Bitter Roots

New Druid Video

2008-05-29T14:28:31Z

Firstly, I apologise for the lack of posting recently. I just started a new job and it's cut out a lot of the time I used to have. I'm still playing and reading, though!

One quick piece of news: We changed to a more RPish and less controversial guild name. We're now and I'll try and get the background story up and written soon.

In the meantime, here's a quick video I threw together about what it's like being a restoration druid.

Wrath Information Overload!

2008-05-09T18:17:47Z

Wow. From there being not much information about Wrath of the Lich King, it's suddenly exploded into a wealth of it. I'm not going to respost everything, just talk about some of my favourite things.

Death Knights

I'm really looking forward to making a Death Knight, and it sounds like the class will be a blast to play. I think my poor warrior is going to get neglected as the DK may replace her as my tank.

This is an interesting snippet, saying you may be able to make a Death Knight of either faction. This means that if you have all Alliance characters you could potentially have a level 55 Horde without having to reroll. The question in the post is more for PVP realms, I think, as you can only have characters of one faction on a PVP server, but it opens up all sorts of possibilities. If you have Horde friends on the same server you could make a Horde Death Knight and play them up to the new level cap with a lot less work than starting over. Of course, with the limit being one DK per server, you then couldn't have an alliance one.

Factions

Here is the main article with all the snippets. The most interesting thing for me is that Hemet Nesingwary will have a rival faction. Wow. Hemet would have to offer something pretty dang special to avoid me trying to kill him for all of those hunting quests he made me do. The "Wolvar" sound like they might be a worgen faction, perhaps some that are a little smarter and have broken away from Arugal or whomever is controlling them?

That also brings me nicely to my next topic;

Lore

Wow oh wow is there a lot of stuff to cover. I love the Azerothian stories. Don't get me wrong, some of the Outland stuff is entertaining, but after having levelled several characters through Ashenvale and Duskwood I have come to love the Worgen tales and legends, such as those covered in the Scythe of Elune quest. It sounds like the worgen lore will be developed further and I can't WAIT.

There's also some dragon lore that I'm looking forward to as well, but I really do have an unhealthy obsession with the Worgen.

Then of course, there's...

Raiding

A subject near and dear to me, and something I'd like to be able to do more of but can't. The news here is that all of the raid instances will have 10-man and 25-man settings! Wow. I really like this. It means that I'll be able to experience the raids without having to wait for 24 other people to be ready, just 9. For somebody in what is now a small guild, this is massive. And they've even said that doing the 10-man selection for a raid WILL NOT lock you out of the 25-man, so potentially you could do both. The progression also isn't going to be as linear
as it is now, no more attunments... they really are making it better for the casual player, which I certainly am now I'm working.

I really really like this - the gear will be better in the 25-mans (of course), but it sounds like it'll be possible to see much more of the endgame content with a small group than is currently the case.

Useful links for reading:

WoW Insider
Gamespy's WotLK Info
The WoW General forums are also pretty good right now as the CMs are answering a lot of threads, but you have to wade through the other stuff to find them.

Being Prepared

2008-05-03T22:07:47Z

There's a very good reason why my cursor moves to hover over my Skyguard Drape key when I use my Gadgetzan teleporter. Today I was again proven right as I popped into the sky and began to fall, then slowed to a nice floating glide.

Looks like some other people weren't quite as prepared, though...

Giant Orphan is Giant

2008-05-02T11:08:32Z

Giant orphan wants to crush the island! Run for your lives!

With this challenge from Big Bear Butt Blogger, I'm gonna try and get some fun screenshots of my orphan over the weekend. With Gruul and maybe SSC tonight, that should be fun. Buahaha.

For now, this;

Remember kids, you shouldn't give real pet biscuits to real orphans, it's cruel.

Tough Choices

2008-05-02T10:26:28Z

For a little while now, I've not been quite happy in my guild.

Seems to be going around at the moment, huh? I think it may be part of the pre-expansion lull (more on that in a moment).

