Thanksgiving Post

Warning: this post has almost nothing to do with WoW. So, those that are here only for Wow stuff can simply move along.

I wanted to publicly throw out a few things that I am thankful for.

First off, I am very thankful for my wife. She's very supportive of me and my "hobby", and she's encouraging in the things that I do. Sure, she doesn't let me play 24-7, but who would want to have a dead-beat father like that anyway?

I am thankful for our guild and the direction that it has gone. We have a great group of people. Sure, everyone has their quirks and whatnot, but I really enjoy hanging out with my friends online. And even though I've only met a couple of them in RL, I'd gladly hang out with any of them if they lived close enough. I am also grateful for all the leaders in the guild. Not just the formal officers (which I would be lost without), but also the ones that don't get an official title, but nonetheless are an integral part of the group.

I am thankful for my children. For the most part, they are a lot of fun. I enjoy their personalities, and sometimes they even play Wow.

I am thankful for my RL friends, and all the guys from Cracked Anvil Trading Co. I wish we all played as much as we did back then, but life goes on, doesn't it?

I am thankful for my readers, and especially the ones that post comments. It's fun when I glance at my visitors every once and awhile, but it's more fun to hear people laughing along side me. (Or at me... take your pick.)

I am thankful for The United States of America. It's such a great land that we live in. Sure, it has problems, but we have so many freedoms here. I am grateful that we can live, worship, and work pretty much however we see fit to.

... and that's about it as far as this blog goes. I am grateful for so many more things... but I think that's about the extent of the things I touch on on this blog.

Sparkles!!!

I know Blizzard implemented this like almost a year ago (or so it seems), but I'm really glad that things sparkle when there's loot AND when there's a quest item to collect. Last night in my first few quests in Dragonblight, I was instructed to go blow up a mine. And I noticed that there's now sparkles where you're supposed to use the item (in this case, a bomb).

So, while I am grateful for the sparkles, they're also a bane to me. I guess for somebody that can be so focused when raiding, I sometimes get a little distracted when questing. "Ok, I'm gonna go do this quest over.... hey, what's this?"

What's also funny is that in a raid, I almost never loot anything. Sure, I've probably walked over a small fortune in gray items, but I'm just too focused on the next boss, or the next strategy, or making sure everybody's having a good time, etc.

But overall... Blizzard? Thank you for the sparkles.

Monsters Wow Minis

I forgot to post that I got another pack of the Wow Minis. This time I got one of the Monsters packs. In it, I got the Succubus, the Voidwalker, and the Panderan Brewmaster, Chen Stormstout.

So, I was going to make another few posts about them, and show off the cards and everything, but... they're kind of already out there on the Internet, so seems like too much effort.

At any rate, it's still a fun game when I can convince somebody to play with me. (It generally involves a deal where I have to go play Polly Pockets or something like that afterwards.) One of the local game shops has Tuesday nights set aside for Wow Minis, so I'll have to go check them out one evening, most likely with at least 2 of the kids in tow.

Frost: The Solo Elite Killer

First off, due to some RL stuff going on, I had to take a few days off of playing. Kind of really bad timing since we're all pushing to 80, but RL is WAY more important that my virtual life, so I did what I needed to.

I didn't play for about 5 days. Finally logged in last night, and lucky I did to get the 4th anniversary achievement and pet. Not like I really care (since I really don't like the majority of pets), but still... I didn't miss it. The funny thing was that, I really had to remember how to play. I'm sure it's a combination of me changing spec and then the days off, but I felt so... lost. Oh, don't worry... I picked things up fast enough; it was just a strange feeling at first.

Now back to our regularly scheduled post.

I've heard a lot of people comment on the amazing amount of control that you have as a frost mage, and it's very true. You've just got a lot of options. Practically every frost spell involves chilling targets so they're slower, rooting them with ice so they have to stay still, or a shield so that you don't take damage. Not only that, you've also got a summoned pet that can deal damage as you're on the run (and it can root as well), and if you've used up all your cooldowns, you've got a spell that will reset everything.

Last night, I was doing some of the quests up in the Northeastern part of Howling Ford where there's these meandering elites. Now, the quest to kill them is only considered a 2-man quest, but I still had no problem taking care of the elites with minimal cooldowns needing to be used. Then there's the 3-man quest to kill the bigger giant. And while I had help from a shaman that I had grouped with so we wouldn't kill steal, I really didn't need it. Heck, as long as I could root them with Frost Nova, there's really not much I can't down.

