Thursday, November 1, 2007
Extreme Anglin'
I don't think I've given a formal entry for El's Extreme Anglin'. I had seen it awhile ago, and it was mentioned in a comment as well. But with the latest updates coming out of 2.3 and Fishing, I thought I'd make sure it was officially linked. The two big things that I see are 1) the Tracking Journal and 2) the New Recipes.
Tracking Journal
I’ve spoken about the new tracking abilities available to everyone in 2.3. Mostly similar to the track abilities of a hunter, paladin, herbalist, or miner, but they’ve been compacted into a nice little menu on the mini-map. The ability to Find Fish is learned from a Weather-Beaten Journal. These are found in various crates and trunks that you can fish up. Doesn’t sound like it’s for the light of heart. Even if current drop rates are improved slightly, there’s still only about an 8% chance to fish up a Curious Crate anywhere in Outlands, and then maybe a 50% (if El’s data is correct, which he says may not be so) chance to actually contain the Journal. So… approximately a 4% drop rate. Since my fishing got up to 290 and I can fish in Outlands, hopefully I’ll get it in my eventual ascent to 375 fishing skill.
New Recipes
There are also 6 new recipes coming out with patch 2.3. I can’t item link them because they’re not in Allakhazam yet. But Stormchops sound like they would be fun for melee classes (lightning occasionally zaps nearby mobs). And for us mages (and other caster classes), the Skullfish Soup (20 Spell Critical Strike Rating and Spirit) is gonna be a lot of fun. And what’s with Delicious Chocolate Cake making you “very happy”? From the comments, you shoot a firework into the air and have this happy buff. Hmm… maybe I don’t want to know. But it seems that all of these new recipes are obtained from the daily cooking quests. Get your skillet on, and get ready to cook.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Corporate Firewalls - bah!
So, yesterday morning was your typical day for posting. If you're reading this, you probably saw (or can look just below to see) my post. Then... all of a sudden about mid-day, the company I work for decided to crack down on Internet traffic, I guess. I panicked at first because every single web page I went to was blocked. Then they loosened things up a bit to where I could visit the WoW homepage, guild forums, and even my e-mail from guild forums. But alas, it was a crushing blow when I couldn't get to my own blog. /sigh
Luckily, my co-worker reminded me that you can e-mail your posts. So, today is really more of a test. I can still see comments to my post via the e-mails that I get when somebody responds, so somebody please respond to this post so that I know it was successful. After that, feel free to complain about corporate firewalls. grrrr.
If the intent is to lessen traffic, why not block things that are completely irrelevant? I work for an energy company. Why not block things like sports web sites? There's really no need to visit http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com. (Which reminds me, I need to figure out links for this e-mail posting thing.) Yes, it's a small rant. No, this topic is probably not associated with a category, but should be. And... well... Happy Halloween.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Blog Links
So, I don't really talk about my Blog Links very much. I used to Google for other WoW blogs to see what else is out there. I've found a ton, and read a ton daily. Sometimes, because I have them linked on Google Reader, I forget that I don't have them posted on my site. I try to keep the ones that are relevant or interesting here on my blog. But mostly, I'm just lazy and forget that they're there. So, if you've linked to me and I haven't linked to you, I'm sorry, and I'm most likely still reading. It's not my style to have a huge list of 1 million WoW Blogs to visit, but I'm not trying to be elitist either. I also don't separate them into categories, because it generally seems that there's beneficial stuff (at least every once and awhile) for every WoW player, even if the Blog is specifically towards a certain class.
Furthermore, knowing the insights and tricks to other classes can really help out in groups or raids. I hate not knowing the names of spells, for example. "Hey, you? Shadow Priest? Use that lazor thing that gives me back mana." (Clearly showing a lack of understanding at how Vamperic Embrace and Mind Flay work.) -or- "Hey, Paladin? Fear that undead dude." (As we all know, it's "Turn Undead".) I certainly don't know every spell, and I generally get my point across, but still.
The point being: check out the links; I'm sure there's something in at least one of them that will perk your interest. Oh, and... I most likely will change them without notice. It's your responsibility to check them out. ;)
Furthermore, knowing the insights and tricks to other classes can really help out in groups or raids. I hate not knowing the names of spells, for example. "Hey, you? Shadow Priest? Use that lazor thing that gives me back mana." (Clearly showing a lack of understanding at how Vamperic Embrace and Mind Flay work.) -or- "Hey, Paladin? Fear that undead dude." (As we all know, it's "Turn Undead".) I certainly don't know every spell, and I generally get my point across, but still.
The point being: check out the links; I'm sure there's something in at least one of them that will perk your interest. Oh, and... I most likely will change them without notice. It's your responsibility to check them out. ;)
Monday, October 29, 2007
Loot Fixation?
Today's post originates from a quest out of the Badlands: Scrounging. I believe that I've mentioned that I've been leveling a shaman, Zanderfin, with my wife, who's been playing a shadow priest. Being that there's two of us, the "kill x number of mobs" quests are quite easy while the "kill mobs to gather x" quests take at least twice as long. We had been doing a couple of the latter types of quests out in the Badlands such before we got to the Scrounging quest. Because I'm sure they all had the "worst drop rate in the game" for quest items, my wife's patience was wearing a bit thin.
