August 2008 Archives

Ok, so perhaps I am not beginning my collection over all, but I am beginning to truly collect them. I have about 17 or so over on the beta realms, and in the last hour or so my main, Medros, has added another 11 pets. Right now he is in flight to Netherstorm to see what can be bought there, followed by a trip back to Shatt, over to Darnassus to get some owls. After that I will fly to Ratchet, where I take a boat to Booty Bay to get some parrots, and then back on  the boat to head to try for Don Carlos' Famous Hat, which I will call it a night on.

None of this would be possible without Warcraft Pets, where I have set up an account, and am tracking my pets, and where I can also see what there is left to get. I am still trying to figure out how to make a new list based on my other characters, but we will have to see. This is one of the achievements I am planning to work towards, how about you? Do you have any you have seen that are drawing you in with the promise of prestige and honor?  Oh, look! Another pet vendor...

What follows are my early thoughts on the 8885 beta build that went live tonight.

• they missed something that should have been in this build, cause I am getting errors like crazy
• still no weightstones or sharpening stones
• it looks like most glyphs are actually craftable by scribes, including scribes as low as 100
  Paladin judgements are working again
• no noticeable change in xp required per level
• cooking daily quests in, with Dalaran Cooking Award, which can be used to buy recipes in Legerdemain Lounge in north Dalaran
• thanks to Zubr of Arathor, playing on Northrend for the /console error 0 command to stop showing errors
• glyphs seem to be 'used' with 1 hour cooldowns
• scribes will make a killing
  
• Mageroyal seems to be a big in demand herb for early scribe glyphs
• to use a glyph, you right click it. Some say they cannot be used, even when well beyond the level required. Odd.
  
• Overall nice, once you remove the errors, but more time may be required to work out some potential issues

There are many bad changes, many mediocre ones, and many good ones. It's beta, and things will change, but for now, I can play on my Paladin, though I am about to stop my leveling because I want to prep my live toons for the 3.0.2 patch and expansion.

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!

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Calling himself the Lich King, Arthas was drawing his loyal captain to him. Connroe tried to ignore the words, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw him there, beckoning. Arthas taunted Connroe with words of despair and pain. Lordaeron fallen. Demons running rampant. The Elves in disarray. Connroe tried all he could to ignore or avoid the words, but found not sleeping to be his only recourse. After days of not sleeping, though, Connroe was near exhaustion, and began to see things.

First it was hearing soldier's voices who had died long months before, then it was seeing Arthas in his base. One night, shortly after the changing of the guard, Arthas again appeared before Connroe, telling him again to come to him. Taking up his blade, which was rusted, dented, and worn, he advanced on the figure that he knew was merely a vision with murder in his heart.

Ignoring the calls of his soldiers who were worried that their barely clothed commander was running off into the frozen wastes, Connroe kept chasing the taunting figure of this Lich King. He chased him through peaks and valleys, never quite able to get within the grasp of the figure, but never far enough away to give up either. Rounding the corner of a mountain, Connroe found the figure kneeling there, sword stuck in the ground, set in a clear figure of surrender.

Connroe advanced, wary of a trap, but as he got closer he saw that Arthas was alone, at his mercy. Arthas taunted him, as his blood began to boil inside him and a great fire burning in his stomach. As the figure before him began to talk of how easy he was to play with, how easily manipulated he was, Connroe's rage bubbled over, and he charged at his fallen leader. Just before he reached him, he raised his sword to land a killing blow, but found the ground falling beneath him.

The captain screamed in rage as he fell, his humanity left behind in his descent into this twisted world, leading him to be a perfect servant for the Lich King. In his time in service, he was shown that where he failed to harness the light, he was perfect for wielding the twisted powers of a Death Knight and quickly excelled at his role. Arthas's old Captain quickly became a favorite amongst his Death Knights.

One day, as the legions of the Lich King prepared for the coming heroes of the Alliance and the Horde, his king called Connroe to his throne. He had a mission for him, an order to take out a group of adventurers who had come to Northrend to wage war against his master, to dethrone the King. Connroe took this up with zeal, taking out the adventurers one at a time, until only their Paladin remained.

As Connroe waited in a clearing for the Paladin to come to him, he caught the voice making prayers and blessings on himself drifting to him on the wind. The voice sounded familiar, but Connroe knew the voice could be none of his men, for they had all been wiped out long ago or gone home at the orders of their new leaders. Looking up as the adventurer entered the clearing, a large hammer in his hands that almost dripped blood, Connroe looked up.