The guild leader is a much-liked and respected friend of mine, but he's (rightly) been taking time off for health reasons. Unfortunately, it just isn't the same without him and there doesn't really seem anyone willing/able to take the toughest job of all. With a new job starting next week, I just won't have time to do it myself. I can't be worrying about making WoW fun for 20-some other people when I might not even have time to make it fun for myself.

So last night I left the guild I've been in for the past couple of years. They took me in when I was a little new 60, and I saw some of the old-world instances with them. From going to MC for the first time and getting to pull the mobs after Baron Geddon to learning Karazhan and leading my first runs, I've done a lot with these people. They are my friends and my family and it's very very strange to be leaving that. And more than a little sad.

I've just not felt a part of it lately. When I log on there are only a few people who I might not even know. I played with the same group of friends all the time, and we're in a multi-guild raiding group that we're going to 25-mans with. There's also the pre-expansion lull I mentioned, where a lot of people are off playing other games, or taking a break.

So I took the plunge, made my own guild and was born.

A little background behind the name. Our little group of friends has a habit of yelling Arnie quotes when we go into bosses. I'm not even sure how it started, it might have been me, because I had friends on SWG that would randomly quote him too. However it started, it became a habit to yell "Get to da choppa!" or "I'm a cop!" and so on when we're on Vent together.

So when I was sat in Ironforge at the guild guy trying to decide on the name, I discovered that didn't quite fit. So I tried and it worked.

"Stop Whining" is an Arnie quote from the Terminator 3D "ride" at Universal Studios. How's that for obscure? Myself and two of my good WoW friends met up in Orlando this year and went on it, and after that whenever anyone was starting to whine, we'd yell "Stop whining" in an Arnie-esque voice.

So now it's a guild name. It also helps that most of us are fairly unforgiving when it comes to people whining.

A few other people from the Shadow Walkers came with me, and a few more still might. I'm not going to recruit or try and poach people, there's no point. I'm the guild master game mechanics-wise, but everyone else is the highest officer rank you can be and have all the same abilities as far as it's possible. It's a commitee guild, nothing more than a bunch of friends sharing a tag.

Maybe on day we'll re-join the Shadows, but for now we're running around and telling people to stop whining!

We also found the perfect tabard icon.

Rawr!

2008-04-29T11:17:05Z

I have a confession to make.

I'm additected to levelling.

Last night I hit 40 on my shaman. Then I hit 41.

She's a week old.

A lot of my friends have been expressing amazement at how fast I've levelled her. It hasn't even felt like a grind, especially after 30. The increase in levelling speed is astounding and I remember it only feeling faster the closer to 60 I got.

I picked up dual weilding, and so far I'm not very enamoured of it. I think that's just because I had to go and work up my one-handed weapon skills some, and I was using a far overpowered 2-hand axe for my level, but things seemed a lot harder to kill. I have stormstrike now and I'll be picking up the extra +hit with dual-weild, so we'll see how that goes.

I'd also like some advice here. Should I go straight for the 41-point talent, or should I max out the dual-weild and then go spend some points in resto for the extra hit and a few other nice things? The enhancement 31- and 41-point talents seem a lot more aimed towards grouping/raiding and I won't be doing any of that until 60.

I also took a couple of hours out on Sunday and finished off getting exalted with Stormwind. I like elekks, but I have a thing for horses. I also found that on my last draenei, I kept getting stuck places because the elekk was so big. It was quite embarassing.

The Little Things

2008-04-26T10:27:31Z

So, I was questing in Darkshire on my baby shammy yesterday. She's now level 32, and ohmygosh I love windfury. But that's not the point here.

So I was standing in the town hall, and I realised that the names of some of the NPCs looked terribly familiar.

I checked WoW Wiki and my hunch was right. All of Moroes' adds have relatives in Darkshire. All but one are in the town hall, Farrin Darris is in the inn, upstairs.

I'd never noticed this before, and I bet not many people have. It is on the Wiki, but I'd never gone to the individual add's pages before.

So, it kind of makes sense. I mean, Karazhan isn't that far from Duskwood, and Darkshire has been overun by all sorts of undead and worgen nasties, and there's the link between the worgen and the black riders of Deadwind Pass already.