I'm not saying that I have the highest DPS or that I'm super uber or anything like that. It just seems easier to kill stuff that's supposedly more difficult. And now I understand why it is so nice to level with Frost.

Hmm... I do have an extra talent point or 2 now. Maybe I'll actually try out Deep Freeze. (Am still kinda bitter that they took away the damage component, but it would be another 5 seconds of control.)

Wrath Enchanting Wands

Not sure how many of you followed the Wrath Beta, but I was excited about one part that I haven't exactly seen go live on the live realms yet. And from the title of this post, I'm sure you can guess that I'm talking about wands.

Which is kind of funny, because this is the reason I first got interested in enchanting. I had been playing for less than a week and I started asking around in the Stormwind, "Where can I get a wand for my level?" When I found out I could make my own, I was elated. (Remember that I came from EQ2 where I enjoyed the whole crafting usable armor/materials.) So, I think some random stranger showed me where the enchanter trainer was and game me some dust and essences to get me started, and off I went to make my very first wand.

An interesting thing you might notice though. As of this writing, Wowhead lists exactly 4 wands that can be created by an enchanter. The best wand being the Greater Mystic Wand that has no stats, and requires level 30. Gee... no upgrade for level 60 enchanters in Vanilla Wow? No upgrade for enchanters when the Burning Crusade came out? And again no update with Wrath? Tsk, tsk.

But yet from the beta, we know the developers were thinking about it. And not that the mats were correct in beta, but it was nice that it was essentially 75 Void Crystals to get the best crafted wand available.

So, what happened? Did the developers realize that there are other classes (besides just the Mage, Priest, and Warlock) that may be enchanters that aren't interested in wands? Were the wands just too overpowered, so they scrapped them? Or was it the direction that they now seem to be taking with BoP items for professions, in that they don't want them? Or is it simply that professions for Wrath still aren't done and they're trying to figure out wands after 50 levels of enchanters not having other crafted wands? We may never know.

Nothrend Instances - First 5

So far in Northrend, I've managed to ding 72, compete a good amount of quests, get to Dalaran, and complete the first five 5-man dungeons. For those at home who haven't been keeping track, or haven't looked it up yet, here's what those are:

Utgarde Keep (70-72)
The Nexus (71-73)
Azjol-Nerub (72-74)
Ahn'kahet (The Old Kingdom) (74-76)
Drak'Tharon Keep (74-76)

As you can see from the recommended level, I was a bit under on most of the instances. My gear was fine for it, it's really more the fact that because of the level difference (5 levels in some cases), I kept missing all over the place. I think at one point, my DPS was around 200. (Not exactly stellar for a mage of my level.)

I didn't take pictures; didn't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I was very impressed with the instances. The thing that I noticed the most is that they're short. Granted the group I was in for the upper dungeons were all higher level than me, but they hadn't really gotten very many gear upgrades. And the stuff that was dropping at that point was about on par with what they had. So, while a lesser gear grouped might take a little longer, it's still pretty feasible. I think we were joking that Azjol-Nerub is the Mt Hyjal 5-man of Nothrend. (One of those scripted pulls where things keep coming until you pull or kill the boss.)

So, by my count. That's almost 1/2 the 5-mans in Northrend. I'll wait a bit before doing The Violet Hold (75-77), and then maybe I can actually be a contributing member of the raid. lol. But overall, I'm having fun. And I don't even think I'll mind having to run these instances again and again for rep. Then again... we've only just begun, haven't we?

Ghetto Port - Dalaran

One of my biggest pushes in the expansion was to hit 71 as soon as possible so that I could get to Dalaran. There's a simple quest that mages can do at 71, and then you learn how to teleport to Dalaran. I was also under the impression that the portal to Dalaran could be learned at the same time (which didn't make sense, but I believed it, and I think it was that way in beta). The reason for this was simply so I could port all my guildies to Dalaran way before they hit 74.

Well... the portal can't be learned until 74. So, we pulled off what we call the Ghetto Portal. (Figured it out with the help of a certain priest in our guild.) I teleported to Dalaran, queued my party for a battleground, and then once entered, they went afk and were transported back to Dalaran. There's a small issue as far as the level range goes. Everyone that was 71 or higher, was no issue. I did it once with some 70's though, and they didn't get queued in everything I did. I queued in both WSG and Strands of the Ancients (Sota?). They got 1 and not the other. (Don't recall which one atm.

So, there you have it. And now anyone that's set their hearthstone there can do the same trick. Oh, and once you're there, you can also do the attunement quest that starts up in Dalaran (by the floating triangle thing) and get attuned yourself. So, level 74? Bah. That's so not even right. heh.