Looking into the battle hardened face of his younger brother, his resolve and dedication to the Lich King began to crumble, and Connroe let his blade fall to the ground. Unable to kill his brother, he simply collapsed to the ground; his only thought that of awaiting the killing blow of his Master. Medros, not foolish enough to let his guard down, advanced on the Death Knight, ready to strike if needed, for he did not know the man's identity.

"Stand, or I will use the Light and this mace to send you back to your master as Nerubian dinner" Medros says, his anger and fury coming out in his voice. Medros takes a step back when his threats are met with laughter from the fallen man.

"The Scourge always did doubt the power of those wielding the light!" Medros shouts angrily as he raises his hammer for a killing blow.

"No," the fallen Knight says, making Medros stop mid swing, "I just wonder which of us he will strike down first, my brother..."

With that Connroe turns on his back, and looks up with a muddied face at his brother, watching with a look of happiness that he did not change so much that his own blood cannot recognize him.

"Connroe?" Medros asks in disbelief. "How did you...? Northrend? They told us you fell in the attack on Lordaeron!"

"No, Med, I fell to the will of the prince who became King." Connroe says with bitterness in his voice. "He will come soon, or he will send others. He wants you dead, dear brother, which tells me you have truly become the Paladin you always dreamed of being."

"I have tried, Conn, but that is not something to discuss here and now. We need to get out of here, need to get back to tell the Order of the situation here. They will want to hear what you have to say," Medros states authoritatively.

"No, he will find us wherever we flee, Med, he can see everything," Connroe says in a  defeatist tone.

"There are ways, trust me on that. I have been fighting his minions for a long while now, and my friends and I have found ways to hide what we wish from him," Medros advises knowingly, tossing a rough stone to his brother, which instantly warms up.

Today saw an announcement that the next patch to World of Warcraft will be incoming soon, which will be the pre expansion patch we have all been waiting for. I was luckily in the beta when the news hit, and I got a bit of the early reactions that those in the thick of testing have about the impending release. The first impression I got was that many think it is too early, and others thought that this was one of the many 'Soon™' promises that Blizzard is both legendary and frequently mocked for.

I did a bit of research based on the first expansion, Burning Crusade, and I got some insights into how things might go this time. I would like to point out first that this is not last time, and that was Blizzard's first expansion to an MMO, and they have most likely learned a bit since then. So, the first fact we need to keep in mind was the January 16th release date of Burning Crusade. The next one I dug up was that the 2.0.1 content patch was released on the 5th of December. This was 1 month and 11 days before the release of the expansion.

Now, these two dates do not really have much of a connection now, since we still do not know the date that 3.0.1 will be pushed to the live realms, but keep that in mind when we do get that anticipated patch. The other piece of data we have is that Blizzard, after weeks of speculation about the release date, confirmed the release date on the 9th of November. This was 1 month and 4 days before the patch was released and over 2 months before the expansion was actually released.

Now, again, as I said before, things may well be different this time. Mike Morhaime has stated emphatically that the expansion will be released in 2008, so even if the date is announced on December 1st, I would think it is unlikely it will be a 2 month wait. Second, Blizzard was being pummeled by it's fans and the press for a release date, or at least a confirm or deny on the matter. This could have forced Blizzard to give a release date before they were ready. Lastly, as I said in the beginning and repeatedly, things can be different. Things likely will be different. Tomorrow Blizz could give us a release date. They could do it at Blizzcon. They could release it at Blizzcon! In the end, we'll have to wait and see, but these are just a few of my ideas of what the announcement could mean.

I know a few people who are in the beta, so I think I have a decent cross section of the player base when I say that right now the beta server I play on, and the one the Europeans(Coldarra) play on are completely useless for actual testing. Beta testing is fun. I love finding bugs to pass along and helping to make the finished release candidate more polished and less bug filled than the current one. I cannot do this, however, if I can only play for 10-30 minute stretches filled with lag and looting problems.

Before, and even since I got into beta, I have listened with an uninterested eye as friends complained about lag filled and crash ridden servers in the beta. I figured, at worst, that these were likely the result of most of them being in Europe and the beta realms being located in the US, even the one for Europe. Not so. I have tried a few times in the last few days to get into the beta realm Northrend, and I get in for between 5 and 30 minutes before I get world server down.