It's really not a bad quest at all. All of the mobs you can kill at one time are all in one place. And the respawn is fast enough that you can keep killing and never stop. And the quest reward of the mail boots was a pretty big upgrade for me. And, like all items at this level, it will soon be replaced with something else.
I got to thinking about loot in general. Yes, the game is all about loot. But how important are items to you? Most leveling items are going to be replaced, so is it important to worry about getting that certain item? Should you go to the AH every time you gain a level to get the latest and greatest items?
You're just going to replace them later, but at the same time, they'll help you to get the next level and level of items faster. On a PVP server, it might mean the difference between getting ganked in STV or you being the one ganking.
Personally, I search for quests that will aid in that gearing up process. I might visit the AH every once and awhile for a new weapon, but usually not much more. (Since I just got dual wield at 40, that was one of the first things I did with my shaman.) I generally don't fixate on an item either. There's almost always an upgrade. Sure, the cloak off of Prince would be a nice upgrade, but there will always be something better. If not in the current game, at least in the expansion. lol. And you obviously need better gear in order to do certain things, like end-game progression, so that's kind of a different story. But what do you do in the leveling up process?
It's really not a bad quest at all. All of the mobs you can kill at one time are all in one place. And the respawn is fast enough that you can keep killing and never stop. And the quest reward of the mail boots was a pretty big upgrade for me. And, like all items at this level, it will soon be replaced with something else.
I got to thinking about loot in general. Yes, the game is all about loot. But how important are items to you? Most leveling items are going to be replaced, so is it important to worry about getting that certain item? Should you go to the AH every time you gain a level to get the latest and greatest items?
You're just going to replace them later, but at the same time, they'll help you to get the next level and level of items faster. On a PVP server, it might mean the difference between getting ganked in STV or you being the one ganking.
Personally, I search for quests that will aid in that gearing up process. I might visit the AH every once and awhile for a new weapon, but usually not much more. (Since I just got dual wield at 40, that was one of the first things I did with my shaman.) I generally don't fixate on an item either. There's almost always an upgrade. Sure, the cloak off of Prince would be a nice upgrade, but there will always be something better. If not in the current game, at least in the expansion. lol. And you obviously need better gear in order to do certain things, like end-game progression, so that's kind of a different story. But what do you do in the leveling up process?
Friday, October 26, 2007
Spelling Counts
I had to laugh along with Gwaendar. He saw the following announcement in Barren's Chat:
Even from my limited marketing background, there are just so many things that are wrong with that guild recruitment advertisement. I won't totally pick it apart, it could be some 12-year old kid after all, but if in any time in your career of playing World of Warcraft you should be grammatically correct, it should probably be in that first impression when you're attempting to recruit new guild members. I'll give him the credit that he at least spelled everything accurately. And I'll even give him the benefit of the doubt that, since it's on a European server, English may not be his first language. And I'm probably over critical as well.
It's not the first time I've ever seen something like this. I just thought it was funny, so I brought it up.
p.s. Knowing my luck, ironically, there will probably be spelling and grammar mistakes in this post... a whole slew of them.
The Unforgotten Warlords are now recruiting for all lvls. we got Tabard, a forum on Internet and guild bank.We help people to make them stronger so we can go dungeons and raids in the soon future. wisp Noobster or Defia for a part of TUW!!!One of his (her?) points was not understanding why dropping the 10g for a guild tabard was a selling point. Heck, especially with all the tabards you can get nowadays, it's kind of silly.
Even from my limited marketing background, there are just so many things that are wrong with that guild recruitment advertisement. I won't totally pick it apart, it could be some 12-year old kid after all, but if in any time in your career of playing World of Warcraft you should be grammatically correct, it should probably be in that first impression when you're attempting to recruit new guild members. I'll give him the credit that he at least spelled everything accurately. And I'll even give him the benefit of the doubt that, since it's on a European server, English may not be his first language. And I'm probably over critical as well.
It's not the first time I've ever seen something like this. I just thought it was funny, so I brought it up.
p.s. Knowing my luck, ironically, there will probably be spelling and grammar mistakes in this post... a whole slew of them.
No-Fly Zone
I've spent some more time on the Public Test Realm since I last spoke about it. I still haven't gotten in to Zul'Aman to actually kill anything. (Grouping up with one other person, making it a raid, and then going invisible down the steps hardly counts as a solid attempt.) But I haven't tried really hard to get in there either. I join the LFG tool, and that's about it. Plus, I'm usually only on for short periods of time (mainly because I'm bored without my friends), so I probably have nobody to blame but myself.
But I did want to check out the new dailies. The ones from the Consortium (I hope that gives rep as well) for the 5-man's seem like a really good idea. You can pick them up in the Lower City and there's one for a random normal instance (gives you a [Ethereum Prison Key]) and one for a random 5-man Heroic (gives you two [Badge of Justice]s). Just kind of gives you incentive to run a different instance then the same old Mechanaar for badges.