Duskwood has always been one of my favourite zones, I think because of the storylines there that all work together and (when I take time to read them) are well-written and make you feel something for the characters here. I also love the Scythe of Elune line, I always take the time to go and start that one in Ashenvale so I can finish it up at the same time as the other worgen quests.

So, did those guests go there when Moroes and Karazhan were still alive(ish)? If you just go by the book, the Last Guardian, nobody but Moroes and Cook were there with Medivh until Khadgar came. The game seems to change that a little, having a whole host of guests and servants. Perhaps these are before Medivh? Maybe on dying, Moroes made friends with the local ghosts and invited them over for tea and crumpets?

I have no idea, but it's cool nonetheless.

I'm So Weak...

2008-04-23T10:33:35Z

I've done it again.

My main characters - My druid, warlock and warrior are all about as well-geared as I can get them without raiding, which I can't always do. My hunter is well-geared enough to farm and I don't have much interest in getting her beyond that. So, now I could be running dailys and getting epic flyers for all my toons.

Am I doing that? Am I heck. I rolled up another alt. I'm so weak!

This is Kachinaa. As of writing this, she's level 22 and she's a shaman. I'm liking it so far, although she is a little squishier than I'd like. I've read that shaman really doesn't take off until the 30s and 40s though, so I'm sticking with it.

And I LOVE ghost wolf. Can you say overpowered? 40% run speed increase?! What the heck was I doing messing around with travel form? Pshaw! Wolf is where it's at.

I'm currently running around with a big two-handed mace, using flametongue until I get windfury. I'm enhancement, and I think I'll be sticking to that because I already have a healer (druid) and ranged caster (warlock).

Will I get her to 70? I don't know yet. I should be starting a new job soon so my playtime will go right down, and I may lose interest partway through. My rogue is still languishing in the late 40s and has been for about two years now. We'll see!

I think I have the basics of the class down. Another reason for playing a shaman is that it's one class I had no idea about and I wanted to get to know at least a little. I love having the range of knowledge that having alts brings.

I'll probably come up with an RP background for her soon.

Phase Four!

2008-04-17T15:08:45Z

So, I went to the Isle of Quel'Danas to do my dailys on Emelyn today and noted that the harbor was 99% towards opening. I did all my quests and decided to stick around for a little while to see if I could be one of the people there when it opened.

Stood around for 15 minutes or so with a guildie, and it popped!

I'm liking phase four. The harbor building functions as an inn, with a mailbox, stablemaster, poison vendor and innkeeper. Once we finish unlocking it, I'm also very much looking forward to the new jewelcrafting vendor to see what she has.

The new dailys are pretty fun, too. The first one I did was Disrupt the Greengill Coast, where you loot orbs off the female naga and use them to free the murlocs. Seems to be a 100% drop rate off the naga, and you can hit multiple murlocs with the orbs, so it was pretty fast. It's also very amusing to see them attack the naga. Buahaha. This finally gives me a reason to kill the female naga instead of dodging and cursing them trying to get to the male ones for the key quest.

The other quest opened up is Discovering Your Roots, where you go to the new area in Terrokar, Razorthorn Ridge. There you have to loot a gland off a flayer and use it to control a ravager. Then you look for dirt piles on the ground and get the ravager to dig up the root therein. The glands seem to be another 100% drop, and you can get all 5 roots with one ravager, so it's another easy quest. Plus, it gives an SSO satchel! Yay!

I felt kind of mean controlling the ravager and then abandoning it, though. Well ... I kinda ran mine off a cliff, because I got on my flying mount and it followed me. Sorry, ravager!

There's also the donation quests. Before you get exalted you hand over 10g towards getting the statue. At exalted, it's a one-time donation of 1000g and you get a title. Nice fluff thing, but I doubt I'll get the title for my characters until they all have epic flyers.

All in all, a pretty fun phase. And more money from dailys is always a good thing.

Movie: Retribution at the Stockades

2008-04-13T16:51:23Z

What do you get when you combine some footage from the Stockades, an over-active imagination, and a video-editing program?

Something like this...

Quests, Alignment and RP.