Crashing servers aren't unfamiliar to me, I played in the original beta, in the days after the games release, and in the first few days of Burning Crusade, but this is a little ridiculous. Blizzard has said they are looking into it and working with their server team to find the problems, but in the meantime their beta testers are sitting there, hands on their chest, growing increasingly frustrated at lost opportunities. We all want to make a better release client, but every World Server Down and You have been Disconnected we get makes it all the more likely bugs will slip through.

I was sitting in IRC chat, discussing the beta, and a friend going by the name MrCynical pointed out that it seems Orcs get more play, again, in this expansion than his beloved undead, who you would think have more reason to want to take down the Lich King. I spent time last night exploring a bit and found the Westfall based human settlements in Grizzly Hills, which I noted made major human settlements in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and Grizzly Hills, in addition to a human leading the Kirin' Tor, Rhonin.

I guess the two separate points struck me as odd. Then I realized something: The majority of the conflicts in the game from start to now seem to boil down to the hatred between Orcs and Humans. In fact, if you look back through the entire franchise, there seems to be a pivotal connection that boils all battles down to these two races. The biggest connection is that these two are the lead races of their faction, making them the big center pieces of many conflicts.

Sure, we have Undead and Humans, Orcs and Night Elves, Orcs and Dwarves, and Draenei and Blood Elves, but most of the major stuff, like the expansions and stuff, is pitting those two lead races against each other. From the start of Warcraft to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King, these two races have taken the lead in the events of the people of Azeroth and Outlands. What do you think about this breakdown? Would you like to see more major roles for other races? Or are you happy with these two races sharing the lead of the game? Let me know in the comments. 

Having finally spent time recording your searches in my client, I have a more thorough list to pick and choose from in my searches to answer for you today. I hope that some of these answer your query to your favored search service. Let's do some quickies first.

where are paladin trainer in outlands - there are none
wow "gold medallion" "spirit of competition" -win Battlegrounds
how to 2.4 to 3.0 0 - Get into the beta, or wait until the pre release patch
outlands jc design vendors - all over
tree form through outlands - Have fun!

Now for the longer ones:
all tameable pets in northern in wrath of the lich king - I don't know about northern, but Northrend and the hunter pets are I think not done yet, as just this past patch brought them 2 more classes of tameable pet. I would check out Petopia for more current data, though.

alchemy in wrath of the lich king - I hope it is incomplete and unpolished, because there feels like there is not much there, and what there is, takes too much to make. I will say no more for now, only that you wait. In the meantime, go to the Alchemy page on WoWHead's Wrath section for the latest. Just hit Last, and then Previous to see the newer stuff.

New Dire Bear Model wrath of lich - Nothing showing yet, but I would rather suspect it will be Glyph based.

netherwingquest line removed in wrath of the lich king - I have heard nothing about this, but there are some things that are being removed or changed for Wrath. I will look further into this once I have a toon on the beta realms who doesn't already have their drake.

leveling in outlands - ...is very fun, and will get better in wrath when you need to do about 3 of the zones to be Northred ready.

Lastly: abbey outland - Glad you found me!

I know, I know. Cheesy. But I am happy. This is the first time I have experienced a beta patch first hand in about 4 years. I am a little excited. Below you will find the thoughts I have as I work my way through reported and discovered changes.

-Death Knight's Frost Presence now gives an aura buff to everyone nearby for a walk on water buff. Blood Presence still gives nothing
-Death Knights now appear almost diseased in appearance. Eww.
-Can now check, read, and delete mail.
-Fishing trainer in Valiance now trains Grand Master. Cooking Trainer still blank. Same goes for Valgarde.
-Paladins cannot use Judgments. More properly put, they can cast them, but they have no effect. Still able to so decent damage.
-Warlocks now glow purple.
-Hunter's Kill Command has been changed, for the worse.
-IF guard still does not know what inscription is.
-Select bodies of water have schools of fish.
-Turkey killing achievement is still very hard to do in Valgarde proper
-The flight... master(?) at Amber Ledge now has the proper texture for her form.
-Apparently Titan's Grip, the long griped about dps nerf to the Fury Warriors, has been fixed to make those same Warriors machines of mass slaughter. Expect a slight tweak down of that talent in a later build.
-Even patches can be followed by downtime

And on that note, as the servers went down, I assume to fix the glow issues, the judgment issues, or just to randomly taunt beta testers, I will end this here. I would like to say that while I feel a Blizzcon release of Wrath would be awesome, I don't see it as feasible, but I feel the game will be released withing a short time after that. We now have level 80 and only one world zone left unreleased, as well as raid dungeons which need to see a few runs, likely the purpose of the mentioned premade realm. Look for more new soon!