I also checked out the daily cooking quests. (Which becomes more of the source of my post for today.) The goblin in Lower City, The Rokk, told me to go make 4 [Roasted Clefthoof]s, and then put them in his pot in the Ancestral Grounds. So, off to Nagrand to collect some [Clefthoof Meat]. After leaving Shattarath City, my altitude still being quite high, I was soaring over Nagrand, and all of a sudden was dismounted. I frantically searched for my slow fall, but because I didn't take the time to fix my UI, I didn't get the spell out of my spellbook in time. *SPLAT* It was only a loss of time since I didn't really care about the gold on the PTR. But I found that all of the places I visited in Nagrand, I was unable to use my flying mount. I could use my land mount just fine. I filed a bug report.
I guess I'm mainly disappointed at how incomplete patch 2.3 is. I thought it was a lot closer, but with major bugs like that, they'll have to fix that before it goes live. Then again, it could be a quick fix by simply changing a variable for Nagrand, or something like that. The only other time I've spent any serious time on the PTR was when WoW 2.0 came out.
At any rate, I am glad that there's going to be a lot more dailies. Gives people of choice of things if they want to complete them everyday. You're not forced to do the same 6 daily quests over and over again.
But I did want to check out the new dailies. The ones from the Consortium (I hope that gives rep as well) for the 5-man's seem like a really good idea. You can pick them up in the Lower City and there's one for a random normal instance (gives you a [Ethereum Prison Key]) and one for a random 5-man Heroic (gives you two [Badge of Justice]s). Just kind of gives you incentive to run a different instance then the same old Mechanaar for badges.
I also checked out the daily cooking quests. (Which becomes more of the source of my post for today.) The goblin in Lower City, The Rokk, told me to go make 4 [Roasted Clefthoof]s, and then put them in his pot in the Ancestral Grounds. So, off to Nagrand to collect some [Clefthoof Meat]. After leaving Shattarath City, my altitude still being quite high, I was soaring over Nagrand, and all of a sudden was dismounted. I frantically searched for my slow fall, but because I didn't take the time to fix my UI, I didn't get the spell out of my spellbook in time. *SPLAT* It was only a loss of time since I didn't really care about the gold on the PTR. But I found that all of the places I visited in Nagrand, I was unable to use my flying mount. I could use my land mount just fine. I filed a bug report.
I guess I'm mainly disappointed at how incomplete patch 2.3 is. I thought it was a lot closer, but with major bugs like that, they'll have to fix that before it goes live. Then again, it could be a quick fix by simply changing a variable for Nagrand, or something like that. The only other time I've spent any serious time on the PTR was when WoW 2.0 came out.
At any rate, I am glad that there's going to be a lot more dailies. Gives people of choice of things if they want to complete them everyday. You're not forced to do the same 6 daily quests over and over again.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Alternate Strategies
So, once again last night, we ventured into Karazhan. Once again, we made our way up to Shade of Aran. Once again, we had our strategy down, but even more refined. And... once again, we wiped. Basically, we discovered that Blizzard + Elementals = Bad. Shade cast the Blizzard just before he spawned the elementals. So, next time in, I called a full halt on DPS when Shade was at 42% and he was starting the Blizzard. It worked out much better, and people should do well to remember that little gem: don't be afraid to call a halt if you're gonna get multiple bad things at once.
After downing Shade, we headed straight for Prince (after Chess, of course). Matticus has posted a strategy that mostly worked for us the week before, so I thought I'd try it again. It's very similar to the door strategy that I had seen on may of the strategy sites before. To me, it just turns the fight into too much of a luck fight. I was skeptical about there being a safe spot where Infernals never drop. Last night, one dropped pretty much right behind the tank, and then one dropped in our laps (more or less). So, while you have a higher chance for a Infernal to drop near you if you're sitting in the middle, you also have a lot more options of where you can run to. The ability to have options is what turns the fight into strategy for me. Because we got a later start (and a few attempts on Shade), we had to call it without downing Prince. We only used the pinned up against a wall strategy last night; I think we'll go back to the more flexible position/strategy tonight, and down him. :)
After downing Shade, we headed straight for Prince (after Chess, of course). Matticus has posted a strategy that mostly worked for us the week before, so I thought I'd try it again. It's very similar to the door strategy that I had seen on may of the strategy sites before. To me, it just turns the fight into too much of a luck fight. I was skeptical about there being a safe spot where Infernals never drop. Last night, one dropped pretty much right behind the tank, and then one dropped in our laps (more or less). So, while you have a higher chance for a Infernal to drop near you if you're sitting in the middle, you also have a lot more options of where you can run to. The ability to have options is what turns the fight into strategy for me. Because we got a later start (and a few attempts on Shade), we had to call it without downing Prince. We only used the pinned up against a wall strategy last night; I think we'll go back to the more flexible position/strategy tonight, and down him. :)
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