on #20, I would say it works out to about 5%. Those brought me to over 40 crystals total, which should help a lot when Traluun hits 50 in a few days.

Spirit of Competition update - As you may have noticed, there are a lot of Olympians in the game these days. With the start of the 2008 summer Olympics Blizzard launched a new PvP event called Spirit of Competition. There are 2 known rewards at this point in the competition. The basis of both of these rewards involves participation in the Battlegrounds. The first one is the Competitor's Tabard, received by having an honorable kill in a battle ground. The second is the Gold Medallion. I blogged about these before, but I wanted to give you an update on this. So far Traluun, Medros, and Arita have the Tabard. Medros and Arita have the Medallion. I am planning to PvP with Telaan tomorrow, and will be trying with Traluun again now that he is 45, though 2 wins failed to get it a level or two ago.

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive! - I want to preface this with the note that I am not looking for sympathy, just giving info and letting you all decide how to make use of this info. About a week ago I lost my job. Today my web hosting came due, as the last referral I got has been used up over the last several months. I would like to let you know about some of the referral codes you can use if you need a site and decide to use my host, Dreamhost. First, MALYGOS will get you a monthly account with no set up fee. Second, TIRION will get you $50 off a 1 year prepaid hosting account. Lastly KRASUS will give you 2 months of free hosting(or $20 off) for any of the plans other than monthly hosting. While I have had email issues before, the support team has always been great about helping solve them quick.

That's about for the rambling topics for today. Let me know if there is anything else you want to see, hear about, or learn about in future. Thanks a lot, and take care. 

About the blogger

Ahh, where to begin? geekworld.ca? geekblog.net? Maybe wcradio.com? Where this blog began has many roots, and many beginnings. I, Dwight Wallbridge, the brain and personality behind this blog and my Characters Medros, Arita, Ameland, and Telaan, all found on the Argent Dawn realm along with my upcoming Death Knight Connroe, began blogging back in 2000 or 2001. I honestly do not know the date. Back then I was writing on a format called Daynotes. Then a day no one alive now will ever forget, never be allowed to forget. It was the Pearl Harbor of the modern era. September 11, 2001.

9/11 changed how I wrote. I tried to daynote the events, but they just happened too fast. I looked at pages of Dave Winer, Doc Searls, and other A-List bloggers, and they were able to quickly and efficiently update on the fly and post whatever they wanted. no HTML editors, no FTP clients. Instant communications. It took me until the end of 2001 before most of my content was on my blog, which if I recall started on blogger, then transitioned after awhile to the new, up and coming Movable Type platform.

That blog turned into it's own domain, which was Geekblog.net, hosted on first a Canadian host called Trinic, then on a neat outfit called Blogomania. That host rocked, cause they worked with me to keep my CMS(as they are called now) running, and helped me work out a payment plan I could live with. After awhile they got bought out and I bounced from host to host, never entirely happy.

In mid 2004 I got an email saying I was invited into something called a Stress Test for this up and coming game, World of Warcraft. I had never played an MMO before, pretty much refusing adamantly to pay a subscription to a game, but this test was free and I had enjoyed thoroughly the previous strategy games in the series. In September of 2004 I got the download link and was given the date of the stress test. It was a 10 day test, which ended up being extended for a week because of a hurricane or something in the US(I think is was Ivan), making a large number testers unable to play, and thus ineligible for the contest for a beta key.

I took the entire duration of the test off work, and let's just say I was hooked. I watched the boards after the stress test ended, and came across a post by a guy named Athalus. I watched the thread closely as he was talking about something I was incredibly interested in, internet radio. He wanted to start up a WoW based radio station, and I was all on board. Except I couldn't tell him cause I didn't have access to post. Eventually he posted his email and I joined the WoW Radio team as second to the owner.

I was with WoW Radio for a long time, first doing Midweek Review, then adding in the late morning music block when Blizzard settled on Tuesday mornings for downtime, and then my main show changed to Know Your Role to reflect my new RP perspective once I changed to Argent Dawn. I eventually left WoW Radio, leaving behind a lot of bitterness and anger, and moved to MMO Radio. I did not last long there, as I was wanting to do a fan show in a corporate environment.

A few months after I left MMO Radio, at the urging of a dear friend, Lelia, I launched Know Your Role as a podcast. While Lelia left shortly after, the show has continued, though it has has had it's ups and downs. It is now All Things Azeroth, Your World of Warcraft Podcast, and is done solo, when I have something to say, and time to say it in.

A month or so after the Dark Portal opened I launched this blog, From the Abbey to Outlands, back when my highest level character was 63(Medros). It began as a 'this is what I am doing in WoW' blog, but as my thoughts on topics became more lengthy and my trusted places to put those thoughts became fewer and fewer, I brought all my WoW thoughts to this place. I still blog my non game thoughts over at thegeeksblog.com. I may not be right all the time, but I will tell you like I see it and share my perspective on the game and all that I love about it. I hope you enjoy it. 