[Update: 2:30 AM - After the lengthy shut down Paladins still cannot judge, and Death Knights still look diseased. Server is about to shut down again, and I am off to bed. Look for another update in the morning.]

We are currently in the beta phase of the next expansion, as you are all well aware. All of the classes have new talent trees, and some have spectacular abilities that totally kick ass. Some, not so much. I understand that some all players want those OMFG abilities to be seen. Not all will get them. Some may get them eventually. Everyone wants a Divine Storm, a Titan's Grip, a Beast Mastery, a Typhoon to be given to their class. Not everyone can. This is a fact of life that we will just have to struggle to accept and live with.

The way I see it, having a Hunter, 2 Paladins, and a Druid at 70, is that the big skills are being given to those classes and specs within classes that really, really need them. Hunters have long been the mockery of gaming. Ret Paladins too have suffered being the butt of all DPS jokes. Many raiders seem to feel that Moonturkey are carried, not doing real damage or contributing much to a run other than the aura. I play all of this. I see why we are getting the OMFG talents. We need them.

In a most recent Ask the Beta Tester segment on WoW Insider, their rogue columnist said that Rogues aren't getting any must have talents. He admitted that they will still do massive damage in any raid or group. No doubt rests in my mind that without the changes to Paladins in Wrath, Rogues would still be the hands down favorite for any raid or group. As it stands now, I have a small chance I could win out if their was a choice in a raid, especially with buffs to auras which make them raid wide and the talents and improvements to Retribution Aura that I have taken in the Retribution tree.

Changes to spell power will definitely affect Arita, my druid(renamed Aritas due to name change), but I am trying to get Medros to Dalaran in order to see the amazing city of magic. He only just dinged 71 last night, so it will be a bit until he hits the 74 minimum, but I will then spend some time learning the druid abilities to see how they do in solo and group play. I pretty much stuck to the prospective talent tree I posted about, and I will be sure to report here when I begin doing more than mere fedex quests on the Doomkin.

Hunters. Huntards many call us. Too easy to play, too streamlined, too anti group. We are the most insulted group, and the least wanted in groups. In fact, I think that if a raid were to choose between a Hunter and a Doomkin, they would likely choose feather over fur. Not to mention that hunters are almost never allowed to bring out their biggest asset, their pets, in most raid or group encounters. While Beast Mastery will undoubtedly be the most popular hunter spec in Wrath, cause let's be honest, who doesn't want to tame a Devilsaur, but Chimera Shot and Explosive Shot seem to have some promise. I will be looking at my Hunter last in the line of alts I will bring to the beta.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if your class isn't broke, don't expect a fix. Blizzard is giving clothies spell power, which will automatically give you a buff in that all that juicy healing gear that used to drop will now be usable. They are still working on classes from the Death Knight on down, so don't think that just cause we might have a cinematic, that the beta is over, cause it's not. This change. Things will continue to change. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

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.

So I mentioned here that I have begun in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test, and I have some thoughts and questions here. First, are there any mods for the beta? I am a mod fiend and I am feeling really lost without a single mod. I have my Statusbars mod which tells me in a HUD type display what my health and the mobs health is. I have died a number of times because of this. Second, Gatherer? Is there any way to mark gather nodes? I am finding Cobalt ore hard to find and would love to mark them.

As an aside, it is nice that WoW Head WotLK has comments with coordinates, but how exactly do I figure out those coordinates? How did they get the coordinates? I love the look of the zones in Northrend. I have seen both Borean Tundra and Sholazar Basin, though the later only when I pulled a noobish hop off the ledge without remembering that Divine Protection was changed, and thus dying on the rocks. No more suicide jumps from Aldor Rise. I wanted to thank a kind GM from the beta realms who unstuck me in the world so I could return to my journey on Aritas, who was stuck in a server issues last night. The final tip comes from Galanis on the Northrend beta realm, "Profession Trainer tracking is critical in the newbie towns", a good tip to put into practice when you are just hitting Northrend!

Lastly, below you will find the huge, massive gnome lore found in the Tundra. Spoilers may be found! Enjoy!



[Update: Thanks to Lassirra for the tip about WoW Interface for WotLK!]
[Update: Thanks to MrCynical in IRC for the reminder that Divine Shield still does what Divine Protection used to do, and for longer!]