2008-04-09T11:27:53Z

Yesterday I travelled to the top of a lava-strewn mountain, where I spoke to a dragon that attempted to strike a deal with me. I refused to deal and after an epic battle, my party and I were triumphant. A few days before that, I talked down a hostage situation and resolved it with no deaths, convinced an evil warlock to join my band of adventurers, and became a Knight.

Was this RPing in an MMO? Nope. Neverwinter Nights 2 has claimed a lot of my current play-time. And I realised what it is that I'm missing in World of Warcraft, and in all MMORPGs.

That sense of immersion that comes from the NPCs reacting to your conversation choices. To being able to complete a quest in a number of different ways, depending on your class and alignment. Actually having an alignment, and it being changed by the way you play (Currently I'm a maxed out Lawful Good paladin/fighter/divine champion) and even dictating how you play.

It would be nice to see a little of this. Granted in an MMO the rules are different, because it's not just you playing through a single-player campaign, but it would be nice if we saw some quests where we can choose how to complete them, or some NPCs in the world would greet us based on things we've done - Not just on a reputation bar. The big difference is of course that in a single-played game, you only do things once. This dungeon or cave is gone once you've gone through it, this NPC is dead "forever". It would take some work and imagination to weave more seamlessly into an MMO but I think it could be done.

I'm pretty excited to see what BioWare are coming up with, given that I'm such a big fan of Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights. I could see either of them being adapted into an MMO, and they both feature heavily an alignment system.

And just for fun:

What alignment is your character?

Emelyn is chaotic evil ... no surprise there!

New Mote Extraction Animation

2008-04-09T11:19:31Z

I know this is a little late, but I've been busy with the new dailys and with RL stuff.

So I was out in Nagrand and noticed an air cloud, which I promptly swooped down and sucked up. To my surprise, I no longer looked like a wannabe shadow priest. Seems they've put in a new animation for it, and it's pretty dang cool!

Fun in Black Morass

2008-04-01T10:04:32Z

Part of doing non-heroic Black Morass with an over-geared group has to be seeing how fast we can clear the trash.

Consecrate + Seed of Corruption = Fun.

They make an almost fractal pattern, as one group member commented. All I saw on my screen was a LOT of numbers, and "Killing Blow!" a bunch of times.

Big Wolf!

2008-03-30T17:19:54Z

I was handing in quests at the island today when a gigantic wolf caught my eye. I ran to catch up and snap some screenshots.

I spoke to Ontbach and she said that the wolf had been like that since the patch, she tamed her a long time ago. I went out to BEM myself and tamed the same wolf, but she shrank down to normal size. I'm thinking it's something to do with her keeping the tag of that's made her stay huge.

Whatever it is, it's really cool!

Update: I just spoke to Ontbach again, and she said the wolf appears normal to her and is actually called something different. It's even stranger than I thought! I'll have to see if my tamed one appears different to other people... Hmmmm!

Kael'thas Doesn't Play Fair

2008-03-30T13:07:10Z

Me and some buddies went into Magister's Terrace last night, to do a quick run on normal and get a friend attuned to heroic. We had a prot pally, a holy pally, an affliction warlock, a destruction/demo warlock and a combat rogue. Once we worked out some kinks in the system, the run went nice and smoothly. I discovered that using my felhunter and solo'ing any of the spellcasters is fun! DoTs and drain life, wohoo.

The problem occured when we got to Kael'thas. We were at the hell-pull before him, and we were using fear as a CC. I've done it before, and none of them have ever run far enough to aggo Kael'thas. Apparently, they can, they just hadn't before.

So the prince of the blood elves yells and comes running towards us. Three of the group are in the corridor, so they book it. Myself and Megawatt are stuck in his room, because the door has shut. We die horribly. (Of course, the pull mobs have no trouble getting through the door.)

We release. We run back. Smack into the closed door.

So after all that, we couldn't finish the instance. Sigh.

I put in a ticket and the GM contacted me about two hours later. She was very nice but I was OTing Karazhan at the time, so I couldn't talk to her properly. She said they're aware of the issue and are working on it. Bleh. In the meantime, if it happens you should put in a ticket and stay in the instance, somebody should be there to fix it quickly.