I asked the other day about what race I should make my Death Knight on my main realm, Argent Dawn. While I am still divided, there is a great deal more to work out between now and the expansion's launch, so let's move on to the next topic: Name this Death Knight!

To me, the name is important. Perhaps not in the 'what should I name this' sense, but in a 'will I love this name at 70/80 and beyond?' When thinking of a name I naturally wonder if I should make the Death Knight a natural extension of one of my current characters. The main problem with this is that I cannot just name my Death Knight Medros, or Arita, or Ameland, or even Telaan or Traluun, not without deleting their base characters.

With all the time, effort, and thought that has gone into each of my played characters, I am honestly not sure I could just delete one. Perhaps I can make them a slight alteration of the current one. Medrode, or Arista. What do you think about making a character a near copy of one you already have? Do you prefer a little diversity in the look and feel of your toons?

The problem with making a Death Knight and extension of the RP story of your character is the temporal paradox. This is when the two exists in the same timeline. How could Arista be the evolution of Arita when Arita still exists? You must destroy one to make the other, right? I guess all of that goes into a area of science and philosophy that I am not as yet qualified to talk about.

A closer examination of my available played characters shows me there are only two I would get rid of if I had to. These are my Hunters. I guess part of the reason for this is because I find that there are a lot of hunters in the game, and the world doesn't really want or need my two. This is of course ignoring the fact that everyone and their uncle will have a Death Knight on day 1 of Wrath of the Lich King, so I would be essentially dropping one unpopular but over played class for another.

As for slots, since we know we will not be getting the Blizzcon mentioned Hero slot, I already have a slot I cleared up by transferring my nephew's rarely played Warrior to some other realm, though I can't recall which one now. Even if I hadn't, I have 2 mules I emptied out back when the Guild Bank feature came in, Alterrodd and Cuisinier, who can be deleted anytime. I was thinking of doing just that and making a Shaman, but I decided that the guild has just enough of those.

What are your thoughts on whether to progress your character into a Death Knight or if you should just make a new one? What will you do for the first Hero Class in world of Warcraft? What will you name your Death Knight? Are you even going to make one? I know a lot of people who have no desire to wear plate, and will instead wait for a caster or healer hero class. Don't forget that I still want your thoughts on what race I should make my Death Knight, be it one of my current races or a new one. 

I gave in and put a game card on my account this afternoon, not wanting to wait another minute to get my realm along the progression path for the Isle. I am now good until May 27. If you want to get me a birthday present, which is between now and then, game cards make a nice gift. Anyways, I did all the Outlands dailies, all except the thrones ones, I then was summoned to Magister's Terrace by some guildies for my first foray. My paladin is nearly as well geared as my druid, so I decided I wanted my Paladin to get the first stab at it.

For the most part the instance went ok. We wiped on trash a couple of times due to bad pulls and a lack of familiarity with the place, but by the time we hit Kael we were firing on all cylinders. Having never seen Kael'Thas in The Eye 25 man of Tempest Keep, I did not know what to expect. "like a mini version of The Eye tells me nothing unless you've been there. We wiped about a half dozen times, but in the end a comment with strategy from the user mharmless on WoW Head, part of an evil gold seller empire sadly, was the ticket.

mharmless wrote: During phase two, we stayed clumped up together at the door, staying low to the ground. When the orbs got close, we went up and over the orbs to DPS Kael. Now, this was not the entire secret to how we won. I put two comments, mhearmless suggesting to wait until the phoenix was recently dead, and another comment said that killing the egg of the phoenix would stop respawn, together. If we could kill the egg, along with the get to the door, low to the ground but not touching, then swimming over the spheres to finish dps, we might get him down.

We began the fight, and I went in whole hog on Kael with our tank. At 65% I left to go watch and wait for the phoenix to go down, since I couldn't go in and melee with his fire damage. When I saw the egg, I went in and began hammering it until it was goo. I went back, helped get Kael down to 50%, at which time I he brought orbs, but I got enough dps in to have him at 45% with a consecration. We swam for the door, and I go just low enough to not touch the ground.

I turned around, and saw my fellow members too high, and shouted for them to get low. The orbs adjusted, going low, and when it looked like they were just right, I swam in, and got down again just low enough to DPS. I fell to the ground when Kael was at 25%. I kept hammering him, and then he summoned orbs. I saw he was at 10% and decided to try to do it. The orbs got our healer, 5%. Everyone laid it on, all the cooldowns, all the abilities, and just as the orbs looked like they would take us, Kael died. No good loot, but damn it feels good to get a boss like Kael'Thas Sunstrider down.