Thanks to a dear friend who had a couple of the card based beta codes, I am now in the beta. I still have opt in on my account, and still have others I know who want keys, but I do want to try and get a key or two to give away on the show and here on the blog. How will I do that? I don't know yet, but stay tuned and subscribed for more info. I will also giving my thoughts as I go through the beta on the *content* that is there. Talents change, specs alter, and game play will change.

The content, the lore, the stories, those are likely to not change much. For your pleasure, though, I will preface any lore or story post with 'SPOILER:' just so you know when you might get ruined. Finally, if you are playing on Northrend(PvE) and alliance side, let me know your toon's names in the comments, and I will add you as a friend in game. Maybe we will get an All Things Azeroth guild set up. I might also do an end of beta round table show to get some of the tester's thoughts on the expansion pre launch.

So I spent a better part of yesterday on a new, unrevealed hordeside alt on Argent Dawn, but came over to spend some time PvPing with a close friend. When she had to go, I was lucky enough to see a call in guild chat "DPS still needed for Mags.   Anyone up?". I only have 1 toon high enough for 25 man raids, and that is Arita. I do have a wish list to get Medros up to the point where he meets my guild's list of Retribution Paladin stat minimums, but for now the Boomkin is the one who will see Zul'Aman, Magtheridon's Lair, or Gruul's Lair.

The run took awhile to get started. From that first call out to first pull was over half an hour. I logged over quick, made up some elixirs and pots, then accepted the summons. I ran in, drank and ate, then waited. I chatted with the other 3 guild mates who were in the raid, and got an idea of the place, which I now realize was a lot of worrying for almost nothing. I have never seen Ony, so the description of 'it's like Onyxia' tells me nothing. I was shocked when a few short pulls in I was staring into Mag's room, and they were explaining the fight.

I can't say it went great, we did wipe once, but I know it wasn't my fault cause all I had to do was do DPS on command. On the second run I was able to battle res a healer, and we got him down, my excitement and nervousness building with every percentage closer. I ran up to loot my badges, and noticed that there was a lot of purple there. 2 and a bit 'pages' of loot to be exact. There was 2 Chestguard of the Fallen Defender, 1 Chestguard of the Fallen Champion, Girdle of the Endless Pit, Crystalheart Pulse-Staff, Pit Lord's Satchel, and Magtheridon's Head of course.

I didn't win the roll on the Chest, but all but one of those who rolled above me were rolling for off sets, so I got one. The Champion and the Girdle both went to the Ret Paladin(yes, there was a Ret Paladin there!). I did roll highest on the Satchel, but I had already won something, so I agreed to pass on it for the next highest. In the end I was the only guildie to win something in the run, as one had to go after the wipe and the others didn't have anything drop they could use(Hunter and Warlock), but both were happy I won an additional piece to boost my stats. I added to spell damage, crit, and hit, which I believe now puts me fully over the top in specs for 25 person raids. /cheer

I mentioned in my About page that I began my love affair with WoW way back in September of 2004 with the Stress Test. I recall sometime in those early days one CM or another, being asked about talent point allocation, saying that putting all your eggs(points) in one basket(tree) would be bad, and make for a boring character. The idea behind giving you more than needed to get the big skill at the 'top' of the tree was to allow you to put some points in other trees.

Fast forward 4 years or so to the current Wrath Beta talents, and we now hear about talent Bloat. As described by the class designer Koraa in this thread:

Bloat: Bloat is another word for "I can't have everything I want!". We want every class to feel their tree is "bloated" to a degree. We want classes to have to make choices and sacrifices over good talents, because that is ultimately what makes talents interesting. If it weren't that way, we would just make it a linear progression without any choices.

Wait, what? Now we should be putting all our points in one tree, and in fact should have more goodies in that tree than we have points to spend them on? When did this change? The reason I ask is that I did not, and do not feel that the current Retribution tree is in this position, as I still have room for Kings over in the Prot tree. Looking at my attempted build back in an earlier beta build, I did find that I just couldn't spare the points in Ret to go anywhere near the Prot tree.

I just find it a little amusing that the perspective of class design has changed so radically from those earlier 'spread em out' specs that I think it was Caydiem was advising back in those early days of Blizzard's MMO experience. What do you think? Do you like the old way of thinking or the new? Would you prefer less than mind blowing options scattered throughout the trees which would allow you to put points in other trees, or would you prefer having more juicy talents than places to put them? Sound off in the comments below!

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. 

Answering your searches, a dozen at a time

I have seen other blogger's do this, so I figured I would go through my search term log and pick out the most interesting searches I could find. Enjoy. Learn. Chuckle.

Lich King Kill Turkeys
Ummm, well, he has killed a lot of things, but I have no conclusive evidence that turkey's have been among them. I am sure he might have had one or two for the Harvest Festival, though.

When does regular Magister's Terrace stop giving rep
To my knowledge the instance gives rep all the way to exalted, much like the dailies for the SSO.

Death Charger WoWWiki
If you are asking what it looks like, left is a picture from my dear friend MrCynical in the beta. If you want to know when you get one, I am told by the same folks that it is available the 3rd or 4th quest into the Death Knight Starting Experience, and it is epic. Until you get your Charger, you can always use the alternative, pictured right, provided from my friend Gimble.



Where's the Telaar Quartermaster
He is located on the East side of the inn, and stands next to a riding Talbuk.

Magister Terrace Kael tact
Attack. Kill bird. Kill egg. Float to door, low to floor. Fly high, swim low. Attack more. Loot. Enjoy.

Paladin improvements in wrath of the lich king
Many. They change. Check back Soon™.

image of lvl 70 draenei hunter from wow
To the left you will find a picture of my level 42 Draenei Hunter from WoW. On the right you will find an image of a hunter named Carnack, from my own Argent dawn realm, who I randomly found to be the only hunter of level 70 in Shattrath city when I went looking. He in fact belongs to the Knights of Honor guild, and is not unguilded as the Armory claims.

musings of a nut job
You want Dax, over here, who is the creator of 2 WoW themed Johnny Cash parodies. Keep em comin', Dax.

wow scout comic
You want this here, but it was last updated June 6th with a notice of closure for the foreseeable future. Funny as hell, though. Sad to see it close shop for a time.

death knight name/race
I choose Connroe, a human, and you can see the evolving story here.

wrath beta screenshots
I like the Wiki, Death Knight Info, WoW Insider, and my many friends in beta for their multitude of wrath beta screens and other info. 

how to tank kara
I am told Tank Spot is a good place to go.

Hope these answers help any of you looking for them.

I have two hunters. I know, I know, one of them I barely mention in these pages. I kinda left him hanging at 41 when the leveling bump hit and I favored my new Paladin, Telaan, who is not happily propped up at level 70. While Ameland, my main hunter, is great and all, sitting with a perfected Marksmanship spec that I love dearly, I do so wish I could find a reason to level Traluun up. Then I just finished watching Big Red Kitty's Devilsaur video from the beta realms. Like in cartoons from days of old, a light bulb went on.

So here's my plan. I will still do my profession stuff and questing, what ever I have left of them, on Telaan, but then I will work when I can on Traluun. I did some quick math, and the point when Traluun can get the final Beast Mastery talent point would be level 60. That means that at Level 60, he can run over to Un'Goro crater and tame him a Devilsaur. I am pretty sure I can do 20 levels in a month or two, even on a boring hunter type like Traluun is now, and be ready for that lovely talent point when the 3.0 patch hits pre Wrath.

Have you ever rolled a second character of a class you already have, just to try out a new spec? Is there a spec you haven't tried that you plan to when Wrath hits? Let me know in the comments!

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Upon arriving to the city, he was sent directly to the King's personal black smith and fitted for armor befitting a rank far higher than his lowly rank at Durnholde. Once he was measured for new armor, he was sent to the throne room of the king and greeted by one of the King's Generals, who presented him with orders from the prince of his promotion to Captain, and was ordered to proceed to rendezvous with the Prince at Stratholme.

As the regiment he was leading closed in on Stratholme, a scout reported seeing smoke on the horizon. The new Captain ordered all of the mounted troops to ride forward to the city at best speed while he remained with the footmen and pack animals as they too moved at best speed. About halfway to the city Connroe noticed a group of figures moving toward him, and ordered his men to make ready for an attack.

The attack did not happen, for Connroe recognized a familiar face in the head of the group of soldiers, and he rode out to inquire of his Prince. Arthas brusquely told him that Stratholme had fallen to a new threat to the Alliance, and that they had no time to discuss the matter. When he asked about the men he had sent to the city, Arthas informed him they had perished, but died valiantly. When Connroe tried to seek more information, Arthas ordered his silence, telling him the fallen would rise and make chase.

Arthas ordered the men to head north, where they took charge of some of the boats of the Alliance who sailed the flag of Kul'Tiras and sailed north to the land known as Northrend. Shortly after arriving they came upon the Dwarven troops of Muradin Bronzebeard, a friend of Arthas. They joined forces with the dwarves to battle the legions of undead that Arthas was on the heels of, and take back lost ground.

Orders came from the king after a few weeks of the building of their base, ordering them back to Lordaeron, but when they reached their boats they were met with the site of their Prince in heavy battle alongside Bronzebeard, fighting mercenaries who Arthas claimed had destroyed their only route home. Furious, the soldiers attacked the mercenaries with every bit of rage they had in their chilled bones. Once the dismal inventory was taken and it was discovered they didn't have even one sea worthy vessel, they returned to their base to wallow in their sadness.

Suddenly one day Arthas came to his loyal captain and ordered him to take command of the troops and proceeded to disappear while the troops were still under frequent and heavy attack. While the troops were seemingly about to be overrun, Arthas returned, without the Dwarven prince but carrying a deadly looking blade. He commanded that they mount an invasion of the undead base in order to slay their demon master.

Unsure of this plan when they were already down to so few, Connroe never the less made plans for an full scale attack on the base, even though he had many doubts of its potential for success. When the remaining troops were ready and a strategy was set in motion, they proceeded forth in a two pronged attack on the base. The frontal assault was led by Connroe and the latter by Arthas in a sneak attack, hoping to split the undead forces and leave them in disarray.

The number of troops that met Connroe's attack was many, but the human and dwarven fighters did not let the numbers get them down, instead fighting to the last. The remains of the undead piled up in front of them, but yet more advanced on them, and the soldiers who stood with Connroe began to feel the fight drain out of them as they could see no end to this risen army. It was then, when the battle seemed utterly lost that Connroe spotted his prince in battle with a large winged demon who he called Mal'Ganis. As Connroe watched with concern, Arthas drove the runeblade into the demon, slaying him in one easy strike.

While the soldiers cheered, thinking that their prince had helped them to finally kill the undead creatures with ease, Connroe saw a look cross his prince's face that made a chill run down his spine. It was then that Connroe began bellowing for the retreat of the troops, causing the prince to glare at him.  Then the undead forces began to swarm around the prince, not in attack, but in adoration. Arthas struck down many soldiers before they realized their prince was not with them anymore.

Connroe made it back to the base with barely a quarter of the forces he left with just hours before, and found that the undead forces had decimated the base, slaughtering even the wounded and near dead in the most horrific ways. Slaughtering the last few undead while he had the element of surprise, Connroe ordered his troops to begin rebuilding in expectation of an attack sent to finish them off, this time an attack ordered by Prince Arthas.

The attack never came however, though they could not return because their boats had been destroyed, likely at the order of their fallen prince, Connroe realized in hindsight. The base was rebuilt, expanded, and fortified as the days became weeks, and then months, and finally years. Connroe, being the highest ranking soldier, gave himself promotions at regular intervals as dictated by Lordaeron's military code, finally achieving the rank of General. Then one day the entire world seemed to shake, and the base was nearly brought to the ground before suddenly, as suddenly as it had begun, the shaking stopped. A few months after this, Connroe began hearing the call of an eerily familiar voice in his dreams.

I have four 70s now, and all but one has epic flying, which he will no doubt have by the time Wrath hits until it hits in the next five weeks or so. While yes, there are quests that can be done, I am honestly almost out of quests to do on those four 70s. It is therefore a really nice thing when Blizzard gives me something to spend a bit of my time on other than dailies and other gold building pass times.

Late last night WoW Insider posted that European and Chinese servers had reportedly received a special Olympics based PvP reward set. It seems that when you participate in a Battleground you get a Competitor's Tabard. Yes, that's right, the item is so new and so undiscovered in the many data mines, that I had to link to the WoW Armory for it, instead of WoW Head. If you win the battleground, you have a chance, seems about 50%, to get a Gold Medallion. The medallion summons a really neat Spirit of Competition, which is a little Chinese dragon looking vanity pet.

As soon as I saw this news, I knew I had to have it. Well, on a hop over to my mule to buy the last few Mark of Sargeras I needed to take Telaan to Exalted(yay!), I saw Ciarda, an old and dear friend, who had both the tabard and the pet. I made arrangements to go do some PvP with her group when she had gotten some food, and went back to Medros to wait. I must say, the few minutes I waited were more than worth it!.

I joined her, Silvarius, and a couple of their friends, though I failed to grab screen shots or the names, and we headed to the shortest of winnable BGs, Warsong Gulch. This was a night of firsts. I cannot recall the last time I won back to back Battlegrounds. I also do not recall any time when all four of the BGs were in the 1000+ range of open matches. PvP was smoking! The first win netted me a tabard, a few deaths, and some good times. The second netted me the Medallion, and it almost felt like a blow out, as the other side seemed to almost give up around the final flag cap, barely defending and using poor strategy.

The other side had little chance, with a concerted and well played offense, mixed with defense at just the right times. I can't say that me and my Kara level gear did a whole lot to contribute, but sometimes all you need is a well placed stun, AoE, or Hammer of Wrath. I want to thank Ciarda, Silvarius and their friends for helping make the BGs seem fun again. Now, who wants to help me other three 70s get their own tabards and pets??

You may have wondered where I have been these last few days. Well, I have been away from blog. AFB. I love the beta. I wish I was in it. I want to be testing and trying and learning. I want to poke and prod and see what breaks. I want to see what is good, and bad, and learn from the beta. Sadly, as I said, I am not in the beta yet. Therefore I must rely on the reporting of sites like Deathknight.info, WoW Insider, wotlkwiki.info, and MMO Champion.

While the WoWHead wrath Talent Calculators are good, they just can't adjust to the changing state of talents on the beta realms. Reminiscent of the original beta, Hunters and Paladins are the last to have received their Wrath talents, and therefore the talents for these classes are changing often. Within a day or two of my recent piece on the Retribution tree for Paladins, the layout of the tree I spent days writing a post about, as well as several critical items in it, were changed.

I wouldn't choose Art of War for any money now. My prospective tree breaks by tier 4. I do not know of anywhere that keeps a record of the talent trees as they change from patch to hot fix to beta round. Dire Cat Form was 'wrongly stated' since it will just be a Cat Form version 2, with a new look via inscription, apparently. Yes, just because Tom Chilton, Lead Game Designer for World of Warcraft, says that something is coming, doesn't mean a thing. Can't count on 'it's coming' from anyone at all, it seems.

So, I guess you could say that I am tired of being bitten by the Beta bug. Sure, more pet slots, spell based mounts and vanity pets, and all the great abilities coming, or stated they will be coming, are here, or in the next patch, all of this looks awesome. And all of it is a single patch from being gone, as well. Maybe the vanity pet and mount system is too tech intensive. Maybe the pet slots make a hunter just too over powered. Maybe... maybe this is beta, and it's just not worth blogging about? Yeah, I think that might be it. 

I posted on my Twitter today that it is beginning to feel, after so many professions nerfs, the Blizzard is at war with their own professions. Make them too good, and you have to increase the difficulty and requirements of the encounters in raids, or so I hear so often. Having done a little raiding, I can see that they have a point, to a degree. I do, though, have some questions. I made a few of these in this post about the seeming death of the Alchemy profession with the huge nerf of potions.

I once heard an opinion that if you don't an idea of how to solve a problem, don't bother mentioning it. Well, here is my best solution. There are items and abilities which cannot, and could not once upon a time, be used in a particular place. There was a time when you couldn't summon at all in Netherstorm. You cannot use some long cooldown abilities in Arenas. Blizzard has even changed the cooldown of some abilities to make them either able or unable to be used in those situations.

My suggestion is that Blizzard, instead of nerfing these items across the whole game, make them work differently when in a raid. Instead of giving us Tennitus whenever a drum is used in game, make it so that this effect only happens in a raid, be it dungeon or world raid encounters. The same would go for the Potion Sickness. Perhaps, just to be fair, give them a 5% buff to the effects when in a raid group, but then you get the debuff. This would solve the raid encounter issue, but not take away the benefits of using potions and drums in your game play.

My biggest concern, and the reason I used in my previous post, is still a valid one. I found more than once in leveling my 4 70s through Outlands that there is a nasty habit of mobs to swarm a player. From Fel Orcs in Terrokar, to vultures in Hellfire, to mana wyrms up on Bash'ir Landing. Attack the one on the edge, and before you know it you are surrounded by mobs and have little chance of surviving the fight. Except you have pots or you have drums. Not all of us are Paladins or other self healing and other survivor based classes.

What do you think of this suggestion? Are you one of those who feel this is much needed to make raids more accessible? Or do you feel that Blizzard is taking a heavy hand across the board with stuff that they feel isn't helping one aspect of one portion of the game? Let me know and sound off, you might even get audio played on the podcast if you send it in.